The Praise and Worship Band Bassists Club part 22

[addictedtonoise]

Originally Posted by addictedtonoise

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been keeping up, despite being really busy.
I took a month sabbatical from playing, then came back wearing all sorts of hats, including leading on several songs. I've been swapping to electric for at least one of the songs from each service. Luckily one of the members stepped up while I was out and has been playing acoustic faithfully. This has allowed me to play BASS! Yay!
In addition to that, I volunteered to start working on the handouts for each week. (Some folks call them Worship Guides/Sermon Notes/Church Bulletin)
Been busy!

Oh forgot to mention, we did a version of Twisted Sisters' version of Oh Come All Ye Faithful...Our acoustic player switched to electric and so did I. I played in Drop D with the distortion all the way. People were worshipping and singing along. Was worried about the style being a distraction, but my pastor has said all along that the rockers were the ones he feels burdened to reach!

[SoVeryTired]

I've just realised that on Sunday I'll be playing fingerstyle, pick and slap across the different songs. It's good to do these different types of services to stretch my playing beyond the normal setlist. It's also nice to be working in a small group (me plus keys, acoustic guitar and drums), working out arrangements that work for us with no thought of repeating them in the future, and really appreciating each others's work. The fact that we're crammed into a tiny space at the side of the stage means we are all intimately familiar with what each other are playing! But it also means that we can correct or admire right down to individual notes, which can be difficult in a full band, big stage setting.

[jmclearnon]

I love tight stages! The worst thing ever is when you play bass and are placed far away from the drummer facing away from them

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by jmclearnon

I love tight stages! The worst thing ever is when you play bass and are placed far away from the drummer facing away from them

It's fun - we've still got IEMs but no MD mic, so we're communicating in the old-fashioned ways instead.

[english4bw]

Originally Posted by khutch

There are so many churches and denominations in the US that I am not sure one has to draw a line. Every single choice you make attracts some and drives others away. I think that is why the Apostle Paul said that he was all things to all people so that he by all means might save some. A single church cannot be all things to all people but the multitude of churches that we have in the US can be, collectively. Unless they all copy each other too closely. If your church is looking for an unserved niche to attract to the kingdom of God then it is doing a good thing. Most likely there are other churches in your area that are attracting the others. It is another application of the principle that we are all members of the same body. We all do different things but we all serve the same God and Father of us all so we should celebrate our differences even while we cooperate in Christian unity.

Ken

Best answer... ever. Well said, Ken.

[SteveC]

Originally Posted by jmclearnon

I love tight stages! The worst thing ever is when you play bass and are placed far away from the drummer facing away from them

I like cozy stages as well. So much easier to communicate.

Originally Posted by SoVeryTired

It's fun - we've still got IEMs but no MD mic, so we're communicating in the old-fashioned ways instead.

Us, too. Looks and facial expressions and occasional hand gestures.

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by SteveC

I like cozy stages as well. So much easier to communicate.



Us, too. Looks and facial expressions and occasional hand gestures.

And a few very clear and deliberate frettings! The keys player can also play guitar so he and the guitarist can understand when I'm glaring and overemphasising with my left hand!

[mdjuszyn]

Had a great rehearsal on Saturday- it was just myself and the keyboard player. We went through the set list and discovered some areas where we were not together timing-wise on chord changes. We worked through all those and cleaned things up quite a bit. We were both pretty happy about that. We finished up by going through some Christmas carols and I loved working with double stops on Silent Night. Service went fine Sunday morning with only one train wreck on an intro to "Who Am I". Couldn't get the tempo established.....

[jmclearnon]

We don't have IEM's and I'm definitely going to wait a while before i buy my own as they are super expensive .... btw i bought the bassbone to try it back, if i don't like it I'll just return it.

Can't wait until Sunday as i will be finally home

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by jmclearnon

We don't have IEM's and I'm definitely going to wait a while before i buy my own as they are super expensive .... btw i bought the bassbone to try it back, if i don't like it I'll just return it.

Can't wait until Sunday as i will be finally home

Depends on how much you have to buy... We have the monitor packs provided and just need to supply our own earphones. Of course, that can get very expensive if you're going for triple-driver custom moulds (...briefly wanders off into dreamworld...) but you can get decent bass response from some surprisingly cheap earbuds. I've had good results from low-end Sennheisers (and by low-end I mean £25).

[mkandolf]

Well, this coming weekend should be fun. I'll be playing trombone with two different groups during the services. First group is an small 'orchestra' of about 10, mostly students, only 3 adults. We'll do three pieces, 1 as the welcoming song, two for congregational singing. Then the praise team plays a regular 3 song set.

Then the second group I'm leading/playing in is an adult brass quartet doing a couple Canadian Brass numbers (Away in a Manger and We Three Kings) during offertory. Then we finish up the service with the same quartet with vocal accompaniment on Tell It On The Mountain that I'm not sure is ready, we don't have the instrumentation for, and the WL isn't sure we should be doing because it's rough. Others think it's ready for prime time and want to press on with it so I'll just do my best for Him with it.

Gonna be fun seeing how the congregation reacts to Canadian Brass stuff. I've got a lot more in the folder if they seem to like it. They've got a large catalog of church music it seems.

[SoCalBassman]

O Come All Ye Faithful (Third Day's version, Brandon Heath leading)

Originally Posted by Samsound

We did this one today. As a mostly fingerstyle player, it was a blast playing with a pick and a little dirt dialed in!

We did this one as well yesterday.
It was my first time playing it and looked online for examples of basslines but could only find choral versions and Twisted Sister.
I chose to develop my own version and was very happy with the outcome.
I played it with an active, happy style which is what I was feeling when I practiced it.

[cvsurg]

After getting back into playing bass less than two years ago (after a 30-year layoff), I've been the substitute bassist for a church praise band for the past eight months, playing a handful of times until November, when I started a 3-month stint while the regular bassist is taking some well-earned time off; I am loving it! This past Sunday one of the songs we played was Here I Am to Worship; the drummer was unavailable and we had the keyboard player on djembe, so it was a little more mellow than the recordings I had heard of it by others. Seemed like a good tune for my fretless, a heavily-modified Squier VM Fretless Jazz. Went well, and got good feedback, from among others the regular bassist, who was in the congregation.

My concern is, while I have enough ear and theory to know fairly well what the right notes are, how many of them do I put in? I try to lay back and serve the song as best possible, providing the bedrock (along with the drums) for the group.
This a link to a recording of the song-

https://soundcloud.com/cvsurg/fbcp-here-i-am-w-fl

This was taken from the mixing board, with the bass more upfront in the mix for demonstration purposes. The areas of concern are later in the song, with the chorus repetitions and key change.
I (a relative noob) would appreciate helpful feedback from this august group-was it too much, not enough, or OK? Thanks.

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by cvsurg

After getting back into playing bass less than two years ago (after a 30-year layoff), I've been the substitute bassist for a church praise band for the past eight months, playing a handful of times until November, when I started a 3-month stint while the regular bassist is taking some well-earned time off; I am loving it! This past Sunday one of the songs we played was Here I Am to Worship; the drummer was unavailable and we had the keyboard player on djembe, so it was a little more mellow than the recordings I had heard of it by others. Seemed like a good tune for my fretless, a heavily-modified Squier VM Fretless Jazz. Went well, and got good feedback, from among others the regular bassist, who was in the congregation.

My concern is, while I have enough ear and theory to know fairly well what the right notes are, how many of them do I put in? I try to lay back and serve the song as best possible, providing the bedrock (along with the drums) for the group.
This a link to a recording of the song-

https://soundcloud.com/cvsurg/fbcp-here-i-am-w-fl

This was taken from the mixing board, with the bass more upfront in the mix for demonstration purposes. The areas of concern are later in the song, with the chorus repetitions and key change.
I (a relative noob) would appreciate helpful feedback from this august group-was it too much, not enough, or OK? Thanks.

Well, given all the different tastes, styles, experience etc of the guys gathered here you'll probably get a whole load of differing opinions.

So here's mine!

I hear what you were trying to do, adding some more melodic flavour to the piece, but I would say it probably was too much for my tastes and was stepping on the main melody. The biggest problem though was you were losing timing, possibly due to concentrating too much on note choice. I just don't get a feeling of solid rhythm from this. My recommendation is based on me as a listener who understands bass, not as someone who could necessarily do better: drop 75% of the melodic parts and focus on the groove.

I hope that's not too harsh - you're braver than me to put a recording on here!

[Samsound]

Originally Posted by SoCalBassman

We did this one as well yesterday.
It was my first time playing it and looked online for examples of basslines but could only find choral versions and Twisted Sister.
I chose to develop my own version and was very happy with the outcome.
I played it with an active, happy style which is what I was feeling when I practiced it.

Their version on YouTube has mostly roots and some inversions played in 8ths or dotted quarters, but I also added a little a little John Taylor inspired octave pops on the C to D acsension in the verses.

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by cvsurg

...while I have enough ear and theory to know fairly well what the right notes are, how many of them do I put in? I try to lay back and serve the song as best possible, providing the bedrock (along with the drums) for the group.
This a link to a recording of the song-

https://soundcloud.com/cvsurg/fbcp-here-i-am-w-fl

This was taken from the mixing board, with the bass more upfront in the mix for demonstration purposes. The areas of concern are later in the song, with the chorus repetitions and key change.
I (a relative noob) would appreciate helpful feedback from this august group-was it too much, not enough, or OK? Thanks.

Your playing was very tasteful on the first section, and your intonation was pretty good.

I think I'm with SVT on this one. Timing and rhythmic drive would be more of a concern for me. The guitar part sounds a bit limp to start with, and while it may have sounded much different in the room, on that board mix, the drums aren't really driving the bus either.

I felt it the most after the key change, where the vocals gave the impression that the song was about to kick into high gear, but it never got there.

[MissingHighs]

Originally Posted by cvsurg

My concern is, while I have enough ear and theory to know fairly well what the right notes are, how many of them do I put in? I try to lay back and serve the song as best possible, providing the bedrock (along with the drums) for the group.
This a link to a recording of the song-

https://soundcloud.com/cvsurg/fbcp-here-i-am-w-fl

You are exceptionally brave asking for opinions! Just remember that you know your congregation better than any of us. This said...

On a recent music conference it was clearly pointed out (and demonstrated) how important bass is by offering those singing something to pitch against. 'Noodling' bassists don't help this at all. Based on this alone (baaaaaad pun!) I'm with SVT and Steve. Think there is a drummer next to you; stick to roots with the kick setting off a note, and the hi-hat is switching it off. That will offer loads of drive, and keep you on time. Remember, everyone follows the bassist (even if they think they don't, they do!).

And we do love you brother. Promise

M. <><

[jmclearnon]

Link won't work for me

[MissingHighs]

Originally Posted by jmclearnon

Link won't work for me

That sometimes happens with me, I've learned to use the "search" feature within soundcloud (usually searching the 'user' reveals some interesting posts! )

M. <><

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by MissingHighs

That sometimes happens with me, I've learned to use the "search" feature within soundcloud (usually searching the 'user' reveals some interesting posts! )

Soundcloud's registration/privacy processes are quirky. For some posts, you seem to need a Soundcloud account, and to use a browser that remembers your login.