The Praise and Worship Band Bassists Club part 23

[jefff100]

Originally Posted by HereIGoAgain

Electric 6-string soprano bass???? You're allowed to say "guitar."

OTOH, you have to remember Brian Bromberg, who actually does play a soprano bass.....

4:10 in this clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9WFW4pZcXQ

O.K. he calls it a piccilo bass. I'd call it a long scale 4 string guitar.

[Jhengsman]

Originally Posted by jefff100

OTOH, you have to remember Brian Bromberg, who actually does play a soprano bass.....

4:10 in this clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9WFW4pZcXQ

O.K. he calls it a piccilo bass. I'd call it a long scale 4 string guitar.

I remember reading in Down Beat that Stanley Clarke said if it has four strings its a bass.

[rfclef]

Originally Posted by Jhengsman

I remember reading in Down Beat that Stanley Clarke said if it has four strings its a bass.

UKULELE! There is a song on our next CD I will be playing a baritone Uke on... OH! And a friend who has caught our band a couple times up and outta the blue tells me he wants to give me a Ubass bass uke! Won't take anything for it. So I may get to play bass uke next time our worship team does an acoustic set...

[BlueLine1]

Hope you get to feeling better, 777.....
Alan

[jefff100]

Originally Posted by christle

Dragged out the 5-string for tonight's service. It was good to play it again.

Song list for the weekend:

1. Today is the Day (Bb)
2. Happy Day (C )
3. A New Hallelujah (F)
4. More Than Amazing (G)
5. Your Name (G)

Simple but fun!

Great songs. I've been getting pretty burned out on our song selection (hard to imagine when we have something like 190 songs on our list); but many of them are fairly lame. I think we will be adapting some of these soon as I see they are in CCLI.

[Jhengsman]

I got my blues fix on today
1. I'm Pressing On/Plant My Feet On Higher Ground a switch from A to Ab
2. Come Now Is The Time To Worship, has anybody found a version in a different genre then the hit?
3. The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
4. Create In Me a Clean Heart, Donnie McClurkin
5. How Great Is Our God

[christle]

Originally Posted by jefff100

Great songs. I've been getting pretty burned out on our song selection (hard to imagine when we have something like 190 songs on our list); but many of them are fairly lame. I think we will be adapting some of these soon as I see they are in CCLI.

They should be on CCLI already. That's where I got the charts. It is a nice selection and went over very well this weekend.

Here is the list for our Power Praise night this coming Tuesday:

1. Holy is our God (Bb)
2. I Will Boast (Bb-C)
3. I Am Free (C )
4. For Your Glory (F)
5. Nothing is Impossible (G)
6. Hosanna (G)
7. Love Came Down (G)
8. Our God (Em)
9. Revelation Song (D)
10. More Than Amazing (G)
11. The Greatness of our God (E)
12. Believe (C )
13. Get up (Cm)
14. Happy Day (C)

[sasred]

Hi all,
Long time lurker, finally signing on to the boards for the first time in a long time. I enjoy this thread, gives me perspective on what other worship bassists are dealing with. Some of the stuff I wonder about with our own team, seems like I'm not alone!
That said, I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve with my gift of music, however undeveloped it may be , and I do enjoy the people I work with.

Regarding the debate over musical styles, we do play a blend of stuff at my church, it's pretty split old school/new school. If anything, we could stand to mix it up even MORE as we have a VERY diverse congregation. But we do pretty well for what we have to work with--an all-volunteer team, pretty basic gear setup, no pedigreed musicians that I know of. We play what we know we can play reasonably well to get everyone focused on worship. Everyone's heart seems to be in the right place, and that's what counts the most, right?

Besides, I'll take this over what I was raised with anyday...organist wearing the dust of Melchizedek playing everything at funeral dirge tempo, with an entire tone-deaf congregation halfheartedly singing along. Somehow they all missed the Scriptures telling us to make a "joyful noise" unto the Lord...

Thanks for reading, hope I can come hang out with y'all. Have a blessed day!

[jefff100]

I too have a hard time understanding why there is so much angst over this. What our church does seems like such a simple solution. We have both! Sure, there are folks who are of the older generation who don't like teh new style of music. But then there are plenty people my age (I'm 47) and those younger that don't care for the traditional pipe organ and hymns.

On the other hand, there are a couple pretty hip ladies in our choir who are in their 70's and I have watched them bop down the aisle with a definite groove when they process and Carmen is hitting the drums hard. (Choir processes up to the choir loft during our second song). I also know of some younger people that don't like the contemporary style so you just never know.

Our congregation isnt big enough to support multiple services. Tried once a few years ago, it just didnt fly; not enough attendance.

The most imporatnt thing is I think is that people need to find the church they are happy in and worsip the Lord; rather than try to force change onto a church body that dosent want it.

my two cents.

[HereIGoAgain]

Originally Posted by jefff100

The most imporatnt thing is I think is that people need to find the church they are happy in and worsip the Lord; rather than try to force change onto a church body that dosent want it.

my two cents.

Unfortunately, there are times when a "parting of ways" is unavoidable. Sometimes, it's in the mutual best interest of the person/family and the church to "go their separate ways." I guess this is why there are hundreds of denominations and thousands of churches.

That being said, I don't know anyone who's switched churches because of music or "artistic differences" alone. Usually, there's a deeper underlying issue that goes beyond what's apparent to outside observers.

[khutch]

Originally Posted by HereIGoAgain

IME it's usually the proponents of the organs and 400 year old hymns that use this argument to enlighten us "young punks."

Uh, if you haven't noticed it here you haven't been reading carefully enough!

Ken

[Jhengsman]

If we have any conflict it is more cultural based then age based. The oldest members grew up with Southern Gospel which is one of the roots of CCM. And outside of church were young adults when rock & roll took off. Now 20 years ago we had a huge influx of Nigerians and their kids who make up the younger core of our team were raised with R&B. Our guitarist and I are both early 50s and mostly started attending church after the CCM and neosoul gospel movements took off so we also have no extensive ties to lets call more traditional sacred music..

Now our community has shifted to a Chinese neighborhood and church is finally starting to draw Chinese members in numbers. And our two youngest members are Chinese while they want to go straight CCM by inclination we have been drifting more towards the urban gospel of our current team leadership. Just four years ago with different worship leaders we were doing straight CCM after being a New Breed, William McDowell crossover type band in the years before that.

[khutch]

Originally Posted by jefff100

On the other hand, there are a couple pretty hip ladies in our choir who are in their 70's and I have watched them bop down the aisle with a definite groove when they process and Carmen is hitting the drums hard. (Choir processes up to the choir loft during our second song). I also know of some younger people that don't like the contemporary style so you just never know.

You and Steve have already said this but our church uses a variety of ages on the worship teams too and I thinks it helps defuse the notion that any particular style of music can't speak to any particular age group. The teenage vocalist looks as delighted be singing a hymn as the 60 year old bassist looks to play the latest CCM top 40 hit on the very next song and it's all lead by the middle aged worship pastor. You can complain but someone from your generation disagrees! I think I may be the oldest, by only a bit, member of a worship team. I'm not even close to the oldest member of the choir and we have high schoolers in choir too. I guess choirs are not terribly common in churches any more but once again when the congregation sees the choir standing behind the worship team representing all ages and fully invested in the worship experience it becomes impossible not to notice that people just like you are coming before God in worship to this music. And doesn't it likewise inspire us when we look out into the congregation and see people worshiping?

My wife and especially I had a lot of trouble with contemporary worship services when we first moved into this area from not very far away from a very traditional church. Now if you were to look at my personal music collection you would see that I have no issues with modern music, or ancient. But I too found most of the music in use in local modern churches to be incredibly lame, performed by small groups of people who seemed to set themselves above or at least apart from the congregation, which was disconnected from the whole experience in most cases. We wandered around for 20 years without ever connecting to any church. The church we now attend was one we had visited at one point without seeing anything special except the preacher and I now kick myself for not letting that be sufficient to draw me in. Because once we walked in the door two years ago the worship experience had been completely transformed. The modern lyrics we use are as intellectually and theologically satisfying as the hymns we still use. The music itself never was an issue for me. As I said above all ages are involved in the worship teams. And similar to Steve's experience there are several teams so you spend more time worshiping with the congregation than you spend leading the worship and that makes it impossible for the worship teams to disconnect from the rest of the church.

Ken

[tbplayer2]

Originally Posted by tbplayer2

First time playing in church coming up this Sunday. While looking for someone to jam with, I came across a new church just starting out. This week will be their first service. They were needing everything (tech, musicians, vocals, etc). They finally came up with 3 of us, drums, and piano/vocals, and bass of course. None of us have played together before this week, but we'll have 3 practices before Sunday morning, so shouldn't be too rough. Gonna be a stretch for me, playing all new songs, with new people.

Happy Day
Marvelous Light
We Are
Break Every Chain
Revelation Song

Wish me luck!

Things went well today. Never got to do anything like this before. Found myself enjoying the music and thought I lost my place, but after talking with keys, she did the same thing! Not my fault after all, nobody noticed, and I got invited back. Thoroughly enjoyed playing for worship, and look forward to next time! Could I get a number?

[sasred]

Originally Posted by khutch

You and Steve have already said this but our church uses a variety of ages on the worship teams too and I thinks it helps defuse the notion that any particular style of music can't speak to any particular age group.

Truer words never spoken, sir. (By the way, I always enjoy reading your posts, very thoughtful!) Our worship team is a mixed group, too. Male, female, range of ages, different races. (Just like our congregation.) And it is a "mutual inspiration society". I get totally stoked when I see the congregation "getting their praise on"...and they're watching us too. I get comments all the time from congregants telling me they enjoy the energy I bring to worship. If me getting lost in a groove helps them connect to God, then my job's done.

I liked your story about how you came to your current church, too. As much as we focus on the music, being musicians--it's gotta be about more than that. Ran across this article, don't know if it's been posted here before: http://verticalchurchband.com/shaun-...about-worship/

Gave me a perspective check.

[sasred]

Originally Posted by tbplayer2

Things went well today. Never got to do anything like this before. Found myself enjoying the music and thought I lost my place, but after talking with keys, she did the same thing! Not my fault after all, nobody noticed, and I got invited back. Thoroughly enjoyed playing for worship, and look forward to next time! Could I get a number?

Can't help you with the number (need one myself!), but I can say "good on you!" for a successful first outing! It's a total rush playing for Him, isn't it?

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by Jhengsman

I remember reading in Down Beat that Stanley Clarke said if it has four strings its a bass.

Ah, then I don't play bass unless I remove a string...

[SoVeryTired]

My setlists for the coming week:

Friday (youth service on bass):
The Time Has Come
Go
Take It All
To Know Your Name

Sunday (rhythm electric and MD Mic):
Run
Open Heaven
Beautiful Exchange
Cornerstone

We've got no keys but two electric guitars this week. The lead player's coming round tomorrow so we can work out complimentary parts. And he's also playing lead on Friday so we can work on bass-lead interaction.

[Sethbass]

I guess I haven't been clear on my situation. But let me preface this by saying I don't church hop around looking to just get my ear tickled! I am 39 and have had three home churches in my entire life, the first one I spent 27 years under one pastor!!! The 2nd one for 10 years and I left because in my time there, they went through 3 pastors. It had great and diverse worship because we had a hispanic husband and wife worship leader... We played everything!!! From Hillsong, Hosanna to kirk franklin!

Now, in my currrent situation, there are various other reasons that I am struggling here but since this is a bass forum i thought I'd stick to that! Let's just take yesterday for example... Now keep in mind this church pays a sound tech and the worship leader... They provide replacement strings and parts for the musicians and instruments and take care of the bgv in other means... So they mean (meant) business! But, about two months ago the Pastor limited the P&W service to just 25 minutes and said that we need to stop performing??? Whaaaa??? Performing??? Now, i have been playing in Church for 20 years!! I have NEVER been accussed of performing... We all worship with our hearts out!!! That is first, now yesterday he told the soundman to turn the bass down! They pay a soundman to mix... He is very experienced and a pro!! The bass was turned down so low, it could not even be mixed... He doesn't allow amps on stage! So i have no options... We have IEM system but there is no depth or feel so I end up playing so hard my fingers actually blister..after 20 years!! Playin P&W for 25 minutes my fingers should not be blistered!!!

[rotis]

Originally Posted by Jhengsman

If we have any conflict it is more cultural based then age based. The oldest members grew up with Southern Gospel which is one of the roots of CCM. And outside of church were young adults when rock & roll took off. Now 20 years ago we had a huge influx of Nigerians and their kids who make up the younger core of our team were raised with R&B. Our guitarist and I are both early 50s and mostly started attending church after the CCM and neosoul gospel movements took off so we also have no extensive ties to lets call more traditional sacred music..

Now our community has shifted to a Chinese neighborhood and church is finally starting to draw Chinese members in numbers. And our two youngest members are Chinese while they want to go straight CCM by inclination we have been drifting more towards the urban gospel of our current team leadership. Just four years ago with different worship leaders we were doing straight CCM after being a New Breed, William McDowell crossover type band in the years before that.

I think that is awesome.