Sunday Summary – Music: June 21, 2009

OK, you’ve heard me drone on and on about having something ENGAGING at the top of the service. Sometimes it’s a peppy Opener, or at least a semi-captivating individual doing a welcome. Followed by some great worship featuring some kickin’ tunes. Of course

This week was no exception. To celebrate Father’s Day we did something that we first did at DRIVE, and that we stole from the show “Ellen”.

Yep – Blindfolded Musical Chairs, hosted by the always funny, engaging, and occasionally pleasantly irreverent Clay “Scrog Dog” Scroggins.

We had pre-selected 4 fathers out of the audience – not plants or ringers, just guys that we asked to play about 10 minutes before each service.

The best part were the pictures of funny eyes on the blindfolds!

You can’t NOT laugh. Good times…

WORSHIP:

So once everyone’s had their funny bone tickled, it’s a whole lot easier to sing. It seems like crowds come alive after something in the opening slot has really caught their fancy and helped them let their hair down. That’s another great reason to have something light, fun and engaging right at the top of the service – it actually HELPS worship!

However, Blindfolded Musical Chairs and a video welcome by Andy, streamed from Browns Bridge, ate up a lot of time, so we only did two songs. But every once in a while, that okie dokey.

So we did:

All Because of Jesus

Everything

It was a great mix of energy and passion, old and new. A song that’s getting a little old in the tooth and another that’s caught on over the last couple months. And strong songs for each worship leader – always a plus!

EAST BAND – Mike Gleason, Brad Long, Danny Grady, Scott Meeder, Pat Malone, Jared Hamilton, Ryan Stuart

WEST BAND – Todd Fields, Brad Avery, Brad Gage, Brad Bretz, Chris Arias, Karyn List

So yeah, we had 4 Brads – 1 on East and 3 on West. Next time we’ll shoot for all on one stage

Sunday Summary – Music: April 19, 2008

Whew – kids, I am busy! There are 10 songs that string parts scored for our DRIVE Conference, and beaucoup of stuff to do in the yard before it gets too hot (or my allergies take over!).

So sorry for the posting delay….

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This past Sunday was lots of fun. Eddie had a great line:

“I thought it was going to be a strong single-base hit, maybe even a ground rule double, but it turned out to be a good stand-up triple!”

(Now if only the Braves could rally some of that action…)

Andy started a new 2-part series called “God and Country”, talking about our national conscience, and how God is viewed in America. The first message was really good – certainly worth a listen!

We opened with our good buddy James David Carter singing the Rodney Atkins tune “It’s America”.

It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we even had Jeremy Moyers move over from Rhythm Guitar to Pedal Steel for the tune. (He toured playing Pedal Steel with Lonestar for years!). And kind Matt Melton came over from West to play Rhythm on that tune.

So it was something different, something fun, and it was a great setup for the series.

With the opener, plus baptism, we only had time for 2 worship tunes, so we chose something old and something new.

The oldie was Tomlin’s “Your Grace Is Enough”, which was well received by many, but I wasn’t real crazy about. Oh well..

The newbie was the Tim Hughes tune “Everything”, which we’ve done a couple times, and is one of my new favorite tunes. I absolutely love it , and really, really love playing it.

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East Band – Mike Gleason, James David Carter, Rachael Gillis, Danny Grady, Jeremy Moyers, Joe Thibodeau, Pat Malone, Me

West Band – Chrystina Fincher, Ryan Stuart, Matt Melton, Ben Snider, Brad Gage, Wayne Viar, Keith Thomas

Sunday Summary – Music: Feb 8, 2009

This past Sunday was great, at least for me…

It was a Married Life Live weekend in the West Auditorium, meaning I got to hang out Friday, Saturday and Sunday and play great music with great friends, who happen to be incredible musicians…

Talk about a treat!

Are we exhausted? Sure.

Worth it? You betcha!

And we had a great time on Sunday morning, as well. It was relatively straight forward, musically speaking, with a little twist at the end.

For worship we brought back a new song introduced a few weeks ago – “Let God Arise”. This is a newer Tomlin tune that might be old hat for some of you, but we just introduced it this year. I actually like it – it’s kinda fun, and real easy to grab hold of. But don’t be afraid to make it rock!!

After that we transitioned into Blessed Be Your Name, the Matt Redman tune. We wanted something older that was real familiar and also supported our current “Balanced” sermon series. We don’t normally program worship to go with a sermon, but in this instance it worked.

We also pepped it up a bit last year, doing it at 120 bpm with a pretty driving loop, almost verging on a dance or techno vibe. That helped it go seamlessly from the high energy of the first song.

We ended the set with a new song, “Everything” by Tim Hughes. I won’t lie, this might be my new fave… And no, not just because it’s piano-driven

I spent a couple hours last week programming the strings on it, so got deeply imbeded into my brain. So that might have had something to do with it…

But the chords are simple yet tasty, and the melody of the verse and chorus is super easy, which always makes for a good tune for the crowd to pick up on quick.

The only downfall, I’d say, are the 1 million different verbs in the verses. That’s a lot of lyric to remember! Weeping, crying, laughing, waking, walking, gnashing, screaming, running, falling, slapping, whimpering, typing, watching, driving, voting, procrastinating….

We then brought it back in a shortened form as the closer, but only doing 1 verse and the out choruses, and in a more mellow tone – taking out the loop and tambourine, and having the band keep a more meditative, contemplative groove.

We’ll definitely be bringing that one back!

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East Band – Kristian Stanfill, Alex Nifong, Danny Grady, Joe Thibodeau, Chris Arias, Brad Gage, Rosie Pinkerman

West Band – Mike Gleason, Steve Thomason, Daryl Lecroy, Pat Malone, Ashley Appling, Chrystina Fincher, and me!

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Here’s East at the 12:45 service:

What’s YOUR favorite new song?

Sunday Summary – Music: November 2, 2008

OK, I can’t be too honest about this past week because I wasn’t there.

Jennie and I took the kids up to Nashville to visit my sister Ashley and brother-in-law Michael, plus my parents came down on their annual “Southern Swing” to visit their kiddos… LOTS of fun!

And we even skipped church altogether on Sunday morning. (Shh – don’t tell…)

BUT, meanwhile, back at the ranch, reports were good for what we did on Sunday.

Andy’s “Why Worry” series started here this week. He’s actually doing the messages live at Browns Bridge and taping them for the other two campuses.

We opened with John Legend‘s arrangement of Stevie Wonder‘s tune “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” . The melody and tempo is a lot like Stevie’s original version, but the instrumentation and BGVs are pretty unique. Legend’s version is just piano, percussion and vocals – which we did – but we also added an upright bass.

The reaction was really positive – a nice departure from our usual rock and roll stuff.

Jamie Portee sang AND played piano, Steve Florzcykowski on upright bass, Monique Anderson, Ryan Stuart and Eddie Kirkland on BGVs, a handful of our drummers and players as percussionists, and a pretty thick percussion track. Legend’s version has a dad-gum percussion orchestra – something we were not going to adequately replicate live, so we needed some help.

For the percussion tracks, I used Pro Tools as the host DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and used a combination of Stylus RMX, Reason 4 and Digidesign A.I.R.’s Xpand! as plugins / sound sources.

After that was worship, and Kristian Stanfill and Eddie Kirkland did a great job of capturing the engaging energy of the opener into worship.

WORSHIP:

Everlasting God (bumped up the tempo a few bpm’s and started with full band rockin’ Chorus chord progression. That helped increase the energy of this tune – one that is normally reserved for a “second, slower song” spot…)

Glory To God

Lift High

East Band (Worship) – Kristian Stanfill, Danny Howes, Jeremy Moyers, Ashley Appling, Brad Gage, Chris Arias, Dee Dee Maillian

West Band – Eddie Kirkland, Mike Hines, Ben Snider, Scott Meeder, Earl South, Mike Bielenberg, Ryan Stuart

So there you go. Sorry, no photos this week (unless you want pictures of us at Michael and Ashley’s house cheering on the Tennessee Titans – 8-0 baby!!!)

Sunday Summary – Music: September 28, 2008

Middle of the Road.

Certainly not bad in any way. Yet not really anything to write home about.

That was yesterday – at least for me.

Yeah, I was playing – which is usually a real charge – but I think I know why I was kinda ho-hum about it:

First of all, we didn’t do any specials (opener or closer), which can make a Sunday a lot more interesting.

But the biggest culprit, for me, at least, was PARTS.

Some songs lend themselves to great, naturally flowing parts – meaning what you play and when. They fall under the fingers with ease, and quickly become second nature. And that allows your conscious mind to focus more on worshipping God than worrying about what to play.

Unfortunately, not all songs are like that – and it differs from instrument to instrument! What is great and natural for, say, the rhythm guitarist might be a nightmare for the bassist. Again, each song is different.

So yesterday, while the rest of the band chugged merrily along, I was in “parts stress land”. Songs that other people love were causing me frustration. Again, not because I couldn’t play them, but that they just didn’t, how should I put it – “flow” from the subconscious.

I know that sound weird, especially if you’re not a musician. But trust me – think of something that’s part of your job that is easy and comes natural, then think of something that isn’t natural and that you really have to spend energy and brainpower on. Yeah, that was me for 2 of yesterday’s 3 songs.

Don’t get me wrong – they’re not hard tunes. It’s just the subtle things that no one else would notice – but we as players do…

BUT…. Todd and Kristian did do a great job leading the people, so kudos to them!

WORSHIP:

Beautiful One (culprit #1)

Let Me Sing (NOT a culprit – one of my faves!)

Son of God (culprit #2)

East Band – Todd Fields, Danny Grady, Karyn List, Pat Malone, Ashley Appling, Me

West Band – Kristian Stanfill, Alex Nifong, Matt Melton, Joe Thibodeau, Brad Gage, Jared Hamilton, Chrystina Fincher

And now, everyone’s favorite segment: Candid shots from stage during the Welcome (being fed from the other auditorium)

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What causes YOU to use too much brainpower on stage?

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