Sunday Summary – Music: June 7, 2009

This past week was a BLAST! I had a GT (good time) all morning long – and I wasn’t even on stage. So that’s sayin’ somethin’!

First, some back story…

As we’ve looked at the summer as a whole, we realized that Andy’s not speaking here (or any of the campuses) for nearly 3 months, starting 2 weeks ago. He’ll be back in August.

(FYI – he’s enjoying some vacation time, as well as giving a bunch of the other communicators and speakers in our organization some opportunities to speak, along with a couple special guests).

So that leaves us with 2 things:

#1 – Shorter services (AKA time to fill…). Speakers other than Andy are alloted 35 minutes, and so that gives us an extra 5 minutes to either fill in content or get out a few minutes early – we’ll be doing some of both over the summer.

#2 – No Andy. Duh! It’s no secret that attendance dips a bit when it’s publicly known that he’s not speaking, so we’re going to do our best to help make the services this summer fantastic – at least as much as we can from a music and programming perspective.

So will we do a few more fun openers this summer? Oh, you betcha!

And we started this week with a great “Summer” song – Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69″.

Sam Tesh came and sang it for us – and dude, he’s amazing! He’s a great, charismatic performer with a voice perfect for Journey, Bryan Adams, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi – you get the picture. Oh, and all in the same keys as the originals! Yep – that’s high.

Oh, and giant kudos to our good buddy Steve Thomason, who, of course, covered the tones and solos to perfection. That boy has mastered the art of being faithful to the originals when it comes to classic rock. Love him!

Here’s Sam and the gang making the 80′s proud…

We, spearheaded by Eddie, have a real passion for this summer for our bands, singers and worship leaders to HAVE FUN! To enjoy themselves on stage. To bring a smile and encouragement to the congregations and attenders. To embrace what they’re singing and playing and have a RGT (really good time).

And our prayer is that will help soften the hearts and let down the guard of the stoics and skeptics. And anyone bummed about no Andy

WORSHIP:

Man, we kept the blood pumpin’ with worship, too!

God Is Alive

Glorious (off of Todd’s new CD)

Everlasting God

Yep – not one tune under 105 bpm’s. In review some thought it was a little much. I could see their point, but I think the majority didn’t mind it. I thought it worked, especially going into the funny Title Package for the current series.

So we’ve got a few more things up our sleeves for this summer – should be fun!

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East Band – Eddie Kirkland, Rachael Gillis, Steve Thomason, Danny Grady, Scott Meeder, Richard Meeder, John Carrozza, Sam Tesh

West Band – Ryan Stuart, Rebecca Iraheta, Mike Hines, Matt Melton, Wayne Viar, Earl South, Keith Thomas

Sunday Summary – Music: March 1st, 2009

Well, I was in Nashville this past weekend enjoying a great weekend.

BUT, as far as things around North Point were concerned…

We did another one of our abnormal instrumentation weeks. Another chance to refresh the sonic palate, and to engage the audience.

And after what I heard after this week’s rehearsals, I knew it was going to be a week I was going to be sad to miss.

We didn’t do any specials – just worship. But we changed up the instrumentation as follows:

East:

Todd Fields leading from acoustic

Jen Carrozza – BGV

Pat Malone – Bass

Ashley Appling – scaled-down kit (kick, snare, hats, floor tom, ride, 1 thin crash), accented by the use of Hot Rods and brushes

West:

Cori Moon leading (think a cross between Sarah McLaughlin, Christy Nockles and Alison Krauss)

Mike Gleason – acoustic and BGV

John Carrozza – piano

Scott Meeder – scaled-down kit (like above)

Steve Florzykowski – upright acoustic bass

So yeah, the vibe was certainly different, but as many folks have commented: Very nice and quite refreshing.

For me, personally, it was exciting to witness (at rehearsals) the sheer musicianship of players and singers I admire so much. Very inspiring!

But, alas, the toughest thing for us was song selection. Todd and Cori lead very differently, especially on an opening, more energetic song of a worship set. So, after lots of emails and phone calls, we decided on:

Everlasting God (bumped up to 108 bpm)

Glory To God Forever

Lead Me to the Cross

While Cori lead all 3 in West, Jen Carrozza lead the 3rd tune in the East (Lead Me…). That is such a great song for girls to lead. It somehow seems to fit a female voice so well…

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Do you remember a month or so ago when we tried a quasi-acoustic Sunday that kinda backfired? (WE do!) Well, from all accounts, this made up for it. The key was to go farther in the effort to strip down the instrumentation, as well as really work with the Front of House guys to mix accordingly.

Song selection and player choice are also key issues. Songs can be batted around all day, and a win will be a series of songs that your leader leads well in that type of setting, along with highly skilled instrumentalists that really “get” the overall vision of the stripped-down vibe. Their playing becomes far more exposed and the room and P.A. become far less forgiving, so choose your players wisely!

Sunday Summary – Music: February 22, 2009

OK, we’ve recovered from last week…

We learned a lesson about song selection from last Sunday, and had an incredible Night of Worship on Thursday night.

FYI – in case you weren’t able to attend Thursday night, here was our set list…

Night of Worship – Feb 19.pdf

(50 points if you can spot my typo on the set list…)

Anyhooooo….

On Sunday morning we had some cool stuff, as well as an interesting scenario.

First off, Andy was speaking here live, which meant that the content before the message needed to be shorter in order to broadcast the message feed to the other campuses.

Sooo, we did something we haven’t done before: We cut one of the worship tunes, but only for the first service! Meaning 2 worship tunes at the 9:00 AM service and 3 tunes at the 11:00 and 12:45.

This is because in the second service (11:00 AM) we use the recorded video of Andy from the first service. So everyone – East, West, Browns Bridge and Buckhead – are all watching the recorded 9:00 message while Andy rests his voice (and body and mind) off stage.

He’s then back live for the 12:45 service when he’s speaking at North Point, even though it’s not being broadcast to another campus. Browns Bridge uses the recorded video for their 12:45 service and Buckhead uses it for their 6:00 service.

Confused yet? Hold on…

This also means that we didn’t have to cut the top-of-the-service content for our 11:00 (video) and 12:45 (live but not broadcast) services, meaning we could add in that 3rd worship tune for those 2 services.

Now try getting that through to a group of Pavlovian Worship Leaders, musicians and production personnel who have already rehearsed and done one whole worship set and service a different way!

But they did it, and did it great!

Here’s the worship set:

God Is Alive (this was the one we cut for the first service)

Wonderful The Love

Lift High

After the worship set (in all 3 services) we did something we have hardly ever done here at North Point – an Offertory song!

Now if you grew up anything like I did, nary a week went by without an offertory song. Whether it was the choir or a soloist, or what – there was always an offertory! And, on a few occasions when I was a teenager, the offertory was me playing a newly learned classical piece.

One time, at the church back in Canada I grew up in, Jennie (my then girlfriend, now wife) and I did Great is Thy Faithfulness, with her on violin. That’s when our pastor said to my mom, “She’s the one, isn’t she?” That was a fond memory.

A not-so-fond memory was when I was about 15 and massacred a piano solo of “El Shaddai”. Butchered it. I put chords in there that don’t even exist.

That was the day I learned (the hard way) that I must practice something past the point of nausea, all the way to a healthy hatred for the song. True internalization. Muscle memory. Ability to play the song with your hands while having a conversation with your mouth and brain.

Otherwise, you’ll look like a fool. Trust me.

Alrighty then…

Nowadays, we only do an offertory if it’s a song that sets up the message, usually with tension or a question that the message will then address and possibly answer. They are a songs that might describe an imperfect scenario or situation. Basically not a song that would fit as a closer that would leave an audience with an answer, or basic sense or closure or hope. Now that’s not set in stone, but it’s a good rule of thumb…

So we did a tune called “Storm” by Lifehouse. A neat, moody song that is really quite haunting. Ryan Stuart‘s incredible vocal matched with the East band’s ability to master the song’s subtlety (plus some cool ethereal programming I did ) made for a really unique, cool experience.

Give the song a listen and you’ll see just how polar it is to our usual Sunday AM content…

The song set up Andy’s first message in the series “He’s Still Got The Whole World In His Hands“. And it was a GOOOOD one!

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East Band – Eddie Kirkland, Ryan Stuart, Danny Grady, Ben Snider, Scott Meeder, Earl South, Mike Bielenberg

West Band – Mike Gleason, Steve Thomason, Matt Melton, Pat Malone, Joe Lee, John Carrozza, Karen Bitzer

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Ohh, a little Digidesign Venue console action…

What song made you learn how to practice the hard way?

Sunday Summary – Music: Aug 31, 2008

Man, some Sundays are good, some are just so-so, some are actually a no-no, and some – like yesterday – are a real highlight.

Something about it – on both sides – just clicked, from top to bottom. I can’t put my finger on it. I can’t say that it was because of some incredible booking and pairing of musicians on my part. It wasn’t a magic worship set. Neither side was a “set” band that always plays together.

I think it was just a whole lot of stuff coincidentally lining up just right – with a big, giant dose of God.

Now if I really break it down, I could probably analyze the snot out of how and why it worked on both sides (and yes, having a great day on BOTH stages is tough and rare).

My first thought is that we weren’t being asked to cram a whole worship set into a small quantity of time. That ALWAYS helps. I know that’s a bit selfish against some of the other effective elements we often have, like baptism, but hey – we’ll take it when we can get it!

So we had a longer clock – 14:00. Yeah, around here that’s lots! Especially when we don’t do any 5:30 epic tunes!

We also have really been encouraging the Worship Leaders to engage the crowd more up front, and even encouraging more participatory encouragement in the middle of tunes. It’s just a small step in helping the worship time to be less observatory and more participatory.

Chrystina Fincher, who lead in East, told the crowd right at the top how she’d been leading for BigStuf youth camps all summer, and how it’s so awesome to see those teenagers really be excited about God and about worshipping Him. She, in her sweet, charming way and smile, talked about funneling some of that passion and energy here with the adults in “big church”, and that we were going to free ourselves up a bit in order to sing a little bit louder and a little bit stronger than usual.

She then had the line of the day: “Now if you’re here for the first time, or still kinda new at the whole ‘church’ thing – that’s OK – you get a pass this morning. But those of us who love God and have put our faith in Christ are going to sing out to Him. So here we go…”

Addressing the first-timer or non-Christian directly from stage, giving them acknowledgment, as well as some explanation of what we do and why is always fantastic. And giving them an “out”, a pass as Chrystina did, relieves any forced pressure on them. I think this allows the Holy Spirt to soften their hearts. Instead of them building up walls by being forced to sing, or by feeling guilty if they don’t, there comes a sense of comfort, acceptance and respect. I really think that by acknowledging the feelings of the non-Christian allows us as Christians to actually be a better witness. And whether that’s true or not across the board, we have seen countless incredible stories of life change and people putting their faith in Christ. And many, many of those are shared in the main services through Baptism videos of people just telling their story.

So no, we in the Music Department don’t hate Sundays with Baptisms. Because we know that God uses one person’s story to influence another’s – and that that happens with every baptism video. It’s that constant reminder of why we do what we do, and to do it with fervor and passion!

KEEP HIM IN YOUR PRAYERS:

You might have heard Joe Thibodeau play drums. If you have ever seen Kristian Stanfill lead worship on tour, or if you were at Catalyst last year, or even at BigStuf camps over the last few years, you’ve probably heard him. Joe’s a good guy with a heart and passion for worshipping God.

Joe was supposed to play with us on West this past weekend, and was at rehearsal on Wednesday. However, on Friday morning he received word that his elderly, ailing father had taken a serious turn for the worse, and the doctors did not expect him to last through the night.

Joe called to let me know he was booking an immediate flight, and that at this point his ability to make Sunday morning looked slim to none. I told him “no problem – we’ll be praying for you”.

Now I WAS worried, because I already knew a bunch of our regular drummers were out of town for the holiday weekend. But I tried ‘em anyway… And, by the grace of God, one of good friends, Brandon Coker, had just come home for the weekend. Brandon usually plays and travels with Steve Fee, so it was terrific that he could come play. I sent him the tracks, he practiced his rear off, and absolutely nailed it Sunday morning. Thanks, Brandon!!

The big news was that Joe’s dad actually did pass on Friday night, and Joe had arrived just in time. He and his mom are at peace now that he’s not suffering any longer, but Joe’s brother, who does not know Christ, is having a difficult time with the situation. So please, if you remember the Thibodeau family this week, pray for continued peace for Joe and his mom, and a life and faith changing experience for his brother.

HEY, I KNOW THAT SONG:

I think another thing that helped this week was doing a couple familiar tunes, along with an oldie-but-goodie. You know – the type of song that has an easy verse and chorus, and that the crowd can actually sing without staring at the words on the screen. (Hmm – what a concept.)

So we did:

All We Need – Charlie Hall

Holy Is The Lord – Chris Tomlin

From The Inside Out – Hillsong United

** You may have read this before, but we do a version of this tune that’s about 4:30 – because that 6:00+ version on the Hillsong record is looooooooong…..

KILLER OPENER:

I love when we get to do a great song, with great content, with a great band with great musicianship, with a great singer. And we got to do that this week!

We’re in Andy’s series “5 Things God Uses To Grow Your Faith”, and this week was “Providential Relationships”.

So we batted around a bunch of “friend” type songs, but I had heard a Rascal Flatts tune called “Every Day” on the radio a while back, and stored it up in the old cranial hard drive, knowing I wanted to pitch it for this sermon.

Well, when the dust settled and we looked at who was in the band and who was already booked to sing worship, the writing on the wall was plain as day.

So one of our favorite vocalists, Ryan Stuart, sang the living daylights out of it, along with Chrystina Fincher and Mike Gleason on BGV’s. Man I love it when studio veterans get to really hone and tweak vocal parts! Yummy!

We took the song down to the key of “F”, where an actual tenor could sing it (instead of that freak of nature who sings lead for Rascal Flatts), and it still worked really well. Add to that some killer strings from Pro Tools’ “Structure” plug-in and their stock East/West orchestra samples, and you’ve got the makings of a killer tune.

MIXING WEST VIA VNC:

And here’s something cool: The lines from the East Auditorium (where we do most live specials) are run through our studio and fed as a 2-track to the West Auditorium. The problem with that in the past has been that the actual mixing that is being fed to West is taking place in a controlled studio – not the live Auditorium. BIG DIFFERENCE!! So we’d always have to radio needed changes to the studio, or even run over there in the middle of a song. Not fun. Not effective.

Well, now the boys have it all set up where they can control the studio’s Pro Tools via a VNC server connection on a computer from Front of House in West – literally mixing all individual channels remotely according to the needs of the West Auditorium.

Very cool.

If you’re interested in this type of VNC control, do a Google search for a program called “Chicken of the VNC“. I’ve got it, and have used it to check and tweak levels on our stage Pro Tools computers while sitting at F.O.H.

OK, there you go…

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Mike Gleason and Co. in West:

Mike Gleason, Mike Hines, Mike Bielenberg, (yes, 3 Mikes!!), Jeremy Moyers, Brandon Coker, Richard Meeder, Jordan Watts

Chrystina and the boys in East (yes, this was from the 12:45 service, hence the empty chairs. Word of advice – if you hate clamoring for a seat at 9:00 or 11:00, just come to the 12:45!!!!)

Chrystina Fincher, Ryan Stuart, Danny Howes, Danny Grady, John Carrozza, Scott Meeder, Earl South

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What’s new that YOU’RE excited about using?

Sunday Summary – Music for January 20, 2007

To quote the band REM: “It’s the end of the world as we know it…”. In other words, northern Georgia received a lovely blanket of snow on Saturday.

Now, where I grew up in Canada, that would be better known as “A normal Saturday in January”, but in Atlanta, it’s “Polar Armageddon”.

That said, Church was cancelled. And I’m not talking about just North Point. I mean the sheer concept of of church was cancelled. We watched the church closings on the news and commented that it would be quicker to just list the churches that were meeting…

BUT!! Here’s what was planned…

No Opener.

WORSHIP:
Eddie Kirkland was leading in East, and newbie Trey McKnight was in West. Trey’s lead a bit at Buckhead Church (our campus near downtown Atlanta, 15 miles south), but is still a fresh face at North Point.

“All We Need” by Charlie Hall

“You Never Let Go” by Matt Redman

“How Great Is Our God” as made known by ye ole Chris Tomlin.

Yep – kind of a throw-back Passion Sunday.

But here’s some analysis anyway, because we had some opinions after rehearsal and then again Thursday morning. The players in each band have played these tunes a bunch over the last couple years, and the songs themselves are very easy. I mean REAL easy – basic chords, basic repeating chord pattern, simple to play – almost monotonous. To the point that Eddie encouraged the all-star band on East to really worship through the tunes, and not to just play the simple songs. Great advice to anyone playing a song for the 3,000th time…

So after rehearsal, for a while I thought that worship would’ve been a dud. Well, at least according to some of us youngins… But the more I thought about it, I think we had a chance to REALLY engage the audience in worship. Familiar songs: familiar, easy melodies, repetitive lyrics, simple theological concepts. Basically the reason these are popular worship songs around the world.

I don’t think we always need to do the newest, coolest, hip-est tunes. Sometimes people just want to worship with songs that they can sing with their eyes closed – literally! I think believers crave those rare, special moments when they can sing a simple song that lives in their hearts, as opposed to having to read a new theological novella on the bottom of a big screen each week.

Just a thought…

You caused YOU to worship this week?

EAST: Eddie Kirkland, Steve Thomason, Daryl Lecroy, John Carrozza, Scott Meeder, Richard Meeder, Jennifer Young

WEST: Trey McKnight, Michael Gleason, Brad Bretz, Brad Gage, Brad Long, Mike Bielenberg – yes, 3 Brads and 2 Mikes. That’s a Full House. Yahtzee!!
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