[agarciaz20]

first the story and then the questions

My church is small (but growing church) and what we have on our praise and worship team is a drummer, keyboard player, guitarist, and vocals... with me learning the guitar, so that i can play rhythm and other guy can play lead.

My pastor was invited to speak at another church in a different state. The church is fairly larger than ours and had several other instruments.(the key one for this post being the clarinet). My pastor loved how the woodwind instruments sounded with praise and worship... He remembered that our keyboardist used to play clarinet, but she hasnt played in years and doesnt have the time to pick it back up.

THEN he remembered that i used to play to play, and has sort of asked me to play. Now i havent played clarinet in over 5 years, but i feel that i could with practice. I want to praise and worship God in anyway that i can, even if it is through an instrument i had never expected to play again.

Now the questions:
Does anyone have woodwinds in there praise and worship team?

Has anyone ever had to start playing an instrument that they hadnt played in years? And how hard was it?(was it like relearning how to play or just getting back where you left off)

Where in the world would i get the music? (In high school they just gave me the music and i never had to worry about where it came from.)

Thanks for the help in advance

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by agarciaz20

Does anyone have woodwinds in there praise and worship team?

I've had flute before.

Has anyone ever had to start playing an instrument that they hadnt played in years? And how hard was it?(was it like relearning how to play or just getting back where you left off)

I tried picking up my baritone again a few years back. I remembered most of the fingerings, but my lips were tremendously out of shape.

Where in the world would i get the music? (In high school they just gave me the music and i never had to worry about where it came from.)

If you can improv, that's easy enough. Otherwise, Word publishes a series of books called "More Songs for Praise and Worship" for which you can also get arrangements for piano/winds/synths/etc. They're generally really crappy arrangements for a guitarist to play, though.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by agarciaz20

Does anyone have woodwinds in there praise and worship team?

Recently, we've had an old friend begin playing sax with us. Our official music minister plays flute.

Has anyone ever had to start playing an instrument that they hadnt played in years? And how hard was it?(was it like relearning how to play or just getting back where you left off)

Anything you pick up after a long time off will be difficult.

That's why musicians constantly practice, so they don't lose their chops.

Where in the world would i get the music? (In high school they just gave me the music and i never had to worry about where it came from.)

Work on your improvisational skills, and find vocal lead sheets for songs.

As long as you have the vocal lead sheet and some theory knowledge, you can probably come up with some harmonizations or counter-melodies or something without terribly much trouble (hint: try playing in parallel sixths or thirds with the melody). You can also just follow the melody itself.

[russellcframe]

One of our team members brings in her tin/penny whistles sometimes. Can be a nice different addition to intro's and such.

We'll occasionally do the same thing with the keyboard too of course, with a flute or similar patch to add a little something other than guitar sounds all the time.

I dont know that I'd want one all the time, but it could work I suppose.

[Nate]

Another tip:

Work on idiosyncratic things for your particular instrument (I don't know enough about clarinet to say exactly what they would be; probably the GREAT tone of a clarinet's lower register would be one, for sure; probably also the nice hollow timbre would be another) and PLAY THEM OUT. The more you can make your instrument sound like what it's supposed to sound like and not just like a random timbre thrown in so that you can have more noise, the better things will be. Play melodically, sure; play well, sure; play smart, sure; but, above all, play the instrument to its best applications. You wouldn't want a bassist who never ever played the root of a chord... so don't play a woodwind and do nothing but hold a chord member out for each measure; that's not what they do.

[agarciaz20]

Originally Posted by Nate

Anything you pick up after a long time off will be difficult.

That's why musicians constantly practice, so they don't lose their chops.

Why did i have a feeling that was going to come up.

Originally Posted by Nate

Work on your improvisational skills, and find vocal lead sheets for songs.

As long as you have the vocal lead sheet and some theory knowledge, you can probably come up with some harmonizations or counter-melodies or something without terribly much trouble (hint: try playing in parallel sixths or thirds with the melody). You can also just follow the melody itself.

improvisational skills??? well, i have already talked about my improvisational skills with the guitar here

Originally Posted by russellcframe

One of our team members brings in her tin/penny whistles sometimes. Can be a nice different addition to intro's and such.

We'll occasionally do the same thing with the keyboard too of course, with a flute or similar patch to add a little something other than guitar sounds all the time.

I dont know that I'd want one all the time, but it could work I suppose.

my pastor wants to add to the praise and worship team, i dont think he intends me to play every single piece that everyone else does... the clarinet wouldnt sound right all the time

anyway thanks for all the input, this will have to be an experiment for the summer, 1 month of school left

[Nate]

Originally Posted by agarciaz20

Why did i have a feeling that was going to come up.

Don't let that discourage you. The hardest part (as far as learning curve steepness is concerned) of learning the instrument (learning the basic technique and fingerings) will come back relatively quickly. It's just that your actual tone quality and technical proficiency will take a bit of time to come back.

improvisational skills??? well, i have already talked about my improvisational skills with the guitar here

Ah yes... I forgot that was you.

[jamforchrist123]

I don't know if a sax is a woodwind, but we have a sax playing all the time in our serveces (liek for intros and little diddies in the middle of the song)

[Kenny C.]

My voice teacher's praise group uses a Soprano Sax from time to time, usually on more mellow songs.

[saxcop]

a clarinet player can switch to sax, but not as easy going from sax to clarinet. Clarinets are cool but sax is much more useful in P+W imo.

[gtrdave]

I've played with Justo Almario enough times to know that I love woodwinds/flute/sax in praise, worship and Gospel music.

But as is the case with any instrument, it does take a bit of competency on the instrument and time spent performing in a band situation to be able to carry on a musical conversation without being a potential distraction.

For me, my past instrument would be mandolin. I don't dare say that I now know how to play the mandolin as I haven't played it in so long, I'm relegated to mandolin OWNER status and not mandolin PLAYER.
If I were to return to it to some level of semi-professionalism then I'd have to woodshed like crazy and put the guitar down for a bit.
Thankfully a bit of the technique from guitar transfers to the mandolin...but not so with a clarinet, afaik.

All I can offer is for you to be sure that your heart is into this and that you're not just running down a bunny trail in the hopes of satisfying your pastor.
Pray about it and then listen for God's response.

[saxcop]

Its very hard to put meaningful practice into two instruments. Dont go into it lightly. But if your a guitar player that plays a wind instrument as well there will be many opportunities opened to you.