[gtrdave]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsJRvTIEQ8A

Here's a quick and rough video from a service at my church a few weeks ago.
We didn't know that we were being filmed...not that it matters...

Be kind.

[Jfool]

You rock! Great worship program!

[nate95366]

That was great to see - I'm glad someone caught you guys on tape!

My team did "Only A God Like You" this past Sunday, but to my knowledge nobody videotaped us to compare notes. I know that I don't pull off the same interlude solo - I have to stick a bit closer to the Tommy Walker recording that I've heard, but you gave me some ideas.

Oh, and how do you like the headset mic? I have personally not tried to use one, mainly because I've been other places where they've been somewhat of a distraction (like, the entire team wearing them and the leader using his hands to choir-direct the congregation).

Nate

[gtrdave]

Because I sing and have to give head, eye and hand instructions to the team at a moment's notice, the headset mic is a necessity for me.
It goes where I go.
The only thing I have to watch for is breathing through my nose during quiet parts where I don't mute my mic. I can make a sound like a mighty wind blowing outside a house if I'm not careful to breath through my mouth.

[DaGeek]

Sounded good, Dave (if I may call you that? ). I can tell I'm wayyy too into guitar in that the solo was the highlight of the vid for me, but the rest was great, too! So you only have one guitarist, or was that just a one-time thing?

[Jo1967]

Really nice to see! I love the way your team claps hands and gets into the beat of the song. I have the worst time getting any of our people to move. You're team appears to be more advanced than us, though. I use a headset also and love it. It totally frees you up.

Great job!

[gtrdave]

DaGeek (if I may call you that!), 99% of the time I am the only guitarist. That's not by choice but by the nature of the way things are at my church. There's really only 1 other guy here that plays well enough to not get totally lost and he also is blessed with talents on bass, drums and audio but is not so blessed with a schedule that allows him to serve very often.
Praise God, He's bringing up more guitarists in our congregation so I may not be so lonely in the future...

Jo, we've had to really encourage the singers to let go of the mic stands and express themselves with their hands and so they've come a ways in 2 years. It seems odd to me as the church has somewhat of a charismatic background and I don't normally associate that with singers that stand still gripping the mic stand as if it's helping them stand up but regardless if they're still like a stone or dancing like David, I know the folks I serve with love Jesus!

[DaGeek]

Originally Posted by gtrdave

DaGeek (if I may call you that!), 99% of the time I am the only guitarist. That's not by choice but by the nature of the way things are at my church. There's really only 1 other guy here that plays well enough to not get totally lost and he also is blessed with talents on bass, drums and audio but is not so blessed with a schedule that allows him to serve very often.
Praise God, He's bringing up more guitarists in our congregation so I may not be so lonely in the future...

Touché...

How large is your congregation? It seems odd that there are only a few guitarists... Maybe my church is just hugely blessed, then? We have an average attendance of around 150, and we have four or five guitarists on the worship team. Granted, they don't all play each Sunday, though . We generally have two guitarists (one acoustic, one electric) unless something else is called for. That's all in addition to keyboard, drums, bass, secondary percussion (congas and djembe), and vocalists.

What is your definition of "playing well enough not to be totally lost"?

[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by DaGeek

Touché...

How large is your congregation? It seems odd that there are only a few guitarists... Maybe my church is just hugely blessed, then? We have an average attendance of around 150, and we have four or five guitarists on the worship team. Granted, they don't all play each Sunday, though . We generally have two guitarists (one acoustic, one electric) unless something else is called for. That's all in addition to keyboard, drums, bass, secondary percussion (congas and djembe), and vocalists.

What is your definition of "playing well enough not to be totally lost"?

We have about 450 adults per service.
I know of about 10 people at this church who claim to play the guitar and of those I've heard about 5 of them.
Out of those 5, 2 of them have played with the team and the other 3 have not and would need to put in a lot of practice time on their own before they could join us. I'm not trying to dis them or anything as they've pretty much told me that they don't feel equipped enough to sit in with us but I help them out as much as possible and I hope they and others can join us in the future.
We do a lot of Tommy Walker and Israel Houghton/Lakewood songs containing chords, progressions and rhythms that are not typical of today's popular Hillsong-esque fare...not impossible to play at all, understand, but a little beyond where some players currently are.

There was a time when I didn't know any of the "adult" chords, as Tommy Walker used to call them, and I had to woodshed for a while in order to make them part of my musical vocabulary.

[JesusFrEaK0077]

That's good... good job... You guys have a big church compared to what I'm used to!

[everyman]

What's an "adult" chord?

[DaGeek]

Originally Posted by gtrdave

We have about 450 adults per service.
I know of about 10 people at this church who claim to play the guitar and of those I've heard about 5 of them.
Out of those 5, 2 of them have played with the team and the other 3 have not and would need to put in a lot of practice time on their own before they could join us. I'm not trying to dis them or anything as they've pretty much told me that they don't feel equipped enough to sit in with us but I help them out as much as possible and I hope they and others can join us in the future.
We do a lot of Tommy Walker and Israel Houghton/Lakewood songs containing chords, progressions and rhythms that are not typical of today's popular Hillsong-esque fare...not impossible to play at all, understand, but a little beyond where some players currently are.

There was a time when I didn't know any of the "adult" chords, as Tommy Walker used to call them, and I had to woodshed for a while in order to make them part of my musical vocabulary.

Do you have any examples you could link to/tell me the titles of? I like the songs I was hearing in your video. We don't do that sort of worship music in our church much, unfortunately. We like to use Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, etc.

[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by everyman

What's an "adult" chord?

Most anything other than a basic major or minor and those played in keyboard-friendly flat keys without the use of a capo.
You know, the chords with lots of numbers and symbols following them.
Oh yeah, and key changes...we MUST CHANGE KEYS FOR ADDED DRAMATIC EFFECT!!!

[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by DaGeek

Do you have any examples you could link to/tell me the titles of? I like the songs I was hearing in your video. We don't do that sort of worship music in our church much, unfortunately. We like to use Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, etc.

Here's a couple.

"There is a Rock" by Tommy Walker
Chords are:
Em - A7 - F#m7b5 - B7b9 - B7 chorus
G - D/F# - Em7 - C - alt. chorus
Em7 - B/D# - G/D - A/C# - C - Dsus4 - D - Ebdim - Em7 - Dsus4 - D - C - Dsus4 - D
F#m7b5 - B7#5 - verse

"We Have Overcome" by Israel Houghton
E - C#m7 - Dmaj9 - E - C#m7 - F#m7 - verse
E - F#m7 - B - E - C#m7 - Dmaj9 - E - Bbm7b5 - B - F#m7 - B - chorus
E9 - Cmaj9 - F#m7 - bridge

Those two also have somewhat fast rhythm styles with "There is a Rock" being very latin-influenced and "We Have Overcome" being the typical Contempo-Gospel-influenced style of Israel.

"Because of Who You Are" by Martha Munizi
G - Am7 - G/B - D7sus4 - G - D/F# - Em7 - Am7 - D7sus4 - Bm7
C - D/C - F#m7b5 - B7#5 - Em7 - Am7 - Dsus4 - Ebdim - Em - Em/D - Em/Db
Amy - D7sus4 - D7 - G - F/G - G/B - verse
C - G/B - Em - Am7 - Dsus4 - D7 - Dm7 - G7/B - C - F#m7b5 - B7#5 - Em
Am7 - G/B - D7sus4 - D7 - chorus

A slow, Gospel tune where what you don't play is as important as what you do play.

That's just 3 examples from our "A-list" so to speak...they get played regularly. There are others...and not all of our songs are so chordy. Some, like "Joy of the Lord" on the video, are very open-chord simple.

[Joe F]

F#m7b5? I'd play an F#m7 and dare anyone to notice!

Nice video. It's funny that I always picture everyone else on these forums in these big mega churches with monster racks and cabs, bands the size of small orchestras, big screens showing the band, concert sized crowds in a frenzy etc.. Every once in awhile one of these videos comes along that shows that like us, many of you are just some good folks in a small to medium sized church making good worship with a few instruments on a "stage" that is essentially just a higher section of floor than the rest of the sanctuary. Good stuff!