[agrimes87]

Originally Posted by nate95366

Generally, we work out what we plan to do at practice. However, I am somewhat random as a person, and I have helped my other musicians and singers to be comfortable with a small amount of randomness, such that they will follow me IF I give a sing-song vocal "cue" during the song (i.e. lead everybody where we're going next with just 2 words or so, preferably sung and not spoken...) or I give a signal with my right (strumming, picking) hand that has meaning decided upon in practice..

That's what I do, and it works quite well for my band.

nate

that's basically what we do. we decide on our songlist in practice, and go over all the variations we might do then. we decide what signals mean what and all that stuff. i don't usually do a song we didn't go over in practice (unless it's the afterservice). during the first part of the service, we just play the songs we practiced without much variation from what we went over. but for the afterservice, i lead on my own. the band doesn't even play, it's just me and my guitar. that way i have all the freedom i want. the band joins in with the congregation in worship during the altar service, after the message. it all works very well for us...

[Jo Mo]

Originally Posted by agrimes87

that's basically what we do. we decide on our songlist in practice, and go over all the variations we might do then. we decide what signals mean what and all that stuff. i don't usually do a song we didn't go over in practice (unless it's the afterservice). during the first part of the service, we just play the songs we practiced without much variation from what we went over. but for the afterservice, i lead on my own. the band doesn't even play, it's just me and my guitar. that way i have all the freedom i want. the band joins in with the congregation in worship during the altar service, after the message. it all works very well for us...

If I may butt in here, but Agrimes, you nd I probably have the same problem. I have playung the guitar for most of my adult life, I am 45 yrs old last dec. 1st adn have played with some of the best musicians over the years and have come to learn many things about music, you know timing for starters. I play for my church. we have a keyboardist, my wife, who is ok, we have a drummer who is generally a novice, a second guitarist who hasn't played seriously in a long time ( he is still learning more chords) and a bass guitar player who actually doesn't play ( He is really the good drum player, long story to that). So you see who is holding the music together, Me. It gets really frustrating for me because I have more experience in music than they have. What do you think?

[agrimes87]

Originally Posted by Jo Mo

If I may butt in here, but Agrimes, you nd I probably have the same problem. I have playung the guitar for most of my adult life, I am 45 yrs old last dec. 1st adn have played with some of the best musicians over the years and have come to learn many things about music, you know timing for starters. I play for my church. we have a keyboardist, my wife, who is ok, we have a drummer who is generally a novice, a second guitarist who hasn't played seriously in a long time ( he is still learning more chords) and a bass guitar player who actually doesn't play ( He is really the good drum player, long story to that). So you see who is holding the music together, Me. It gets really frustrating for me because I have more experience in music than they have. What do you think?

i definitely understand. i'm noly 16 years old, but i've been playing music all my life. i began playing drums at 7 and played constantly. i then learned bass and guitar within the last 2 years, which i also play CONSTANTLY. very constantly. i've played on stage quite a bit, and played with tons of other musicians. i moved to a small, VERY isolated community (i'm in Labrador). not many people here have any experience with music whatsoever. they listen to it a bit, but not as much as the other places i've been. they certainly don't play a whole lot. i have much much more musical experience than the other members of the band, and i am definitely holding it together. when i came here there was no band. there was a drummer who hardly played, wasn't very serious, and didn't know very much about drums at all. there were a few guitarists who had just begun to learn guitar from the youth leader here, who was in his 40's and didn't exactly have the same style as the youth were looking for. and that was it. since then it's picked up a lot. i've managed to teach 2 drummers, 3 bassists, a number of guitar players, and a vocalist. i've taken the lead of the band, and we've come a long way in 2 years. so i certainly know what you're going through....