We had fun. Plain and simple. It was fun. We played
God is Great ( youtube link )
Blessed Be Your Name ( youtube link )
I Could Sing of Your Love Forever ( the 'dark' one- link)
I added a new 'effect' to my setup this past wknd. A Dunlop/MXR micro amp. I had used my own personally modified super-cool DS1 a few times in the past, but it adds lots of distortion along with the boost, and changes the EQ, so I brought in the micro-amp. I saw a local musician Bill Brown (1960-2004. He also taught me how to play an 'A' with one finger, my very first guitar lesson! Anybody remember Piano Forte on Campbell St?) with one back in 1980, and can still see him on that stage over on olive street, with his Strat and Sunn Beta 212 amp. Back then, he taught me that the guitar player will know when he's going to solo or just add something, and will know better than the soundguy ( who is probably a volunteer, and should not be held accountable for knowing every arrangement that comes along ) when the guitar needs to be hotter. This little MXR does the job perfectly. No color added, no tone changes, maybe it drives the POD XT Live a little harder ( which probably adds a model of distortion, whatever that is ) which is OK, cause you're looking for a little more bite when you're adding emphasis.
After the offeratory, we did 'By His Wounds' from the Glory Revealed project ( youtube link ), and tagged it with the chorus from Matt Redman's 'Nothing But the Blood'. For the invitation, we did 'Blessed Be Your Name' (BBYN) again, full speed, full volume, and rocked it. It was nice to have something a little more powerful for invitation.
FYI, the chord changes for BBYN are the same as 'Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. Gave me an excuse to slide a Neah Schon melody in there during the second half of the bridge.
I LOVE PLAYING IN CHURCH!
JC
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
My favorite Shaun Groves post of all time. Makes me want to study alot more Greek in my 'Strongs Concordinance' - Jimbo
10.22.07 Shut Up And Worship Pt.5
It’s like transferring vinyl to mp3. A lot of information gets whittled away when the bible is taken from Greek and Hebrew and a foreign culture and ancient time and transferred into English to be read by modern Americans. What we’re left with is still beautiful and moving but we sense sometimes that what we read and understand today is lacking the fullness of the original.
That’s how I feel when I go to church and hear a pastor say something like “Now, brother So-and-so will lead us in worship” and I watch as brother So-and-so opens his hymnal or picks up his guitar and sings - asking the rest of us to join him. Or how about when I meet a musician who calls himself a “worship leader” or meet a pastor who says the “worship” at his church is fantastic, just something I’ve got to “hear.”
Sometimes the modern use of the word “worship” leaves me feeling hungry for something more - like the waiter’s delivered me a bowl of ranch dressing before the salad’s arrived. And other times I wonder if the chef has even heard of salad.
I was twenty-six when the word “worship” first left me feeling this way. I was standing at the back of our large church sanctuary watching more than a thousand people, many of them with hands raised, sing loudly to God. They were facing a stage and on that stage was a front man in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, one hand on his microphone and the other arm stretched up past his stubbled cheek and highlight-streaked haircut toward heaven. A thin haze of fog hung in the air around him, making the dances of colored beams of light visible. A row of singers clad in black flanked the front man, harmonizing beautifully together. A golden Les Paul pumping through a Marshall amp wailed from the darkness behind them where a thunderous bass pounced out and thumped us all in our bones. Keyboards and a massive drum kit filled in the rest of the stage and our ear drums. Behind it all, through the fog and laser lights and darkness, lyrics and moving images flowed continually across a twenty foot screen. This was everything I always wanted worship to be. It was every word we tossed around in planning meetings and at conferences: relevant, excellent, cutting-edge, moving.
I heard someone say once the best way to find out you’re wrong is for everyone else to think you’re right. And that’s what happened to me. For years we church staff people fought with the congregation and each other over what worship should look like and sound like. We lobbied hard for the front man and his t-shirt, the guitars and drums and bone thumping bass, the songs and singers and lights and big screen. And we emerged victorious. Those who disagreed with us left and those who stayed believed we were right - or didn’t care. Regardless, we got what we wanted and that left me with the suspicion that we were wrong, that there was something else, something more to “worship.”
But what else was there?
Over the next couple years I tried to find out. I looked up every mention of the word “worship” in the bible and then took a look at the original Greek and Hebrew words they were all translated from. This took a long time since I’m a musician by training, not a linguist, but it was worth it. What I discovered made me angry at first. What was missing was so obvious that I couldn’t believe I’d never heard it come from a pastor, a worship leader, never heard it at a conference or read it in a book.
I discovered that of the eleven Greek words and the five Hebrew words translated as “worship” in the bible, NONE of them have ANYTHING to do with music.
And suddenly what I thought was vinyl turned out to be an mp3.
Or a lie.
SG
What did I tell you? Is this an awesome post or what? - Jimbo
10.22.07 Shut Up And Worship Pt.5
It’s like transferring vinyl to mp3. A lot of information gets whittled away when the bible is taken from Greek and Hebrew and a foreign culture and ancient time and transferred into English to be read by modern Americans. What we’re left with is still beautiful and moving but we sense sometimes that what we read and understand today is lacking the fullness of the original.
That’s how I feel when I go to church and hear a pastor say something like “Now, brother So-and-so will lead us in worship” and I watch as brother So-and-so opens his hymnal or picks up his guitar and sings - asking the rest of us to join him. Or how about when I meet a musician who calls himself a “worship leader” or meet a pastor who says the “worship” at his church is fantastic, just something I’ve got to “hear.”
Sometimes the modern use of the word “worship” leaves me feeling hungry for something more - like the waiter’s delivered me a bowl of ranch dressing before the salad’s arrived. And other times I wonder if the chef has even heard of salad.
I was twenty-six when the word “worship” first left me feeling this way. I was standing at the back of our large church sanctuary watching more than a thousand people, many of them with hands raised, sing loudly to God. They were facing a stage and on that stage was a front man in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, one hand on his microphone and the other arm stretched up past his stubbled cheek and highlight-streaked haircut toward heaven. A thin haze of fog hung in the air around him, making the dances of colored beams of light visible. A row of singers clad in black flanked the front man, harmonizing beautifully together. A golden Les Paul pumping through a Marshall amp wailed from the darkness behind them where a thunderous bass pounced out and thumped us all in our bones. Keyboards and a massive drum kit filled in the rest of the stage and our ear drums. Behind it all, through the fog and laser lights and darkness, lyrics and moving images flowed continually across a twenty foot screen. This was everything I always wanted worship to be. It was every word we tossed around in planning meetings and at conferences: relevant, excellent, cutting-edge, moving.
I heard someone say once the best way to find out you’re wrong is for everyone else to think you’re right. And that’s what happened to me. For years we church staff people fought with the congregation and each other over what worship should look like and sound like. We lobbied hard for the front man and his t-shirt, the guitars and drums and bone thumping bass, the songs and singers and lights and big screen. And we emerged victorious. Those who disagreed with us left and those who stayed believed we were right - or didn’t care. Regardless, we got what we wanted and that left me with the suspicion that we were wrong, that there was something else, something more to “worship.”
But what else was there?
Over the next couple years I tried to find out. I looked up every mention of the word “worship” in the bible and then took a look at the original Greek and Hebrew words they were all translated from. This took a long time since I’m a musician by training, not a linguist, but it was worth it. What I discovered made me angry at first. What was missing was so obvious that I couldn’t believe I’d never heard it come from a pastor, a worship leader, never heard it at a conference or read it in a book.
I discovered that of the eleven Greek words and the five Hebrew words translated as “worship” in the bible, NONE of them have ANYTHING to do with music.
And suddenly what I thought was vinyl turned out to be an mp3.
Or a lie.
SG
What did I tell you? Is this an awesome post or what? - Jimbo
what comes first
So I go to church, I get a guitar solo here and there, and a ton of people tell me they love it. They like it better than that 'other music' we have to do sometimes ( hymns, maybe a contemporary song nobody ever heard 'cept for our music pastor ), and wish we could do more of this type/that type/whatever. Like Shaun Groves said, paraphrased ' when we make something else more important than God, we've missed it'
How many times am I gonna have to quote Dr Joe Crider who once told me "You can't worship the music". Evidently, this is over some folks' heads. I dunno why.
So tonight, after my cool solos, the killer bass lines, big drum fills ( sorry, no fog or big trusses covered with stage lights ) I heard the chamber choir, and the handbells. The handbells were great, the best they have ever sounded. Doing the Tomlin tune 'How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art' was the most modern thing they've ever done, and they did a great job of it. The chamber choir let loose of some great tunes I've heard on Gaither Homecoming videos, and everyone in the room was truly blessed.
Q: Why is it the only music that moves me is Southern Gospel? I'd love an answer to that question. FYI I don't play 10 SG songs a year.
God First, Music Second
Jimbo
How many times am I gonna have to quote Dr Joe Crider who once told me "You can't worship the music". Evidently, this is over some folks' heads. I dunno why.
So tonight, after my cool solos, the killer bass lines, big drum fills ( sorry, no fog or big trusses covered with stage lights ) I heard the chamber choir, and the handbells. The handbells were great, the best they have ever sounded. Doing the Tomlin tune 'How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art' was the most modern thing they've ever done, and they did a great job of it. The chamber choir let loose of some great tunes I've heard on Gaither Homecoming videos, and everyone in the room was truly blessed.
Q: Why is it the only music that moves me is Southern Gospel? I'd love an answer to that question. FYI I don't play 10 SG songs a year.
God First, Music Second
Jimbo
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