Worship Band Skills: Musicademy Seminar Notes
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•821 views
Playing together in a worship band. For groups of all sizes and abilities. Understand the common factors which make bands sound bad and learn the key points to play well together. Get over 40 free lessons from Musicademy http://bit.ly/1pQDyUF
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (16)
Similar to Worship Band Skills: Musicademy Seminar Notes
Similar to Worship Band Skills: Musicademy Seminar Notes (20)
More from Musicademy
More from Musicademy (18)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Worship Band Skills: Musicademy Seminar Notes
- 1. © www.musicademy.co.uk For seminar notes, please add your email address to the list You’ll also get our (rather good) weekly Worship Newsletter Band Skills
- 2. © www.musicademy.co.uk Quick wins for your band Two worship band scenarios • The ‘produced’ model • The ‘community campfire’ model
- 3. © www.musicademy.co.uk Mechanics of playing together Stage placements • Where is your band? • Why do we do what we do?
- 4. © www.musicademy.co.uk Think about • Sight lines • Positioning amps • Microphones
- 5. © www.musicademy.co.uk Mechanics of playing together Tuning Doesn’t matter what you play… If it’s out of tune it’s horrid… It’s better to be flat than sharp…
- 6. © www.musicademy.co.uk Tuning Number 1 culprit - Capos – Pulling sharp – Big Frets – Pressing too hard – thicker strings (wound G) Solution - capo directly on the fret Number 2 - one string out of tune • Tune from string 1 (top E) • Always tune up not down • Change strings • Check intonation • Tune often and often
- 7. © www.musicademy.co.uk Tuning Acoustic instruments • Humidity and temperature • 440 tuning • Drums – rehearsal not the time to tune!
- 8. © www.musicademy.co.uk Staying in time Everyone thinks they’re in time - but maybe not as much as they’d like to think! Game Try to stay in time… • Subdivide the beat • Move your body • Keep eye contact
- 9. © www.musicademy.co.uk Practical ideas • We are going to look at the practical aspects of playing worship music better • Ideas, top tips, demos and Q & A • Vast subject, we may not cover everything
- 10. © www.musicademy.co.uk Playing better 4 things that help us play together better Tuning, Timing, Groove and Dynamics
- 11. © www.musicademy.co.uk Tempo Discussion • Should the tempo change? • Where does the tempo go wrong for you?
- 12. © www.musicademy.co.uk Where the tempo goes wrong – Equating dynamics to speeding up and slowing down – Starting off too fast or slow – Drums coming out of hard fills – Band just cant keep in time with each other Any playing with tempo must be completely deliberate
- 13. © www.musicademy.co.uk Wrong tempo? Doesn’t need to be far off to sound wrong – Breathe(!) before you play – Sing the fastest part of the song in your head (e.g. Holy, holy) – Less tempo and more authority – If it’s wrong don’t suffer; change or start again
- 14. © www.musicademy.co.uk Building the Groove Discussion What is groove?
- 15. © www.musicademy.co.uk Why bands sound bad • Too many conflicting rhythms • Wrong rhythms for the song • Ad hoc changes in rhythmic pattern Demo Better is one day; Great is thy faithfulness; Lord, reign in me
- 16. © www.musicademy.co.uk Finding the groove Exercise Can you clap the groove? • Listen to the accents in the melody • Drums set the groove • Other instruments find a space in the groove
- 17. © www.musicademy.co.uk Grooves are made up of 8th or 16th notes Understanding the Groove 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a x x x x x x I’m com-ing backto the all a-bout you, it’s x x x x x
- 18. © www.musicademy.co.uk Your space in the groove 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a Kick x x x Bass x x x x Elec 1 x x (x x x x x) Elec 2 x x (x) Keys 1 x (x x x x) Keys 2 x - - (x) - - Acoust. x x x x x x x x x Groove x x x x x x
- 19. © www.musicademy.co.uk How the band fits together Bands can sound bad because the members: • Don’t play their part • Play too many parts • Play other members parts Do you play your part?
- 20. Lead Vocals
- 22. Drums Bass Lead Vocals (Just enough to work)
- 45. Drums Bass Lead Vocals (Just enough to work)
- 46. Acoustic Drums Lead Vocals (Sounds too empty - no support)
- 47. Acoustic Lead Vocals (Sounds better - no gap)
- 55. © www.musicademy.co.uk Listening skills • 75% listening and 25% playing – Listen to what? • Mature musicians focus on the sum of the whole group, not your own bag of tricks – What is your instruments role in the team? Stick to it. – Be consist in your part as it helps others to ‘lock in’
- 56. © www.musicademy.co.uk Dynamics • Dynamics – louder and softer • Two types of dynamics – Terraced and linear – What does that mean? Example - Whom shall I fear? Exercise - 10 levels of dynamics
- 57. © www.musicademy.co.uk Playing dynamically together • How do you decide what dynamics to play? • Constant change – read each other – Listen – to what?
- 58. © www.musicademy.co.uk Communication Demo - Faithful One Watch for what we do - • How do we communicate? • What do we communicate? • Looking around • Conduct with eyes • Body movements (big and small) • Watching hands • Listening to cues in the music • Spoken word cues (it’s not a CD!) • Spoken word outro’s • Different people leading
- 59. © www.musicademy.co.uk Exercise 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a 1. x x x 2. x x 4. x x x x x x 3. x x x x x x Follow Andy!
- 60. © www.musicademy.co.uk Beyond the mechanics Discussion Some bands seem to do all of the technical things well but the music can still seem lifeless and distant. Why?
Editor's Notes
- Before the throne - 2 notches up and it rushes Your love is amazing - 1 notch down too slow, 1 up rushes
- Better is one day [E] - wrong strumming pattern (Folk galloping with Backing Band) - from V2 Great is thy faithfulness [C] - keys too busy (with backing track right then wrong) - from Link 1 Lord, reign in me [A] - Tim - straight, Andy - pushes - from Link 1
- Heart of worship (C2) - get people to clap what they think the groove is
- Orchestral = keys 2
- The lead vocal is the main thing - everything else is built around this. The rhythm (groove) is based on the melody and everything else supports it.
- Drums (if present) pick up on the rhythm of the melody and provide a solid foundation. e.g. Here I am to worship - main rhythm from verse Just melody and rhythm aren’t quite enough to support the whole song
- Bass and drums work together - bass aids rhythm and provides the foundation for harmony. It’s important that the bass provides this foundation locking with the drums and playing the correct bass notes.
- Adding acoustic guitar further emphasises the rhythm and fills in chord notes. This is a good basic combination of instruments. Acoustic guitar picks up on the groove from bass and drums.
- Electric guitar and keys add both harmony and texture. They can cross over with each other and with other instruments so need to be careful - more on that later. Both will thicken the sound as well as adding interest.
- Orchestral instruments don’t always have much space to operate in modern worship songs. However, they can add a lot of interest. The key is to add the most by fitting into the gaps.
- Backing vocals have a very small space to fill. Typically harmony with the main melody - definitely not distracting from the melody or words. This is a complete picture of things working well. Most of us go wrong when instruments do too much… first keyboards…
- Piano players are used to playing everything. Big chords, lots of melody and rhythm take the space of most instrument. Particularly difficult for electric guitar and orchestral instruments if you do too much. Also let the bass handle the low end - particularly rhythm.
- It’s ok to do more if there are fewer people in the band.
- Now let’s swap things round and see what happens if the electric guitar does too much…
- Crosses over keys and orchestral instruments. Typically adding texture and harmony - not lead guitar and blues riffs.
- Again, you can do more if there are fewer other players in the same space.
- Back to normal. Now let’s see what can happen when the bass does too much…
- Playing too many notes (too funky?) and too much rhythm takes space from drums, keys, guitars and orchestral instruments. Don’t play too many notes. Or…
- Frustrated lead guitarists tend to play too high (and too much) - this can leave a hole at the bottom of the sound. It also cuts across the roll of other guitars.
- Now let’s see what happens if orchestral instruments do too much…
- Probably getting the idea. There’s a real risk of cutting across the melody (even obliterating it) together with electric guitars and keys.
- What about BVs?
- If you sing too much of the melody or a harmony but are too loud in the mix it will undermine the lead vocal - need to be careful of this.
- Trilling and frilling also cuts across the melody. It will also have an impact on orchestral instruments, guitars and keys. Don’t do it!
- What about acoustic guitar?
- The main problems are playing too much (rhythm) - this cuts across bass but can also clash with drums and leave little space in the sound. There are also problems when the acoustic is mixed too high. This doesn’t leave space for much else.
- A frequent problem is that most or all of the band do too much…
- It’s not pretty!
- What about smaller setups? You won’t have everything all of the time. Many of us have to work with what we’ve got.
- Not a common combination but one which can work really well.
- If there’s a gap in the sound at the lower end things tend not to work well. Be especially careful about drums without bass.
- In this situation it would work better not to use drums. Acoustic guitar covers the rhythmic role and there’s no gap in the sound.
- It’s possible to fill the gap with keyboard. Better if the player can use a bass sound well (i.e. no octaves in the bass) The sound of an electric bass is much fuller than a piano and supports the sound better.
- Here we can see that it’s ok not to have acoustic guitar. Because the electric guitar and/or keys cover this part of the sonic spectrum the ‘gap’ isn’t serious.
- This combination could also work without bass. Again, if the left hand of the keyboard can use a bass sound it’s generally better than piano.
- A lot of bands struggle for both bass and drums. That’s not a problem - there are a number of solutions which work. This is often because there’s no gap. Here the keyboard would need to be more rhythmic than with bass and drums.
- The important points are: Don’t do too much Cover rhythm, harmony and texture in supporting the melody Don’t leave gaps low down
- Orchestral = keys 2