Our Continuing
Journey
Time For An Update
I haven’t updated my original pages in a long time. We have had a
number of changes since the pages were first posted. Rather than trying
to figure out how to keep them current, my plan is to occasionally
update this page..
Personnel Changes!
We gained a piano player in early 2007. Danny is a professional
musician. He has recorded albums. He has written and recorded the sound
tracks for both secular and Christian movies. He has a wonderful gift
and the church loves to listen to him play.
We also gained a new drummer in Israel, Danny’s son. Cody still fills
in when he is needed. Cody loves to play – you can tell this just by
watching him. As Israel’s talent became obvious, Cody stepped aside and
allowed the new guy to take over. It couldn’t have been easy and none
of us asked him to do it. That is maturity! I have often said I would
do the same thing but I notice I haven’t yet.
Our original bass player Darryl stepped down in late 2007. He had been
a soldier in a very intense spiritual battle for a number of years. The
fatigue had finally taken its toll. Today he is seeking God’s will with
another congregation. We miss him but know he will re-find his
enthusiasm for ministry.
Now this is where our story takes another cool God turn. We were
setting up for practice one evening when in walks Scott with his
daughter’s bass under his arm. He said, “I noticed you guys haven’t had
a bass player lately, and I was wondering if you mind if I practiced
with you.” We didn’t even know he could play. Seems he had been sitting
in the pew for years not using his gifting until the Pastor did a
series on fruit. There were several baskets up front with varying
amounts of fruit in them as a visual aid. One of them was empty. That
empty basket is how Scott perceived his walk up until that point. He
had a gift. We had a need. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
Scott wasn’t a bass player. He played guitar but figured he could
adjust. He did. He came to us with a drive to put some enthusiasm into
the music to get people moving. He has done an excellent job on bass
but has also shared his dobro playing with the church. Occasionally he
will bring one of his electrics to practice. One of them is a Gibson SG
that his wife found at a yard sale for $100! He hasn’t played electric
for the church yet but I am looking forward to the day.
We sort of lost our lead singer Chris in 2008. He still practices and
sings with us on occasion. Most of the time, he is traveling around the
countryside singing with a Southern Gospel group. This is definitely
Chris’ calling. Though I personally don’t care much for that style of
music, it is pure pleasure to watch him doing it. He stage presence is
very strong. I have heard worship ministers refer to this as anointing.
Chris backing away allowed Rick to step up as lead singer. During
practice, Rick is not only a lot of fun but very outgoing. Sunday
morning he tends to get very quiet. I believe this opportunity is God’s
way of drawing Rick out of himself. You can see his confidence grow
week by week. One of his greatest strengths is his humility. When he
thinks things aren’t going as they should he takes the responsibility
himself, stops everything, and prays it through. Then we start again in
the Lord’s strength. God has been so good to us.
We have added some new voices to the group as well. Donnie is a senior
in High School as of this writing. He is the youngster of the bunch.
With the exception of Israel who is in his early twenties, the rest of
us are, well, a little more seasoned. We also now have Ellen who has a
phenomenal voice, a great sense of timing, and an ear for harmony. She
has just kind of grown into the position of pulling the other voices
together.
Our sound personnel became unable to help out for various reasons. So
Scott’s wife Tammy said she would do it every week. This has worked out
very well. It is the first time in several years we have had anyone
running the soundboard during practice. She is still learning the
controls but does a great job.
More Changes:
In the late summer of 2009 singer Donnie, who had just graduated High
School in the spring, went off to become a college man. Danny resigned
as pianist and moved away to take care of an elderly family member.
This meant we lost his son, and our drummer, Israel as well. As you
might imagine more than a few people were concerned about these losses.
They will
be missed but by now should'nt we have learned God is still God. He
still
sits on the throne. He is still Jehovah Jireh - the Lord who provides.
As we so often sing - He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord.
Immediately, we had a couple ladies within our church come forward to
say they used
to play piano and though they were rusty they might be able to chord
with us after they brushed up for a while. So this is a possible future
work the Lord is tending. For now Helen B. who occasionally plays piano
for us on Sunday nights said she would fill in when needed. The first
time she practiced with us was interesting. She tends to play in a
traditional manner. We tend to play in a not traditional manner. We
finally at her suggestion put the two forms together on I'll Fly Away.
She started slow and almost classical on the verse then we bashed out
the chorus. It works and is really pretty cool. Then we decided to
practice
Revive Us Again. I told her to forget everything she knew about the
song. It is written in 3/4 or 6/8 time but we do it in 4/4 time as a
blues shuffle. She listened to a couple measures then took off with a
boogie piano that just fit perfectly. Music styles can divide or unite.
It all depends on the willingness of the people to work together.
Bev and her mother Judy stepped up to sing with us. They have sung
bluegrass
together for years and harmonize wonderfully. Bev came in with great
enthusiasm and a list of songs she hoped we would practice, so we
just let her lead practice that first night. She was thrilled. She took
it
seriously and did a superb job.
Judy has played upright bass and acoustic guitar for years. We are
hoping she will eventually transition to
electric bass.
She had one of her own at home but hadn't touched it in years. She
brought it with her to her second practice with us and did pretty well
for a first time.
When this
transition works out it will free Scott to play lead guitar. I
play electric, but I chord so this will add a touch we haven't had in a
long time.
Because of his job, Cody may not be able to play drums every Sunday but
he is willing as often as possible. Eric (Bev's husband) has a new job
so he has once again been helping run sound. Lately he has even been
able to attend practice.
Our current line up is: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost - who
saved us, called us, and now provide, encourage, and give us purpose,
Kevin (me) - guitar, Scott - bass (and dobro),
Nellie - trumpet, Cody - drums. Helen - occasional piano, Singers –
Rick, Linda,
Mary, Ellen, Bev, Judy, and sometimes Chris. Tammy and Eric run the
sound booth.
Some Techie Stuff We Have Learned:
I can’t hear!
From the pews, an acoustic piano sounds
nice. From the stage, an acoustic piano is very loud, especially if you
are sitting next to it trying to hear yourself play an instrument. If
we physically turn the piano a little to get it out of my ears it
blasts the singers. We tried packing the back of the piano with
insulation to quiet it down. We have a pick-up mounted to the
soundboard so we figured we could turn him up as needed. Problem is
this just didn’t work. Simply turning up the monitors doesn’t work
either, as it makes the stage volume too loud, which is
counter-productive. The louder the monitors the louder pianist
perceives
the piano needs to be played so they hit the keys harder. It is a
vicious cycle.
I tried setting up a hot spot monitor with only guitar in it for my own
use. I didn’t like the results as the tone was very tinny – annoyingly
so. I started to look around for a better monitor when I realized it
wasn’t necessary to spend more money. The solution was to take a little
solid-state 15W Crate amplifier, I already owned, and cable it into the
parallel output on my DI box. My set-up is Parker guitar > Digitech
processor > DI > soundboard. The parallel signal is a separate
lead off the DI into the amp. The volume on the amp only needs to be
turned to about 2 to be heard by me.
This made an amazing difference. I am no longer begging the sound
person to turn me up. The congregation is no longer begging the sound
person to turn the guitar down. The stage volume isn’t out of control.
Using the amp as a monitor hasn’t caused the congregation to have a
perceived volume problem because the amp is very small and is pointed
at me.
The only possible potential problem has been Scott sets his bass volume
to blend with me based on what he hears mostly from my amp. It hasn’t
seemed to cause any problems with the congregation. We just have to
trust the sound person to balance the volumes in the house. Scott
hasn’t complained but a small amp might be just the ticket to allow him
to hear himself better as well.
The Dobro can’t be heard!
I mentioned Scott plays dobro. This has introduced a new set of
problems as well. The instrument is an acoustic; therefore, it needs to
be amplified to be heard. Putting a microphone near it caused enormous
feedback problems. Scott tried using a pickup clipped on the resonator
plate but it sounded tinny and noisy. The solution was simply –
location, location, location. Our house speakers hang directly over the
piano on the front edge of the stage. The monitors are in front of the
stage but to the side of the piano. Scott simply sits on or near the
piano bench and he is able to avoid having speakers blaring into the
boom microphone. Now we can turn up the volume!
Too Many Experts!
When you have a praise band, you have to have enough sound system to
power it. When you have a 24+ channel soundboard and all the amps,
cables, and speakers that go with it there is the potential that a lot
of people will tinker with it. When we installed the system, we had a
professional do most of the work. When he was done, the sound was
consistent throughout the sanctuary. There wasn’t a dead spot anywhere
in the room. As time passed, people began to rewire and reroute things
based on their opinion of what sounds good. Therefore, we began to have
dead spots and over-volumed spots all around the room. The final straw
came when the Pastor couldn’t move on the stage without feedback or
stand at the podium without experiencing echoes.
Thankfully, we have had a couple people who did know what they were
doing come and begin to put things back where they belong. The Pastor’s
problems were caused by the sub-woofer being place at the back or the
stage. Even though the wireless mike is not turned up in the sub, it
was still feeding back. The dead spots were caused by the speakers
being rewired and the equalizers being adjusted wrong. It was also
discovered the tweeters were blown in the monitors. Some of the singers
thought they just weren’t turned up in the monitor mix when in reality
they couldn’t be heard because there was no speaker carrying the sound
in their voice range. The tweeters became damaged by misuse. On the
occasion when a singer used a backing track for a special, the sound
person at the time would turn off the CD in the house speakers and turn
up the monitors. The singer came through the house but the backing
track was projected through the sanctuary by the monitors! An expensive
lesson hopefully learned.
Well that pretty much brings everything up to date.
Copyright © 2008 by Kevin Sluder
Latest revision 2009
All rights reserved
Links to some
of my articles:
Praise Band A little bit about how we got
started.
Our Continuing Journey latest updates.
Introducing praise music in an established church
This has become more of a history lesson of our struggle and our
mistakes
Blended Services Do Work! The experts
were wrong - We finally figured out how to make it work!
Come Let Us Worship And Bow Down The problem
of Idol worship in the church
I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day
Recognizing the silver lining that we often find on what we think are
bad things in our lives.
Hymns Versus Praise Songs A humorous
look
A Little Musician Humor Lighten up!
Guitars! Jesus wants me to have a new guitar?
Terrorism In The Church Take a stand
against spiritual abuse.
Cool Links Some helpful resources
Guest Article:
Blended Worship - Good for the Body A
wondeful article by Pastor of Music Ron Man