Flailing Monkeys
Nov 8, 2011 Aviator Worship
You are PUMPED!! You plug in your guitar, click on the glorious dotted eighth delay, look over at your bassist who just turned his volume up and give him the “we’re awesome-let’s do this” nod. You step up to the mic with your supporting musicians behind you. You strike your first chord, but what’s this? You are playing all alone! An unexpected solo. There was no count off, no crashing or thumping sounds. O ya, no drummer…
You have no drummer, what do you do? First, you get on your knees and pray, regularly. I am not figuratively speaking, literally get on your knees, thank God for what you have, and pray for a drummer, regularly.
Until God chooses that you have learned what you need to learn without a drummer, what do you do until you get one? You have a few options, and by a few I mean less than 4, but more than 2, unless you are really creative.
Your first option is to do acoustic sets. You do not necessarily need any percussion for this, but if you have a coordinated guitarist or singer, ask if they would be interested in playing the djembe or cajon. Acoustics can lack intensity, so be careful, but they can also be very intimate. Also, egg shakers never hurt. Unless they are thrown, then they hurt pretty bad.
Secondly, use a click. Just make a click of the songs tempo and run that through your in ears. This, however, will not work without in ear monitors. You can add vocal cues like “chorus” or “verse” to keep everyone together. This will allow you to have a central tempo and to do more with what you have. Some programs for making a simple click, I would recommend Audacity for PC users or Garageband for Mac users. Just use a midi track and select woodblock or beep. You will want to make the first “click” different so it is distinguishable from “two three” and “four”.
Lastly, I would recommend making a click track with drums programmed in. This is the most expensive, time consuming, and frustrating option. With this, you will be able to have a click in your ears and run the drums through the system. This will allow you to have intensity and a lot of diversity. The way to do this is get a drumming software, I suggest EZDrummer or Addictive Drums, listen to the song and program the drums in. Map it out. Know how many verses, choruses, and bridges there are. You can use simple beats, or do it exactly like the song. I prefer to do it exactly like the song. People will not notice the lack of drummer as much and it allows you to keep the “feel” of that song. You can use programs like Fruity Loops, Acid Pro, Pro Tools, Garageband, Logic, Reason, etc. to make the clicks. To run it live, just get an 1/8th in. to L/R 1/4th in. cable and run your click panned all the way left and drums all the way right. You can use an iPod or computer to execute it live. Like I said, this is the hardest option, but I feel like for my situation it is the best out of the three for me, and I want to give God my best.
Whatever you choose, DO NOT let it replace a drummer. No computer program can follow you and do an extra chorus at the end or improvise a solution for a problem. Pray, everyday. Do the best you can with what you have.
Work hard and pray harder,
Weston Heflin
Aviator Students, Worship Leader
The Bikini Bottom Half-time Show!
Nov 8, 2011 Aviator Worship
If you have ever seen the worldwide, hit TV show, that you know you secretly love, Spongebob Squarepants, then you know if you play louder with more enthusiasm, people will think you are better than what you are (according to Squidward). Now obviously, this is not 100% true, but there is some truth in it: the enthusiasm/confidence.
In order to have confidence about the music you are to play, you have to know it. No amount of dotted eighth delay, or compression can hide suck (for lack of better words), only practice can.
Along with practice comes memorization. Think of the coolest, sickest, loudest concert you have ever been to. Now what color were their music stands? You don’t know? That is probably because they did not need to use them. Do not get me wrong, it is not a problem to use the occasional music stand. Nothing is wrong with getting crutches either, if you need them. If you use music stands when you don’t need them, they become a crutch, and you instantly tell yourself, “I am not comfortable with what I know about my music”. However, stands are not a problem at rehearsals, you need reference, but when you are leading worship, unless you just made a song or key change, it can hinder your worship and confidence, which will effect others as well.
Once you know your music, you will be confident with it. It will also free you up to be able to express your excitement to worship God through movement. Have you ever noticed that using a music stand is like having a leash on? You can never get to far away from it. Once you are confident with the music, others will see that and will be more confident, and it will look more professional. It also says, “hey, I know what I’m doing”. If you were to go somewhere and they were using music stands, then you went to another place, and they did the same songs without stands, the second place has a better vibe. This is because when you see that no one is using music, it means they have worked on it, and that preparation is important to them, they want to bring their best before God. Not their “I’ll wing it” skills.
Say you KNOW your music, well. You get on stage, you don’t need a stand! You’ve got this! Then you strike the first chord, and you hear something sweet to the ear, oh, that’s just the dotted eighth delay kicking in. Now, since you know your music and do not need a music stand, instead of thinking “what is my next chord?”, you are thinking “how can I GET to my next chord”. Knowing your music will allow you to be more creative, it will make you look like a smarter musician, and it will allow you to worship God without your eyes glued to a white chord sheet.
Again, do not get me wrong, there is a time and place for a music stand, but God created us, He did not skimp. We all have the ability to be excellent. Work your hardest and leave nothing halfway.
Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!
Work hard and pray harder,
Weston Heflin <><
Aviator Students, Worship Leader