WorshipGuitarist

How are you guys running sound? I’m guessing that most of you have volunteer sound guys. Do you run wedge monitors or in-ears? Do you use amps on stage or do your basses/guitars go direct? Live or acoustic drums?

We’re running a live stage - real drums, amps, and wedge monitors. It’s getting to be too much. The stage volume is getting out of control. A big part of the problem is that we have an extremely loud drummer who doesn’t seem to have a volume control - or else it’s stuck on 11 all the time. His volume causes everyone else to turn up which only causes him to play louder. Before you know it, we’re all competing for volume.

We’re trying a couple of things. The amps are going to go off stage, and we’re building isolation boxes for them. The next part is expensive. We’re trying to get the church to approve the purchase of an Aviom system. For us, it would probably cost at least $10k, but it would make a dramatic difference in the way we do things.

Another situation is the way our EQ is set. A couple of weeks ago the student band played on Sunday morning and I had the opportunity to listen to our PA in action. I couldn’t believe what I heard. The kids played well, but the sound was unlistenable. It was harsh, tinny, and it came across as extremely loud. I realized immediately that our EQ was totally out of whack, and that we need to do something immediately. So, we’re in the process of reevaluating everything to reset our sound. We have always gotten comments about being “too loud” but I always dismissed those comments as old-fashioned. I can see where those people are coming from now. It’s not so much about the actual sound pressure level, it’s about the perception of volume. I’m convinced that if we can get our EQ balanced (more bass & mids, softer highs) that people will tolerate more loudness.

Anyone else fighting this battle?

It’s been a while since I posted, but I’m going to try to get back into the habit.

It looks like we’re going to be short a few band members pretty soon. Our drummer is going to be leaving for college in the fall. I’m not exactly sure what the deal is there. He’s in his early 20s, and I don’t know if he tried college right after high school and flunked out or if this is his first shot. Anyway, he’s talked about leaving several times, and I guess I’m at the point where I’ll believe it when I see it. It will be rough when he leaves, because we don’t really have a solid replacement lined up. On the plus side, he’s a really loud drummer (even with a cage), so when/if he leaves - the stage volume will decrease dramatically.

We also just lost our bassist. He failed to show up (again) this Sunday, and it was his last shot. He’s been really flaky for the last several months and routinely misses practice and/or soundcheck. FYI, he’s the guy that was supposed to play guitar on my day off but never showed. He had a pretty bad attitude, and I’m pretty sure that he missed this weekend because he was sleeping off a hangover or something. Nothing would surprise me. Fortunately, we have a couple of students who can play bass and can fill in the gaps in the rotation.

It should be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of months. It could be really bad, but you never know.

This weekend, the student band will be leading worship at our church. This makes two weeks off in a row. I’m telling you, this is unprecedented. I’m not used to being in the congregation anymore. I’m not sure exactly what to make of it.

Here’s the situation: I have been playing in the band for about 4 years, and I truly enjoy it. During that time, I have begun to reevaluate my definition of worship. I used to think of it as an emotional experience where you get this special feeling of communion with God or whatever. For a while, I was concerned because I felt like I wasn’t worshiping during the music service. I felt like I was focusing on playing too much and not enough on God. I based this conclusion on the fact that I wasn’t feeling anything.

There may have been some truth in what I was thinking, but I have given the matter some more thought. It is not necessarily my job to have an emotional worship experience while I lead, although it certainly happens from time to time. Rather, it is my responsibility to assist in creating an atmosphere conducive to worship. In other words, I shouldn’t close my eyes, focus on my own personal “worship time” and hope that everyone else joins me. My role is that of a facilitator.

My commitment to detail is an act of worship. Things such as playing the right chords, playing in the pocket, and stepping on the right pedals are all part of my offering to God. He demands our best, and that is what I intend to give Him.

Thanks for listening.

Most of what I’ve dealt with so far in these lessons has involved major chords, but today I want to address the issue of minor chords. Most songs in a worship setting are based in major keys, but there are almost always a few minor chords thrown in for good measure. Let’s talk about how to deal with them.

Here are the three inversions of the minor triad on the 2-3-4 strings.

Sometimes these are useful, but they’re pretty vanilla-sounding. Depending on the context, adding the minor 7th adds a complexity to the sonority. They don’t always work, but they usually do. Here are some of the options that I like to work with:

The first example is the most straightforward. It is voiced root - b3 - b7. [It's pretty common to eliminate the fifth.] The second example replaces the b3 with the fifth: root - 5 - b7. Since there’s no third, this chord is neither major nor minor. You can use this chord over _min7 or _7. The third example is the most unusual in that the root is missing. This is also a pretty standard move, since the bass will almost always play the root. This is voiced 5 - b7 - b3. Of course, you could easily add the root by playing this shape, but it’s not really necessary.

I really need to record some examples of how these voicings actually sound. I should be able to get to that soon. We have 7 days of school left (including the last teacher work day) so I should be able to get around to it.

This weekend, the regular band was given the weekend off because Matt Papa was in town to lead worship at our church. If you don’t know who he is (I had never heard of him until a few weeks ago), he is a 23-year old singer-songwriter from Georgia who has been leading worship since he was 14.

Anyway, it was cool to meet him and the guys in the band. Aside from making me feel old (I’m 30) they seemed to be pretty cool guys who are thrilled to be traveling around playing music.

For the most part, they played standard P&W songs (Salvation is Here, Blessed Be Your Name, etc.) but they did a couple of original tunes and hymn arrangements. It was a good service. Matt is a great singer and worship leader. It will be interesting to see what happens with him down the road. I’m especially interested to see how his songwriting develops in time. I wish that I had had the chance to see them soundcheck or just see them cut loose a little bit, because it looks like Matt might be a pretty good guitar player. Unfortunately, I can’t really comment on that conclusively.

They sounded really good live, and it was impressive to see what they did with our equipment. I guess it makes a difference to have a professional sound guy behind the board. [sarcasm] Who could have possibly imagined? [/sarcasm]

In case you’re interested, there was some really cool gear on stage this weekend (especially the amps). Here’s what I remember:

Guitars: Fender Strat, Tele, Gretsch Blueburst 6120(?), Gibson SG (canary yellow!)

Amps: Orange AD-20 w/2×12 cab, Goodsell Super 17

Effects: A couple of Line 6 DL-4s, an FM-4, an Echo Park, EH Holy Grail reverb, Z.Vex Box of Rock, Ernie Ball volume pedals, an Ibanez TS-9 (I think), Dano Blue Paisley, and some that I can’t remember.

I just ordered a couple of pedals: a Line 6 Echo Park delay pedal and an Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedal.

I’m currently using a Boss DD-3 for my delay, but I really wanted a delay with tap tempo, and the Echo Park looked like the best choice. I considered getting a DD-20, but it looks like it has way more features than I would actually use. If money were not an issue, I would have gone with a T-Rex Replica or a Diamond Memory Lane.

I considered going with a Goodrich volume pedal, like the L-120. However, they cost about twice what I paid for the Ernie Ball, and the only thing that I’ll really be doing is volume swells.

I’m looking forward to getting them on my board. Once I get them and maybe upgrade the Bad Monkey to something like a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, I’ll be a happy camper.

Jazz

Late in high school, I started getting into jazz. Most of what I was listening to during that time was not guitar music (Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, etc.), but here are a few of the jazz guitarists that I have listened to.

• Wes Montgomery - One of the most brilliant players ever. Supposedly he didn’t read a note of music, but I find that hard to believe. He popularized the use of playing octaves, which everyone has ripped off.
• Joe Pass - When you talk about complete mastery of the instrument, you talk about Joe Pass. Single note lines or full chord soloing, it doesn’t matter. Joe was the man.
• John Scofield - One of the most daring improvisers around. He uses pentatonic scale substitutions to achieve some truly messed up results.
• Pat Metheny - Most of his music should be labeled muzak, but the dude has got crazy chops. In addition, he brings a much-needed sense of melody to jazz.

There are a lot of guys that I didn’t mention simply because I haven’t done enough listening. For example, I know that Jim Hall is a master, but I have never really listened to his music, so I can’t really call him an influence. I intentionally left Bill Frisell off of this list, because I’m going to talk about him later.

Classical

I studied classical guitar in college, and it totally changed my approach to the instrument. This may seem shocking, but I’m leaving Andrés Segovia off of the list. While it’s true that he played a huge role in turning the guitar into a legitimate concert instrument, his view of music was too narrow-minded and intolerant. The only modern music that he truly embraced was held firmly in the grip of Spanish tradition. Anyway, here are my classical influences.

• John Williams - No, not the guy who wrote the Star Wars theme. JW is an Australian guitarist who has pretty much perfect technique. He’s clean, fast, and just doesn’t play wrong notes. Some people accuse him of being aloof and cold, and I agree in some cases, but the guy is just amazing.
• Julian Bream - He was born in London and greatly expanded the repertoire by commissioning new works as well as completing his own transcriptions of works originally created for other instruments.
• Leo Brouwer - He’s not really famous for his playing, but rather for his compositions. Brouwer is a contemporary Cuban composer who is quite prolific, having completed 9 guitar concertos (a 10th is in progress), and dozens of works for guitar solo and ensemble. I have played many of his works, and they have had a profound impact on my approach to rhythm and harmony, not to mention my technique.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Next I’ll talk about who I’ve been listening to lately.

Here are two more chord shapes that should be somewhat familiar. [Please note that the letters above the diagrams do not indicate the name or function of the chord, only the name of the shape.]

If you look, we find 3 common tones between these two chords, which I’ve circled below. [In his recent CAGED series, IG pointed out that these two shapes "share" these notes. Great minds, eh?]

This shape should look familiar if you’ve been reading these lessons. This shape is a major triad in second inversion, as played on the B (2nd), G (3rd), and D(4th) strings. Here is a simpler illustration.

From this point on, I will be referring to these shapes by their triad names (root, first inversion, or second inversion). Here is yet another diagram to show you what I’m talking about. The circled notes indicate the location of the root of the chord.

Continuing our discussion of the 2nd inversion triad, we have a couple of options:

Let’s look at these one at a time. In the example on the left, we have the notes G-C-F. The most obvious function of this chord is Csus4. However, depending on what the bass/keyboard plays, it could serve other functions (Eb6/9, Dm11, Bb6/9), but most of these chords would only be useful if you were playing jazz.

The example on the right has the notes G-C-D. There are several options, depending on the context. It can be a Csus2 chord or a Gsus4 chord. It all depends on what is going on with the other instruments (especially the bass). [In case you were just dying to know, some of the jazz possibilities for this voicing are Bb6/9,Am11, or Abmaj7(#11).]

As you can see, these alternate voicings are pretty ambiguous. This concept can be confusing, and I definitely want to revisit it. I am a a big proponent of ambiguity (with regard to chord voicing), and I want to make sure that the usage of these voicings is properly explained.

Once again, feel free to leave any comments letting me know if I missed anything. Of course, you could also let me know if I got everything right, but what are the chances of that happening?

Well, I’m over 500 posts in just over 3 weeks. That happened pretty quickly. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised that anyone is interested.

I have been playing guitar for about 15 years, and I have gone through a lot of phases during that time. In this post, I want to talk about a few of my influences, kind of in chronological order. I don’t really listen to this music anymore, but it remains a large part of my past.

• Jimi Hendrix - Seriously, ’nuff said, right? I mean, who hasn’t ripped this guy off? Everything from his outer space blues licks to his use of effects like wah and fuzz have been absorbed by pretty much everyone who has ever listened to his music. He may not have been the greatest guitarist from a technical standpoint, but he remains one of the most influential.
• Cream-era Eric Clapton - I’ve been pretty bored by the rest of his output, but is it possible to listen to Crossroads and be unimpressed?
• Duane Allman/Dickey Betts -The Allman Brothers’ Live at the Fillmore East was in pretty heavy rotation in my house back in the day. The sense of melody, phrasing, and interplay between these guys was amazing. The jazz influences did not go unnoticed.
• Slash - What can I say? I listened to a lot of Guns n’ Roses in high school. Slash was not a very flashy player, in that he didn’t usually play blazing fast 32nd note runs during his solos. Instead, he was a very melodic player, and created very memorable solos. Even though I haven’t listened to a GNR song in years, I could probably hum most of his guitar solos.
• Marc Ford/Rich Robinson - The Black Crowes’ The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion is one of my favorite albums of all time. Marc Ford’s lead and Rich Robinson’s rhythm were a perfect blend.
• Joe Satriani - I think that all young guitarists have a weakness for fast guitar playing. Out of all the shredder guys (Vai, Petrucci, etc.), Satch always struck me as being the best writer. He always had great melodies, and his playing never seemed too self-aware. Like the other shredders, he played a lot of notes, but he seemed to play with more emotion than the other guys.

Anyway, there’s round one. I know that I missed some really important guys (Eric Johnson should probably be on there), but there it is. I’m sure that you can see a pattern with the whole melody thing. Who are some of yours?