  |
Now you can follow worshipperiod.com on your phone with the handy-dandy new W.P. iPhone app! You can access the latest updates to the site via your Apple cellular telephone device with the tap of a finger – and it’s all free! (Just don’t use it while driving, we don’t want Oprah coming after us.) W.P. on iTunes Canada – click here W.P. on iTunes U.S. – click here (Or search on your phone’s app store for “W.P.”)
If you’re a guy worship leader, especially of the tenor variety, you’ve likely been complained to about the key of songs and how unreasonable they are for the ladies in the room. If I had my way, I’d do everything in the Tomlin-esque range – the higher end suits my voice. However, as leaders we’re servants first and there has to be some kind of balance struck, right? I try to keep things as reasonable as I can, key-wise. I try. I also try to defer some songs to one of our strong female singers and give them the melody for a particular song on occasion. There are some great tools out there for helping you transpose chord charts if that’s not your strong suit. I’ll be talking about some of those resources as part of an upcoming post on planning tools. In the meantime, I thought I’d use this topic to point you toward a resource that speaks directly to it. Worship artist Vicky Beeching has started an online community called The Women in Worship Network, geared towards…well, women in worship. (Well said, Jeff) The site features interviews with other prominent female worship leaders and other pertinent resources. As an example, check out this post where Vicky talks about options for transposing songs into female-friendly keys. Hope it’s helpful. - Jeff
Well, that’s kind of a weak way to introduce an idea but I needed a way to get the word “rearranging” in there somehow. Thanks for continuing to read. Recently when I was preparing an upcoming service, I was going over some song choices. I found myself thematically drawn towards a certain song that was a great fit lyrically with where we were going. My first reaction was to dismiss it because of where it would be located in the flow of the service. “I can’t use that one, it’s a “fast” song and I need something more reflective here.” Needless to say, I caught myself and gave my head a shake. Sometimes I think we get bound by an arrangement of a song as we first heard it or learned it. Or maybe it’s how the song appears on an album. Whatever it is, how often do you revisit a song’s arrangement with “no holds barred”, so to speak? Continue reading RE: ARRANGEMENT
Here’s an interesting Podcast/Sermon/Talk/Whatever I recently listened to by Rob Bell and Troy Hatfield. They’re discussing something specific about worship – that being the question of “why we sing?”. Ever thought about that? Why music, God? I have. It’s definitely an interesting and thought-provoking listen with some profound “aha” moments. I feel like there was an element (or maybe an entire side of a coin) that was left out of the discussion, but I guess you can’t do it all in one talk. I’ll let you listen and see if you notice the same thing. Feel free to hit up the comments here and discuss your thoughts about it. - Jeff
Hello readers (and listeners, for people who use that text reader function thingie). I’ve got an article to share with you from my buddy Jamie Cambers. Jamie is a fantastical practitioner of the electric guitar machine (and I don’t just say that cuz he’s been stage-left of me in JSB for many moons). He put together some thoughts on gear for you burgeoning axe-masters out there. I’m going to break them down into a couple of chunks and share them with you over the next little while. First up are some general thoughts and some talk about choosing a guitar (seems like a good place to start). – Jeff
Continue reading TOOLS OF THE TRADE – Lead Guitar (feat. Jamie Cambers)
Our lead tech is an professional front of house tech with a local production company vocationally, and we’re very fortunate to have him volunteer his time and expertise to the church. That being said, we still face plenty of challenges trying to mix a band in a building that was never designed for it while using whatever gear that a modest church budget can afford (I hope to have Evan, our tech, share some tips and suggestions with Worship Period very soon). Sometimes the sound desk can attract frustrated musicians with a chip on their shoulder, or technically-minded folks with little to no ear for music side of things. Well, at least that’s what the musicians always say… Sound issues tend to be a bit touchy, and are often misunderstood and even trivialized by those not directly involved. It might seem like a contextually trivial thing. Sure, it may be a tough pill to swallow, the idea of spending a significant chunk of dough on something like sound gear, for a small church budget. But when you consider that part of the role of the worship leader is to manage distraction and minimize it, sound becomes an important piece of that puzzle. I don’t need to natter on in detail about all that, I just thought I’d share some context behind this post to get us started. Continue reading CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Neat. Just thought I’d share a moment of nostalgia. That’s all.
He’s a worship pastor in Moncton, NB. You may remember him from this post, or from his Local Leader Profile. He’s a ninja of the written word, so get in on the ground floor of his new blog and thank me later.
What’s our response to the devastation in Haiti? How do we approach God in the shadow of the all the destruction, despair and hopelessness? How do we worship; How do we lead worship? I say we follow the Haitians’ lead. Listen to Wyclef as he recounts his experience in his home country in the aftermath of the earthquake. Unexplainable? No. Just ’spirit and truth’ worship. (For more on worship in the midst of grief, check out this earlier post.)
|
  
   |
|
Copyright © 2010 - All Rights Reserved |
||
Hey iPhone users!
I’m sitting in my office, at a desk which I’ve recently moved to the other side of the room. Funny thing is, this is about where it was when I first moved into this office. If you’re like me, sometimes you just need a change of scenery. Every once in a while don’t you just need to do some rearranging?
FROM JAMIE: When I went to youth retreats or conferences when I was a youth, I wasn’t very interested in worship. Actually, let me rephrase that. I was interested in music as worship, but not worshiping. In fact, I was always far more interested in what gear the guitar players were using and watching contently on how they were using their instruments. After a service, I would often find myself at the front of the stage to get a closer look at a guitar players’ pedal board to see what they were using. Now, about 10 years later, I find myself on the other end of the spectrum. People often ask me what is on my pedal board, how I get my tone, or what I recommend using for certain sounds or effects. Some of those questions inspired me to share via this blog. Hope it helps in some way. 
There might be no more common link among music and worship folks in churches than a shared frustration and struggle with audio and all things technical. It seems like a pretty common refrain for a lot of us. Whether it’s a shortage of manpower, a shortage of proper gear or a shortage of technical ability and talent, many churches walk with a limp when it comes to sound issues.
RECENT REMARKS