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Author Archives: Andy

Ask the Expert – Warring musicians and choice of keys for songs

By Andy | July 7, 2010

Princess Pilime from the UK asks for some advice on warring musicians:

“Do you by any chance have tips on how to understand each other with the instrumentalists, at the moment we have a problem where the instrumentalists refuse or argue that they do not want to change to a key that suits the choir, they prefer to play with the original cd key, are there any tips you can give as how to resolve this matter amicably?”

Andy replies:

I commented on a similar issue in another blog piece previously where someone was wondering if it was ok or even correct to change a song from the original key as per the CD into something that was more suitable for her voice.

What many people don’t realise that that many original recordings of worship songs are not done in a particular key because it seems like the most appropriate key to resource the average congregation, the key is actually chosen to best suit the singer’s voice. Not every worship leader has a huge range so if they are trying to make an album that people will enjoy listening to they have to work to their strengths and put songs in keys that best suit their voice. Chris Tomlin has a very high voice and I think he recorded How Great is Our God in C# which most people, especially women, will struggle with, so of the many cover version recordings of that song by other artists are in a lower key.

Bottom line is when choosing songs to best serve the congregation you have to put it in a key that serves them well. If your choir reflects the average vocal range of your congregation then you must choose keys to suit them, not the musicians.

That said there are a couple of caveats to that last statement. Firstly I’d suggest you have some round table discussions with your musicians and find out the real reasons why they don’t want to change the key before issuing a fait-a-complis saying that they must. I’d humbly offer two suggestions as to why. Read More »

Posted in Administration, Ask the expert, Orchestral instruments | Tagged choice of keys, keys, pitch | 9 Comments

Finding musical space for keyboard players when its all a bit busy

By Andy | July 6, 2010

Its lovely when there is space for the keys player to work in some riffs, fills, passing notes and the like, but if you have lots of other musicians and vocalists all trilling and frilling its going to be a lot better if you refrain from adding to the “extras” mix and instead look to add in a textural layer.

Firstly I’d ask why isn’t there room in the song. Is it written in a way that is very guitar led so doesn’t work well for keys? Or is it actually that everyone else is overplaying and therefore there is no room left for you. If the second, then maybe don’t play in that section (its great when you are developed enough as a musician to be hearing that there is no space – so get out rather than adding to the mush). If there are too many instruments and everyone is just playing too much then as a band you need to work on the arrangements so that everyone creates some space and compliments each others’ playing. Communication and honest feedback is key here so that the band make space for everyone to contribute.

Secondly the lack of ‘space’ may not be to do with general busyness but actually a lack of integrated grooves. I’ve often played in situations where the drums, keys and bass are all playing slightly different pushes and accents and it all just sounds like a bit of a mess. So again the key is to simplify but to get everyone to understand that they need to play together as one unit and not as a bunch of individuals.

If there is a still lot going on rhythmically there are some practical simple choices you can do to make it work: Read More »

Posted in Keyboards | Tagged keyboard, keys, musical space, worship keyboards, worship keys | 4 Comments

Ask the Expert – low wattage valve amps and small speaker combo

By Andy | June 24, 2010

Andy Herbert from emailed saying:

“I’ve been reading Andy’s recent posts with great enthusiasm because, as a recent switcher from acoustic to electric guitar, I’ve made a few bad decisions with regards an amp & multi-effects without really understanding what I was doing. Because of this I currently own a Line 6 Flextone 3 (2×12″ combo) which, whilst it sounds OK, does need to be played at a high volume before it provides a lot of the sounds I’m trying to reproduce – not to mention the absurd difficulty I have lugging the massive unit to and from Church each week!

Having read the post on small valve heads it really opened my eyes up to understanding where I’d gone wrong in my original purchase – something I’d like to put right. One question I have, which may possibly be a new post I guess, is whether there are any low-wattage valve amps with 8-10″ speaker combos you’d recommend to replace my behemoth so that I can get a sweet sound without deafening myself and the worship team (let alone the congregation)? Alternatively would you suggest one of the small heads you discussed with a dedicated small cab? We play what I guess you’d call modern worship by artists such as Tim Hughes, Hillsong, Aaron Keyes etc. To make life particularly hard I’d like to keep the cost as low as possible, ideally no more than £400 for the whole thing – but i’m open to saving up for something more permanent it hitting that cost is unfeasible: basically I don’t want to jump in and make another ill-informed purchase again. If there’s any advice you can give around this so that I can begin looking (and listening) for a replacement I’d really appreciate it”

Andy Chamberlain replies:
Interesting thoughts on the Flextone 3. I’ve never played one but the whole premise of the digital modelling stuff was to get valve type tones at any volume level. Sometimes the stock ‘patches’ are set up for your first plug in session in a music shop and not really for live and so need a bit of tweaking. Often the overdrive sounds have too much gain and too little mid to cut through a live band, so do have a good mess around with it before you completely abandon it. That said that trouser flapping physical movement of air by a speaker at high volume is a wonderful thing and very hard to replicate. But I’m with you on the weight thing. I really don’t want to lug around a big heavy amp if I don’t need to. Read More »

Posted in Ask the expert, Guitar | Tagged amp combo, amps, blackstar ht5, carvin vintage 16, epiphone valve junior, fender blues junior, guitar, laney cub, low wattage, marshall class 5, orange tiny terror, speakers, valve train concord | 7 Comments

Ask the Expert – Guitar practice regime

By Andy | June 11, 2010

Neil Shuck sent this email about guitar practice. Its similar to a number of others we have had recently so we thought it worth publishing in a blog post.

“I’ve just purchased the “Intermediate Acoustic” Worship Guitar Course, and I was wondering if you could help with a question. The ‘blurb’ states that the DVD contains a ‘whole years worth’ of guitar lessons. I’ve been playing guitar and leading worship for 20+ years, but to my shame I’ve never really developed a practice regime – probably one reason why I’m still at the level of playing skill that I am (I’m a very competent self-taught rythmn guitar player, with a good knowledge of chords etc, but suffer from a lack of the finer skills of playing… :-) )

So, my question is, how do you suggest I set up a new practice regime using this DVD? Have you got a suggested lession plan? (Or is it simply, work through the DVD lessons in sequence) How long should I spend on a lesson? I know the answer to these questions is a bit ‘wooly’ as everyone learns at a different pace, but I’d appreciate a couple of pointers. Read More »

Posted in Ask the expert, Guitar | Tagged advice, guitar, guitar practice, guitar practise, practice, practise | 4 Comments

Ask the Expert – adding notation to chord charts for worship groups?

By Andy | June 9, 2010

Tim Lunn from Wantage in Oxfordshire asks:

“I’m interested to know your thoughts on the use of chord charts for worship groups. The problem is that although, in our case, the bass and guitar rely on them heavily they convey no sense of timing and can cause problems when the keyboard player is rigidly sticking to the sheet music. I have thought about using lead sheets instead but this is a lot of work and a it more info than is needed. There has been an article on this recently in Worship Leader Magazine by Brian Steckler, in which he advocates adding additional notation and marks the bars on a chord chart. Do you have any experience of this or use anything different?”

Andy replies:

Yeah – the usual charts with chords on top of lyrics only work when you know the song well, are aware of the changes and just need a chord or note reminder of what change is coming up next. They are pretty much useless for anything else rhythm-wise.

I would say we need to develop some kind in between, standardized chart that gives some kind of bar based references and space to write things in. Maybe have sections for verse, chorus and bridge if applicable plus space to write in what you do in intros, endings and unusual bits. So much music is grouped into four bar segments it could even be groups of four boxes across the page with room to write in key words where changes occur. The key thing is to try somehow to get this all on to a single sheet of paper. So if you have any thoughts or ideas on this do let me know.

In the meantime, yes it’s good to write rhythmic notes on whatever chart you have and a lot of musicians do just that. It’s not ideal but it works. With my students I get them to put rhythms over the lyrics where changes occur in the bar so – may be notate 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & or 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e etc over the lyrics and connect via an arrow the relevant beat and lyric. For any other changes and even the song structure (v1v2 repeat chorus etc) you could just jot those in the side bar.

However for me the best thing with worship music is try to really know the song and commit the arrangement to memory, especially if you are playing the song week in week out. Therefore the chart becomes just a memory prompt rather than a road map that needs a lot of concentration.

Other posts you might like:

Free worship rota planning tool

What to include in a music chart

Developing a worship arrangement

Chord symbols explained

Master song list for use by small churches

Posted in Ask the expert, Worship | Tagged chord chart, road map, song chart | 7 Comments