{"id":5392,"date":"2011-06-03T12:10:37","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T12:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=5392"},"modified":"2021-03-25T13:20:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T13:20:18","slug":"gabba-gabba-hey-nick-langleys-first-experience-of-worship-team-rehearsals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/gabba-gabba-hey-nick-langleys-first-experience-of-worship-team-rehearsals\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabba Gabba Hey! Nick Langley’s first experience of worship team rehearsals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ramones\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Keep it to yourselves, but Sheena, is a punk rocker! Believe me, it could be a lot<\/em> worse! I would like to take you back to New Year\u2019s Eve, 1977. I was 11. At the Rainbow Theatre in London, four New Yorkers took to the stage and began a set of what can only be described as blistering. You may be asking how I know this. 11 is a tad young to be going to rock concerts, particularly 200 miles away from home. The answer is simple: \u201cIt\u2019s Alive\u201d, the seminal* live album by the Ramones. Packed to the rafters with the legendary punk band\u2019s signature songs, the longest standing at 2\u2019 55\u201d, the shortest at a mere 1\u2019 14\u201d!<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t hang about this lot. Most of the tracks are around the 200bpm mark. Joey Ramone, the lead singer (not his real name), barely utters a word to the audience. Tommy Ramone, the band\u2019s drummer (not his real name!), however, introduces every song with a rapid fire \u201cOne, two, three, four\u201d \u2026 and they\u2019re off. \u201cThank you.\u201d, \u201cOne, two, three, four\u201d \u2026 and they\u2019re off again. And so on it goes, four solid sides of Tommy\u2019s counts, a couple of minutes of some of the finest punk anthems written and then another count off and another song. Brilliant.<\/p>\n

My first rehearsal with the Worship Team was very reminiscent of this album. There were some subtle differences. Nobody ever<\/em> counted songs in. The Worship Leader started playing, the rest of the band drifted in as and when they felt like it, and before you know it, we\u2019re all going hell for leather thrashing out exactly the same chords, oblivious to what\u2019s going on around us. \u201cGabba Gabba Hey!\u201d indeed. I was almost too shocked to say anything. Nobody seemed to notice the rapid increase in tempo. Either that or they didn\u2019t care! What I didn\u2019t realise at the time was that most of the band were ill. They were suffering from a terrible disease that rendered them \u201cimmune\u201d to tempos, they barely noticed they were there to be honest!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange one this. I come across it all the time in the studio (I earn my living as a studio engineer). Despite teenagers spending 90% of their waking hours consuming music, there\u2019s a lot that seems to go right over their heads. One is that most contemporary songs don\u2019t<\/em> have 80 second intros, and the other is that they tend to end at exactly the same tempo they started out at, not 40bpm faster! I\u2019m self taught, but one thing I learnt early on – and God bless whoever it was that told me this – was always practise to a metronome. (Admittedly, I began my musical life as a drummer so I suppose there was a greater emphasis on time keeping). Not just that metronomes were a good idea, it was, quite simply, how you practised! I was also blessed during my professional career to work with a band that consisted of three girls – two singers and a pianist – as a songwriter. They had signed a publishing deal with Chrysalis Music which gave us access to the in-house studio at The Chrysalis Building in Bramley Road, West London. We would spend a week or 10 days there every couple of months. My job was to write songs, present them to the girls to chuck in their ideas and then record the backing tracks as well as some manly backing vocals. This was always done to drum tracks, sequenced by myself, so I spent over two years doing nothing<\/em> but playing to computers. Prior to that I\u2019d been in a twee indie pop band. Our drummer was a human metronome (still is). He\u2019s previously been in a very successful band from Hull with insanely catchy hooks and pithy, political lyrics (Go on, have a guess!). He always cringed whenever he heard the outro of their No. 3 hit single of the summer of 1986, as he claimed it sped up over the closing bars, something I always dismissed as him being over critical. Listening to it recently, I\u2019ve only just<\/em> noticed he\u2019s right – 25 years it\u2019s taken me to spot it! Another friend of mine recently spent the day in the studio with me. I asked him to play through the song whilst I marked the tempo. Tapping along on my phone, the tempo didn\u2019t change from 128bpm for even a beat and the first thing he said to me was, \u201cI bet the timing drifted, didn\u2019t it?\u201d. Er, nope!<\/p>\n

Another difference was that the stage on which the Ramones played that night was littered with monitors so that the whole band can hear themselves and each other. In the Worship Team, we weren\u2019t troubled by such things. During services, one, yes that\u2019s one, was usually plonked in front of the Worship Leader but the rest of us were unencumbered with such technologies. Services were very similar to rehearsals: Worship Leader starts, rest of band drifts in, tempo builds. The temptation to shout \u201cOne, two, three, four\u201d in between songs at the top of my voice was HUGE!<\/p>\n

I broached the subject of monitoring with the team. There was a general sense that it was unnecessary, \u201c20 years I\u2019ve been in this band and I\u2019ve never been able to hear anything other than myself\u201d. This would go a long way to explain why, in those days, we were so shambolic. It was exceedingly rare for everyone to arrive at the Middle 8 at the same time. Or a verse, or a chorus for that matter. How could we? The only chance you stood of finding out what was going on was to stop playing and scrutinise the cacophony going on around you.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know that what you\u2019re playing is appropriate if you can\u2019t hear what the person standing next to you is playing?\u201d. It was a question I asked on numerous occasions and a perfectly reasonable one in my opinion. It was usually met with a shrug of the shoulders and an indifferent look that said, \u201cI don\u2019t really get your point!\u201d. I\u2019d asked the acoustic guitarist to show me what they were playing in, say, the Middle 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy that?\u201d, I\u2019d ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that\u2019s what it says on the Lead Sheet.\u201d would come the reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the electric guitarist is playing exactly the same thing!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. And the pianist is as well! And the pianist playing exactly the same bass line as the bassist! And the flautist, the vocal melody! Why? Why isn\u2019t anyone listening to each other?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we can\u2019t hear each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEXACTLY!\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lead Sheets are, to me, a double edged sword. Used properly, they\u2019re a brilliant resource, but in my experience of my Worship Team, Lead Sheets are confused with Scores. To quote Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

\u201cA lead sheet is a form of music notation that specifies the essential elements<\/strong> of a popular song: the melody, lyrics and harmony.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It is NOT a prescriptive score, it is a guide<\/strong>. With the exception of the vocal melody, Lead Sheets DO NOT<\/strong> contain individual parts for instrumentalists. Harrumph. It\u2019s a bug bear, in case you were wondering. Look at the chord progression, write a part and, more importantly, listen to what your band mates are playing!<\/p>\n

Eventually I came up with an easier way of illustrating my point. We have about 30 people in our Worship Team working on a rota basis. On any given Sunday most of the team are in the congregation and therefore able to listen to the band. I would use mistakes the band made as examples of where we were going wrong. After the service I would collar specific musicians who hadn\u2019t been playing and talk to them about how they felt the Worship had gone. They would invariably notice the mistakes and then I would be able to talk to them about how they had come about, what could have been done to avoid them and what we could do in the future to avoid similar errors. Over a period of time, attitudes changed, minds were opened, progress was made and we are now a considerably better Worship Team!<\/p>\n

I say \u201cattitudes changed\u201d, but on one very important level they didn\u2019t. Everyone\u2019s, and I do mean everyone\u2019s, heart had been spirit led right from the off. We all wanted to praise Jesus, we all wanted to serve Him, we all wanted to serve the congregation, it just took a while to figure out how to do it as effectively as possible. And we haven\u2019t stopped. We recently held a training day at church for the Team which was a massive success and, to boot, very enjoyable! We had biscuits. \u2018Nuff said!<\/p>\n

Other posts you might like:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practical ideas on chord charts and notation<\/a><\/p>\n

Ideas to improve band communication \u2013 video clip<\/p>\n

How to maintain a flow of worship<\/a><\/p>\n

What to do if there is no musical space for you<\/a><\/p>\n

Tips for working with a band \u2013 video clip<\/p>\n

Rehearsing tips for worship musicians \u2013 video clip<\/a><\/p>\n

Creating space in a worship arrangement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keep it to yourselves, but Sheena, is a punk rocker! Believe me, it could be a lot worse! I would like to take you back to New Year\u2019s Eve, 1977. I was 11. At the Rainbow Theatre in London, four New Yorkers took to the stage and began a set of what can only be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":6091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,6],"tags":[1417],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGabba Gabba Hey! 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