Maybe I’m just inspired by last night’s series premiere of Touch…Who am I kidding? She does a great cover of J.J. Heller’s “What Love Really Means”. Check it out and share it. Who knows? Maybe it will end up on a JumboTron in Times Square.

This week has been an interesting one for music. Here’s a picture from the live recording:

I like to take it as evidence that I was alive.

I also got a message about the Flesh-Eating Monkeys years after we played. A person used to have a cassette tape of ours given to them by Five Iron Frenzy and wanted to get another copy. It’s curious, considering this is a song people tell me they listen to over and over again:

Friday our garageband at school plays. Every teacher who has walked in on us practicing is surprised that we actually sound good.

Thanks to Seanie Mic for providing great rhymes like this tribute:

Just like when I met with Norm Stockton, these are some thought-processings for myself. If you benefit, that’s cool.

Here’s the homework from Jeremy:

Band on the Run from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

• Maximize time – don’t overarrange – congregation says “Why is this taking so long?”
• Serve lyrics, serve congregation, maximize on given gifts of the band
• There’s a time to try out ideas, time to move on
• Democratic process doesn’t necessarily mean the best ideas win out – 3 out of 5 people could have a bad idea
• Instrumentation, dynamics, melodic lines
• Everyone listens like a producer – what needs to drop out here? Just because we’re up front doesn’t mean we have to be playing.
• Pre-made arrangement CDs are a curse when they don’t fit our context – don’t be locked into an arrangement
• Sound check most important part of rehearsal – you need to be aware of everyone else
• You don’t have to use everything from a CD – you can cut out bridges
• Wall of Sound sometimes makes it tough for the congregation’s voice to feel like an important contribution
• Bass guitar = foundation for the congregation to rest on
• Straight 8ths serve the song
• Off beat patterns can throw off the forward motion of the song – if drummer gets crazy on fills, bass simplifies to complement
• The Feel (ahem…groove) brings unity
• But not everything has a Feel – some songs can just be sung; you can add a Feel, but you don’t have to
• Adding a Feel to an older song can bring new focus to the lyrics
• Now how much we can do, how much we can serve
• They don’t need to know that I practice a certain amount of hours per day, but that Jesus is awesome
• Texture determined by how much of the story has already been told in the song
• Know the sounds/aural spectrum of your instrument /li>
• Everyone needs to think of the structure/sections of the song
• Aha! The Origin of the Pre-Chorus is at 54:20 in the video
• Listen to others as much as yourself
• Serve the lyrics, serve the King
• Humble servants of a gospel of a crucified King that has changed us
• Everyone playing whole notes on the chord changes does not sound bad – it may even sound better than what we’re playing now
• Play a part, not a chart
• Practice spontaneity
• Ultimately trust God to work in His Spirit and not in our arrangements. Our arrangements our tools but will never on their own change hearts.

Great video, J.