Booyor's BLOGgh!

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.

Holding the mtd J5, a handcrafted prototype, since he had burned out the battery in his blue mtd 535 that he’d been using since 1997.

Aside from doing clinics and concerts, Norm Stockton also teaches some online courses. Check them out here.

It’s all about context. Bass players are the bridge between the rhythm section and the rest of the band: lend pitch to the drum kit. (Since on most Sundays we don’t bust out marimbas. Although this past Sunday we had a whistle and congas.) Bass players who understand how to be that bridge and keep it in context will have their cell phones ring more frequently.

This afternoon I got to hang out with Norm Stockton, who is currently on tour with Lincoln Brewster.

Ponderings from his free clinic:
Groove – an establishment of a motif that is consistent, predictable, reliable, and a movement forward

Groove is important for the whole band and congregation because a bad groove (in this context of groove) is jarring and has potential to break people out of a worship mindset.

We (the bass players) are the ministers of groove. Don’t be groovicidal. Each motif should consider context rhythmically, sonically, and harmonically. All that noodling? Yeah, it’s cool for a sound check or the last two minutes after a show as people are packing up their stuff, but unless you’re playing on a stool in a coffee house, it’s usually more than you need.

Norm knows his stuff, though, about having an entire song be just the bass. His solo version of “Angels we have Heard on High” is amazing. He also played a song similar to one on the Pondering the Sushi album. Norm was able to able to break it down to, “This is what the guitar would be strumming, this part’s for the horn section, and if I played bass, this would be the part…” Keep in mind he played all of the parts on his bass, mixing hits with pops and slaps and general flurries of fingers. (And yet he was able to show the difference between a constant stream of steady slap bass 16th notes and the annoying 12 year-old at Guitar Center.)

Best part? Very laid-back. Very Flagstaff. I would totally be his friend. He opened his clinic with a humble prayer and ended by praying for the hurt and for all of the different ministries represented at the clinic. Very cool stuff.

And who doesn’t dig a bassist who is into katakana T-shirts?

We’ll have to hear from Jeremy and see if he got his photo.

After being mindblown sitting down with Lincoln Brewster