Alexander Green

Chris Sligh Sings “Vessel” on the Hour of Power

Christian artist Chris Sligh sings his song “Vessel” on the Crystal Cathedral’s Hour of Power TV show.

by Don Chapman

Back when Chris Sligh was working on his debut album he talked uber-producer Brown Bannister into using me to orchestrate some of the songs (which is a miracle in itself – producers don’t do that sort of thing.) Read about the experience at my blog.

Chris decided fairly late to use a song he had written many years ago in college: the ballad “Vessel.” He wanted it to be simple – just an acoustic guitar and a string quartet.

I hadn’t thought about string quartets since college and Googled the term for a refresher course. Famous composers of the past often wrote string quartets as a sort of exercise of their compositional abilities. Since you only have 4 instruments to work with, as well as limited harmonic color, you had better write some good lines to make a string quartet piece interesting.

Chris played some pads over the track to give me an idea of what he wanted and I started working. I really slaved away on this thing, trying to make each instrument move independently and interestingly, almost like a Bach fugue.

There are several ways to listen to music. The most natural is to simply enjoy it and let it wash over you. Another way is to listen to the arrangement… the keyboards… the drums… the guitars… the strings… and pick out what each part is doing.

Try that with “Vessel” – and notice how the strings weave in and out, creating a unified whole out of independent lines. The above video is of Chris performing the song live on TV, and you can download the MP3 or his entire CD below from the Amazon links.

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Recording for Worship

How can recording help your worship ministry? It’s not a top priority, but if your worship ministry is under control and well managed, recording can speed up the learning curve for your musicians and enhance the worship experience of your church.

Is your ministry managed and under control? By this, I mean: does everyone know their job and can perform it on autopilot? Does your band and praise and tech team show up on time for rehearsals and Sunday morning without being pestered? Does your band know the bulk of your worship material so rehearsal doesn’t take too long? Are you in a steady routine of selecting music and planning your services? If your foundation is this solid, then you can try getting fancy.

At my last ministry I was able to do little recording because there simply wasn’t time. In a small church with no support staff I did almost everything myself: picking the music, charting, copying, EasyWorship programming, scheduling and leading the music.

Now, at a large church like Brookwood, there are many people filling many roles on the worship team. And after a year of steady guidance by worship pastor Steve Smith, the ministry is running like clockwork – which gives us time to take things up a notch by recording. Here’s what we’re doing:

1. Recording demo CDs for the choir. After we’ve selected the praise choir music for the next few months, I’ll take the original recordings and play the alto, tenor and bass parts on top of it using a piano sound. I’m using Cakewalk’s Sonar recording software, importing the original recording from the CD into Sonar and playing the parts with a piano setting. After securing permission from publishers we make CDs for the tenors, basses, altos and sopranos, giving each group their own CD with their part highlighted by the piano. This has helped incredibly to speed up the learning process. We considered having vocalists come in and record their parts, but it’s as effective and much faster for me to just record their parts on the keyboard. Watch the YouTube video above of one of our recent choir recording sessions.

2. Recording band rehearsals. NewSpring Church records their band rehearsals and burns a CD for everyone. At Monday night’s rehearsal, they’ll practice a song until they get it perfect, record the song, then move on to the next song. At the end of rehearsal they’ll burn a CD and give it to each band member so they can listen and practice all week.

3. Recording original songs and arrangements. Have you written a song or created a contemporary hymn arrangement? It’s imperative to get those ideas recorded. Last week at a worship conference a worship leader approached me and wanted to send me some of his hymn arrangements. I told him to email me some MP3s but he told me all he had were charts. A chart with no audio won’t do me or any other publisher any good (or your praise band, for that matter.) People learn best by hearing the music, and any publisher I know that still accepts material won’t be bothered to look at only a lead sheet.

4. Sweeten the mix. What makes a recording sound professional? One big element are the bells and whistles thrown in – called “sweetening” – things like synth pads, leads, drum loops and orchestration. Watch the video of my HymnCharts arrangements of “He Hideth My Soul.” You’ll hear drum loops, shakers, synth strings and a bubbling synth sound sweetening the band and choir.

Advanced live sweetening like this can only be done if your entire band uses in-ear monitors and a click track – topics I’ll address in an upcoming article. If you can pull this off your music will be so good your congregation’s mind will be blown, and you’ll approach professionalism that rivals major touring acts.

You’ll also hear on the “He Hideth” video a technique we’ve recently been experimenting with: sweetening the choir. Our sound guys pull their hair out when we have our praise choir sing (once or twice a month) because it’s so difficult to mic a large group on our stage. So, we pull a few voices for each part from the choir and record a few of our songs for upcoming Sundays on a weeknight. Adam Fisher (our guitarist and staff worship gearhead) will mix these recorded guide vocals into our live worship giving the sound guys a core sound to use as well as feeding vocals back to the choir through the monitors. These guide vocals also help Adam get a better mix as he prepares the audio for the Brookwood website.

Bottom Line: Use recording techniques to take your ministry to the next level.

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Hip Hop Senior Adult Choir

My favorite part is around 3:07 – their rendition of the Pussycat Doll’s “Don’t Cha” (Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me.) If you haven’t wet your pants yet, wait until 4:06 when they sing Nelly’s “It’s Getting Hot in Here.”

Solo Piano Sheet Music

Take a look at my new website, Worship88.com. I’ve created short one or two page Hymn Interludes that can be used in your worship service.

Try matching a Hymn Interlude with a favorite hymn or popular praise song. Play the Hymn Interlude for an offertory, then segue into the hymn or praise song and invite the congregation to sing along. For instance, use my “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” with Chris Tomlin’s “The Wonderful Cross.”

Each Hymn Interlude comes in ALL keys – C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B – play it in your favorite key or match the key of a hymn, praise song or classical piece.

Combine Hymn Interludes to make your own medleys that can be played as preludes, offertories, postludes and recital pieces.

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Contemporary Vocals

Last Friday night famed vocal coach Brett Manning (he coaches people like Taylor Swift and Keith Urban) came to Brookwood Church to do a seminar. He doesn’t do many but he’s an old friend of worship leader Steve Smith. You might have seen him on CMT’s “Can You Duet” show – it was kind of like a Country American Idol. Brett was a judge along with Naomi Judd and songwriter Aimee Mayo.

At the end of the seminar we had a question and answer time. I asked “Church music has changed so much in the past 20 years, could you talk about the difference between “legit,” traditional/operatic singing and contemporary vocal style?”

Brett said the main difference is… personality! Think of how much personality is injected into contemporary vocals… compare how distinctly different Randy Travis, Madonna, Scott Stapp and Billie Joe Armstrong of Greenday sound. He hilariously mimicked Celine Dion perfectly, demonstrating all the vocal tones and effects she can produce.

Contrast this with “legit” singing. The vocals are vowel to vowel, all produced in the same, even sounding way and all notes are held for their full duration.

This reminds me of something American Idol top ten finalist Chris Sligh recently told me. He was doing a concert at a church, and the music director said something like “my vocalists are good but something doesn’t seem quite right.” At the praise team rehearsal Chris heard the problem: the vocalists were singing “properly” and holding out notes for their full duration. Kind of sounds like the problem I talked about a few weeks ago at WorshipIdeas – the pressing problem in worship music today is not transitioning to contemporary from traditional, it’s in learning to do contemporary music in a contemporary way.

Depending on the song, a contemporary vocalist won’t hold out a full quarter note, even if it’s written as a quarter. Chris mimicked the vocalists he heard singing the popular praise song “Mighty to Save.” Instead of singing the song conversationally and casually as it was originally recorded, the vocalists were singing “mighty to saaaaaaaaaave” and stretching out that note with full vibrato.

How can you help your vocalists? It’s no different than trying to get a stubborn, dated guitarist to use a capo, only in this case you’re trying to convince a vocalist that they can lay off the vibrato. As I said in my article, it’s a pride issue. If your team has teachable, humble heart attitudes you just might have a chance.

Check out Brett Manning’s Singing Success vocal training course. I’ve used it myself and really enjoyed it

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Time for Change

Part 1 | Part 2

No, this isn’t an endorsement for Obama! It is time for change or will be time for change at some point in all our worship leading lives. Last week we talked about a worship leader I know who said his music didn’t “sound right” – the problem wasn’t that he was doing dated songs, the problem was his band of older musicians were playing modern music like it was 1982. They won’t change.

I’m hearing stories like this from churches everywhere. I know of one mid 40’s guitarist who refuses to use a capo and tried to get the worship leader fired because of it. Over a… capo? He thought it was beneath him, yet modern guitarists know it’s not necessarily a shortcut but a way of getting different chord voicings from the instrument. He won’t change.

Welcome to worship wars 2008. Wars start whenever a person or group feels displaced. Twenty years ago the traditionalists were at war with the contemporaries because they were starting to be displaced. Today, the 80’s rock musicians are at war with the 20-somethings for the same reason.

Let’s get right down to it: it’s a pride issue.

Pride is saying “this is the way I’ve (we’ve) always done it, I know what I’m doing, you don’t, and I refuse to change.” Last week I suggested you might want to look for a new guitarist if yours has this attitude. Not because he can’t play the music, but as all the worship leader devotionals I’ve read say, we supposedly don’t want people on our praise teams with pride issues. How much better instead to have an open heart and mind and be willing to try something new that might be a bit out of our comfort zones?

Last week a reader emailed me to lovingly point out that, at 42 years old, I’m no “spring chicken” myself so who am I to talk! Which leads me to my next point: if I can change, anyone can change.

I’ve reinvented myself more times than Madonna. Here’s a brief rundown of my various incarnations and styles of keyboard playing:

1. Old time congregational Gospel hymn playing (running octaves in the right hand.) 1986. Coat and tie.

2. Steve Green (I can remember going to a Steve Green concert years ago and thinking “this music is so… worldly!” For those who don’t know, Steve Green was in the era of Sandi Patti and his music basically sounded like a typical orchestrated LifeWay choir anthem.) 1989. Coat and tie.

3. Don Moen and “God With Us.” Remember when that worship musical was all the rage? 1994. Worship leader vest.

4. Matt Redman and Passion. 1999. I started wearing jeans to church, but in a business-casual sort of way (shirt tucked in.)

5. Hillsong United and everything else that’s guitar driven. 2007. My shirt’s untucked, I don’t comb my hair and I look younger than I did at #3.

You have to admit that’s quite an impressive leap from the keyboard glissandos of #1 to the distorted guitar riffs of #5. And your guitarist can’t find it within himself to use a delay pedal? Please.

My point is where do you think I’d be today if I was still playing like it was 1986? I’ve found that musical change is not painful but quite fun and challenging. I remember hearing Matt Redman for the first time in the late 90’s, towards the end of the Don Moen/Integrity heyday. I thought “yuck – it’s all guitars and those chord progressions are so weird.” I went to one of WorshipTogether’s first worship conferences in Nashville, heard Matt speak, bought a CD and fell in love with it on the ride home. The same thing happened years before when I heard Steve Green – I bought his CD after the concert and started to like it. Learning about the artist and seeing him/her in concert can give you a window into a musical style and help change your taste. If your guitarists don’t want to play like Starfield then maybe you should take them to a Starfield concert and buy them some CDs.

The music at my last church was predominately an 80’s rock sound with some Paul Baloche thrown in. When I left the music director job to focus on my websites a few years ago I morphed again: I spent a wonderful year at Seacoast Greenville and basically got a crash course in rock playing from Chris Sligh, Adam Fisher and Chris Surratt. I play keyboards completely different now than I did 3 years ago and can fit into a modern rock band as well as playing more churchy stuff like I previously have.

I guess that’s one fear musicians have: they don’t want to lose their musical identity. This isn’t the case at all – you stay the same and can do whatever you did before, it’s just that you can now do so much more. You’re versatile.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of playing at a very contemporary, cutting edge church. After rehearsal, the mid 20’s rock-starish worship leader came up to me and gushed over my keyboard playing. I took this as one of the greatest compliments of my life – a contemporary rocker complimenting a… dork like me! If I can change, anyone can change.

This goes for all musical walks of life. I was talking to a songwriter recently who hopes to have her songs recorded and published. The problem is they all sound like old time Gospel songs. I told her if she seriously wants a publisher to look at her material she needs to write like it’s 2008. “Do you ever listen to Christian radio?” I asked. She wrinkled her nose. I gave her an assignment: start listening to the radio and buy Christian CDs. Don’t just listen but analyze the songs – what makes a modern tune sound differently from a Gospel song from the 60’s?

At a recent worship conference I noticed that a workshop on contemporary singing was jammed with hundreds of people. Evidently another new worship war centers around displaced, operatic housewives who no longer are asked to sing solos or be on the praise team because their warbling won’t fit the modern worship songs.

The choice is yours. If you don’t want to change the world won’t stop turning, but do you really want to be…

…a bitter guitarist who doesn’t get to play with the band as much because he can’t part with those dated effects?

…a vibrato vocalist who doesn’t get to sing as many solos because her voice doesn’t fit contemporary styles?

…a grouchy keyboardist who wonders why he’s only asked to play hymns at the nursing home and not play with the praise band?

Did I mention if I can change, anyone can change? It’s really fun, you ought to try it.

Part 1 | Part 2

What’s Wrong With Your Music

Part 1 | Part 2

I was talking to a worship leader about his music. He couldn’t put his finger on it but there was something wrong. It just didn’t sound right. Not contemporary enough or something.

Looking at his set list, I figured he was probably trying to do contemporary worship with golden oldies like “He Is Exalted” and “I Love You, Lord.” I was shocked to see he was doing current worship hits from Hillsong United and Lincoln Brewster.

“You’re doing all the current songs, what’s wrong?” I asked. He just couldn’t articulate the problem.

After I visited his rehearsal, I heard the problem: 40 and 50 year olds trying to play music written by 20 year olds with synth patches and guitar effects from the 80’s. They were playing modern songs in an old-fashioned way and it just didn’t sound right.

Over six years ago when I started WorshipIdeas.com the main question churches had was “how do I start doing contemporary worship?” Most churches were in transition from traditional to contemporary.

In 2008, the vast majority of churches have made the transition. People who come to my worship conference classes reflect this. They no longer are wanting to know HOW to transition from traditional to contemporary, they want to know how to DO contemporary.

For instance, at my worship leader friend’s rehearsal was a mid 40’s guitarist who had the cheesiest 80’s chorus and reverb on his guitar. He still thought that was cool, and it was back in the 80’s. It just doesn’t work on a modern worship tune.

As a keyboardist, I grumblingly admit that guitars are where it’s at in the current worship style (in a few years things will probably shift back to keyboards – it’s all a big cycle.) This is a big issue. Guitars are vitally important to your sound. I’m amazed at how much my HymnCharts arrangements change when my guitarist friend Adam Fisher lays down some guitar tracks.

So what do you do with an out of touch guitarist?

Option 1: You keep the guy in your band and settle for music that doesn’t sound right. Nobody’s feelings get hurt. You probably won’t attract many people under 30 to the church as they are so tuned into music, and you probably won’t get modern players in your band, either. In fact, the pastor of the aforementioned church was frustrated that most of the congregation were over 40.

Option 2: You kick the guy out of the band and find a 25 year old to take his place.

Maybe there’s a 3rd option where the ball is in the court of the mid 40s guitarist. Kindly explain that you would like him to play the guitar EXACTLY as he hears it on the recording. He may not even own the proper pedals: if budget allows, buy the proper pedals or borrow them. Once he has the pedals, he may not know how to use them: show him how, and if you don’t know, find someone who does. Partner with a local music store and have a modern guitar workshop for your praise band. Make every effort to equip those in your ministry. It wouldn’t hurt to find a 25 year old modern guitarist anyway and have him share the stage with the 40 year old.

It’s all about change, and we worship leaders, of all people, know how people luvvv to change, don’t we! If the 40s guitarist is willing to grow, learn and change he’ll continue to be a valued member of the praise band. If he stubbornly refuses, maybe it’s time to look for a new player.

Part 1 | Part 2

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