I thought I would share what I do.

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iaresee said:
Well played, Scott. That tone on the riff you play around 1:20 is really nice -- was that feedback or just nice sustain on the patch? Looks like you're all IEM on stage?




Likewise. That was a neat glimpse in to a form of church I'm very unfamiliar with.
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The sustain was actually the delay. I use a lot of delays if you can't tell, and what I do is use a dotted 8th, set to half tempo, so if the song tempo is 140, I'll set the tempo to the preset around 70 to 75 bpm, what that does is give me this long drawn out notes at the end of phrases. With ducking turned on you don't hear it, when I'm normally playing, but when I do something subtle, it sticks out.

This is is where I stated in another thread that I do one preset per song, that way the delay and the rest of tone matches the song on the MP3 approximately. In church music, getting the delays right, is extremely important as you church musicians know. Having one preset with a delay that you have to hit tap tempo on each song, can take longer than just changing a preset.

Plus I know you guys noticed on the second song I had the capo on the wrong fret so I played it a half step down on the intro which I had to change fast. You can kind of see my face freak out a little bit.

so my processes is don't learn something from scratch if you don't have to, so I do a little research on the artist, what stuff does he use, find someone on YouTube, who has done it before, of course most the times you're learning it from a teenager who gets part of it right, but at least it gets you in the ballpark. The resource I just found was worship artistry.com, I pay about 8 bucks a month, he's a little closer to the actual song then YouTube.

then I pull out the real guns, I use Transcribe, which is an awesome app. I was using capo, but since Mark Day says he loves the app, I thought I would try it. He's right, it's an awesome app. I have a midi pedal tied to it, so from my midi pedal I can stop, rewind, mark sections and unmark sections with my foot. My hand never leaves the guitar.

  • Sunday night, find the resources youtube worship site
  • monday night get through all five songs, the best that I can, using all the tools that i have.
  • tuesday night, play those songs individually about ten times in a row each.
  • wednesday night go over each song another ten or 15 times each, maybe more. We don't use sheet music on stage, so this is where I'm commuting to muscle memory.
  • thursday, one last time before practice at 6:00pm
  • friday, play anything but those songs.
  • saturday the same play anything but those songs.
  • sunday, play nothing but those songs.


come home, take an extraordinarily long nap...

Take a week off then start all over again.
 
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This is totally alien to someone like me as I don't live in the US and I've never seen religious music played on this kind of scale. Is this a big business in the US? Do you have to be a Christian to do it or is it just a good gig to get anyway?

Don't mean to offend with these questions, it's something I've never seen in person so I'm curious about it.
 
Horganovski said:
This is totally alien to someone like me as I don't live in the US and I've never seen religious music played on this kind of scale. Is this a big business in the US? Do you have to be a Christian to do it or is it just a good gig to get anyway?

Don't mean to offend with these questions, it's something I've never seen in person so I'm curious about it.
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You don't HAVE to be a Christian to play this music, it is worship music but can still be enjoyed by everyone; it's just a bonus being Christian AND having the music because you probably get more enjoyment out of it. :)

We rock it up at my Church, and have had a few people who are not Christians come in to enjoy the music and the service funnily enough. Most of them are quite surprised we use distortion nowadays...
 
Horganovski said:
This is totally alien to someone like me as I don't live in the US and I've never seen religious music played on this kind of scale. Is this a big business in the US? Do you have to be a Christian to do it or is it just a good gig to get anyway?
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Hospitals weren't invented for healthy people, just as the church wasn't 'invented' for only the saints. We're all sinners, we all worship something subconsciously (not getting religious mods, just stating viewpoints). At our church we welcome any musician regardless of beliefs and have experienced both great and horrible scenarios when dealing with someone who doesn't necessarily believe in the music or meaning.

If you remove religion from the topic, just look at how Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Guns'N'Roses ended up when you involve something that you are passionate about [music]. It is an element in life that can bond, polarize or separate respectively depending on how you appreciate what you are playing.

From the business side it can be 'big' business at some larger churches, but it is not about the money. I personally am not paid for my 2-3 weeks per month I serve at my church nor will I accept any payment.

My 2 cents ;)
 
Horganovski said:
This is totally alien to someone like me as I don't live in the US and I've never seen religious music played on this kind of scale. Is this a big business in the US? Do you have to be a Christian to do it or is it just a good gig to get anyway?

Don't mean to offend with these questions, it's something I've never seen in person so I'm curious about it.
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Man, this is a great question. Probably in the '90's modern day music started creeping into the churches, the thought was bring in what people are used to hearing in the real world and they will feel more comfortable and less stressful of being there in a foreign environment. so once this started happening you started seeing attendance rise dramatically, I mean 800 member churches could get as big as 22,000 member churches in 10 yrs, that's what happened to my previous church. The one I'm at now is about 4,500 member church.

Well the modern day music in churches has worked and not worked over time, depending on who you ask. The term Performance based churches term sprung up, meaning churches that are like going to a concert making it about the band or music over the substance or purpose that you are there in the first place. In this setting its not supposed to be about the band or music really, there is a stronger purpose. Some people feel its getting a little too mainstream, which I totally get and agree with, personally. But you do what they ask. to me its a job, a meaningful one with tons of purpose.

I can make fun of it though, There is even a parody of this style of worship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJBd8zE48A

So yes, it is what I do. My purpose is to please only one and that one is not me. I have been one since I was a puppy, so for me its a calling. I have been playing in this type of setting for over twenty years, so I am old and fat, I was a vegetarian about a year ago, so this is a temporary situation, that I am in.

I'm not perfect, and I can suck badly, when my inner child comes out, but I press on.

I tried going professional in my twenties, but I sucked even more back then, so I was a great dreamer.


Churches do get quite large in America, if you are into that. I don't get paid to play. I do play other places when asked, which has been a lot lately. They always want to pay for my time and I always graciously decline. I have a full time job that pays me handsomely, and that job wasn't by chance either. I'll leave that story for another day.

Thanks for appreciating what I have done, I don't show for kudos, even though they are nice, so thank you. I just want to show a specific view of what one of us does, who uses an AXE-FX as their primary tool to express themselves.

I'm proud to be here and to believe in a product that keeps getting better with time. I have met a lot of people here personally at events and dinners, and they are all awesome passionate people, who are, just little kids at heart.

So thanks again
Rock on people!!!!!
 
Great stuff Scott!

Horganovski said:
This is totally alien to someone like me...
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Me too, I mean I've sort of heard of these 'big churches' but never really seen anything like this. Thanks for your reply explaining what this is all about for those of us who've never been exposed. The churches I went to growing up (Catholic) would NEVER have permitted drums or electric instruments. Anything with a beat or remotely 'rock' would have been considered evil. Vocal choirs, occasional piano or acoustic guitar. Church was always painfully boring, and this seemed intentional. Parents said it was our obligation to go, a sacrifice of time we all had to make (going to church once a week). The idea of anyone going to church because they liked it and wanted to never entered my mind. I thought everyone went to church because they had to, period. Surprise, I stopped going after I grew up and moved out.

What a difference a band like yours would have made :)

I'm not even sure, is the lack of real music in Catholic church a norm across the board, or is this a regional thing?
 
Horganovski said:
This is totally alien to someone like me as I don't live in the US and I've never seen religious music played on this kind of scale. Is this a big business in the US? Do you have to be a Christian to do it or is it just a good gig to get anyway?
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In the USA, P&W music offers a musician more opportunities to play out than all the other venues combined. Just about every church has a band. Musicianship and production values vary all over the map, from one guitar hack with a microphone, to highly-produced multimedia events. The biggest names fill stadiums. And no, depending on the venue, you don't have to be Christian to play, as long as you're respectful of what they're about.

Christian gigs have certain advantages over your typical date at the local pub: the stage is clean, and often more comfortable than that little platform they give you at the bar; the gear is clean, too, and it doesn't smell funny; when you're playing, everyone is watching and paying attention; you're playing to an audience that's forgiving by nature; you don't have to worry about some drunk tripping over or spilling a drink on your gear; theft is virtually nonexistent.

I'm playing such a gig tonight, in front of a confirmation class of 700. Some of the songs in Scott's video are on our playlist. We always start each show with a secular song to get the kids going. Tonight, it's Don't Stop Believing (thanks to a certain maudlin TV show, that classic is well known by the kids). Heck, last year we even did Wrecking Ball (no, I didn't wear the costume :) ). It's a fun and worry-free gig—as worry-free as it gets, anyway.
 
Nice video Scott! I wish my church had some more band related music sometimes. I'm in the Bell choir which can be challenging and fun too sometimes.
 
The augmented 4th was banned in Renaissance church music because it was considered "evil" because of its perceived dissonance. They would kill you if you played the wrong intervals. I personally love that interval (the flat 5 for blues dudes) and many of the intervals used in eastern music. It is very much a cultural thing because, of course, there is nothing inherently evil in a musical interval. Unfortunately, perception often trumps reality when it comes to religion. But how people perceive something should at least be a consideration and,for me, the fact that you are hearing this kind of music in church is a major step the right direction. It simply speaks to the culture in which we live. It does not change the essential message but actually reinforces it. I would point out the the aug 4th is still not used in any church music I am aware of. Almost all, if not all, "contemporary" christian music is major (with a very few minor) diatonic harmony. The dominant 7 is even fairly rare. So, maybe we haven't come all that far after all....ahhh, but the axefx has!
 
Robboman said:
Great stuff Scott!



Me too, I mean I've sort of heard of these 'big churches' but never really seen anything like this. Thanks for your reply explaining what this is all about for those of us who've never been exposed. The churches I went to growing up (Catholic) would NEVER have permitted drums or electric instruments. Anything with a beat or remotely 'rock' would have been considered evil. Vocal choirs, occasional piano or acoustic guitar. Church was always painfully boring, and this seemed intentional. Parents said it was our obligation to go, a sacrifice of time we all had to make (going to church once a week). The idea of anyone going to church because they liked it and wanted to never entered my mind. I thought everyone went to church because they had to, period. Surprise, I stopped going after I grew up and moved out.

What a difference a band like yours would have made :)

I'm not even sure, is the lack of real music in Catholic church a norm across the board, or is this a regional thing?
Click to expand...

I used to play in a Catholic church for 4 years before I moved to the UK and joined my current, more modern (not Catholic) church with great, rock style worship. When I started the 4 year stint at the Catholic church, it was organ and acoustic, after about 2 years we had managed to fit in a drummer, bassist, electric, keyboard and percussion. This was very hard at first because of the strong tradition in the Catholic ways, I'm not Catholic so I didn't mind breaking the rules. Cut a long story short, by the end of 4 years we were rocking that old Church building and more people came to our service than any other. Felt great because everyone knew that they had to adapt to a changing time, and music is a brilliant way to communicate that with people. Sadly, the minister of the time when we started was very old and never approved, but he was circulated and his replacement was much more open to it - although not completely for it he did accept that there was nothing wrong with it. It was hard work cos you try rock up Hymns (we weren't allowed any modern stuff at the time). :)

At the end of the day, it's the people who make the church (i.e. minister, band, but mostly the congregation/community), not the denomination it is registered as (i.e. Catholic or Baptist etc). Some churches are great because of the people who go there, others are not so open and harder to understand.

Just realising how much off topic we have gone off from the OP....sorry Scott!
 
Back on subject. Your tones are absolutely indistinguishable from "real" amp. If anything, they're better. Plus the fx are musically applied and sound great. Very professionally done, sir! Consider me a fan!
 
What a great performance Scott.
I am not religious, but if churches here (Denamrk) had that kind of shows instead of the same old 500 years old organ crap, I prob would attend alot more.
Really inspiring, thanks for sharing this.
 
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