Playing in Church.

[GoodShowSir]

As someone who tries to hide away from the online cam, I find this a bit wierd

 

More view of the pedals in this video: 

 

[GoodShowSir]

I am so tired... thats clearly an electric guitar.... 

 

RIght back to sleep....

[SimonK]

On 30/06/2025 at 18:08, Minininjarob said:

Interesting video here, nice use of some driving P bass tones maybe through a pedal or whatever (let me know if you know what they are!) 

 

 

She's scary good - and a pretty accomplished lead guitarist as well. I keep getting her videos in one of my feeds.

[TrevorR]

1 hour ago, SimonK said:

 

She's scary good - and a pretty accomplished lead guitarist as well. I keep getting her videos in one of my feeds.

That is a great bass tone. Lovely and clanky! Darned good playing. I must confess I was fascinated by all her MDing chat through the video - would have loved to,have heard what was going on across the talkback channel.

[SimonK]

On 01/07/2025 at 06:54, GoodShowSir said:

I am so tired... thats clearly an electric guitar.... 

 

RIght back to sleep....

 

The first video wasn't - I think she uses the same pedal board for guitar and bass.

[Richard R]

4 hours ago, SimonK said:

The first video wasn't - I think she uses the same pedal board for guitar and bass.

 

Sacrilege! Schisms and wars have been started over less.

[SimonK]

55 minutes ago, Richard R said:

 

Sacrilege! Schisms and wars have been started over less.

 

Yes... but... she has one of these: https://empresseffects.com/products/zoia

 

I've just spent the last hour going down the rabbit hole of how this is the only path to happiness...

[Dad3353]

I watched the videos; I have no idea what the fuss is about. either saw nor heard anything at all special, quite the opposite. She appeared to be distracted, trying to do too many things at once, and none of them well. It sems to be a very odd way of playing music, but what would I know..?  Not for me, sorry. 

Edited July 2 by Dad3353

[SimonK]

1 hour ago, Dad3353 said:

I watched the videos; I have no idea what the fuss is about. either saw nor heard anything at all special, quite the opposite. She appeared to be distracted, trying to do too many things at once, and none of them well. It sems to be a very odd way of playing music, but what would I know..?  Not for me, sorry. 

 

I thought it was an excellent example of really professional playing, managing a lot of things going on at once in a format that was both rehearsed but also flexible in terms of where the music was going at any point. All in front of a lot of people and being streamed/recorded. I also believe she is only in her early twenties so her grasp of both the music and technology is impressive.

 

I play with some pretty good musicians and while granted we seldom rehearse, we don't get close to the complexity of the arrangements shown in the videos.

[TrevorR]

10 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

I thought it was an excellent example of really professional playing, managing a lot of things going on at once in a format that was both rehearsed but also flexible in terms of where the music was going at any point. All in front of a lot of people and being streamed/recorded. I also believe she is only in her early twenties so her grasp of both the music and technology is impressive.

 

I play with some pretty good musicians and while granted we seldom rehearse, we don't get close to the complexity of the arrangements shown in the videos.

Yes, I watched some of her vids where you can hear her talkback feed. A lot of US churches I see bass cams from seem to simply programme the songs into Ableton (or similar) and just follow the robot voice and click track. It’s clear from those vids that she’s actively MDing a live band, calling repeats and transitions, calling dynamics, controlling some sort of tech with those buttons to her left… all very impressive.  And so it’s music with the ability to flow as needed rather than just follow the pre-programmed, rigid karaoke track. Watched one where the voice was more audible than on the Revelation Song video above and she was giving instructions along similar lines of, “…repeat that section… …again… …OK, take it to the one chord and hold… …build… …c’mon, build… …chorus, two, three, four…” I love the organic nature of that band leading and the flexibility it gives to work a tight arrangement but allow some spontaneity.  And yes, only 24 years old 😮

Edited July 3 by TrevorR

[TrevorR]

12 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

Yes... but... she has one of these: https://empresseffects.com/products/zoia

 

I've just spent the last hour going down the rabbit hole of how this is the only path to happiness...

Aaaah, so that’s what that is… cool. Beyond the limits of my feeble, aged musical brain, though.
 

Though, TBH, I didn’t really see what that synth bass added to the arrangement that you couldn’t have achieved just as well by switching to a clean bass tone and playing sustained notes. Never seen the attraction of doubling on synth bass. In my old church, when we did EDM type worship songs a bass and some well chosen OD, filter and modulation pedals worked perfectly well for me.  I guess that a Sub-Phatty has never been lurking in my future…

[Rosie C]

15 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

It’s clear from those vids that she’s actively MDing a live band, calling repeats and transitions, calling dynamics, controlling some sort of tech with those buttons to her left… all very impressive.  

 

The first time I watched the video, I wasn't sure what I was watching. But I read your description, watched again and I get it! Impressive, and an interesting way to make music. In a way, not so different to our church band, except we have no tech, and play standing around the MD's piano so we can hear his instructions but the congregation can't. 

 

[SimonK]

So I just got myself a lovely Warwick Streamer five string, and have tried to use it twice at church to not much success. Firstly the extra string destroys my intuitive landing on the right notes (without thinking), and then I'm finding the notes below E so low that I can't hear them properly. So this week my aim it to play almost everything on the four "normal" strings, and only bring in the fifth on the rare occasion when something might want a lower accent of some sort... but this feels like not making the most of the instrument...

 

Does anyone else use a five string for church/gospel? How do you adapt from playing on a four?

[Owen]

I went to a 6 with low F# from a 5. It is a practice/familiarity thing. It takes time and I still revert to "type" on occasion and get it wrong. Familiarity will breed content(ment).

[LukeFRC]

4 hours ago, SimonK said:

How do you adapt from playing on a four?

Practice! No expert but  I found rethinking hand placement helped - so  getting used to he low E on the B string.

also testing it with the PA - I found that for some weeks the extra low end wasn’t that useful - but the extra notes  within easy reach were still

[Chadu25]

Sharing a snippet of last Sunday’s worship. Let me know if it’s viewable. Our MD did a nice transition from See a Victory to What a Beautiful Name. Used my Dingwall SP1 and Anagram that day. 
 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 20:30 by Chadu25

[bass_dinger]

8 minutes ago, Chadu25 said:

. Let me know if it’s viewable.

 

Indeed yes 

[Richard R]

11 hours ago, SimonK said:

How do you adapt from playing on a four?

I found that learning and practicing scales and forcing myself initially to always play E and A on the 5th fret made it easy, easier than 4 to be honest as you can use the same chord shapes across the fretboard rather than going up and down.

The lower notes are useful if you have a decent PA and the sound engineer rolls off the low end for everyone else. Finishing a song on on a rumbling low C or D is always good.

[SimonK]

15 hours ago, Richard R said:

I found that learning and practicing scales and forcing myself initially to always play E and A on the 5th fret made it easy, easier than 4 to be honest as you can use the same chord shapes across the fretboard rather than going up and down.

The lower notes are useful if you have a decent PA and the sound engineer rolls off the low end for everyone else. Finishing a song on on a rumbling low C or D is always good.

 

Chickened out today and although I had the five on the stand next to me ended up using the four for everything. Problem is we did a set where the first song had a walking bass line which I wasn't confident enough to do on the five, and then there wasn't time to switch bass's between songs. Mind you I suppose it will come with time - playing again next week...

Edited 11 hours ago by SimonK

[Risk101]

Yeah you need to persevere! I've played 5s exclusively for decades and they're ideally suited to contemporary Christian music, but don't overdo the low B, C, D ! With good IEM you should be able to hear all the low

notes clearly.

 

Never come across a song with a walking bass line in church - what was that then?

[Richard R]

 If you're playing old hymns then they're written for an organ, so long low notes are just fine.

 

Weird problem with my IEMs today, just making farty flappy noises anything lower than the open D. Swapped the IEM amp and phones but same problem. I gave up and just listed to the room, as it sounded great out front.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Richard R
Typo

[SimonK]

1 hour ago, Risk101 said:

Never come across a song with a walking bass line in church - what was that then?

 

One of our own - haven't recorded it yet but it's essentially a 12 bar blues with a couple odd turn arounds added for interest.

 

We also do a walking bassline on the chorus of the old classic "You are mighty".

[Rosie C]

I have a challenging start to the day - woke up late having been unwell in the night. Then 'ForScore' refused to sync the music for this mornings' service so I had to print out the new tunes. For bonus fun, our MD had a new tune which I got to see only with five minutes before the service started.

 

But it all went well and once the service started everything dropped into place. The hymns were:

• As the Deer Pants for Water
• When I Needed a Neighbour
• Behold the Lamb
• How Can I Keep From Singing

All have decent bass parts, but I'm particularly fond of How Can I Keep From Singing