BassPhil Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Hey! This is a great thread!! I've played bass almost exclusively in church for 30 years (had a sheltered life!) and I agree with a lot of the advice that's been offered already so I won't go over old ground...just a few things... It's definitely a thing that the key matters! For this reason I started to use an iPad app called OnSong - it's a bit pricey but I used it for years as my digital songbook, as did the lead guitarist in the band. It transposes with a tap. Do be sensitive to the audience (congregation I guess is the word) - it's an unusual gig because there are babies and old folk and everyone in between in the same room. Invest in some Subs if your sound set-up doesn't already have them. And then talk really nicely to the sound guys about what kind of sound you're looking for...I spent some years working with some sound guys who had me so low in the mix that I may as well have stayed home, that was until we agreed that bass is more about frequency than volume!! Rehearse with the drummer, if you have one - get to know how you both deal with changes in tempo, sudden shifts from verse to chorus, ad libs, etc... Don't forget that you own the root! Whatever you do in between, try to keep the root note solid because the congregation need all the help they can get to keep in the right key.... If you have an organ or cellist, or even a competent pianist, you really need to speak to them about who plays which parts. I had a great relationship with the cellist in a church I was in - she was very happy indeed to let me take the bass parts that she'd been holding down before I arrived. And don't forget that any organist worthy of playing a church organ will be pretty handy (feety) with the bass pedals and they have a lot of power but not much clarity - so rather than compete with them, get used to enjoying the middle range. Playing in church is where I learned to use and came across IEM's, Ableton live & logic, click tracks, synchronised videos, lighting rigs, smoke, feedback destroyers, 6x15 (x2) subwoofers!. I've also had the privilege of playing in every set-up from 1 guitarist through to a band with two drummers, percussionist, horn section, choir, 2 x electric, 2 acoustic guitar, string section.... Also - there's some excellent new church music out there that is pretty contemporary...don't limit yourself!! (It's been a long long time since I've played what most would recognise as a hymn!) Let us know how you get on... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassPhil Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Oh...and there's also a whole magazine all about playing in church....it's bang up to date and includes advice for the tech team, bass player and drummer... https://www.worshipmusician.com 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassPhil Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 This is a great example of a typical modern church set-up that is becoming very common in the UK...this was for a live album recording but this is pretty much the same as you'd find on a 'normal' Sunday morning...(Life Church Bradford & Leeds) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sardonicus Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 43 minutes ago, BassPhil said: Oh...and there's also a whole magazine all about playing in church....it's bang up to date and includes advice for the tech team, bass player and drummer... https://www.worshipmusician.com @BassPhil Thanks for the comments and for bringing Worship Musician to my attention, I have never heard of it but I will certainly have a (cyber) flick through it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 There's probably a whole thread to be had on apps for digital music. OnSong seems popular for chords, I use MobileSheets and have used Picascore in the past. SongSelect is probably the default source for downloading music covered by CCLI onto PDF. No doubt there are others too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 I could happily go to an app that can transpose chord charts on the fly, but some of our people use the dots so that is a non starter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 3 hours ago, Richard R said: There's probably a whole thread to be had on apps for digital music. OnSong seems popular for chords, I use MobileSheets and have used Picascore in the past. SongSelect is probably the default source for downloading music covered by CCLI onto PDF. No doubt there are others too. I’m trying to get us onto a digital solution. We use opensongs for the presentation and the opensong format supports chords and they have a free android app that supports them - opensong files also can be read by OnSong ... the thing is you then loose OnSong ability to create and beam sets but it’s more accessible to non Apple owners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 (edited) Echo a lot of the comments already made. Been playing bass in worship for 30+ years in a number of contexts and situations (tho not for the last 9 months for a number of health and family reasons). From pop-up churches in school halls to conference centres. My current church has its own building now but for the previous 15 years hired rooms at Sandown Park every Sunday. Our general format is a small rock band - drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and sometimes keys. Lucky that although none of us are pros (and range in age from 16 to 60ish) we manage to play to a pretty good standard. We’re also fortunate that all our keys players know how to stay away from the bass register! Yay! It’s great fun playing in the band as well as really rewarding. Looking forward to getting back to it this month! Here’s a few photos of the band... general typical Sunday set up... An acoustic evening we did... Our Pentecost service celebrating the various nationalities in the church... Me rockin’ the bass... Edited January 6, 2020 by TrevorR 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 (edited) On 06/01/2020 at 14:53, BassPhil said: Oh...and there's also a whole magazine all about playing in church....it's bang up to date and includes advice for the tech team, bass player and drummer... https://www.worshipmusician.com Big +1 on OnSong. I curate all our chord charts and have converted them all to OnSong transposable format and PDF for old school printing. However the ability to have the band’s whole repertoire on your iPad at a swipe is really handy when the set list gets changed or songs transposed at the last minute. Love it. Better than kneeling on the floor riffling through a huge lever arch file! I use it with a Bluetooth page turner pedal which makes using it in the service a doddle! Here’s a few more resource pages I find really good and helpful... WORSHIP TOGETHER: https://www.worshiptogether.com Lots of current/recent song sheets on here for free use, licensed by the publishers If you register. Includes transposable ChordPro format files for a load which are compatible with OnSong etc. Great video tutorials etc too. I like their “New Song Cafe” videos where a writer talks about one of their songs and demos how to play it. Use this website a lot. WE ARE WORSHIP: https://www.weareworship.com/uk Lots of free tutorials and download PDF song sheets when you sign up. More stuff available on subscription but I don’t bother. WORSHIP READY: https://www.worshipready.com Similar sort of thing. Really a paid subscription service. However, the free registration gives you access to lots of tutorials, online chord sheets and a free OnSong etc chord sheet download per month. C’mon @Big Rich, we’re on tenterhooks here... how did it go? Edited January 7, 2020 by TrevorR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sardonicus Posted January 8, 2020 Author Share Posted January 8, 2020 @TrevorR I've got to sit in on a couple of rehearsals and be adult baptised before I can play so it'll be a little while yet. I'm new to the church and obviously they want to see that I'm committed before they let me loose on the likes of `My Lighthouse', `Anchor' and `Raise A Hallelujah' . In the past I've always played in rock and metal bands so I wanted to do my homework and get some pointers before I start. Thanks again for the links. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) Ironic to have a thread resurrection in a thread about playing in church... OK so our latest song to introduce our streamed church service is up online - Open Up The Heavens by Vertical Worship. This is our second one so we’re still learning how to do it. Each part recorded separately on our phones/cameras playing along to a guide track and then stitched together into a single track by our drummer/keyboard player/AV dude, James (the smiley guy in the video)... playing my 1979 Wal Pro 2E in this one. If we do one next week I may pull out my Aria SB700 for that one... Enjoy! The song is the first 3 mins 47 seconds. Feel free to ignore the rest, I’ll see if I can work out how to trim the video to lose the rest of it so as not to violate board rules - it doesn’t seem to be an option on an iPad... think I need to break out my laptop for extra share options. Humph... EDIT: DONE IT! PHEW! Edited May 3, 2020 by TrevorR 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) That’s cool @TrevorR our lot havent tried anything like that yet. I helped my mate from my old church with the design for the titles for this which is quite cool Edited May 3, 2020 by LukeFRC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevsy71 Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 That's excellent Trevor, and great to hear the Pro 2E so present in the mix! Thanks for sharing and a great job by all Please may I ask the video software used? I'd like to try this out for our church too. And will be nice for me to have the chance for multiple takes on the bassline for once Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 13 minutes ago, Kevsy71 said: That's excellent Trevor, and great to hear the Pro 2E so present in the mix! Thanks for sharing and a great job by all Please may I ask the video software used? I'd like to try this out for our church too. And will be nice for me to have the chance for multiple takes on the bassline for once Thanks. Pleased with how it came out. Yes, fortunately our church likes bass (which is a rare thing). I’ll post last week’s too when I’ve worked out the YouTube clipping thing. Don't know what software but I’ll ask James. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 On 03/01/2020 at 11:05, Kevsy71 said: chord sheets in front of you on a tablet (the iPad type, not the Moses type), and make notes A gem. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Where do churches advertise for musicians? I confess I didn't realise they did until reading this. Nor that they paid. I suppose if I thought about it at all I assumed it was exclusively an American phenomenon and in any case musicians would be drawn from the congregation. I'm intrigued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 1 minute ago, stewblack said: Where do churches advertise for musicians? I confess I didn't realise they did until reading this. Nor that they paid. I suppose if I thought about it at all I assumed it was exclusively an American phenomenon and in any case musicians would be drawn from the congregation. I'm intrigued. All our musos are members of the church and play on a volunteer/service basis. We’ve had a few friends sit in to play when we’re short. But we don’t advertise or pay team members. Church is about 250-300 strong so we’re quite fortunate being able to have such a strong team drawn from within. I think that advertising and paying for players is more of a US mega church thing. A number of their big city churches seem to approach big venue size (Brighton Dome, Royal Festival Hall, Bristol Colston Hall, Guildford G-Live scale if you’ve ever been to any of those venues for comparison. Or even bigger). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevsy71 Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) 15 minutes ago, stewblack said: Where do churches advertise for musicians? I confess I didn't realise they did until reading this. Nor that they paid. 6 minutes ago, TrevorR said: All our musos are members of the church and play on a volunteer/service basis. We’ve had a few friends sit in to play when we’re short. But we don’t advertise or pay team members. Yeah, same with us. We sometimes struggle to fill certain slots but have learned to account for it - playing without a drummer is quite the experience! Edited May 3, 2020 by Kevsy71 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 40 minutes ago, Kevsy71 said: playing without a drummer is quite the experience! As is playing with someone who is not a drummer but is sitting behind the kit. There have been times when I would have happily paid someone to come in. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Kevsy71 said: Yeah, same with us. We sometimes struggle to fill certain slots but have learned to account for it - playing without a drummer is quite the experience! I quite like it, it forces you to think about the basses role as providing the rythem more than usual 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 39 minutes ago, owen said: As is playing with someone who is not a drummer but is sitting behind the kit. There have been times when I would have happily paid someone to come in. Or used a drum machine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) And here's the one we did last week. Every Praise by Hezekiah Walker... when we do this live at church I do like throwing in a bit of envelope filter for a more funky, Bootsy-esque tone to the bass line! This one is straight - playing the 1985 Wal Custom Mk1 for this one... Edited May 3, 2020 by TrevorR 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevsy71 Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Great stuff again! Bonus point for having twin 'TrevorCam' ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baxlin Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, TrevorR said: All our musos are members of the church and play on a volunteer/service basis. We’ve had a few friends sit in to play when we’re short. But we don’t advertise or pay team members. Our church is similar size, and we play on a rota basis, so it’s very rare to be in the same band twice! Again, it’s drummers we're light on, only have three. 5 bassists, but some are multi-talented, so I seem to do more bass-Ing than most. It’s sometimes quite challenging when there’s another bass player in the band, with them playing guitar or keys..... At our 'morning' venue, we have to set up, but we have installed permanent PA and sub, cabling for the sound desk and amp (we are DI’d), with the drum kit on a castored platform with full screen, which just rolls into a huge back-of-the-stage cupboard, with all the stands, Korg etc The evening venue is our own church building, so everything’s in place, mostly just plug in and play. Malcolm Edited May 3, 2020 by Baxlin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 There are lots of options for collaboration. One of our bands uses BandLab to record the songs, then iMovie for the basic video. Another has used Acapella, but it isn't as poweful. The whole service gets edited together with either Lightworks or Filmora, depending on who is doing it. This was todays, the BandLab song is from about 16mins in. No bass 😞 What is worth mentioning is the sheer time it takes to do. After all the sections are recorded, we reckon the editing, adding words to other peoples videos, trims and fades, words on songs, images if there is no video for a song, recheck etc etc, takes 2 of us betwen 7-10 hours each per week. Which is why I have barely touched the bass. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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