Yikes!

For me, I don’t read piano music too well.  I had the bad habit when I was taking lessons to stare at my fingers and loose my place in the music.  So, I was not looking forward to this piece because I felt out of my element.  I still had to play my part and help the sound of the band.  Here’s what I did:

Practice

First (as always), I needed to practice.  I had to brush off my reading skills and hit the woodshed on my part.  There was an especially important lead in that I had to nail, so I practiced that many times.  I ended up attending extra practices with the orchestra and choir so I could hear the song better.  Do the work if you want the results!

Simplify

Don’t try to be Mr. Virtuoso if you don’t have the chops.  I certainly did not have the chops then to pull off the song as written.  I usually play more of a free style and only have chords in front of me.  This chart was all orchestrated, so I came to a compromise.  I’d play the chords (which were written on the chart).  But not everything on the page.  The band leader was ok with this, so I just tried to make it as simple as possible.

When you don’t know what’s going on, keep it simple.  You can add once you feel comfortable.  But don’t try to add way too much and get lost when a mistake happens.  It sounded good, and I didn’t detract from the sound.

Watch/Listen

The last thing I needed to do was to watch the conductor and listen to the band.  I couldn’t rely on a click track for this, because the piece had many tempo shifts.  So, I had to watch the conductor for the tempo and cues.

There was also a soloist, so the whole band had to listen to her as we were following her lead.  If she jumped ahead, then we had to follow, or if she held out a note extra long, we needed to be prepared.  Paying attention to your band is one of the most important things to do when playing.  Listen to them, watch the leader, and you’ll not be lost.

Has anyone else been thrown a curve and have a good story to share?

This was the biggest question I had when I started playing, and I still ask this question.  What in the world to I play?!  I mean, I could play pads on everything, but that’d be boring!  And I can’t play cool lead synth lines on everything.  Somehow that’s not going to work for the response song.

The answer is play whatever fits best.

I can hear you now, “Well thanks for nothing!”, but that’s the answer.  Think about it.  For every song you play, you need to find something that fits.  For We Unite by Elevation Worship, the lead synth sounds good, because it suits the style of the song.  Playing The Stand by Hillsong you’re probably better off playing a pad.  For other songs, a straight up piano sounds great.

Now, as always, you can change it up for effect.  Elevation Church did this with their Remix stuff.  But again, the parts fit with the style of the song they wanted to play.

Ok, so now I’ve got a sound, but what do I play with that part?  Wait for it…  Play what fits.  For a song busy with guitars and drums, you really shouldn’t be soloing the whole way.  You could add a bit of dirt with a biting synth pad and let the guitars go to town.  If it’s a slower song where the drums are down and the guitars are playing swells, break out a pad or pay some piano lines.

The moral is that you don’t want to step on any of the other players parts.  If someone has a soloistic part, don’t play a solo over top of them.  Sometimes it’s great just to hang out on the chords and make the band sound better.  Add your cool riffs between lyrical lines.  Add an instrumental break if you need some musical relief!  (With your band leader’s permission first!)  If you want some inspiration, listen to other bands.  Listen to some good jazz music.  Listen to good pop music even.  The more you listen, the more ideas you’ll have, and the more you’ll hear what other good keyboardists are doing.

So what do you play in your band?  Lots of pads?  Synths?  Melodic?  Rhythmic?

[ Photo by orange grove media ]

Virtual instruments.

Basically anything that can replicate a keyboarded instrument inside a computer.  Anything from modeling analogue synthesizers to samplers with sound from vintage organs and electric pianos and string instruments.  You get the idea.

For my setup, I love using Reason.  It’s basically the synth rack of your dreams in your computer.  Multiple MIDI controllers to play multiple synths, control different instruments by MIDI channel out, ReWire into your favorite DAW, and it’s all fairly straightforward to configure (Google always helps).

I’ve got a master Reason file that holds all of my basic setup.  I have 4 audio channels out (2 stereo pairs); one for mostly synth/pad/lead items, and one for loops/beats/FX items.  These usually are run through Live and into the house.  Most weeks, I use maybe a patch or two.  The most I’ve used in a set I believe was four, which includes a loop.

The synths are set up simply enough, with basic pads up top, a synth lead, and a rhythmic lead (or two).  These are the bread and butter for my controllers.  I usually sit on a nice airy pad with a filter mapped to the mod wheel.  I can go from being under the band to being on top depending on the song.  I’ve got a nice Moog-type square lead that I use a lot that was set up for We Unite by Elevation Worship.

For the loops, I have two ReDrums set up with patterns all ready to go, which are triggered by the number keys on the laptop keyboard.  I also have an FX spot that I usually don’t use, but if I need some atmospheric goodies it’s right there.

The only think lacking in my setup is a good vintage electric piano instrument.  Native Instruments look like they have some nice samplers for that, so that’s on my list.

Any thoughts on this?  What do you (or your church) use, if anything?

To start, I wanted to go over my current set-up at my church.

I have a Yamaha S90, a Korg CX-3, and an M-Audio Oxygen 61 for my boards.  I sometimes use a Yamaha S03 as a MIDI controller as well.  I’m running the MIDI controllers though Reason and Live on a MacBook Pro.  I usually have the S90 and the CX-3 on a two-tiered stand (S90 on bottom).  I’ll have the Oxygen on it’s own single stand near the computer, and the S03 is similar when I use it.

The S90 has a great piano sound and feel.  It’s hammer weighted, so it’s great for that piano feel.  I usually use it just for piano and a particular synth pad sound that sits well with a variety of songs.  I’ve also found some other cool synth/pad sounds I use occasionally.

The CX-3 is a great Hammond B3 emulator.  I’m sure it won’t pass as the real thing, as it seems nothing will, but it sounds great in the house and the manual drawbars are wonderful for changing the sound on the fly.  I only use one preset, really, even though I should use more.  But I just change drawbar settings and turn percussion on and off for most of my patches anyway.

The Oxygen I use for transport control of Live to fire clicks and the occasional loop.  All of the sounds are from a custom Reason rack that I have set up.  There are a few pads, a few leads, and some programmed beats for whatever the service might need.

The setup works well for me.  The only addition I might make would be for a Nord Electro in place of the CX-3, because I’d get a good B3 sound plus good electric pianos to boot.  I’m not a fan of the S90′s Rhodes or other piano sounds.  But I was also thinking of just getting a virtual instrument for those sounds too.

This is just an overview, and I’ll probably get into specifics as I go.  Please let me know if there is anything you’d like to hear about.  I’d love some conversation on this!