Comments for Forkintheroadmusic's Weblog

Comment on Stand up Stand up by Jason Huffman

Jason Huffman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Worship has many different postures…standing, kneeling, lying prostrate, hands raised, etc. But there is something natural about standing when you are excited. If I’m at a Rangers game, I may be sitting and eating my popcorn, but if I hear the crack of the bat and watch that ball soar over the left field wall, I’ll stand up. Sports commentators often comment in a clutch situation, “the entire crowd is on their feet.” The same thing happens at a secular rock concert when the artist comes out of the black stage and nails that first chord. This is a testament of the electricity that can happen when people are gathered together. Aside from tradition, or how we were raised, I think as worship leaders, who unfortunately at times have egos that feed off the crowd, having everyone stand naturally increases the level of energy in the room. It is a posture of anticipation as much as one of reverence.

Comment on Get Organized by Jason Huffman

Jason Huffman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Working with a youth band, organization of music is a huge problem. Due to varying talent levels, constant addition of new music, the time it takes to master certain songs, and the constant influx of students who may be here one week and gone the next, it is difficult to plan our worship sets in advance. I have to play the songs the present kids have been practicing and are comfortable playing. Originally, I made 6 notebooks with songs alphabetized and a master song list at the front. Of course after 2 or 3 rehearsals, many of the books were missing half the charts while one kid had 4 copies of Trading My Sorrows. What was happening was some kids who couldn’t find their music were borrowing from the ones who “had it memorized” or were the vocalists who just watched the screen. Then it hit me. What if I color coded the books? So I tried it, and it worked. I have one white master book, and 5 colored books, meaning the pages of chord charts are copied onto color paper. Yes it is a little more expensive, and yes, it is a little bit of trouble to find 5 different colored sheets when I want to do a new song, but in the long run, it was a good idea. Now, if it just so happens a student loses a page out of his book and has to borrow from the bass player, it is easy to find the one orange sheet in the book full of green pages! This way I spend more time teaching music and less time making copies!

Comment on Media: Where to Find Graphics by Jason Huffman

Jason Huffman — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:41:00 +0000

I found some really cool animated and still backgrounds at the following places.

http://www.movietools.info/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=4

http://www.creativemyk.com/gallery.aspx (this may be part of the same site you listed earlier)

http://www.hotworship.com/ (this site lists many churches where you can go to their downloadable art sections)

Comment on Questions and Answers: No Drummer.. What now? by Brooks

Brooks — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:11:00 +0000

Hey there. I’ve played hand percussion for 8 years or so, and I’ve never played any “drum” (per se) that is as different as the cajon. A good friend of mine has one, and they are indeed well-suited for acoustic worship. I hope to get one before the year’s over.

Comment on Questions and Answers: No Drummer.. What now? by Romack

Romack — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:09:00 +0000

Great post. I am a drummer/percussionist, and do some of my gigs solely on percussion. My percussion rig consists of a few different elements to help with different types of setups that are pssible. I might use just a djembe if it is just a guitar, and sometimes add shakers, large crashes to use as hand cymbals (for swells too), finger cymbals, triangles, etc etc. I also have an udu, which is a clay pot-like drum that is played similarily to the cajon. I also use, what we call, the pandiero kit. A pandiero is a “headed tambourine-like” drum that I have rigged up to be struck with a brush, and when mic’d with a kick drum mic (Beta 52 or D12), it shakes the windows off. Very, very low tone…even deeper than most kicks. It’s awesome. The best part is…you could setup almost an entire drum kit around this thing. OR you can keep it simple and use a snare drum, the pandiero, and maybe a cymbal or two. Great for two acoustic sets, or even with a bass player. Setup is nothing except playing with EQ on the pandiero.

And, thanks for the info about these. I may end up getting one to travel with. Awesome tone, and great addition to any setup.

Comment on “Embracing Technology in Working with Youth Bands” by Russell Martin

Russell Martin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:44:00 +0000

Jason.. I think that would work well. My suggestion would be to teach chord progressions instead of songs. This should avoid any copyright issues and there are many many chord progressions that are the same for many songs. This would also make a great addition to this site… simple online lessons. Cool.

Comment on Lessons from Camp- Part 1 by Russ Bowlin

Russ Bowlin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:23:00 +0000

i think this goes for just about anything…not just camps. but too often we think that we know better than anyone else (forgetting that God plays a major part in these sort of things) and decide that the only way to do things is how we want to…or how it says on paper.

Comment on Backgrounds Part #2 by mirmartin05

mirmartin05 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:04:00 +0000

great pics!

Comment on Green Props by Russ Bowlin

Russ Bowlin — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:54:00 +0000

thanks for the shout out. i’ll fulfill my promise and post the last two in just a bit. i like the idea of the music books, but we need to nominate someone to have that be their “thing” cause i’m not sure it’s my spiritual gift.

Comment on Free Song #2- Hey I Love Jesus by ccworshiparchive

ccworshiparchive — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:21:00 +0000

Hello,

I think it is such a great thing that you are using Creative Commons license for your songs of worship!

I would love to share your music in our website:

http://ccworshiparchive.googlepages.com/

Could we link directly to your MP3 and PDF music? If not, we will download it and upload it onto our web page.

Thanks for sharing your songs of worship with all!