Thoughts and new song videos

Hi everyone,

Remember for our Dec 3 chapel I mentioned to you all that in between the songs I would talk about David dancing before the Lord with all his might?  Did any of you notice that I actually talked about something totally different?  I didn't really plan on doing that.  I meant to talk about David, but funny enough, it didn't happen like that.   Here's what happened…

A few days before our last practice leading up to the chapel I got thinking about the words to all of the songs.  If you recall I had us all talk through the words in that last practice.  While I was thinking about the words to the songs, that line in The Happy Song "…for now I know that God is for me, and not against me…" made me sit up and think.  Kornelia and I had recently talked about being scared of the rapture, and that parallel was fresh in my mind - we don't have to be scared and afraid - God is on our side if we believe.  I had no intention of sharing that story though.

Then came Dec 3.  We had finished our sound checks.  They had finished announcements.  Mrs. Freeman was doing the intro to chapel and my mind went blank.  I though 'well God, I know I had a few ideas of what to talk about during the first and second song, I'm just going to rest in whatever you bring to me when the time comes.  That's what I did, and you heard what I ended up saying.  Kind of an interesting progression….

Anyway,
I Found A Love this past week - fantastic!  I'm very happy with how fast that song came together.  We are starting to get a feel of playing together.  It feels very natural in that song.  Great job everyone!  We'll keep working on Nothing is Impossible and Best Friend.  I'll post a video for Best Friend below along with a couple other songs I'm thinking about.

Best Friend

Drums - Listen hard to the beat in this song.  In the intro and instrumentals he does a snare, snare on beats 3 and 4 repetitively - we should try and emulate that.  Also, we need to get as close as we can to the beat he's doing in the verses  :-)

Singers - we're going to need to figure out how to get together enunciating our words - especially in the verses and the words come fast and furious. 

Made Me Glad

Bass - Sustained notes are important in this song.  The bass is still fooling around on different notes, but he's not leaving much dead space.  We need that for a good foundation in this song.  

Drums - the drums are a major factor in controlling the ebb and flow (dynamics) of this song.  Listen to how he builds the intensity.  Very solid simple bass drum and snare beat, but he then adds on top of that - listen from toms into the second chorus added to the beat.  They provide a great 'increase' in intensity.

Keys - the keyboards to a lot of ditties in the verses of this song that are great to learn.  Octave runs up help build intensity going into the chorus.  Repeated single notes are great for impact.

One Way

I think we could pick this song up pretty quickly.  Most of you know it already and it's quite easy to play.

Electric Guitar - its got some cool lead parts for you - see if you can get them down.

Drums - try and nail the beat in the verses - it that double snare again.  His bass drums is pretty steady and busy in this song - a good workout.  :-)

Keys - in the second verse, hear that cool synth sound in the background?  I'll show it too you - it will sound really cool.

Dec. 3rd Chapel Debrief

Well, in a word that was awesome!  The fact that almost all of you showed up for set up and we were able to run through 2 songs before the service on a weather day like today was fantastic!  Thank your parents for me, please.  I know that might have been a bit of a stressful drive to school in the drifts and the dark.  Thanks also to the team members who helped set up chairs at the beginning - I know that isn't your job, but we were a great help while we waited for the stage doors to get unlocked.  Also thanks to everyone who helped pack up at the end.  It warms my heart to see all your servant hearts <3

As for the set, I thought it went quite well.  We've been asked to do both Undignified and The Happy Song in a future chapel!   Our song choices went quite well with the rest of the service.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share this time.  However, I thought that we nailed all of our 'queues' through the songs with the exception of one (the build of the choruses 2nd time through in I Exalt Thee - but no big deal there).  Whoever had the idea to do 2 choruses of Joy, Unspeakable Joy back to back and have the second one as vocals only.... brilliant!  If anyone in the audience found their attention drifting at that point, I guarantee it was snapped right back as our transition to vocals there was spot on.  All you singers - you are such natural vocal blenders.  This is a great skill to have. Both acapella parts in the last two songs sounded great.  I also thought that we balanced our unison singing versus our harmony singing well.

Instrumentalists - great job.  As I'm a little busy during the songs, I don't hear everything.  But what I did hear of your individual parts sounded great - and I did hear each of you at some point or other.  Nice job Mr. D for filling in with us on bass!  Great job instrumentalists, on the 'big endings'!  I love those and we did them well. 

Did you girls put the Santa hats on during Joy?  I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice.

Other than that, I'd love to hear some of your feedback on Thursday. 

Songs in the hopper to start getting familiar with:

I Found a Love

Nothing is Impossible

This song rocks.  Drums and Guitar - it will be a challenge for you!