April 27 Debrief and New Songs for Acoustic Chapel

Great job on the prayer chapel everyone!  Special kudos out to:
- Keys for carrying us all the way through with solid background foundation!
- Acoustic Guitar for doing the same through the pain of your fingers
- J.L. for leading like you did - not just calling out queues in the songs, but also for the talking and direction you gave through the mic.

I thought as a band we provided great continuity for the chapel and communicated will with our song transitions and background music.  I also thought that we could work on knowing/memorizing our song mappings  :-)  It would help our confidence and that would help everyone follow us.  That gives us something we can improve on for our next chapel....

We're doing an all worship acoustic chapel next on May 25th - just after the long weekend and just before Grad.  We have 4 practices to put this together.  I'm excited and looking forward to this and I know you are too.  Here's the songs we discussed and agreed upon on Thursday:

Deep Cries Out    Key of E   Chord Chart

Set a Fire  Key of G   Chord Chart

You are Good  Key of G   Chord Chart

The Happy Song   Key of D  Chord Chart

10,000 Reasons   Key of E   Chord Chart

How He Loves Us  Key of E  Chord Chart

How Great is Our God   Key of G   Chord Chart

Closer  Key of E   Chord Chart

I Could Sing of Your Love Forever   Key of E    Chord Chart

April 27th Chapel - Positioning Ourselves to Pray

Environment – Lighting dim, candles, tables, vases paper, pens, elastics

8:25 a.m. - Worship team playing instrumental intro to Great are You Lord (key of E) as the students come in. Greeters stand at doors and let students in.  Keep doors closed until 8:25 a.m.

8:30 a.m. – Opening – Amal   - Band plays continues playing quietly in the background

8:31 – 8:36 - Francis Chan Video

8:36 – 8:45  - Amal talks briefly – Band can quietly start intro to Great are You Lord (key of E) when Amal starts talking

~ 8:41 - Worship team – Great are you Lord  (Key of E)

8:45 – Sebastian – Introduce Humility  -  Band playing ‘end instrumental’ of Great are You Lord quietly

8:48 – Worship team - I Will Exalt (key of D) - after song continue to play softly in the background  as Perry introduces the next topic.

8:53 -8:56 – Perry introduce Contempt and Forgiveness – Band quietly playing ‘Intro’ to I Will Exalt (key of D)

8:56 - Amanda explains the call to action and students can take the steps they need  Worship team plays instrumental in the background to Good Good Father (key of E)

9:06 - Band plays/sings Good Good Father (Key of E) to bring all of the students back together.

9:10 – Gabrielle Introduces Faith and Trust and prays for students  Pray on your own or with a friend – Band quietly, instrumentally plays verse chords of Good Good Father (key of E) in the background

9:18 - Worship team- At Your Name (Key of E)   

Perry Dismiss the kids

Potential songs for our next chapel (Apr 27th)

At Your Name   Chord Chart   Key of E

I Found a Love   Chord Chart   Key of G

I Will Exalt   Chord Chart   Key of D

No Longer Slaves Chord Chart    Key of D

Good Good Father  Chord Chart  Key of E

Great are you Lord   Chord Chart    Key of E

March 9th Encounter Debrief and Song Thoughts

Hi everyone,

Great job today!  Our fast songs went quite well I thought.  I heard some good things about how the E. Guitar sounded - particularly in God's Not Dead.  I thought we probably could have shortened our arrangement of I Am Free a bit - essentially that was my fault thought I think.

Another impression I got was 'When You Walk Into the Room' was new for a lot of people, but that's ok.  Its a great song.  Unfortunately we had to cut 'Set a Fire' a bit short because of our time.  I don't really like being (or feeling) rushed in worship, and so we'll likely do 4 songs in our next set instead of 5.

We have two chapels left in the year this year!!!  April 27th and May 25th.  As far as I know, May 25th will be our all acoustic chapel, so our next chapel on April 27th will be the last one with the full band.  Here's a list of the songs we did this year (and some others).  We need to pick 4 for our next chapel.....

God's Not Dead
I Am Free
When You Walk into the Room
Rooftops
Set a Fire
The Happy Song
Happy Day
Everlasting God
Came to My Rescue
Cornerstone
Awake My Soul
I Surrender
Great Are You Lord
No Longer Slaves
Good Good Father
Deep Cries Out
I Will Exalt
Don't Ever Stop
Amazing Love
Let God Arise
You Are Good
Your Grace is Enough
Here I Am to Worship
I Found a Love

March 9th Encounter Agenda

Good practice today everyone.

Based on what we've been practicing, here's our agenda for next Wednesday:

I am Free   Key of D   (keys - piano and pad patches)

• Intro - Big band start with O.F. on the tambourine like we did in practice.  If you're not playing you need to move, relax and get everyone clapping  :-)
• Verse 1 - T.Z. singing.  As we practiced.  Keys, remember those little riffs like we've been working on.  Build up to chorus
• Chorus - Just singers in unison and bass drum.  Everyone clapping
• Instrumental - same as intro
• Verse 2 - T.Z. singing.  Just like we practiced.  Build into big chorus
• Chorus - 2 times - big.  Everyone singing, smiling, movin', groovin', and clappin' to the music
• Bridge
• Chorus - acapella with bass drum
• Chorus - Big, everyone in, full on.
• Outro - same as intro.  Drums remember to slow us down right at the end.

God's Not Dead   Key of E  (starts on C#m   - keys organ patch)

• Intro - Big band start just like we've been practicing.
• Verse 1 - C.M. sings.  Just like we've been practicing
• Chorus - Everyone sings in unison
• Instrumental - same as intro and as we've been practicing
• Verse 2 - C.M. sings.
• Chorus - 2 times.  Big everyone going for it full on.
• Bridge - 3 times -  C.M. be ready to go right into the bridge after the second chorus above
• Chorus - 2 times
• Instrumental - same as Intro to finish.

When you Walk into the Room  Key of A  (keys - piano and pad patches)

• Intro - Just keys.  A.V. starts singing when she's ready, just like we practiced.
• Verse 1 - Just A.V. and keys.
• Chorus - Just A.V., keys, a little bit of drums, and a little BG vocals
• Instrumental - as we practiced.  A little more drums and guitars here.  Keys, do that riff we practiced for this song.
• Verse 2 - J.L. sings.  Instruments are building gradually from the start.  Half way through we go bit and J.L. goes up and octave singing.
• Chorus - Big - everyone full on, worshiping
• Instrumental - Big band, freestyling worship like we've been doing in practice.
• Bridge - 3 times - Just keys, bass and J.L. first time.  Everyone building from there 2nd and 3rd times.
• Chorus - Big - huge!  
• Instrumental - big - Remember to end the song on the D!  Keys, hold the D chord until we start the next song.

Rooftops   Key of G  

• Big instrumental intro like we've been practicing.
• Verse 1 - T.Z. sings.  M.W.  do your cool stuff on E. Guitar like you were in practice.
• Chorus - acapella with bass drum
• Instrumental - just like intro like we practiced
• Verse 2 - T.Z. sings.  Same as we practiced
• Chorus - 2 times - everyone in big
• Bridge - 2 times - like we practiced big
• Bridge 2 - 3 times - quiet, but building.  Arms wide open....  Here I am..   Heart wide open
• Chorus
• Bridge - end on G.  Simple transition, J.L. will start us into

Set a Fire  Key of G

• J.L. will lead us entirely through this song.  We'll follow his lead.

Chapel debrief and New Songs

Great job today everybody!!

As I thought later how everything went, I kind of chuckled to myself...  The song I thought we'd nail (The Happy Song) was actually rather flat, and the song I was most concerned about (Came to My Rescue) turned out quite well.  I thought our dynamics were really good - particularly in the slow songs.  Solo singers did great and you instrumentalists did awesome as well.  It was great to hear the acoustic guitar a lot more, and that E. Guitar patch rocks.  We need to figure out a way to make your pedal a volume pedal rather than a gain pedal on that patch and it will be even better (I think).  Drums were solid - you and I were locked in on the slow songs and the tempo stayed pretty consistent - excellent.  Keys, you provided a great foundation for us in the slow songs as always :-)  Great closing prayer (benediction?) J.L!

I'm going to add some more comments later, but I wanted to publish this now so you could take a look at some possible new songs.

New Songs for us to try...  I'll post chord charts for the new ones Wednesday evening (I hope)

God's Not Dead (Newsboys)  Chord Chart  Key of E

I am Free   Chord Chart  Key of D

Rooftops    Chord Chart   Key of G

When You Walk into the Room   Chord Chart  Key of A

Set a Fire   Chord Chart   Key of G

Feb. 10th Encounter Song Agenda

Hi everyone,

Welcome to 2nd semester!  We're scheduled to play for next week's Encounter so we have one practice to get everything wrapped up and ready.  (That's this week's practice)

Here's what I'm thinking for a song agenda for that Encounter.... It's not written in stone, but it will give us something to practice towards for next week.  I uploaded a new chord chard for Cornerstone in the key of A

The Happy Song   Chord Chart   Key of D

• Intro - full band
• Verse 1 - all instruments do ONLY shots (including drums).  Everyone sings exuberantly in unison
• Chorus - in unison
• Verse 1 - drums play this like you normally do.  Everyone sing harmonies
• Chorus 2x - harmonies
• Bridge - drums - bass drum and shuffle beat on snare
• Instrumental - singers, feel free to sing your hearts out with whatever here
• Chorus - big band and everyone singing
• Big Ending

Happy Day   Chord Chart  Key of G

• Intro - E.guitar to start  then all other instruments join in.  Keys - organ sound
• Verse 1  O.F solo  E.guitar muted.  Organ whole notes following chords with right hand, joystick with left hand.  A.guitar strum like E.guitar.
• Chorus  Everyone sing, everyone play.  Singers should all have mic stands so they can clap and move and 'be happy'  :-)
• Verse 2  A.J. solo  Instruments same as first verse.  
• Chorus 2 times  Everyone sing, everyone play.  Singers should all have mic stands so they can clap and move and 'be happy'  :-)
• Bridge  Drums you know what to do.  Instruments follow the drums.
• Chorus  Long held notes on G for whole chorus for instruments.  Singers belting it out and clapping.
• Chorus   This is where we get REALLY happy.  Everyone sing, everyone play.  
• Instrumental outro.  Everyone playing E.guitar solos out.

Everlasting God   Chord Chart   Key of  G

• Intro - guitars alone first time through, then full band
• Verse 1 -  C.M solo    E.Guitar chugging following the bass line (like you know how)
• Pre-chorus - 'Our God...'  Everyone sings in unison
• Chorus - Everyone sings in unison
• Verse 1 - Everyone sings harmonies (we really had this sounded good last practice)
• Chorus 2x
• PRE-CHORUS 2x - first time quieter, second time really big
• Chorus - bass drum (on off-beat) and bass only.  Singers belting it out.  Other instruments build back in on '...don't grow weary..'
• Chorus
• End.

Came to My Rescue   Chord Chart  Key of G

• Intro - acoustic guitar and keys - drums on high-hat to help with time
• Verse 1 - T.Z. solo - drums - high-hat and bass drum
• Chorus - Held notes - everyone sings in unison
• Instrumental - once through the chord progression - drums stronger
• Verse 2 - O.F. solo - drums with a beat.  E.Guitar chugging
• Chorus 2x
• Instrumental - Big Band with Bridge chords
• Bridge 3x - quiet first time everyone sings unison.  2nd time building instrumentally and vocal harmonies.  3rd time really big.  Hold the last note on '...high' a long time.
• Chorus - quiet

Cornerstone    Key of A  Chord Chart  J.L leads this song  Remember to do the instrumental every every chorus

• Intro - Keys - nice and slow
• Verse 1 - J.L. solo.  Drums - bass drum and toms.  Keys and acoustic playing.
• Chorus - held notes - everyone sings in unison
• Verse 2 - J.L. solo  Instrument bigger.  Repeat 'my anchor holds' and make it BIG
• Chorus - BIG everyone singing harmonies
• Bridge - 'He is lord...'  BIG
• Chorus - BIG 
• Verse 3 - J.L. solo.  Quiet.
• Instrumental with chorus chords  quiet but building... building.... building
• Chorus
• End