Okay so as a drummer there are certain other drummers that I really love to hear play, Neil Peart (Rush), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Jojo Mayer (Nerve), Buddy Rich, Max Roach, Stevie Wonder (Believe it or not, but he did a lot of the drumming on his albums) but when I logged into my itunes to see what the new podcasts were, turn on fan-boy mode because Gavin Harrison was up for the drumset video. (Winner of the Modern Drummer Prog drummer 2008 award, and drummer for Porcupine Tree) Random a bit, yes, but it's a drummer thing (hmmm I'm blogging that... oh wait I just did).
One of his signatures? Is a custom 5 cymbal "Chime" thing (Watch the video you can't miss it) I SO want one of those...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
So, what's YOUR story...
This is something we came up with at our creative planning session and implemented it this past week.
Stories, and we've gotten a few, one of which brought tears to my eyes...
If Lifepoint Church has had an impact in your life, or the life of someone you know we're looking for stories, Why? well partly because we love to know that we're making a difference in peoples lives, (and eternities truth be known,) but we also need them for something else... it's a surprise let me just say hat you don't want to miss this series!
send to
stories
at
visitlifepoint
dot
org
And yes I did it that way to avoid the spambots, this is something that we're hoping everyone will take part in, I know my own story (which I almost posted on the blog before this came up) will be headed that way.
So what's your story? (so far anyway, because like mine I know it's still being written).
~Matt
Stories, and we've gotten a few, one of which brought tears to my eyes...
If Lifepoint Church has had an impact in your life, or the life of someone you know we're looking for stories, Why? well partly because we love to know that we're making a difference in peoples lives, (and eternities truth be known,) but we also need them for something else... it's a surprise let me just say hat you don't want to miss this series!
send to
stories
at
visitlifepoint
dot
org
And yes I did it that way to avoid the spambots, this is something that we're hoping everyone will take part in, I know my own story (which I almost posted on the blog before this came up) will be headed that way.
So what's your story? (so far anyway, because like mine I know it's still being written).
~Matt
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Drummers go Crash Boom Bang
Reid just posted this article over on North Point's music blog, regarding my favorite subject as a drummer, cymbals.
Which of course got me thinking about my own cymbals, (Because I'm ALWAYS looking for new/new old cymbals). Lifepoint's standard cymbals (which are, in all honesty needing to be replaced at some point, but it's not a big priority), include a set of Sabian Hats (And I honestly don't remember what series) a B8 crash (16") a B8pro crash (Again 16") and an 20" XS series Ride.
My current set of cymbals are as follows: 1 10" Sabian HHX Splash, 1 12" AAX Sabian Splash, 1 12" A Custom Zildjian splash, 1 16" A Zildjian crash, 1 18" A Custom Zildjian Crash, 1 20" K Custom (My Baby!) Zildjian Ride, 1 mix pair (K custom bottom, K top) Zildjian hats (I really got a good deal on those, like half of what they're worth). I also had (until two weeks ago) a Cobalt River 14" crash. This was a cheap (very cheap) cymbal but had a very nice trashy crash sound, I need to replace it soon, and as it was a 15? 20? dollar cymbal, replacing it is nowhere as difficult as replacing one of the other cymbals in my collection.
When will I have enough cymbals? I'm not sure. They're not a huge priority for me budget wise, but they are something I'm always looking at/for. I'd love to get some meinl's to try but no one carries them locally, and while I've gotten a couple of my collection via ebay, I do prefer to test out a cymbal before I buy it.
So gifts for me can include itune giftcards and cymbals. I like Zildjian A Custom, and K Custom series, Sabian Paragon, Vault, or any series that ends in an "X", Meinl Byzance and Soundcaster Series, Paiste Signature and 2002 series. Yeah Guitarists have it cheap. They get a few guitars, and sure the cost several grand... drummers collect cymbals, at anywhere from 100-700 a pop, and some drummers (Say like John "Bermuda" Schwartz best known for his work with "Weird" Al Ynkovic) Has collections spanning hundreds (over 400 in his case).
And yes this was a rather Random Post
Which of course got me thinking about my own cymbals, (Because I'm ALWAYS looking for new/new old cymbals). Lifepoint's standard cymbals (which are, in all honesty needing to be replaced at some point, but it's not a big priority), include a set of Sabian Hats (And I honestly don't remember what series) a B8 crash (16") a B8pro crash (Again 16") and an 20" XS series Ride.
My current set of cymbals are as follows: 1 10" Sabian HHX Splash, 1 12" AAX Sabian Splash, 1 12" A Custom Zildjian splash, 1 16" A Zildjian crash, 1 18" A Custom Zildjian Crash, 1 20" K Custom (My Baby!) Zildjian Ride, 1 mix pair (K custom bottom, K top) Zildjian hats (I really got a good deal on those, like half of what they're worth). I also had (until two weeks ago) a Cobalt River 14" crash. This was a cheap (very cheap) cymbal but had a very nice trashy crash sound, I need to replace it soon, and as it was a 15? 20? dollar cymbal, replacing it is nowhere as difficult as replacing one of the other cymbals in my collection.
When will I have enough cymbals? I'm not sure. They're not a huge priority for me budget wise, but they are something I'm always looking at/for. I'd love to get some meinl's to try but no one carries them locally, and while I've gotten a couple of my collection via ebay, I do prefer to test out a cymbal before I buy it.
So gifts for me can include itune giftcards and cymbals. I like Zildjian A Custom, and K Custom series, Sabian Paragon, Vault, or any series that ends in an "X", Meinl Byzance and Soundcaster Series, Paiste Signature and 2002 series. Yeah Guitarists have it cheap. They get a few guitars, and sure the cost several grand... drummers collect cymbals, at anywhere from 100-700 a pop, and some drummers (Say like John "Bermuda" Schwartz best known for his work with "Weird" Al Ynkovic) Has collections spanning hundreds (over 400 in his case).
And yes this was a rather Random Post
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Basics....
Sometimes it's hard to remember that they best of homes always begins with a strong foundation. And even when we know that it occasionally takes a reminder that even a foundation needs to be maintained.
Case in point, myself.
My reminder came from an article I was reading about Bassist John Myung (Of Dream Theater) where some of his bandmates mentioned that he was one of the only person they knew who warmed DOWN after a show.
Which brought my back to my drum corp days were we both warmed up and warmed down after practices, (but not always after performances) which then took me to the fall I worked as an Drum adviser for a marching band. I came in about halfway through the season on a request from a friend to give them a hand, the kids (I thought of them as kids even then, and I was only a couple years out of high school myself, at the time) were decent, but had no drum instructor to build their foundation and thus were floundering.
Instead of jumping on the music (which is why I was asked to come in the first place, to help them learn their parts better) I jumped on their fundamentals (Discipline! Rudiments! and Warm-ups!) It wasn't that they didn't know their part, quite the opposite actually, it's that they had problems on the performance aspect of it.
Now a part of me wishes I could say after a few weeks with me they turned into a whole new drumline that went on to win a bunch of awards at competitions, sadly that is not the case.
However I did come to find out that my time spent working on their fundamentals wasn't wasted as that helped them And I quote this from someone who had seen their early shows) "They looked and sounded like a real drumline"
So why did I just say all this? Well my point is I know about basics and fundamentals, but like so many of us, after playing set for a while I've slacked off on most (Nearly all) of said basics. So yesterday I began a regiment for getting this drummer's fundamentals back up to par.
So what does that entail?
1) Ear training, (this is the one part of my fundamentals that I can honestly say that I haven't stopped doing ever.
2) Arm strength/power/endurance, Jojo Mayer covers this one on his dvd but this is a delicate balance, because of the nature of the human body, build up more power, and you won't be able to access higher speeds.
3) Foot training, for those funky syncopated kick patterns (not something you normally run into in worship music, but you never know!)
4) Coordination/limb interdependence, the abilty to play different beats with different limbs (arms, legs, etc) at the same time. Sounds easy? here's a simple warm-up. Try tapping triplets with your left hand, eighth notes with your right foot, quarters with your left foot, and sixteenths with your right hand. (Try it slow, if you manage that, try speeding it up).
5) Warm-up/Cool-down routine, if I had professional drum instructions I'd probably have a slew of fancy exercises, (well maybe, shrug, it's not something I've had the luxury of having), I do have my rudimental listings and a handful of exercises for that, having played quads in drumline I'm used to adapting said exercises, of course my favorite exercise? (This sounds odd, I know) is eight on a hand, (plus the adaptations 1-xx on a hand, countdown on a hand etc).
So that's it, getting back to basics all around, remember that the house you live in is only as strong as it's foundations, (Read Matthew Chapter 7).
Case in point, myself.
My reminder came from an article I was reading about Bassist John Myung (Of Dream Theater) where some of his bandmates mentioned that he was one of the only person they knew who warmed DOWN after a show.
Which brought my back to my drum corp days were we both warmed up and warmed down after practices, (but not always after performances) which then took me to the fall I worked as an Drum adviser for a marching band. I came in about halfway through the season on a request from a friend to give them a hand, the kids (I thought of them as kids even then, and I was only a couple years out of high school myself, at the time) were decent, but had no drum instructor to build their foundation and thus were floundering.
Instead of jumping on the music (which is why I was asked to come in the first place, to help them learn their parts better) I jumped on their fundamentals (Discipline! Rudiments! and Warm-ups!) It wasn't that they didn't know their part, quite the opposite actually, it's that they had problems on the performance aspect of it.
Now a part of me wishes I could say after a few weeks with me they turned into a whole new drumline that went on to win a bunch of awards at competitions, sadly that is not the case.
However I did come to find out that my time spent working on their fundamentals wasn't wasted as that helped them And I quote this from someone who had seen their early shows) "They looked and sounded like a real drumline"
So why did I just say all this? Well my point is I know about basics and fundamentals, but like so many of us, after playing set for a while I've slacked off on most (Nearly all) of said basics. So yesterday I began a regiment for getting this drummer's fundamentals back up to par.
So what does that entail?
1) Ear training, (this is the one part of my fundamentals that I can honestly say that I haven't stopped doing ever.
2) Arm strength/power/endurance, Jojo Mayer covers this one on his dvd but this is a delicate balance, because of the nature of the human body, build up more power, and you won't be able to access higher speeds.
3) Foot training, for those funky syncopated kick patterns (not something you normally run into in worship music, but you never know!)
4) Coordination/limb interdependence, the abilty to play different beats with different limbs (arms, legs, etc) at the same time. Sounds easy? here's a simple warm-up. Try tapping triplets with your left hand, eighth notes with your right foot, quarters with your left foot, and sixteenths with your right hand. (Try it slow, if you manage that, try speeding it up).
5) Warm-up/Cool-down routine, if I had professional drum instructions I'd probably have a slew of fancy exercises, (well maybe, shrug, it's not something I've had the luxury of having), I do have my rudimental listings and a handful of exercises for that, having played quads in drumline I'm used to adapting said exercises, of course my favorite exercise? (This sounds odd, I know) is eight on a hand, (plus the adaptations 1-xx on a hand, countdown on a hand etc).
So that's it, getting back to basics all around, remember that the house you live in is only as strong as it's foundations, (Read Matthew Chapter 7).
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Oh the Irony....
It's thursday and that means it's Creative Chaos time hosted by 'Los at Ragamuffin Soul.... (Creative Chaos is like a meeting of the minds... errr blogs for creative type people in various ministries)
This is some thing that Josh (Campus Pastor for Lifepoint Downtown, and Creative Director for Lifepoint Church) participates in.
With me so far? Okay He's in Canadia (and yes I meant it like that, it's an inside joke) so he posted his before the start of creative chaos, it's a look at what we do on the creative team. (Find his post HERE) So the irony? 'Los did his Creative Chaos posting on this....
now see the irony?
This is some thing that Josh (Campus Pastor for Lifepoint Downtown, and Creative Director for Lifepoint Church) participates in.
With me so far? Okay He's in Canadia (and yes I meant it like that, it's an inside joke) so he posted his before the start of creative chaos, it's a look at what we do on the creative team. (Find his post HERE) So the irony? 'Los did his Creative Chaos posting on this....
now see the irony?
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Not Dead....
Just very busy these last few days, I've got a half finished setlist blog on LC Worship that needs to get done too.
Friday, July 11, 2008
What The Heck?
Okay so I was checking DLS's blog earlier and ran across this article...
Now let me start by saying that I consider myself a geek, and I happen to like Ubuntu, which in my opinion has done an amazing job bringing linux to the general home user. but I had to blink at this.
Okay if you don't want to read the full article here's the lowdown, Ubuntu is a Linux operating system available free, (And if you ever read the open source disclaimers they almost add this clarifying statement, as in free beer) as a download, or as a mailed cd (don't expect one for ages though, it takes a while). So Best Buy is now offering it for sale as an operating system for about 20 bucks (as in dollars, not what gives you a fever(as in buck fever, not a reference to more cowbell) or the verb consisting of a throwing action), ok if you want to get technical they're charging 19.99, but really, it's 20 bucks.
Now I understand that this will bring more exposure to a linux operating system (A good thing in my books) but 20 bucks for something you can get for free? Heck I know of a couple cases where people mailed Ubuntu distro Cd's to a few of our fighting men in Iraq who didn't have the ability to download it, so the paid version gets you 60 days of customer support, but the community is such that there are a ton of users who would help you out for free... so is this a good thing or not? I don't know, yet.
If it gets more program (beyond open source, which is a whole other story) support I'd weigh it in as a good thing, I'm just curious who's going to be buying these.
Now let me start by saying that I consider myself a geek, and I happen to like Ubuntu, which in my opinion has done an amazing job bringing linux to the general home user. but I had to blink at this.
Okay if you don't want to read the full article here's the lowdown, Ubuntu is a Linux operating system available free, (And if you ever read the open source disclaimers they almost add this clarifying statement, as in free beer) as a download, or as a mailed cd (don't expect one for ages though, it takes a while). So Best Buy is now offering it for sale as an operating system for about 20 bucks (as in dollars, not what gives you a fever(as in buck fever, not a reference to more cowbell) or the verb consisting of a throwing action), ok if you want to get technical they're charging 19.99, but really, it's 20 bucks.
Now I understand that this will bring more exposure to a linux operating system (A good thing in my books) but 20 bucks for something you can get for free? Heck I know of a couple cases where people mailed Ubuntu distro Cd's to a few of our fighting men in Iraq who didn't have the ability to download it, so the paid version gets you 60 days of customer support, but the community is such that there are a ton of users who would help you out for free... so is this a good thing or not? I don't know, yet.
If it gets more program (beyond open source, which is a whole other story) support I'd weigh it in as a good thing, I'm just curious who's going to be buying these.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Lifepoint Resources
One of the joys of being the Musical Director for the Lifepoint campus of Lifepoint Church (as we are currently a two campus church, with a Lifepoint Downtown campus as well) is getting introduced to a plethora (oooh big word for me) of new worship music on a semi-regular basis, as well as delving (wow two in one post!) through a slew (yes, I did get a thesaurus) of all types of music to review for performance songs.
As far as Performance songs go, I'm working on a post for the Lifepoint Worship Blog (this past week's set listing post is up) regarding those, so check back there later, but as far as programming worship goes I wanted to share a few thoughts out there.
First off for programming a service let me recommend the amazing planning center online it's a service that helps you build your service and setup your people for their services that they can service.... sorry... Basically you can setup your service add your worship plans, schedule your people, and time everything. they have different paid plans for what your need, our let's me store our lead-sheets online and when I apply a song to the service it automatically builds a package of all the lead sheets (as long as I have them pre-uploaded) for the musicians and vocalists. (and the drummers, mustn't forget the drummers).
CCLI, not only a great site for keeping worship "legal" (CCLI license required) but also a great place to get charts, and to see new worship music. We use the Song select service which is awesome when I need to find a chart for a worship song... not always perfect (some songs/charts aren't available, some songs searches return a million [ok, not literally] results) but still a very good service.
Itunes (I'm not putting a link for this here, you should have it by now). I also use Amazon MP3 (Again no link here) to obtain most of my music selections. I can browse and preview thousands of worship songs without having to borrow a cd player and stand in the middle of an aisle with earphones. Not only that but I'm a huge fan of Podcasts, (the 8 gigs of space currently dedicated to storage of such would agree with that statement) and some churches (namely lifechurch.tv have made available, not only their sermons, but also their worship sets, it's cool to hear what other churches are doing).
North Point Music: (You can also find this one off the North Point Music Blog) - If you've got a subscription to the service then you can watch video tutorials on numerous subjects from how they run practices to how to play one of their worship songs, also has numerous Multi-Tracks and Core Packages available for purchase.
Numerous other blogs: Such as North Points, Elevations, (Wade Joy's who's the worship pastor for them), to name a few (There are others, so many others). It's a simple way to see what other ministries and/or churches are doing to reach their communities, along the lines I know Josh participates in the creative chaos blogs hosted by `Los. It's an "event" that takes place every Thursday where people from all across the country post something creative they've done in regards to their services.
These are just a few of the many resources I look to when it comes time to program the worship for the service...
As far as Performance songs go, I'm working on a post for the Lifepoint Worship Blog (this past week's set listing post is up) regarding those, so check back there later, but as far as programming worship goes I wanted to share a few thoughts out there.
First off for programming a service let me recommend the amazing planning center online it's a service that helps you build your service and setup your people for their services that they can service.... sorry... Basically you can setup your service add your worship plans, schedule your people, and time everything. they have different paid plans for what your need, our let's me store our lead-sheets online and when I apply a song to the service it automatically builds a package of all the lead sheets (as long as I have them pre-uploaded) for the musicians and vocalists. (and the drummers, mustn't forget the drummers).
CCLI, not only a great site for keeping worship "legal" (CCLI license required) but also a great place to get charts, and to see new worship music. We use the Song select service which is awesome when I need to find a chart for a worship song... not always perfect (some songs/charts aren't available, some songs searches return a million [ok, not literally] results) but still a very good service.
Itunes (I'm not putting a link for this here, you should have it by now). I also use Amazon MP3 (Again no link here) to obtain most of my music selections. I can browse and preview thousands of worship songs without having to borrow a cd player and stand in the middle of an aisle with earphones. Not only that but I'm a huge fan of Podcasts, (the 8 gigs of space currently dedicated to storage of such would agree with that statement) and some churches (namely lifechurch.tv have made available, not only their sermons, but also their worship sets, it's cool to hear what other churches are doing).
North Point Music: (You can also find this one off the North Point Music Blog) - If you've got a subscription to the service then you can watch video tutorials on numerous subjects from how they run practices to how to play one of their worship songs, also has numerous Multi-Tracks and Core Packages available for purchase.
Numerous other blogs: Such as North Points, Elevations, (Wade Joy's who's the worship pastor for them), to name a few (There are others, so many others). It's a simple way to see what other ministries and/or churches are doing to reach their communities, along the lines I know Josh participates in the creative chaos blogs hosted by `Los. It's an "event" that takes place every Thursday where people from all across the country post something creative they've done in regards to their services.
These are just a few of the many resources I look to when it comes time to program the worship for the service...
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Lessons learned...
Well Weds. night (last week) the worship team (well, most of us) were at Camile's (And I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong) for the FCA powercamp concert...
And we learned a lot.
1) We learned that when fudi (aka me) is frustrated/aggravated/and annoyed my normally, extremely (is that pushing it?) consistent tempo goes out the window, (though in my defense with absolutely no monitors I was kind of guessing what the tempo Jeremy set was anyway).
2) We learned that when planning a worship set for an outdoor event do one of the following.
Either A) Pick songs that don't have click tracks/loops
or B) Have a backup set list in case your click tracks/loops won't run on your sound system.
3) We learned that even under extremely adverse technological conditions, when it comes to Worship our God is ALWAYS good.
4) I learned that playing in live events like that while they can be extremely frustrating are very fun!
5) I learned that after being out in the heat and performing, water, no matter how hot it's been after sitting in my trunk taste great!
6) I learned not to leave my wallet on my desk. (oops!)
7) I learned that I can climb around like Willy when I need to dig a keyboard out of the back of our box truck.
8) I learned that I work with an amazing group of people who'll rock it out, even when they don't have a clue what's going on (as we changed set lists on the fly).
9) I learned that O'Charlies (sp?) has amazing bread, (of course the fact that I was about starving might have something to do with it.)
10) I learned that I can cram an entire drumset into my alero, (including kick, toms, snare, cymbals and hardware!)
And we learned a lot.
1) We learned that when fudi (aka me) is frustrated/aggravated/and annoyed my normally, extremely (is that pushing it?) consistent tempo goes out the window, (though in my defense with absolutely no monitors I was kind of guessing what the tempo Jeremy set was anyway).
2) We learned that when planning a worship set for an outdoor event do one of the following.
Either A) Pick songs that don't have click tracks/loops
or B) Have a backup set list in case your click tracks/loops won't run on your sound system.
3) We learned that even under extremely adverse technological conditions, when it comes to Worship our God is ALWAYS good.
4) I learned that playing in live events like that while they can be extremely frustrating are very fun!
5) I learned that after being out in the heat and performing, water, no matter how hot it's been after sitting in my trunk taste great!
6) I learned not to leave my wallet on my desk. (oops!)
7) I learned that I can climb around like Willy when I need to dig a keyboard out of the back of our box truck.
8) I learned that I work with an amazing group of people who'll rock it out, even when they don't have a clue what's going on (as we changed set lists on the fly).
9) I learned that O'Charlies (sp?) has amazing bread, (of course the fact that I was about starving might have something to do with it.)
10) I learned that I can cram an entire drumset into my alero, (including kick, toms, snare, cymbals and hardware!)
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