Find out what it means to me...

If you're wondering about the title of the post, it's the line that follows R.E.S.P.E.C.T. from Aretha Franklin's song of the same name (Respect).

Why?

Well some back history here I got a call on Saturday from Jeremy letting me know that we were changing our worship set to an acoustic setup. No big deal, if anything it makes setup and tear-down MUCH easier. so I'm playing hand drums as Elizabeth (our normal percussionist) is out on vacation this week, normally that would be bongos and congas but as I said she was on vacation it meant congas (I sent the bongos with her) and a Djembe which was borrowed from another team member (And probably spelled wrong) . On a side note it's a beautiful hand carved solid wood Djembe, (again with the spelling), it was a joy to play and hear. And after playing one I can now say with no doubt that I have to get one. Perhaps not a hand carved one but they have a distinct sound that I much enjoy.

Now let me clarify one other point before I get any farther, I respect the abilities of all my musicians and feel very blessed to work with the group of talented and inspired individuals who make up our praise team. Every single one of them, you have no idea how awesome they are. We (and by which I mean me or sometimes Jeremy, and once in a while our lead Pastor Daniel) have switched songs on them last minute and they never fail to sound amazing.

That being said my respect for that girl has gone way up. (And as I mentioned earlier it was fairly high to being with.) My reasoning? She plays those (blasted and yet wonderful) hand drums almost every week, during both services with little gripping or complaining. Me? My hands still hurt like the blazes and are swollen enough that typing this blog is taking twice as long as normal.

Now the service itself was great, and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback about our foray into acoustical set-ups, and will probably make them a more regular occurance. However the next time we do one, I'm going to let our wonderfully talented (and now much more appreciated) percussionist play the hand drums while I play something safer and less painful (like... say a washboard).

Current Stats:
Listening to: Untitled by Simple Plan
Reading: The Ant and the Elephant
Watching: Nothing at the moment