Did I get the gig?

[just strum]

Seems he's more just discombobulated.

Thankfully we have none of that here.

 

[warren0728]

I can see how on a cold read it could seem like the guy is less than straightforward.

now that's funny....i don't care who you are! :rotflmao:

it does kinda suck that someone at the first rehearsal didn't just let you in on the 4 practice rule.... :thwap:

ww

 

[just strum]

now that's funny....i don't care who you are! :rotflmao:

it does kinda suck that someone at the first rehearsal didn't just let you in on the 4 practice rule.... :thwap:

ww

now that's funny....i don't care who you are!

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Calm down boys.

 

[warren0728]

it does kinda suck that someone at the first rehearsal didn't just let you in on the 4 practice rule.... :thwap:

ww

now that's funny....i don't care who you are!

hey i'm a funny guy even by accident!! :bravo: :rotflmao: :beer:

ok....calming down now... oke:

ww

 

[bigoldron]

Kyle is sounding more like our local flake, Gene, every day. Gene is the disorganized person you'll ever meet. Sometimes his "rules" sound like Kyle's in that he appears to make it up as he goes.

The frustrating thing (to me) is that people like you (and to a much lesser degree me), can be musicians/artists/talented/whatever without being an unorganized, carefree, goofball. This kind drives me insane (see my earlier post).

Anyway, good luck with your efforts to join the new church's praise band. I can understand the 4 practice rule, but someone should have bothered to give you a head's up on it. I'm begging for a drummer for my youth band. I've got one kid who could do it, but won't show up. Lost my bass player recently since he broke up with my daughter, which is another story. But that's kids. Adults shouldn't have that much drama. Oh well.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

An update

So this week we didn't have a practice because the band leader, Kyle, wasn't going to be available at the usual Tuesday night scheduled time. This made me a smidge nervous because of the responses I got when I posted about this on the "Backstage With the Band" forum over at Harmony-Central, where several people (generally, these were rock band people with no church band experience) had responded with suspicions that Kyle was probably either auditioning others without telling me or just "making up" the 4-practice rule.

Of course, I tried to tell the respondents over at HC that whatever their faults, church music leaders were generally trustworthy and would not jerk people around in an audition process like what might happen in a "real world" rock band scenario. The response I got was that I was being naiv and that church people are just as dishonest as everyone else.

I am happy to say that the somewhat paranoid responses I got at the Backstage forum at HC appear to have been incorrect. Wednesday night I took my son Jack over to the youth meeting at the same church, and the youth group leader made a point of asking me whether I had remembered to not come to practice the preceding night, since it wasn't being held. She said Kyle had specifically fretted to her that he couldn't remember if he had told me there would be no practice that night.

So, to me, that tends to confirm that Kyle is just a bit flakey and not up to anything nefarious.

Flakey I can deal with.

 

[bigoldron]

Flakey I can deal with.

It certainly helps around here! oke:

 

[Spudman]

Flakey I can deal with.

Then I know a whole bunch of good players you'll like.

Flakey and me have a hard time. If someone tells me something then that is "their word" unless they personally correct or change their original. I hold men to their word. I figure I have a life too and you better be just as respectful of my time as I am of yours. After all...once it's gone - it's gone.

Best of luck. Only 3 more rehearsals to go before you are making the big bucks.ancake:

 

[sumitomo]

I think the 4 practice rule is a good one lets everyone know you are sincere about worship.After all you are playing to the biggest audience of all that is God!!! Sumi

 

[Brian Krashpad]

It certainly helps around here! oke:

Haha, true dat! :AOK:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

I think the 4 practice rule is a good one lets everyone know you are sincere about worship.After all you are playing to the biggest audience of all that is God!!! Sumi

Oh, I can wait. I've been out of my last church for about 18 months before I even inquired here.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

An update

So I went to my second practice last night, and things are looking up. Unlike the song we did at our first practice, there were several songs we did that were appropriate for rock leads, plus we had a drummer.

So I did some leads on some songs, and the bandleader/pianist kept telling me to turn up, and I finally broke down and let them put me in the PA as well. I was really feelin' it and unlike the first practice, I did more than just chord along, because these songs were just more appropriate to do things with. As always, the soloing was completely extemporaneous, though I keep rough ideas in my head of what works and general ideas of what to do on each song. At the end of the rehearsal the drummer said "That was the most fun I've had in church in a long time!"

So now it's been 3 weeks, although the middle week we didn't rehearse since the bandleader couldn't make it. They have a special pastor installation service coming up this Sunday afternoon and it looks like they're going to "bend" their "4-practice rule" and ask me to play with them. The songs for that are all part of the pre-service music so in a way I won't actually be playing "during" the service.

Anyhow thanks for the thoughts/prayers.

Now we have to see whether any of the fogeys in the congregation have cardiac arrests when they see and hear an electric guitar in church.

 

[Spudman]

Just make sure they pass the Krashpad collection plate.

Congrats on getting the gig. I can picture a revival coming.

 

[warren0728]

that's good to hear brian....glad things "felt" better this time! :AOK:

ww

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Thanks guys.

As much fun as I have playing in church I'm trying to be a little careful here. At my last church we had some people who were opposed to guitars in church, but we had two services and they just went to the other one.

With one exception.

Maggie, a choir singer, decided to basically openly challenge the band, once. She was the stereotypical church busybody, very impressed with herself and her warbly old coloratura. And not liking that the band took center stage during one of 2 services or even temporarily inhabited "her choir's" bay.

One week when we had a guest keyboardist, Maggie chose to strike. (The usual keyboardist was also the praise band leader.) The guest keyboardist was a wonderful lady, a prof at UF who TAUGHT organ performance and composition, yet was nevertheless GREAT in working with hack rock muso's like me. Her great and unforgivable sin, however, was she WAS NOT A LUTHERAN! Worse, she reportedly was from one of those liberal religions like Unitarian or something that Lutherans like Maggie equate with devil-worshippers.

So anyhow, we're running a song RIGHT BEFORE THE SERVICE, and Maggie stomps up and announces to the keyboardist "You are NOT going to perform that song like THAT in THIS church!" It was an African hymn, and beautiful, though lively (I played banjo on it!). We had done it before. The pastor had chosen it.

As you might expect, I was livid. Had I directly responded to Maggie, it would not have been pretty.

Instead I immediately got up and raced over to the keyboardist, who, as you might expect, was in total shock, before Mags could say anything more, or, conversely, stomp off in triumph. I put my hand on the keyboardist's shoulder and said in a very direct and forthright way "YOU are our keyboardist. We WILL do this song EXACTLY as rehearsed. If ANYONE has any problems with that, they can take it up with ME later!"

All the while I was staring directly at Maggie. Of course, being the petty bully she was, she broke and walked away. I smiled at the organist and winked, and then went back to my chair.

We played the song exactly as rehearsed, and it sounded great and the congregation loved it.

And Maggie NEVER messed with us again.

Anyhow, the cool thing about that church was that there was a trad service and there was an all-contemporary service, so the two tribes generally didn't get to warring over it. Here at the new place it's evolved a little differently.

First, there's a lot more blue-hairs here. As a result, when they started up a contemporary service, it got shunted into the education building, not the sanctuary. The early and late services in the sanctuary were all-trad. Because it's a college town, over this last summer they canned the separate services and had one "blended" service in the sanctuary. So although the band finally got to play in the actual church, it was not a totally modern service.

For Fall, they decided to go to two services in the sanctuary but have the late service be a "blended" one. So the fully contemporary service is no more, but at least the band is playing in the church. However, the content in the blended service is skewed towards trad still. On some Sundays the band only does one song! To me, if you're going to call it a "blended" service, it needs to be a lot more balanced than that, especially given that all the litugy is still traditional. Hopefully we can inch our way into the 20th Century eventually.

And yes, I realize it's the 21st Century, but these are Lutherans after all.

 

[evenkeel]

Krash,
Very glad to hear this seems to be working out for you. You very obviously want to play so good on you for keeping your cool.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Krash,
Very glad to hear this seems to be working out for you. You very obviously want to play so good on you for keeping your cool.

Thanks.

Tonight they had a choir practice, and the band leader I guess directs the choir too. My son went to youth, so since I was gonna be there anyhow, so I ran over a couple songs with the band leader, the other guitarist, and one of the singers before the choir practice started. So I guess that technically gets me to 3 practices, and if I run over stuff at 10 before the 11:00 Sunday service, I'll have actually been to 4 "practices." Voila, "4-practice rule" complied with.

So it looks like Sunday I'll play the 11:00 service and then the pre-service music for the pastor-installation service in the afternoon. The former will probably have more people at it, but the latter should be more fun.

 

[warren0728]

So it looks like Sunday I'll play the 11:00 service and then the pre-service music for the pastor-installation service in the afternoon. The former will probably have more people at it, but the latter should be more fun.

rock on rocker!! :rockon:

ww

 

[sumitomo]

I knew things would turn around for ya,and glad to hear so.Its a celebration to GOD so rockon Sumi

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Thanks Warren and Sumi!

We'll just see how it goes. Since I played at the other church for so long I'm not really concerned about my performance (although running through the PA is something I'm still not fully down with-- mainly becuase I don't have a silent tuner and don't know if their sound person has the sense to mute my channel in between songs). What I'm mainly concerned about is freaking out the blue-hairs.

Only one way to find out!

 

[luvmyshiner]

What I'm mainly concerned about is freaking out the blue-hairs.

Dude, I thought that was the whole point. Great story Brian, and I'm glad things are turning out well.

 

[bigoldron]

Dude, Lutherans ain't a whole different from us Baptists! I definitely feel your pain! We're doing a "blended" service now, but it still leans heavily to traditional. The youth praise band I lead plays mostly on Sunday night, be we actually got do a morning service a couple of weeks ago. We started an adult praise band in the Spring, played one song, and had to knock off because we couldn't get everyone together to practice.

BUT, we did start back last night, so maybe we'll get to play a song or two every now and then!

Getting back to the blue-hairs, you ought to see the expressions when they walk into the sanctuary and the guitars and drums are set up on stage! Ordinarily, there's only an organ and a grand piano. But, we're working on 'em. I personally would like to go to 2 services, with trad early and contemporary at 11, but there's that "C" word again (change )

I told some of the band members (most have only been here a few years), that when my wife and I started dating (back in '86), we couldn't even CLAP for someone who sang a solo. The sentiment was that "we were applauding the person instead of God". Fortunately, times have changed, albeit slowly.

Anyway, good luck with your new church Brian! It sounds like you're working your way into a new home. I'll definitely keep you in my prayers. :AOK:

 

[luvmyshiner]

. . . when my wife and I started dating (back in '86), we couldn't even CLAP for someone who sang a solo.

Back in the long, long ago, I served as an associate pastor at a Southern Baptist Church (don't ask, they were desperate) I was once reprimanded for "smiling" to much from the pulpit.

We don't talk about that much at the Sinner . . . um . . . I mean Shiner household.:thwap:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Dude, Lutherans ain't a whole different from us Baptists! I definitely feel your pain! We're doing a "blended" service now, but it still leans heavily to traditional. The youth praise band I lead plays mostly on Sunday night, be we actually got do a morning service a couple of weeks ago. We started an adult praise band in the Spring, played one song, and had to knock off because we couldn't get everyone together to practice.

BUT, we did start back last night, so maybe we'll get to play a song or two every now and then!

Getting back to the blue-hairs, you ought to see the expressions when they walk into the sanctuary and the guitars and drums are set up on stage! Ordinarily, there's only an organ and a grand piano. But, we're working on 'em. I personally would like to go to 2 services, with trad early and contemporary at 11, but there's that "C" word again (change )

I told some of the band members (most have only been here a few years), that when my wife and I started dating (back in '86), we couldn't even CLAP for someone who sang a solo. The sentiment was that "we were applauding the person instead of God". Fortunately, times have changed, albeit slowly.

Anyway, good luck with your new church Brian! It sounds like you're working your way into a new home. I'll definitely keep you in my prayers. :AOK:

Lutherans still don't clap.

I don't really mind that though. I'd just like to see more contemporary content. This particular church is right on the cusp of being a "dying" one, full of all old people eventually withering away to nothingness (the church, not the old people). They just started up a daycare which is a great way to have more money coming in, as well as of course teaching values and religion to the kids themselves. However, a daycare also can bring whole unchurched families into the church, because it makes the concept of church less foreign to them.

However, that will only happen if the services are not going to drive them away. I can see easily how a trad Lutheran service would bore some people to tears. The hard fact is that church liturgy and music has to change with the times in order to survive. If there are other options out there that are not boring, people will find them.

Good luck Ron! Thanks, and prayers for you too.

 

[bigoldron]

Lutherans still don't clap.

I don't really mind that though. I'd just like to see more contemporary content. This particular church is right on the cusp of being a "dying" one, full of all old people eventually withering away to nothingness (the church, not the old people). They just started up a daycare which is a great way to have more money coming in, as well as of course teaching values and religion to the kids themselves. However, a daycare also can bring whole unchurched families into the church, because it makes the concept of church less foreign to them.

However, that will only happen if the services are not going to drive them away. I can see easily how a trad Lutheran service would bore some people to tears. The hard fact is that church liturgy and music has to change with the times in order to survive. If there are other options out there that are not boring, people will find them.

IMO, we're at that point where either we've got to decide whether to expand or shrivel up and die. We've got some younger (my age if you consider that younger!) families who enjoy a more contemporary service, our youth program is doing fairly well, but as you say, it's bringing in a lot of unchurched kids, so we've got to not only attract them, but we've got to do something for their parents.

But, we've got quite a few older members and some are rather vocal about what's wrong with what we're doing. One or two in particular try to run things as if it is their personal church. We try to restrain these few with our committee led decision making process, but for the upcoming year, several of them have gotten themselves on some of the more influential committees.

These few don't really care for the contemporary worship and certainly don't like having guitars and drums in church. But, hopefully, they're becoming more and more the minority.

Getting back to the growth thing, I'm on the property and grounds committee and we're looking at proposals for possible much-needed future building growth. We've been talking for a LONG time about it, but now we're actually got something to present to the church. I'm all for the new building, but as I told them, we've got to spark some interest to get more non-regulars to show up and get those who don't have a church home to WANT to come here.

Apparently, these are "not-too-uncommon" issues. Hopefully, we'll all do what's best for serving God and for the benefit of our church.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Good onya Ron. Hopefully both our churches will see what they need to do to keep on keepin on.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Back in the long, long ago, I served as an associate pastor at a Southern Baptist Church (don't ask, they were desperate) I was once reprimanded for "smiling" to much from the pulpit.

Ummmmm, for what exactly is "smiling" a euphemism?

I say that those of us that are nonreligous outta get us a place to jam every weekend.

I'm not adverse to having Rev Skyrawker sprinkle a little of his magic progvision on us in between songs.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

I say that those of us that are nonreligous outta get us a place to jam every weekend.

I'm not adverse to having Rev Skyrawker sprinkle a little of his magic progvision on us in between songs.

I will come to said meetings with a bottle of champagne, bless it, shake it up, and baptise all of us.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

I will come to said meetings with a bottle of champagne, bless it, shake it up, and baptise all of us.

Say Amen brother!