I learnt my piano playing in the trenches, son.

[deird1]

Advice for budding musicians who want to get good at playing with a group: JOIN A CHURCH BAND.

No, seriously. I have so much experience at different varieties of music-playing – but the kind of experience you get out of being in a church band is a whole other level.

You see… half the people there will kind of suck at music.

By playing piano in a church band, I have learnt:
- how to play with guitar and drums accompanying
- how to play without the drums, because the drummer failed to show up
- how to get the drummer into a different tempo by thumping the piano keys loudly, because he started the song at completely the wrong speed
- how to play in a way that supports the singers rather than overpowering them
- how to deal with the singers accidentally skipping two bars
- how to notice that the singers are unexpectedly repeating the chorus rather than moving on to the next verse
- how to loudly start playing the tune when the singers completely lose track of what they should be doing
- how to play beautiful tinkly music while people go up for communion
- how to extend the beautiful tinkly music for far longer than you were planning because communion is taking forever
- how to change the entire song to a different key halfway through rehearsal, because the singers complain it's too high
- how to realise a few bars in that the guitarist is playing in a different key to you, and transpose the song on the fly to match what he's doing
- how to be ready to unexpectedly launch into the "Happy Birthday" song when the pastor gets overexcited about us being part of a community

Comments

[shadowkat]

LOL! You've given me a whole new respect for all the church music directors that I've seen or encountered. Also wondering if this can be applied to school music clubs and choirs?

[deird1]

Not so much school groups, because you tend to have someone going “Okay, everyone, the drummer hasn’t turned up, so instead we’re going to…” or similar. In church groups, they tend to be overly optimistic: everything will work out, because it’s all in God’s hands, and if we DO make mistakes, well let’s all remember that we’re serving God and not giving a concert, so no-one will mind. It means you’re not nearly as prepared as you actually should be.

[shadowkat]

Lol!

Unless you have an overly ambitious music director - my mother's church has run across a few - they didn't last long. One wanted to take the church choir to Rome and sing with the Vatican, also to Paris. Another did too. Keep in mind this is a small Catholic Choir on an Island in South Carolina that is 30% tourist, 30% old retirees, and maybe 40% everyone else. And the church choir is mainly old retirees in their late 60s to 90s. They can barely leave the state let alone travel to Rome.

NY, I can kind of see it. We have paid musicians at my church, they aren't volunteers - the section leaders are paid, and the music director brings in professional musicians from his own professional band. It has some of the best church music that I've witnessed (well also does Broadway Show tunes, popular songs, and well pretty much everything - we've had a lot of Leonard Cohen) - it is also Unitarian Universalist Congregationalist, and basically all they have going for them in their services is the music and the sermon. The only ritual is a meditation, candle lighting for joy and concern, and a wisdom story. I don't think anyone would come worship if they didn't have decent music? NY choirs are ridiculously excellent, some of the Catholic ones charge admission at Christmas.