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Topic: playing in church but hit a roadblock, HELP |
Ron Victoria
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2009 5:14 pm |
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I am interested in playing at my Catholic church with the folk mass musicians. He gave me the music for standard things played weekly. Yikes, every word is a different chord!!!! Any suggestions how I could join them? I will be using my resonator. I was thinking about just trying to play single note harmony where possible. They play all the chords.
thanks, Ron |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 31 Jan 2009 5:18 pm
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Are we talking mostly hymns? That strikes me as somewhat unusual for the modern Catholic "folk" mass.
A lot of the older hymns, with the accompanying chords designed around a keyboard, sometimes seem to have a new chord on about every syllable.
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Mark |
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Edward Meisse
From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2009 5:21 pm
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Many fake books are written with the keyboard changes at the top. This could be a case of that, too. I'd get with the guitar player, if any, and see what he is actually playing. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the chord chart you've been given is good for your instrument.
If that doesn't rescue you I'd concentrate on the turnarounds and the places in between the words where your playing would be most effective anyway. I would try to move when the voices were holding longer notes and either hold a longer note or lay out when the voices were moving.
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Amor vincit omnia |
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Ron Victoria
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2009 5:45 pm
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I can handle the entrance, communion, and concluding hymns he may select. It's the regular prayers with the numerous chords:
holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power
Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 31 Jan 2009 5:52 pm
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I would stick to the melody in those cases, but I agree that a quick talk with the guitarist should clear up whether you're expected to play the chords as well. In any ensemble, traditionally the steel guitar is a melody instrument, so single note melodies (with occasional two or three note chords) should work best.
Good luck! Resonator guitar sounds great in worship services, in my opinion.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Mike Harris
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 7:16 am
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You could simply play two-note chords.
Every chord in the hymn is going to be based on a triad, usually major or minor, maybe occasionally diminished or augmented. Just take the bottom interval (root and third) or top (third and fifth) of a "close" voicing and play that, then move to the closest version of the next chord using the same idea.
I hope that's not too vague--if you give a specific example it would be possible to tell how it might be played in this way. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 7:29 am
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Ron, don't play through the verses. If the rest of the group plays the chords behind the singing in the verse, that should be enough. Try to focus on the chorus, playing the melody, if possible.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Ron Victoria
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 7:29 am
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| Mike, I can play 2 or 3 note chords. The problem is I doubt I can change that quickly reading the sheet. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 7:36 am
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If you're not sure, then don't play. Plus, I think it would be more musical to lay out on the verses. There's no need for the steel to play every chord--it's more of an ornamental instrument.
Sometimes (often) the art is knowing when NOT to play.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Mike Harris
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 8:50 am
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Ron,
if that's the case, then Brad's and Mike's solutions would be the way to go.
Good luck, I hope you get the tunes figured out. |
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Ron Victoria
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 9:01 am
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I have all but one worked out playing melody/harmony. I will see if I can go over his house one night and finalize. They do practice 30 minutes before mass but I'd rather have it down before going there. They usually practice the new hymns for that mass. I'm wondering if my resonator will be loud enough in the Cathedral as they are mic'd out. I could bring the lap and crate amp but defeats the who concept of folk mass.
thanks for all the useful tips.
ron |
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Robert Murphy
From:
West Virginia
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Posted 1 Feb 2009 9:06 am
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| Ron I did this every Sunday for a coulpe of years at my Catholic church. The band was Bluegrass friendly and many of the songs were arranged to fit mando and banjo but the chord changes came fast and non major most of the time. I switched to G6 tuning GBEGBD to make the relative minors come under the bar and learned a lot of two note chords. I bought an 8 string Dobro too, that really opened up a lot of possibilities. I would get the sheet music and transpose it to the key of the day, then I would map out the chord changes note by note. I even created my own tab or dobro shorthand. Some very interesting things happened then! I began to see how voice leading and harmoney works. Most of the time the only changes needed were some walking bass lines and other times chord substitution was very evident so you don't have to work nearly as hard to do backup and fills. "Music theory for dummies" is a help and so are years of lessons. Now I play upright bass just because the choir didn't have any bottom. Good luck and thanks for using your talent for your Lord. Feel free to contact me off forum if you need any help. I still play the version of "Sleep Walk" you sent me years ago. |
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Chris Walke
From:
St Charles, IL
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Posted 3 Feb 2009 11:04 am
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I play reso in church every Sunday, but I belong to a Baptist church - the musical tradition is a bit different.
That being said, some of the older hymns are written out with a crazy amount of chord changes. What I've found is that many of those changes are passing chords and can actually be skipped. I've taken some of those hymns and worked up some "dumbed down" charts. This does not always work, but if the particular hymn stays strongly within a key, it usually works. Many of those Catholic hymns seem to have lots of accidentals and chromatic changes in the harmonies. Might be harder to do that with those songs. |
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George Rout
From:
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 3 Feb 2009 3:56 pm
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Being Catholic, I can't help but mention here that there is probably lots of good Rhythm.
Geo
_________________
http://georgerout.com
"I play in the A Major tuning. It's fun to learn and so easy to play. It's as old as the hills....like me" |
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Steve Norman
From:
Seattle Washington, USA
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Posted 4 Feb 2009 12:13 am
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if your tuned gbdgbd leave out the b strings until you figure out where all the minors are. Be another "singer" and only play the whole chord when you are sure the song is resolving to a known major then strum it boldly. I would capo on the key of the song (5th for c, open for g etc) so you have plenty of open strings to contrast with single note slides. If you fail do some Hail Marys and move on.
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GFI D10, Fender Steel King, Hilton Vpedal,BoBro, National D dobro, Marrs RGS |
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George Rout
From:
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 4 Feb 2009 6:37 am
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Steve's comment brings back a bit of Catholic nostalgia..... When I was taking Hawaiian guitar lessons back in 1948, one of my lessons was The Rosary. Maybe I should dig out the tab and Ron you could be the star player on it!!!!
George
_________________
http://georgerout.com
"I play in the A Major tuning. It's fun to learn and so easy to play. It's as old as the hills....like me" |
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