snarf
making guitars wish they were still trees
I ended up with a bit of an unexpected gig on Mother's Day. My sister knew that I was headed over to East Texas where most of my family lives to see my mom for Mother's Day. So she called me about a week ago and asked me to play for her so she could sing a song my mom really likes at church on Sunday morning. So I agreed.
The pastor at the church where they all go is a musician and has some really nice instruments. In addition to preaching, he usually coordinates the music service and plays guitar for services, although the music minister leads that part of the service(the pastor evidently has a degree in music and the music minister is just a guy from their community that sings). The pastor and I have talked gear on a couple of occasions, and he has let me play around briefly on his Takamine. It's 45 years old, and is one of the "lawsuit" guitars. The first time I saw him playing it, from where I was sitting, I would have bet money that it was a Martin. It plays like butter, and sounds just as good as you would expect it to sound.
He saw me walk in the back carrying my niece's guitar that I had borrowed for the weekend, and he hollered over to me that he was helping out on keyboard this week, so he'd go get his Tak for me. I assumed that it was to play for my sister. When he got back from his office, I realized that he was intending for me to play the entire service. So I crawled up on stage, found my spot in the worship band, and commenced to trying to cram-learn what they were playing (I knew like 2 songs out of 5) for the service.
Managed to fumble my way through the songs watching over the shoulder of one of the singers at their lead sheet. It was challenging because I didn't know half the songs, they were all in Ab, and he slapped a capo on it just before he handed it to me, so I was trying to transpose everything into G on the fly. Got to the end of the service and got to use the guitar again to accompany my sister with it for the song that she sang.
Despite the challenges and not being familiar with the songs, I was reminded that music is music. 4/4 time is still 4/4, and you can fake it by just following the musicians around you. If the song is energetic and loud, play some rhythmic chords to help drive the song along. If it's more quiet and contemplative, a little finger picking with the occasional run of notes leading into the next chord (those leading tones Griff talks about). I actually surprised myself during one syncopated kind of number that I realized I was playing the same rhythm as the keyboard player, and adjusted to try and complement what he was playing rather than just copy it.
All in all, I had an absolute blast. I really enjoyed playing that guitar. He said he bought it a couple of years ago for $400. It sounds and plays like a guitar worth many times more than that. I was, also, reminded how much fun it is to play with others...especially when they're better than you so that you're being stretched a little bit. I apparently didn't do too bad as the pastor, music minister, and half the worship team all came up after the service and told me to come play any Sunday I was in town. I had enough fun I may take them up on it.
Sorry. No video or audio of it, and it definitely wasn't blues. Y'all will just have to trust me that I played.
The pastor at the church where they all go is a musician and has some really nice instruments. In addition to preaching, he usually coordinates the music service and plays guitar for services, although the music minister leads that part of the service(the pastor evidently has a degree in music and the music minister is just a guy from their community that sings). The pastor and I have talked gear on a couple of occasions, and he has let me play around briefly on his Takamine. It's 45 years old, and is one of the "lawsuit" guitars. The first time I saw him playing it, from where I was sitting, I would have bet money that it was a Martin. It plays like butter, and sounds just as good as you would expect it to sound.
He saw me walk in the back carrying my niece's guitar that I had borrowed for the weekend, and he hollered over to me that he was helping out on keyboard this week, so he'd go get his Tak for me. I assumed that it was to play for my sister. When he got back from his office, I realized that he was intending for me to play the entire service. So I crawled up on stage, found my spot in the worship band, and commenced to trying to cram-learn what they were playing (I knew like 2 songs out of 5) for the service.
Managed to fumble my way through the songs watching over the shoulder of one of the singers at their lead sheet. It was challenging because I didn't know half the songs, they were all in Ab, and he slapped a capo on it just before he handed it to me, so I was trying to transpose everything into G on the fly. Got to the end of the service and got to use the guitar again to accompany my sister with it for the song that she sang.
Despite the challenges and not being familiar with the songs, I was reminded that music is music. 4/4 time is still 4/4, and you can fake it by just following the musicians around you. If the song is energetic and loud, play some rhythmic chords to help drive the song along. If it's more quiet and contemplative, a little finger picking with the occasional run of notes leading into the next chord (those leading tones Griff talks about). I actually surprised myself during one syncopated kind of number that I realized I was playing the same rhythm as the keyboard player, and adjusted to try and complement what he was playing rather than just copy it.
All in all, I had an absolute blast. I really enjoyed playing that guitar. He said he bought it a couple of years ago for $400. It sounds and plays like a guitar worth many times more than that. I was, also, reminded how much fun it is to play with others...especially when they're better than you so that you're being stretched a little bit. I apparently didn't do too bad as the pastor, music minister, and half the worship team all came up after the service and told me to come play any Sunday I was in town. I had enough fun I may take them up on it.
Sorry. No video or audio of it, and it definitely wasn't blues. Y'all will just have to trust me that I played.
