Hey everyone!

It is really good to be back at Lord of Life again.  We had a very fun rehearsal for this upcoming Sunday last night and I’m excited to be able to lead worship again this coming weekend.

The first item about training is a link that I just have to share with anyone reading this.  Anthony Coppedge and Greg Atkinson have teamed up to make this amazingly cool podcast called Creative Synergy.  If you are into technology, into making your staff run smoother, into reaching as many people for Jesus through new and exciting means, this is for you.  Subscribe to it and take a listen.  These guys are interviewing people from all over the world from some great churches and ministries that are making a huge difference.

Secondly, I received a magazine from a video production company called Digital Juice which had a fantastic article in it called “Simple Solutions to Church Media Mistakes.”  In this article, they talked about five simple to fix mistakes that can make a world of difference in how a church presents its media.  I want to focus on one in particular that I think is SO important.

It was #2 on their list, and it was this: Misleading Lyrics.

“If you project lyrics for your songs, you need to time the appearence of the text with the singing carefully.  For a smooth presentation, it is essential that the slides lead, not follow, the singers.”

The magazine mentioned that the problem is that untimely slide changes are a major distraction to people trying to sing what you show.  The solution was absolutely awesome and I hope everyone takes it to heart:

“Attend rehearsals and take good notes.  Meet with the music leader in advance of the rehearsal so you have a full understanding of the order and flow of the service.  The person running the slides is as much a part of the music team as an instrumentalist or vocalist.  Your job is to literally lead the singing. You need to know the songs as well as anyone on the platform.”

Please know that if you are a part of the media team, you are SO important, not only to your worship director, but to the ease of the congregation being able to sing praises to God without distraction.

Thanks so much to all of our volunteers who come to rehearsals, let’s continue to make our services distraction-free so that those coming to any services can focus on God, our Savior, alone!

This is one of the most important concepts that every worship team should learn.  The rhythm section (primarily the drummer and bass player, but also piano and guitar) must learn to lock together in what is called a “groove.” The tighter the groove is locked, the more precise energy the song will have.  Even if the song is a slow ballad, if there is a locked-in groove, energy will be there.

So how does this groove get created?  Primarily, from the foundation of the rhythm section, the drums and bass.  Last time we mentioned that it is essential that a bass player understand different styles of music.  It is even more essential for the drummer. Last time we looked at how important it is for a bass player to know and understand music theory.  While it is not necessarily vital that a drummer understand chords within a key, or key signatures, they must be able to have a basic understanding of notes and rhythms.  The better the understanding of how notes and rhythms work, and the ability to read written-out drum parts, the better the drummer will be at locking in the groove with the bass player.

Now, so many times I have been at seminars where a drummer and a bass player will show people how to create a groove and try to explain it, which is well and good, but sometimes you need to see something.  So with the fact in mind that having the ability to read notes is important, let’s figure this concept out in a few steps.

1. Determine the style of the music.  Is it rock?  If so, is it light rock, hard rock, half-time rock?  Is it blues?  Is it funk?  Is it swing?
2. Determine if the drummer and bass player know how to play the style.  If so, play it together and lock the groove in.  Unfortunately, here is where the majority of today’s worship teams get stuck.  They don’t know or understand style, and the music sounds the same song after song, week after week.  So how do you fix this?
3. Find out how to play the style.  Below is a drum pattern for a simple rock beat:

Let’s look at it logically first of all, before we even worry about how to read the music.  What is the lowest sounding drum on the drum set?  The kick drum.  So match the kick drum with the lowest note written out and you’ll see that the kick drum comes the beginning and middle of the first measure.  The snare sounds higher than the kick drum, so we’ll match the middle note to the snare, which comes opposite the bass drum in every measure.  Finally we have the hi-hat, which is every x at the the top of the music, basically playing all the way through except on the snare drum hits.

As far as the bass guitar goes, one of the easiest ways to remember where to play and how to lock into the groove is to match the bass note to the bass drum.  So, the bass player would play every spot that the lowest note hits.  Even if the bassline stays as simple as this, if it is locked with the bass drum, the groove will have a definite energy and glue that stays together.  If it were written out, it would look like this, with the drums on top and bass on the bottom:

It would sound like this.

If you begin to understand the basics of reading notes and rhythms, begin to understand style, and begin to understand how to match the bass guitar to the bass drum, the groove will lock in and create a wonderful glue and energy to the music.

What tips can you give for locking the bass player and drummer together?

I’m really hoping with these posts to be very practical to musicians who might not have much training.  I love the fact that there are resources out there that are meant to help train church musicians, but the only problem is that you get these powerhouse players for these resources that make everything look so easy and perhaps brush over some of the basics that people don’t think about.

So, that said, today I would like to look at the basics of creating a bass line.

1. Learn music theory (or at least the basics of it).  There is nothing more important than understanding how the musical structure of a song works.  If you can learn basic music theory (such as knowing the I, IV, V, and vii chords in every key), you will be way ahead of the game.  If you understand musical structure, you will be able to anticipate where your next note should go, know how to fill within a chord, and much more.
2. Practice.
3. After learning music theory, don’t only rely on the bass note of the chord.  If you see something like G/B, don’t skip over the G!  Yes, you must first of all be solid on knowing that you as the bassist are supposed to play the B, but if you don’t know what chord goes over the B, how can you fill and make your bass lines more interesting?
4. Practice again.
5. Learn style.  This one can be tricky.  Where do you start?  The best way to do this is first of all, learn step 1, then secondly, find some drum grooves that are written out.  For those of you who go to Lord of Life, I have a poster of them in my office.  Learn where the kick drum and snare drum are written on these drum grooves and match them.  A great way to practice this is by going to the Jam Zone at CyberFret Bass, choosing a style, and just plain doing it.
6. Practice more.  Are you sensing a trend here?

The best things to do when learning how to create bass lines are to know the foundations of music theory, and to know style.

Next time we’ll look at how the drums and bass work together, utilizing these same concepts.

What are some tips you have for creating a bass line?

(photo by Salvi)