first try
as mentioned at the end of my longest post ever, I've been thinking about attempting to write a new tune to an old hymn, much like these guys do (among others). the ultimate goal would be to sing it for church someday, and maybe start developing experience as a songwriter.
so I posted a newbie question at the Indelible Grace forum, and I got a great answer from the man himself (the pastor who started IG). so I set out looking for an old hymn to try out. I knew that the OPC has the text of the old Trinity hymnal online, so I started poking around and found a couple that I liked.
next was to try to make a melody suitable for the text. as I read and prayed through "I Need Thee, Precious Jesus" a few times while I was feeding Alice tonight, I was wondering where the tune would come from. it was a bit intimidating. then I remembered that back when I would just sit and noodle with the mandolin, I'd make up relatively pleasing little tunes all the time, and a lot of them sounded like lullabyes. this gave me a little comfort in knowing that maybe I really could do this? we'll see.
so instead of just reading, I sung the text, and out came a little melody. Alice seemed to like it. it's a bit repetitive, but I think it has potential. I can hear Buddy Miller or even Gillian Welch singing it, but not quite an Indelible Grace tune (but that's fine with me). it sounds nothing like the usual tune I found for this song, which I intentionally avoided until afterward. and now that I look, it turns out the author of the text also penned "Oh, how I love Jesus", which is a favorite.
anyway, I sung through my tune a few times so I would remember it. the problem is I cant read music very well, much less write it out. so I got out the mandolin and picked out the tune and got it down quickly. then I scratched it out in tab, or at least a rough version of tab. then I picked up the guitar and tried to find the chords. I'm not good at finding chords in general, but so far it's just C and G. the good news is that I can play these chords. the bad news is that 2 chords make for a pretty boring song (even most pop songs have 3). I think there's more in there somewhere, but I'll have to work at it, and maybe enlist some help.
so we'll see if my little version of "I Need Thee, Precious Jesus" ever sees the light of day. either way, I'm pretty excited about my first try.
Posted by bobw at
11:11 PM
|
adventures in music
thanks to Ed's account with MusicMatch on Demand (which he lets me use when he isnt), I've been able to listen to all sorts of music that I havent heard in a while. at times I've cringed and shook my head wondering why I liked that crap. but it's made me realize that I've passed through many genres over the years, and I thought it would be fun to try to recount my musical history, so to speak.
this is not a short story. so please forgive the length, as it is mostly for my own benefit that I'm putting in all these details.
the first album I remember getting was the Ghostbusters soundtrack. I received it with a little red boom box for Christmas, and being 8 (or 9?) I thought it was the coolest. I aint afraid of no ghost. yeah. for music before that age, I seem to recall kids records of Baby Beluga and such, but those memories are dim. I guess that was Raffi? Puff the Magic Dragon is somewhere back there too. and every Christmas we would listen to all 4 records of The Chipmunks Christmas. classic.
of course every week we sang hymns and church. I also remember going to hymn sings Sunday evenings (and at Liesureville with grandma and grandpa), where we could suggest the songs ourselves. I seem to remember the fun songs like Wonderful Grace of Jesus being popular requests from the kids.
both my parents were always in the choir as they met in choir in high school and I think have been in choirs together ever since. my mom was a well-blending alto, and my dad was always a leading tenor, the kind of voice that people would notice when we were in the pews together. now and then he would be asked to sing stuff like My Tribute for the little church that met in the Lions Club building. classic. I'm sketchy on the details, but I think he sang for a band for a little while too, and I'm pretty sure "Eye of the Tiger" was one of their favorites. even more classic.
anyway, all that to say that I have a lot of musical heritage. I wasnt really into it at the time, but I'm sure all that time and effort that my parents put into making music in church taught me the value of what they were doing. there's a lot of music in the older generations too.
I think about the same time I was jamming to Ghostbusters, I started listening to the Christian rock group Petra. or at least it wasnt too long afterward. I also remember listening to Amy Grant with my older sister in this general era, as well as Heart and Def Leppard. and somehow "Walk Like and Egyptian" made an impression on me. I managed to record that off the radio and I played it over and over. weird.
but I think Petra was the first band that I was really into, fueled by some of the other kids in youth group and undoubtedly encouraged by and encouraging to the parents and youth leaders. I remember really liking "Beat the System" at first, which was followed by "On Fire" and especially "Beyond Belief," which was released in 1990, when I was 13. that's when I went to my first big concert: the Night of Joy at Disney World. Night of Joy was a mini-festival of sorts: all Christian bands playing all over Disney for one night. the place was packed with youth groups. apparently they still do it. I remember seeing DC Talk open for Petra, and while I was impressed with the show in general, I wasnt into their music at all. but the Petra show was WAY cool, complete with big hair, a flashy drummer, and a guy playing the keytar (how cool was that?!).
but apparently not long after that, Petra wasnt cool anymore. ah the changing whims of adolescence. I remember digging Tesla and Extreme and Spin Doctors while I was still listening to tapes. a little Van Halen too. then suddenly Nirvana and Pearl Jam were cool. I was a bit of a late adopter to the new trend (which is still the case with me), but it didnt take too long til I was nodding my head to the distortion, along with everyone else. when I finally got my license, I would crank up the Soundgarden in my zippy little beat-up Datsun. and when my parents finally got a CD player, I remember getting CDs of Live and Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam, and I'd drag the player into my room to rock out and marvel at the sound quality. oh and I cant forget They Might Be Giants. I had Flood memorized. one more: Toad the Wet Sprocket (these are about the only two that I still like from this era).
as I neared the end of highschool, things were about to change, diverging from the mainstream thanks to 2 bass-playing almost-friends who were really into Primus. not that they got me into Primus, although some of it was amusing. no, they convinced me to go to a festival that featured Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and afterward at a little club, the bassist Victor Wooten was doing a solo show. I'd never heard of Bela Fleck, but one of my teachers who I liked was pretty enthusiastic, so I figured I'd see what it's about. that show was the beginning of the rest of my musical life so far (to put it rather melodramatically).
in short, the Flecktones blew me away. who knew that a banjo, a bass and a funky synth-drum could be so cool? and I didnt know how cool it was at the time, but Sam Bush and Chick Corea sat in too (after all, who wouldnt want to play a show near the ocean in Palm Beach?). if you've never heard of them, they play electric jazzy funky bluegrassy crazy stuff, with a huge emphasis on virtuousity. the bass player was especially impressive, and the show at the club afterward was simply amazing. I had never seen nor heard anything like these guys, and pretty much overnight I was a big fan.
so the rest of my senior year I was weaned off "grunge" as I got more and more into the flecktones and similar modern jazz. I was never a big fan of the generally depressing and/or stupid lyrics of pop and rock, so it was cool to dive iinto instrumental music. actually, speaking of stupid lyrics, I was getting into Phish a little bit at this point. the jam style meshed well with the Flecktones, and there's certainly a lot of virtuosity there too.
so I was off to college, where initially I got more into classic jazz: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, etc. I was also introduced to Medeski Martin and Wood (by Josh Green), which fit well with the Flecktones and Phish. I attended a lot of great shows in college, mostly Flecktones and MMW, and one Phish show. A couple of those shows were the closest thing I've ever been to being high -- just from the second-hand stuff, as well as the entrancing music. I swear I had the munchies after a MMW show in Little 5 Points in Atlanta. The closest thing I had to pop these years was Ben Folds Five, as well as the Squirrel Nut Zippers. things also came around to the Christian side of music, as I got into the Vigilantes of Love early and often. I still love VoL.
I must pause here to point out that in college I was a dancing fiend. Andy, if you've made it this far, you need to give me a witness here. you know those guys at concerts that seem mostly high and are dancing around like crazy and dont seem to stop? well that was sorta like me at times (except for the high part (except as mentioned above)). I have no idea where it came from, but I had this crazy footwork thing that was sorta like a frenetic "roger rabbit" step if you remember that. weird, I know, but a whole lot of fun, and I'm sure people thought I was crazy, but I seldom care about that. after a while my compatriot in crazy dancing was Scott Anderson, who has many more moves than I. the funny thing is that I was never like this before college, and I kinda gave it up after college.
and now, I'll diverge from strictly listening to music to my initial attempts to make some. after my freshman year of college, I went "home" to a new place, as my parents had moved from FL to NC. so I didnt have a whole lot to do, and I decided to take up the bass guitar. I've always liked the bass, as I'm usually following and humming along to the bass line in most songs, and although I'll never reach his heights of greatness, Flecktone bassist Victor Wooten inspired me to give it a shot. so I borrowed a little bass and littler amp from my new choir director (I joined the church choir with my parents for the summer) and started experimenting and trying to teach myself from a book. I also figured that I could try to play along with simple stuff like the blues, and, as it turned out: U2 (I forgot to mention that I liked U2 on and off over the years).
early on, I remember playing along to Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason," which is a fairly straight-up blues tune, as the bass does the same simple progression the whole time. I've got a pretty good ear for things (at least I think I do, since I play everything by ear), so it wasnt hard to catch on, and I was having fun in no time. then "with or without you" came on the radio, and I instantly lost a ton of respect for pop in general and U2 specifically (I've since regained respect for them, by the way). I played along, my first try on that song, having played the bass (or any instrument) for less than a week -- and I got it pretty easily. holy crap! this stuff is simple! what the heck?! it's no wonder that I turned my back on pop for a while as I concentrated on the likes of Victor and Mike Gordon and various other bass demigods.
so soon I had my own bass and amp, and I dove into all things bass for the enitre summer, and I made pretty good progress. I returned to college looking to jam with anyone who was willing, and after a little while, found a freshman guitar virtuoso named Andrew Hobbs and his drummer roommate Rich. Andrew was and is an amazing guitar player who could do very convincing covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn and the like. I'm sure I was over my head with these guys, but we still had fun and started thiking about playing for the college open mic night. but alas, the week we were to go on stage, I dislocated my shoulder and was replaced by none other than David Kaufmann.
one thing led to another, and eventually Dave and Andrew and Josh Green formed Infradig Ensemble with me as their #1 fan, roady and eventually webslave. Josh was previously in a jazz/funk band called Lilt, which we all thorougly enjoyed, and I kept trying to convince Andrew to play with him. I think he was intimidated by Josh, but it didnt take long for them to mesh musically once they got together in the old art barn (someone correct me if I'm messing up the details). I think this was my junior year, and I was just too busy to dive into music, so with me wondering what might have happened, Dave quickly learned the bass and they took off and havent stopped yet. I remember helping Andrew with some of the lyrics of one of his old breakup songs, and he played with me at an open mic that was my first stage appearance. Rich was gone by then, so it was just guitar and bass, and we did a cheesy blues song that I wrote called "Go on and leave me." I guess it wasnt too terrible, with Andrew tearing up the guitar solos. we also did a funky version of Pachebel's Canon, with Sarah Barker on the violin. that was fun, but I imagine I'd cringe if I heard it now. mostly I remember being terribly nervous, but we made it through our little set relatively uneventfully. I think we did Little Wing too, which was always my favorite to play with Andrew.
along the way I learned to play the regular guitar a little, but I never really got into it. actually, there was a time when I was into it for a while. I got an old electric guitar for cheap, and Andrew taught me the blues scale. I would write it out in the margins of my notes in class until I had it down. so I could sorta play the blues, and it was good to teach me how to use a pick better (which I previously disdained, being a picks-are-for-sissies kinda bassist). it was a little one-dimensional, but still a lot of fun. I learned the basic chords, but that's about it. even now I only know about a dozen, but that will get you surprisingly far, if you're willing to ignore the 7 and sus and such.
anyway, I was still into Bela Fleck, and I was starting to get into his acoustic stuff more and more. what especially caught my ear (besides the bass) was the mandolin parts in his stuff, which was usually played by Sam Bush. soon I borrowed a mandolin from a friend and started messing around. I didnt quite fall in love, but I was definitely interested. when my great-grandmother passed away, my mom wanted to share her inheretance with me and my sister in a unique way: she wanted us to buy something special to remember great-grandma by. so even though I knew very little about them, I bought myself a mandolin and dubbed it "Henrietta" after great-grandma. this was my senior year and I was busy falling in love and having a grand time with it all. I cant say I remember much about learning the mandolin, but I think it was slow-going for a while. it's most likely due to the fact I had less time to put in than I liked, but I could tell it was for me. I played a couple songs at another student music fest, this time with Jonathan Davis. one was another cheesy blues song I wrote (channeling frustration toward my future father-in-law) and some other acoustic jam we did. again, I was very nervous, but we did OK.
Michelle, the girl I fell in love with, also enjoyed music. she played guitar and knew just about every praise song. she was into stuff like David Wilcox, who I also enjoyed. for some reason we never really played music together that I can remember, but we still managed to fall in and out and back in love and get married after college. I dont remember much about music that first year, as I think we were busy with other activities. but I do remember thinking that it was very cool to have a nice guitar around the house.
I was getting more and more into "newgrass" and the like and the next band that I got really into was Nickel Creek. their mandolin player Chris Thile is quite amazing, so I was really inspired to play more mando. eventually we learned to play some of their songs, as well as a few bluegrass standards, and I tried to teach myself more and more. I got a few tunes under my belt, but we never really polished them very well. but we did get together with Sarah and Dave and Scott to play some of the stuff that was ever-popular due to the "O Brother" craze. that was a whole lot of fun, and our shining moment was recording "I'll Fly Away" for a little music video claymation I did. we had aspirations of playing more, but soon Michelle's health took a turn for the worst and things were on hold and never really got back together. meanwhile I was pouring myself into all things acoustic (especially mandolin), listening to a lot of Nickel Creek, Chris Thile, Mike Marshall, Sam Bush, David Grisman, Alison Krauss, Edgar Meyer, etc. I was also into Gillian Welch for a while, as well as Buddy and Julie Miller, and VoL made a comeback in my favorites list. besides being great artists that I still enjoy, these folks were a great bridge from my acoustic-instrumental phase to the next place I ended up.
around this time we joined our neighborhood church, which has a less-than-formal worship service. occassionally they'd have a chamber music quartet play, and sometimes folks with acoustic guitars and such. I dont remember exactly when it started, but I think it was Joe who asked me to play mandolin with some folks for the "preparatory music" (which is usually a worship song or hymn played and/or sung by a group to open the worship service). I was really excited to be able to "use my powers for good" so to speak, instead of my own amusement. it must have went ok, since soon enough we were playing about once a month or so.
meanwhile, Nickel Creek was fading into the background, and Indelible Grace was my new favorite band. Michelle's parents introduced us to their music, and it didnt take long for me to really get into it. they do new tunes to old hymns, which is just the kind of thing I was looking for to do for church. I had some great hymn CDs from Claire Holley and Randall Goodgame, which we played a bunch and left me searching for more, and Indelible Grace was just the thing. they rock out a bit more than I like to these days, but they also do the modern acousting thing quite well. their stuff has opened my eyes to the recent worship music movement in contemporary Christian music, most of which I have been enjoying. there was a time when I would have turned up my nose to anything remotely CCM, but thankfully I've grown out of that.
somewhere in there I learned to play the guitar a little bit, as the bass and mando are not great for singing along to. I even sold the bass when the first kid came along, since I never played it anymore. BIG MISTAKE. lesson: never sell instruments (unless it's a Hammond organ you get for free). anyway, I can play the guitar well enough to keep me happy, but that's not all that great. I did enjoy playing for Sunday school at church for a while, and hopefully I can get back into that once schedules permit.
within the last year the classical quartet at church unfortunately disbanded (as our friend Sarah went away to grad school). this left a bit of a void for the preparatory music slot, so I decided to volunteer our services on a regular basis. now we do a song for church every-other-week, and we meet to practice once during the week of our "gigs." my capacity with the group (which we call Spikenard, with tounges somewhat in cheek) is to make sure we get together and have a couple song ideas ready in case noone else happens to have anything. I also play mandolin and sometimes sing lead or harmonize, depending on the song. we usually receive positive feedback from folks, which is always encouraging. I'm so thankful for Tom, Joe, Jim (our regulars) as well as Joe, Mark, Shaun and Kelly -- all folks who have played with us at one time or other. sadly, one of our members just let me know that he cant play with us any more, so I'm wondering what's next for our group. I'd love to have some new blood come in, so hopefully we can get more folks to play with us. we're about to start up an informal time of playing and singing music at our house every-other week, so maybe that will turn up some folks. if you've made it this far (or even if you havent), you're invited to our house this Tuesday to come sing and play.
so here we are near the end of the long story, and hopefully the beginning of the next. I'm so thankful for all the different types of music I've been able to enjoy and learn from. from pop to Christian rock to "alternative" to jazz/funk to "newgrass" to bluegrass to folk to worship music -- I think the progression has been pretty cool. the best part about where I'm at right now is that I can use whatever meager talents I have been given to praise God and serve others in our worship services. I've recently been inspired (partly by reading the blogs of various Indelible Grace members) to start trying to write some tunes of my own. I have no real formal music training, so I feel like I'll be going by the seat of my pants. and with 2 babies in the house, I'm not sure where I'll get the time, but I feel like it's something I should try. I especially want to try to write a new tune to an old hymn. we'll see how it goes. thanks to Michelle for encouraging me along these ways, and many thanks to God for giving me the little talent I have. I just hope to use it faithfully.
Posted by bobw at
09:44 PM
|
