FreePlay Friday - Ramblings

Posted on October 10th, 2008 in Free Play Fridays by Fred

Hey Everybody - it’s “FreePlay Friday” where I can get personal and talk about whatever I want - even if it’s not related to worship, worship leading, music, etc.  And I’d ask you to get involved and throw your random ramblings in here as well!

Here’s the bottom line for this Friday, October 10 2008.  I’m gonna throw out some quick points and let ya’ll get the discussion going.  I’ve not felt good this week - at all.  All week I’ve been feeling kinda weird.  I’ve had this tight, “butterflies” feeling in my stomach, like I’m anxious or worried about something, but I’m not aware of anything.  Nobody in our home is resting.  The kids are all waking up in the night - which is VERY uncommon.  Joy hasn’t slept well in weeks.  I tend to sleep OK, but don’t wake up rested and have non-stop dreams all through the night.  Nothing that seems significant.

Over the last few days I realized I’ve been running a low-grade fever since Tuesday.  I suspect that has something to do with it.  I’m trying to exercise (I’ve played a good bit of raquetball this week), and though I don’t feel like it, I’m trying to be disciplined in prayer and Bible Study.  Unfortnately, this thing that’s “on me” leaves me pretty apathetic on the spiritual front as well … so whereas I need to be digging deep and praying in the Spirit, I find myself just lethargic.  So pray for us.

Enough of that.  How ’bout a few ramblings:

1.  Economy.  It stinks.  I was not in favor of this ridiculous bailout, and I can’t see that it’s done much good.  I couldn’t believe Obama’s comment in the debate “if small business can’t get loans, they can’t make payroll”.  What ever happened to not HIRING more employees until your business can AFFORD to pay them?

2.  Politics.  Heck, part of me wonders if I’ve watched too much TV, and that’s why I have this great uneasy feeling.  I don’t like the way things are shaping up at all.  Granted, politics is a hot topic - but honestly, I am sitting back and watching the likely potential that our country is about to take a non-stop turn into socialism that will ultimately bring this great country to it’s knees.

3.  Sports.  UGA Bulldogs are playing Tennessee this weekend.  Go Dawgs.  We need a win - a BIG win.

So what’s going on with YOUR LIFE?

Loops - Hosanna by Paul Baloche

Posted on October 8th, 2008 in Music by Fred

Hey Everybody,

I spent the entire day (well, except for a couple of hours around lunch time for worship and prayer) in my studio today creating my “first official loop” for use in corporate worship.

The loop is to “Hosanna” by Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown.  I’ve loved this song since I first heard it a couple of years ago but have yet to incorporate it into personal worship.  I haven’t even owned it until I bought the CD yesterday.

I’d like to introduce this to our congregation on Sunday but thought the added loops and synth would give it a bigger sound.  So, here’s my first stab at making loops.

A couple of program notes:

  1. I couldn’t lock into the tempo on the album (A Greater Song) for anything - it was somewhere between 112-114 bpm.  I wanted it a little bit faster so created my loop at 118 bpm.
  2. There is a 4-bar countoff, then a 4-bar intro where the acoustic guitar should come in.
  3. I cut the electric guitar solo in the middle of the song in half.  Instead of a full pass through the Chorus, I only did a half chorus (8 bars) plus the sustained 9th bar.  Don’t shoot me electric players - I’d love to have the full solo, but I’m trying to balance the solo time so that my congregation stays with us.

There are two three versions.  Click is in the Right Side, but the Voice version adds vocal instructions in the South Georgia Redneck accent that only I could bring.

Hosanna - 118 bpm with click and voice instructions:

Hosanna - 118 bpm with click

Hosanna - 118 bpm with no click or voice instructions

Updates since first published:
1.  added third version with no click or voice instructions
2.  re-bounced click and click with voice - I realized that by stopping the song right after the last note (so avoid hearing extra clicks) I’d chopped off the delayed synth which is on a 188 bpm delay, matching the tempo, which should sustain for about 3 counts.

Bar/Measure Map:
m. 5:  4 bar intro (bring in acoustic, drummer’s HH)
m. 9:  Verse 1 (Praise is rising …)
m. 33:  Chorus a
m. 41:  Chorus b
m. 50:  Verse 2 (Hear the sound of …)
m. 74:  Chorus a
m. 82:  Chorus b
m. 91: Instrumental Solo (only 8 bars, plus 1)
m. 100:  Pre-Chorus (when we see You …) - instruments out
m. 108:  Pre-Chorus (when we see You …)
m. 117:  Chorus a
m. 125:  Chorus b
m. 133:  Repeat Chorus a
m. 141:  Repeat Chorus b
m. 150:  4-bar Instrumental Vamp
m. 154 - Hosanna (4x) to end

Ok all you loopsters … suggestions, comments, feedback?

Songwriting in Worship

Posted on October 7th, 2008 in Church Life, TheWorshipCommunity.Com, Worship Leadership by Fred

Hey Everybody -

Today I’d like to discuss songwriting in the church.  Bobby Gilles of Sojourn Music has been writing an incredible series on Developing Songwriting over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  I’d encourage anyone who is interested to check those articles out:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

I’m ashamed to admit that it’s been a few years since I was writing songs.  I’ve written some songs that I’ve been blessed to see used throughout the world in churches.  I could throw out a laundry list of excuses of why I’m not writing or recording any more these days, but when the dust settles - it’s still just a long list of excuses and choices that I’m making to do certain things instead of other things.

I believe there are many new songs to be written.  There are some incredible songwriters out there who bless us immensely with their material. Then there are the thousands of songs that are undiscovered by the mainstream worshiping community, or worse - that aren’t written at all.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  My site, HighestPraise.Com, was once a forerunner in publishing and promoting original worship material online.  It’s been around for nearly 15 years in one “form” or another.  It’s been pretty static lately.  But the sleeping giant is restless and I’m working on some ideas that will revive the site, the purpose, and it will be an incredible opportunity for those of you who are writing corporate worship material.  So stay tuned.

In the meantime, I’d like to hear about your songwriting.  Do you do it?  What’s your take on using original material in the local church.  What inspires you to write?  What distracts you from writing?

Let’s discuss!

Sunday Setlists #11 - Share Your Worship Recap

Posted on October 5th, 2008 in Church Life, Faith, Sunday Setlists, Worship Confessionals by Fred

Hey Everybody - Welcome back to the ever-growing Sunday Setlists!

Each Sunday I share a recap of what happened in our church services and ask you to do the same.  You blog about it, post back here, and then link out there … and we have a great “blog carnival” of sorts to network and share with each other (and everyone else) what we are doing in our churches.

For the carnival to work, you have to follow these rules:

1.  Write your blog, video recap (worship confessional), etc. about your worship service this week.  In the blog, you should link back to THIS POST by saying someting about Sunday Setlists:
http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2008/10/05/sunday-setlists-11/

2.  Fill out the “Mr. Linkey” widget below - be sure the link you leave goes directly to your Sunday Setlist post, and not your blog’s homepage. (homepage links will be removed)

3.  Leave a comment below.

4.  Spread the word (post a twitter if you have one!) and visit the other links and comment on their pages if you can!

***** Sunday Setlist for St. Simons Community Church, Oct. 5, 2008 *****

It was my first time back on the stage in three weeks - the past two Sundays Joy and I have been in Mexico.  It was great to be back.

Walk-In Song:  “For All You’ve Done”

Opening Song:  “Not To Us”
(I started this song waaaay to fast in the 9:00 service, but it was just right at 11:00)

*Announcements - I handled the welcome and announcements, and handed it over to one of the ladys in our church who did an announcement about the upcoming women’s conference.

Second Set:
“Everlasting God” - during this song we sung the Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, and then had a short guitar solo.  During the guitar solo, I brought a man up from the front row who read the last few verses from Isaiah 40 about this song while the band quietly vamped the “A” chord.  It was a great way to connect this song to the very Scripture it represents.

“God of Wonders”
“Holy, Holy, Holy” - in the 9:00 we only had time to sing two verses, but we sang all four in the 11:00.  It was just me playing a rhodes keyboard patch and the people singing.  It got louder and more powerful as people began to sing.

Sermon:  Jonah 3 - the God of Second Chances

We heard a powerful testimony from a young man who recently was electrocuted with over 7200 volts.  Nobody survives this much of a shock yet God spared his life.  He’s lived to share his story about his second chance.  David’s sermon was about second chances, and picking up and “going” to do God’s will.

Closer:  Come Ye Sinners

It was a great service.  In between the 9:00 and 11:00 we had “FamJam”, which is where the “parents bring their kids to church” on first Sunday of each month.

Your turn!
Fred

Alabama’s Nick Saban Arrested

Posted on October 4th, 2008 in Life and Family by Fred

I got this earlier this week.  As a devoted Bulldog Fan, I hated to even post this, but I must confess, it’s too clever not to.

I’m still crushed from last week’s agonizing defeat.  Good things our Dawgs are off this weekend to lick their wounds.

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