FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Gang,

Monday I posted on our “Worship Confessional” video that we’d introduced the new song by Chris Tomlin, Nathan and Christy Nockels & Company from the Passion 2011 CD, “All My Fountains”.

Although I wasn’t there for the live recording of Passion 2011, I was present at the “Lift” event last month and experienced this song for the first time and loved it.

Our debut of this song at SSCC was extremely well-received.  I’d like to share the click-track and loop that I made for this song with you.  Enjoy!

Details:
Our Arrangement in Key of D.

*acapella Chorus intro – then start loop
*Segue, VS1, Chorus, Segue, VS2, Chorus, Segue, Bridge (4x), Chorus, Acapella Chorus, Tag

Instruments we used “LIVE” that are NOT on the click:  Acoustic (open tuned to D), 2nd Acoustic, Mandolin and Hammer Dulcimer, Bass, and Live Drums.

Instruments in the Loop:
Click
Spoken Guide
Stylus RMX Loops
Tambourine Loops
Clap Track
Organ Track
Piano Pad Guide Track

CLICK and SPOKEN GUIDE:  Panned Left
INSTRUMENTS:  Panned Right

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Download the loop.

If you use it, let me know how you like it!

Hey Gang,

I mentioned a couple of days ago in this post that we were going to be debuting Christy Nockel’s “A Mighty Fortress” this Sunday at SSCC.  It has some huge stuff happening and I didn’t want the sound to be anything less than “epic” so I decided to create a loop that we can use in Ableton Live.

Of course in Live, I will use individual audio files and can choose what I will and will not have playing.

Many of you asked, so here’s the .mp3 version of the mixed loop.
This loop assumes:
4-bar intro
Click in Right
Assumes live drummer to supplement loops, guitarist, and bass player.
(those instruments not included)

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(download)

Let me know what you think.  I’m still pretty new at this whole loop-creation process.

Several months ago, my pastor, David Yarborough (blog | twitter) started asking me about this new Christy Nockels song, “A Mighty Fortress”.  We have an incredibly talented (and I’d add anointed!) vocalist, musician, worship leader in our church, Ms. Kim Dixon who could cover this song perfectly.

If you haven’t heard this wonderful anthem, check it out on iTunes.
(and yes … the link is an affiliate link.  Your purchase of this tune will add somewhere around a nickel to our bank account.  My kids say thank you!)

While I was at the National Worship Leader Conference in Kansas City this summer I had the pleasure of hearing Christy lead this song.  It was powerful – and I couldn’t help myself, I slipped to the back of the room and dialed Pastor David and said “listen what I’m experiencing LIVE”.

Kim is on the praise team this week and I’ve decided to bring in this song as a special.  It’s gorgeous!  I’d call it an anthem, and it gets bigger and bigger in the middle with full orchestral parts and some driving electric guitars.

With a bit more planning, I would’ve scored out the string parts and given one of our other keyboardist the job of playing these parts live.  With our Tech Director, Travis Paulding (blog | twitter) on vacation and the Yamaha M7CL console already setup (and limited time to arrange) I’m going to attempt a click track and loop today.  I hope to add a rhythmic loop, perhaps some percussion and some big string arrangements.

I LOVE STUDIO DAYS.

Sunday Setlists – Week #31

1.  First, thanks for the cool red banner.  Problem is, I can’t remember whose site I snagged this from.  If it was yours, comment and let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!  (woo hoo, credit claimed – the banner was created by fellow blogger/Sunday Setlist participant, Dean Lusk!)

2 – Next, for the explanation (and rules) of how to participate in “Sunday Setlists” please see this page:
http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/sunday-setlists/

3 – Lots of you tell me “I forget some weeks” … so I’ve got a special, opt-in email list reminder especially for Sunday Setlists.  Join here.

4 – Please “tweet” this post using the link at the bottom after you’re done!
Also, be sure to use the #sundaysetlists hash tag when tweeting about YOUR worship confessionals!  (view all #sundaysetlists discussion on twitter by clicking here)

5 – When linking back to “Sunday Setlists” here, use today’s URL:
http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/02/22/sunday-setlists-31/
————————————————————————————————-

Sunday Setlists
St. Simons Community Church, 2/22/09

Great day of worship at SSCC.  I posted a question on Twitter earlier that said, “is it coincidence that on a Sunday we get more than normal complaints about the volume, the crowd was more engaged the ever”?.  Thanks to those of you who replied – I’d love your thoughts in the comments section below.  Basically, I had a discussion with one of our leaders who ushers and he said that the music was great, but that many more people complained about the volume than normal.  Ironically, today was perhaps the most active I’ve ever seen our congregation in worship.  They were shouting, singing, clapping, and really expressing themselves in worship,  I wasn’t “cheering” them on either – it was all spontaneous.

I would say that turning up the volume helped (and I’ve been saying that over and over, so I’d love to be able to say “see, I’m right”), but Travis mixed today and said overall, the decibel level of the music was LOWER than usual.

Our service was structured a bit differently today as we were celebrating Communion and wanted to have time to worship during and after this sacrament.  I’ve often commented that I’d rather have more music AFTER the sermon than BEFORE it, though it usually doesn’t work that way.  I’m so tempted to try it more often, but honestly – in most cases (and I mean in my 15+ years of leading worship, not just at SSCC) the Pastor usually goes longer since they “appear” to have more time, and we just have a longer sermon with less worship.  Exended worship that happens AFTER the teaching of God’s Word always seems to be more passionate and sincere, though.

That’s what we did today.  Here’s a run down – song titles are linked to iTunes where available.
Link to our PlanningCenterOnline.Com Service Plan:
http://www.planningcenteronline.com/plans/443644/public

Walk in:
Bluegrass/Country instrumental version of “Are You Washed in the Blood” (we only got to do this prior to the 11:00)
We Shall See the King (old gospel song, from Lindell Cooley’s “Revival in Brownsville” CD, years ago)

Opening Song:
Glorious (Martha Munizzi)

We used a new Ableton Live loop I created for this song.  The loop only includes congas and horns, but fills in the song nicely.  Having this on a click really forced us to keep the song laid back on the tempo.  I tracked this around 98 bpm and could feel myself wanting to rush it all day.  Our drummer and bassist teased me saying how great it was to FINALLY sing that song at not only the CORRECT tempo, but CONSISTENTLY at the same tempo!  Point taken.

Loop Links:  (OK, I clearly made some goofs, especially on the keyboard part, but ran out of time – there are no effects either.  I played the keyboard part live, so that channel was muted in Ableton for us today).

Audio Loop: (download)

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* Download .Zip package  for Ableton Live *

“Jesus Messiah”
This was not a natural segue and was the result of a different song being removed due to time issues.  I started with pads, and said a few words to start this song, which helped w/ the awkward transition.  This song went over HUGE and people really sang.

“Sermon”
It’s Personal – 4th and final week of this evangelistic series.  Again, many people professed Christ today in our services.  Praise God.

Communion and Worship
“This is the Gift of God” (Carl Cartee)
(currently featured at WorshipSource.Com)

“Jesus Paid it All” (Northpoint Live)

After communion, we did a corporate declaration of salvation.  We never do readings like this, but it was powerful.  The band was in the Key of E, and we held a low, 1-chord … and slowly built with the drums, walking up the scale.  (download the declaration)
I – ii – iii – IV – V – vi – vii – I

The music grew and grew as we progressed up the scale reading this declaration together as a body.  I could hear the crowd getting more and more excited as they declared the reading, and as it finally ended, we went immediately into the big drum intro of “Sing to the King” which closed out our service.  To say it was “powerful” is an understatement.  People were shouting, jumping, singing, clapping, and celebrating like I’ve never seen before in my life at SSCC.

Finally, as we closed the service we jumped into the full vocal version of the Bluegrass/Country style arrangement of “Are You Washed in the Blood”.

In closing – I want to say this.  I was pretty insecure about my song selection today – I head some joking and comments from within the band and staff about the selections being “old, hoky, throwback” … pick your cheesy term … and yeah … I was like “OK, God, I hope this works”.  I really felt that I’d prayerfully put together a setlist that would build into the Word, Communion, and Celebration.

Here’s a response I just got via email from one of our worshipers who will remain “nameless”:

” … The very first song seemed like everyone wanted to dance, including me!  Then the “Jesus Messiah’ song was great.  I also loved how we worshiped during & after communion with the slower song that segued into the chorus (that right now I can’t think of the words) that just flowed from what we were celebrating & what David had been preaching on.  Today the Holy Spirit was definitely working.
The worship team seemed especially effective today without drawing attention to themselves, if that makes sense.  Their voices were strong but they seemed to be in the background worshipping along with us.  I do not have a voice for singing but like you said , if the music is loud enough , we feel more like singing along & I felt that was happening today.  In fact , I would say that I sang louder & with more feeling today than I ever have in my life!!  Of course, there was no one in front of me so I felt freer.  People do feel freer to sing if they think no one will hear them, unless they have great voices.
Today was absolutely awesome from all angles, I heard nothing but good, people were touched, lives were changed & we are were encouraged… “

PRAISE GOD for this!

OK, it’s your turn.  Blog about your worship experience, link back here, and then fill out the Mister Linky box below.
IMPORTANT:  in the URL field, be sure to put the full URL to YOUR blog entry, and NOT to your blog’s homepage.  Homepage links will be deleted.

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.  Download links are now available – if you download, all I ask is that you leave a comment below, letting me know.

Hosanna – 118 bpm with click and voice instructions:

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(download with click and voice instructions)

Hosanna – 118 bpm with click

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(download with click only)

Hosanna – 118 bpm with no click or voice instructions

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(download – no click or voice)

Now Available – Ableton Live Set

Download (267 MB – .zip format)

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?

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