Central Campus -December 4th, 2011-A Simple Christmas
Salvation Is Here
Enough
Message- Christmas Is Forgiving: Dr. Benji Kelley
O Come All Ye Faithful
Silent night
Angels We Have Heard On High
Joy To The World
A couple of comments: First of all, I think this was just the icampus mix, but Enough sounded a bit flat dynamically. In person it sounded much more dynamic. But like I said, I think that was just the icampus audio.
Also on Enough the bridge felt different. When we went to the "You're Enough"'s it felt like no one was leading that section. It felt like it didn't really have direction.
For the future, when we do acoustic sets, we shouldn't have the auxiliary percussion guy in front. At the beginning of O Come, Steve hadn't really starting playing yet and there were some very awkward camera shots with him sitting there.
Camera wise, during the acoustic set, we could have used some pan shots. I realize the acoustic setup is harder to get good camera shots. But using pans is a good way to get energy on screen (especially since everyone is on stools, and about the same height).
Also, I thought it funny that as we start "Joy, Unspeakable Joy" That the camera comes to a shot of me right as I hit a wrong chord and grimace.
Overall I would say there wasn't much bad about this week musically and technically, but it just seemed to be missing that wow-factor. Maybe it was that doing the Christmas/acoustic set didn't really get the congregation involved. I liked doing that set, but I don't really know how to do that and get the crowd involved...
Seems that when the 2nd acoustic wireless was on we had some cross cancellation between it and the bass wireless. Gotta love a wireless, let me down once, shame on you Mr. wireless, let me down twice shame on me. Sorry guys, no excuses, my bass parts were spotty at best after the first two songs. Won't let it happen again!
I agree with David that Enough felt much more interesting dynamically in person - so it could be the iCampus, but I also felt the energy was a little low during that song overall... not sure why. I thought Jennifer lead it so well and sounded beautiful - and it is such a powerful song... so I'm not sure what happened as far as energy goes in that song.
I can't speak to the camera shots since that isn't my area of expertise or forte to be honest.
I think as far as the acoustic set goes, I think there are a couple factors that are going on here:
1. I know at least for me, personally, it's always harder to sing sitting down. Don't know why, but it just is. And I know it is really about the intimacy of it, but I think that also zapped some of the energy. I definitely don't know how to exude energy other than just smiling when I'm sitting - so if anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
2. And again, at least for me, sitting in front of the monitors made it very difficult to hear anything other than what's going on in the house - which can be good in some cases, but not good in this case. So dynamics and even vocals were really hard to hit on the nose partly because I couldn't hear anything. Which was why I came in a beat early at the end of the song - but that didn't happen in the later services so phew! Not to mention I was completely losing my voice during the first service so that was an added monkey wrench. But, I need to quit making excuses. No excuses Buckley... step it up.
3. I think having the congregation seated made it difficult, too. Having them stand in the later services DEFINITELY helped.
Overall I thought the later services were really good.
I can't pinpoint exactly why the wow-factor wasn't there... and I agree with David, too, I don't think this was a bad weekend musically or technically - just missed the wow.
And, ps: I love Buster on Bass!!!
Overall, I love this team, I love serving with you guys, and at the end of the day, it's all about where our hearts are in worship - and I know I needed to worship Him this weekend BIG time and I felt in my heart like I did.
As Molly said, the Heart of Worship was present and that it what makes the biggest impact! The other things we can fix... but our hearts our the most important thing.
Thank you guys for all your hard work and dedication to glorifying our God, Christ the King!
As far as my opinion goes, I think this weekend was a good example of how total preparation and confidence needs to happen from each and everyone of us to achieve the WOW factor...
It seemed to me as if there were multiple spots where various lack of confidence with the band, vocals, and tech just added up to a less than stellar result... when 1 or 2 of us make a few mistakes here or there it goes un-noticed, but when we are all hitting a 6 or 7 out of 10 it adds up... This was one of those weekends. and having a few new Christmas songs certainly didn't help... it was kind of like learning 3 new songs in one weekend... a difficult task:)
Plus doing a new type of acoustic set makes for that "feeling" of awkwardness even more. I think we need to use this weekend as a learning experience on what we can each bring individually to add to the "whole" so we can have more margin for error especially when we are trying new things.
We will learn from this and move forward and praise God for His power and Glory! What a great feeling to know that God chooses us to impact people's lives for eternity! Thank You Jesus!
We may not always know who we are touching..or how we are touching them, but we are. We may not always have the WOW factor (tip of my hat to Darrell Sheets on Storage Wars) but we do always have the WAM factor.. we are all here because we have been called by OUR Father for HIS glory. We are blessed by SO MANY incredible people on this team. And how lucky am I, that on some Sundays, I get to be a part of this amazing place...and I also get to hear the message... three times!! And most times, I will go home and listen/watch again...on the iCampus.
My parents were at the second service and my mother later told me that she cried during the Christmas set. It touched her .. and she said that it was simply breathtaking.
And here I was, worried that I was going to drop or break something during the same Christmas set. :-)
Molly - when you are seated, your diaphragm is crushed, which makes it extra important to be aware of your posture while singing. Be cautious that you're on the end of your chair with your spine perpendicular to the seat. You also want to be sure that your face is not migrating forward which can alter your tone.
Honestly, it didn't seem like your voice suffered much from being seated, though!
As for energy while sitting down, it's extra important to talk with your arms and hands, even your head! As always, face and eyes are a huge thing - and not closed eyes. Eye contact with the congregation and and emoting at the same time will bring that energy level up lots.
I have a lot to learn from this service. And there was a lot going on for everyone: vocals, tech, etc. Things happen, and it will never be 'perfect'.
One observation though for the EG part, my volume was down in spots were it should not have been. On "Salvation Is Here" my volume was way down. On the hard-rocking 'full band' come-in for "Enough" my volume was barely existent. That is a particular song where things like that make a difference. (I mean, "Enough", not that's a rocking song and a joy to worship with).
I know we're not supposed to judge the room volume experience based solely on the videos. However, many times I can grasp volume from the mains, and the levels in-between (compared to rehearsal night volumes and x3 services). Comments from folks in the audience confirm my volumes were down for those two songs especially.
There could be a number of reasons as to why it was down, especially with the 'monsters in the system' going on that service. :) It could be a part where tech isn't familiar with where certain parts are for the EGs, maybe we should communicate that better.
I have a concern also that my own gtr tone is disliked, has problems (bad tubes???), and so tech is leveling me out. If that is the case, I'd like for it to be communicated with me. EQ, volume differences, gain amount, all that is adjustable. It is difficult to hear what is coming out of my amp though when it is in the isolation cabinet -- hard to make adjustments.
I'd rather fix it from the source. I notice the gate on my channel, volume drops, and sometimes dramatic EQ. It feels like I'm playing in a vacuum. In ear monitors don't really alleviate that issue.
Being a Part of the Solution: Not meaning to rant. It's not about me being heard. I'm not wanting to be heard above all instrumentalists & vocalists or anything like that, so please don't get me wrong. My goal is to keep my heart clean and keep it about the team (it's a great team, btw). But I do believe in excellence in worship and being excellent musically. I can certainly say that NH has always pursued excelence for the sake of Christ. I have a few proposals about helping the EG department. But I won't list them all here for the sake of brevity, and some of those have already been talked about with Fuller. I'd be happy to discuss with anyone at any time. One main thing for me, that is 'communicating better'; something I am working on.
A couple of comments:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I think this was just the icampus mix, but Enough sounded a bit flat dynamically. In person it sounded much more dynamic. But like I said, I think that was just the icampus audio.
Also on Enough the bridge felt different. When we went to the "You're Enough"'s it felt like no one was leading that section. It felt like it didn't really have direction.
For the future, when we do acoustic sets, we shouldn't have the auxiliary percussion guy in front. At the beginning of O Come, Steve hadn't really starting playing yet and there were some very awkward camera shots with him sitting there.
Camera wise, during the acoustic set, we could have used some pan shots. I realize the acoustic setup is harder to get good camera shots. But using pans is a good way to get energy on screen (especially since everyone is on stools, and about the same height).
Also, I thought it funny that as we start "Joy, Unspeakable Joy" That the camera comes to a shot of me right as I hit a wrong chord and grimace.
Overall I would say there wasn't much bad about this week musically and technically, but it just seemed to be missing that wow-factor. Maybe it was that doing the Christmas/acoustic set didn't really get the congregation involved. I liked doing that set, but I don't really know how to do that and get the crowd involved...
Seems that when the 2nd acoustic wireless was on we had some cross cancellation between it and the bass wireless. Gotta love a wireless, let me down once, shame on you Mr. wireless, let me down twice shame on me. Sorry guys, no excuses, my bass parts were spotty at best after the first two songs. Won't let it happen again!
ReplyDeleteBuster
I agree with David that Enough felt much more interesting dynamically in person - so it could be the iCampus, but I also felt the energy was a little low during that song overall... not sure why. I thought Jennifer lead it so well and sounded beautiful - and it is such a powerful song... so I'm not sure what happened as far as energy goes in that song.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak to the camera shots since that isn't my area of expertise or forte to be honest.
I think as far as the acoustic set goes, I think there are a couple factors that are going on here:
1. I know at least for me, personally, it's always harder to sing sitting down. Don't know why, but it just is. And I know it is really about the intimacy of it, but I think that also zapped some of the energy. I definitely don't know how to exude energy other than just smiling when I'm sitting - so if anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
2. And again, at least for me, sitting in front of the monitors made it very difficult to hear anything other than what's going on in the house - which can be good in some cases, but not good in this case. So dynamics and even vocals were really hard to hit on the nose partly because I couldn't hear anything. Which was why I came in a beat early at the end of the song - but that didn't happen in the later services so phew! Not to mention I was completely losing my voice during the first service so that was an added monkey wrench. But, I need to quit making excuses. No excuses Buckley... step it up.
3. I think having the congregation seated made it difficult, too. Having them stand in the later services DEFINITELY helped.
Overall I thought the later services were really good.
I can't pinpoint exactly why the wow-factor wasn't there... and I agree with David, too, I don't think this was a bad weekend musically or technically - just missed the wow.
And, ps: I love Buster on Bass!!!
Overall, I love this team, I love serving with you guys, and at the end of the day, it's all about where our hearts are in worship - and I know I needed to worship Him this weekend BIG time and I felt in my heart like I did.
As Molly said, the Heart of Worship was present and that it what makes the biggest impact! The other things we can fix... but our hearts our the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you guys for all your hard work and dedication to glorifying our God, Christ the King!
As far as my opinion goes, I think this weekend was a good example of how total preparation and confidence needs to happen from each and everyone of us to achieve the WOW factor...
It seemed to me as if there were multiple spots where various lack of confidence with the band, vocals, and tech just added up to a less than stellar result... when 1 or 2 of us make a few mistakes here or there it goes un-noticed, but when we are all hitting a 6 or 7 out of 10 it adds up... This was one of those weekends. and having a few new Christmas songs certainly didn't help... it was kind of like learning 3 new songs in one weekend... a difficult task:)
Plus doing a new type of acoustic set makes for that "feeling" of awkwardness even more. I think we need to use this weekend as a learning experience on what we can each bring individually to add to the "whole" so we can have more margin for error especially when we are trying new things.
We will learn from this and move forward and praise God for His power and Glory! What a great feeling to know that God chooses us to impact people's lives for eternity! Thank You Jesus!
Fuller
We may not always know who we are touching..or how we are touching them, but we are. We may not always have the WOW factor (tip of my hat to Darrell Sheets on Storage Wars) but we do always have the WAM factor.. we are all here because we have been called by OUR Father for HIS glory. We are blessed by SO MANY incredible people on this team. And how lucky am I, that on some Sundays, I get to be a part of this amazing place...and I also get to hear the message... three times!! And most times, I will go home and listen/watch again...on the iCampus.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were at the second service and my mother later told me that she cried during the Christmas set. It touched her .. and she said that it was simply breathtaking.
And here I was, worried that I was going to drop or break something during the same Christmas set. :-)
Steve
Molly - when you are seated, your diaphragm is crushed, which makes it extra important to be aware of your posture while singing. Be cautious that you're on the end of your chair with your spine perpendicular to the seat. You also want to be sure that your face is not migrating forward which can alter your tone.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it didn't seem like your voice suffered much from being seated, though!
As for energy while sitting down, it's extra important to talk with your arms and hands, even your head! As always, face and eyes are a huge thing - and not closed eyes. Eye contact with the congregation and and emoting at the same time will bring that energy level up lots.
(late commenting on this, sorry)
ReplyDeleteI have a lot to learn from this service. And there was a lot going on for everyone: vocals, tech, etc. Things happen, and it will never be 'perfect'.
One observation though for the EG part, my volume was down in spots were it should not have been. On "Salvation Is Here" my volume was way down. On the hard-rocking 'full band' come-in for "Enough" my volume was barely existent. That is a particular song where things like that make a difference. (I mean, "Enough", not that's a rocking song and a joy to worship with).
I know we're not supposed to judge the room volume experience based solely on the videos. However, many times I can grasp volume from the mains, and the levels in-between (compared to rehearsal night volumes and x3 services). Comments from folks in the audience confirm my volumes were down for those two songs especially.
There could be a number of reasons as to why it was down, especially with the 'monsters in the system' going on that service. :) It could be a part where tech isn't familiar with where certain parts are for the EGs, maybe we should communicate that better.
I have a concern also that my own gtr tone is disliked, has problems (bad tubes???), and so tech is leveling me out. If that is the case, I'd like for it to be communicated with me. EQ, volume differences, gain amount, all that is adjustable. It is difficult to hear what is coming out of my amp though when it is in the isolation cabinet -- hard to make adjustments.
I'd rather fix it from the source. I notice the gate on my channel, volume drops, and sometimes dramatic EQ. It feels like I'm playing in a vacuum. In ear monitors don't really alleviate that issue.
Being a Part of the Solution:
Not meaning to rant. It's not about me being heard. I'm not wanting to be heard above all instrumentalists & vocalists or anything like that, so please don't get me wrong. My goal is to keep my heart clean and keep it about the team (it's a great team, btw). But I do believe in excellence in worship and being excellent musically. I can certainly say that NH has always pursued excelence for the sake of Christ. I have a few proposals about helping the EG department. But I won't list them all here for the sake of brevity, and some of those have already been talked about with Fuller. I'd be happy to discuss with anyone at any time. One main thing for me, that is 'communicating better'; something I am working on.
Peace in Christ,
Jon K.