Building Your Band

A better conversation about music, with David Loftis and Peter Bulanow

“Is there, like, a specific place I’m supposed to be looking?”

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Grand Piano (Pete Bulanow)

Grand Pianos are heavy (Pete Bulanow)

New Zealander Lorde recently made history by being the first female and first solo artist to win the best rock video award at the VMAs. In her short time on stage, somewhat bewildered by it all, she asked the question: “Is there, like, a specific place I’m supposed to be looking?”

This is a telling question. If we don’t want people to be bewildered on Sunday morning, we need to have an answer to this question. The visual “melody” of the song if you will, must be clear. Lights can help create this focal point, but at a minimum, the worship leader must be visible. More than once, I’ve seen a worship leader sitting at a piano on the ground level with an unidentified voice coming from the sound system. If that worship leader needs to play a grand, get that piano on stage, or get them playing a big sample-playback keyboard on the stage. We have to get this right.

Let’s talk about sound for a moment.

Reality is generally coherent. For example when a twig snaps in the forest behind you, that means something is behind you. With artificial environments, sight and sound can be decoupled (become incoherent), to the detriment of the experience and the bewilderment of the observer.

Certainly, at a bare minimum, have your speakers up front where things are happening. Similarly, more than once I’ve actually seen speakers in the middle or even back of the church. The point is not just to make sound louder, it’s to make it all make sense. Disembodied voices are disorienting.

Now if you have a nice stereo setup, it makes sense to align the audio with your visuals. If backing vocals are slightly to the left, it may improve coherence to mix them that way. But if your drum kit is off to one side, I would still recommend panning it to the center of your mix (same with the bass), or if panning something off to one side means you will hear a different mix depending on where you sit in the house, then keep everything centered.

The goal is to make it easy for people to understand what is going on and minimize the artificiality of technology.

Good Form

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My daughter Nyah helping me pack my gig bag (Pete Bulanow)

My daughter Nyah helping me pack my gig bag (Pete Bulanow)

If you’re a vocalist or instrumentalist, if you sing backups or lead, if you’re the worship leader or the producer, the drummer, bassist, guitarist or keyboardist, or you plug an audio cable into something you do on stage, you should know how to wrap a cable properly.

If you don’t know how, ask someone from your tech team to teach you.

And if you can, you should wrap your XLR cable(s) for your tech team at the end of your gig.

It’s just good form.

And I promise the house engineer will find an extra dB of headroom for you in your monitor next time you ask to turn yourself up a bit 😉

Producer’s Course

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We had enough musicians to split the students into four bands. We noticed that bands didn’t (formally) have a producer. I think there is room for a producer’s course. A producer’s course would look like an advanced musician’s course except that it would not be focused on any particular instrument. Rather, it would look at some of the instruments and be directed toward arranging those instruments into something that serves the song. These producers would then be assigned, one (or two) per band to help the bands deal with various issues, such as:

  • Choosing a groove / keeping steady time
  • Deciding when instruments come in / out
  • Voicing the instruments to make space for each other and vocals
  • Arranging vocals (melody first)
  • Playing to musicians’ strengths
  • Deciding on the intent of the song

Class would:

  • Begin with discussions on favorite arrangements, detailing what is going on
  • Move on to discussing how we would do things differently
  • Discuss practically how to help produce our individual bands

I would appreciate any thoughts or feedback on this class!

Beginning and Advanced Keyboard

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The genius plan of David Loftis was to feature a key signature a day and build from there. Generously, instead of starting with the key of E, which would be easy on guitars, he started in the key of C which would be easy on keyboardists.

BEGINNER COURSE

Jamaican Co-instructor Luke Smith) by Pete Bulanow

Jamaican Co-instructor Luke Smith by Pete Bulanow

This was my curriculum for my beginner keyboard class in Jamaica. Again the goal wasn’t to teach “piano” it was to teach “keyboard” chart playing.

Prerequisite:  identify middle C / names of notes

Warm Up:

  • Scales: 3 octaves up and down, correct fingering, one new key signature per day
  • Right hand first, then left, then both hands

Lesson:

  • Chords with all inversions, I, IV, V, and relative minor, all chords on the keyboard, up and down, correct fingering
  • Right hand first, then left hand, then both hands
  • One key signature per day. Continue building on this for all keys in the circle of fifths.
  • Introduce a new song in the key of the day. Show instructors’ preferred inversions for a chorus or a verse), let students develop their own voicing for the verse (or chorus).

Practice makes PERMANENT:  Go slow and even, the speed will come.

ADVANCED COURSE

Keron Scott) by Pete Bulanow

Keyboardist Keron Scott playing bass by Pete Bulanow

I had a few students who were interested in an advanced course, but were courteous enough to sit out of my beginner course. If we had an advanced keyboard course, this would be my suggested curriculum.

Prerequisite:  All Major/minor chords, all inversions

Warm Up:

  • Scales:  3 octaves up and down, two hands played evenly, all key signatures
  • Hannon Exercises – add one new one per day

Lesson:

Idea Share  (we can all learn something from each other)

  • Pick a song or two or three
  • Pick a tempo / groove (with a drum machine)
  • Go around the room and share how you play/voice the tune

Intro to Classical Technique (fingering, pedaling, terminology)

I would love to hear feedback on this from any of the veteran or advanced students in Jamaica, or anyone else for that matter. Thanks!

Keyboard Class in Jamaica

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My Keyboard Class (Pete Bulanow)

My Keyboard Class (Pete Bulanow)

I just wrapped up a week of keyboard instruction in Jamaica at Dave Loftis’ Teach 412 camp, and this was (most of) my keyboard class. I can’t say enough about how hard these guys all worked. They came in not quite sure of a C Major scale, and left knowing all inversions of the I, IV, V and vi chords, as well three octaves of scales in the keys of C, D, G, and A, all with correct fingering.

Most of the students could play this not only with their right hand, but their left hand as well, and a couple attempted with both hands. This is incredible work in 2-3 hours of instruction per day for one week. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.

There was a choice to make with curriculum: teach notes or teach chords. Since we came with 104 chord charts, I wanted to teach to those. Although I have had 17 years of piano lessons, 15 of them were about notes. So although my personal journey has been grounded in notes, my journey has been one of moving away from them, which ultimately provides a freedom of expression. So the class was not a “piano” class, it was a “keyboard” class.

We applied our new found chording skills to play a song in the key of the day. On the first day, the song was Stronger (mp3). I taught how I would voice the chorus (starting with a 2nd inversion C), and then let each student work out their own voicing for the verse. The amazing thing was that everyone voiced the verse differently, but each was correct. This is what we wanted to teach with the knowledge of chord inversions – the power to play the song the way you individually feels best serves the song.

Music in Jamaica

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Jamaica Music Camp 2014

Jamaica Music Camp 2014

A few weeks before starting this blog, I called an old friend and mentor (Dave Loftis) to get his thoughts on my newest project. He listened patiently to what I had to say for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then said, “Well, I certainly think it fits your gifting!” Then he said, “I’ve been waiting for you to call me. I have a team going to Jamaica in a few weeks to teach at a music camp and I need a keyboardist. Based on what you just told me, it sounds like there may be some synergy with your new project.”

That’s really how it went down.

So I just finished up an amazing week of camp (that’s me in the dark blue shirt on the left), working side by side with an incredible team of musicians and leaders from the East Coast and Jamaica. It was a ton of work, but the opportunity to build relationships across cultures is such a blessing. Everyone worked so hard, campers and leaders alike.

Jamaica Music Camp (Pete Bulanow)

Jamaica Music Camp (Pete Bulanow)

Dave (middle in red) has dual Jamaican and American citizenship = a Jamerican. He spent ten years of his youth in Jamaica, so he has the Patois accent. I’ve heard his Jamaican accent before, but it was so fun to see the code switching he employs when talking to a primarily American group vice Jamaican group, and how he would throw down indecipherable (to me) lingo to build a little street cred.

Special thanks to Pleasant Garden Baptist Church, NC for their support of this trip. The camp was a continuation of many camps Dave and Teach 412 have maintained since Dave’s dad first started the camp in Jamaica in 1966. Finally, this short-term missions project could not have happened as effectively without Jamaica Link ministries. I now know many of the people in the video that follows.

I am so grateful for this opportunity and for the chance to teach and learn together with gifted musicians who are serving the church in North America and Jamaica.

Serving the song as a… [worship leader]

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The worship leader has a unique role to play. In my perfect world, you need to be the focal point of a congregation and a band. You need to be comfortable in your own skin in that role. The congregation needs something to look at, so they don’t get lost or bored or confused. You need to channel that energy, being sensitive to the spirit of the room (as well as the Spirit in the room) and provide direction to the band about where things are going next.

The band has to have confidence in you, and you need to have confidence in your band. The more trust, the more opportunity for really remarkable things to happen. I mean things that you never could have scripted in a million years, things you simply cannot recreate from one service to the next (although you can try). Ideally, this person is willing to go there, to let it all hang out, because the band can never get in front of you. You have to be out front.

If you are comfortable in that spotlight, if you have trust in your band, if you can connect with the congregation, if you can let it all hang out, if you can stay open to the Spirit’s leading, you can truly help to bring things together in a unique and special way.

And if you can get out of the way for a few moments during the service – that’s even better.

 

Serving the song as … [vocalists]

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Why do we have multiple vocalists? Any ideas?

Are they there to detract from the person fronting?  No. They remain the focal point.

Are they there to detract from the melody? No. That’s the main thing.

So why are they there?

They are there to make the lead vocalists sound good and fresh once our ears grow tired of their voice (which happens no matter how good they sound). So we probably don’t want any backing vocalists until that happens. We may not need to hear backing vocalists on the first verse at all. When they do join in, they shouldn’t sing a harmony unless the melody for that part has already been established.

One alternative is to start by singing unison for a while, and then give the lead plenty of chance to shine once again on their own before coming back in. But only do harmonies once the melody is well established!

Now a choir is a true gift! That being said, we probably don’t need to hear a choir sing the same thing on all four verses of a song. Once we’ve heard something once, we’re good. So why not pull out on the first two verses and come in with ooooohs or in unison on the third, and then bring full volume and harmonies on the fourth? Or just punctuate a song with several well chosen phrases? Or make a grand entrance when we loop the chorus after the bridge and the band drops down to just kick on 2 & 4… and then sing it out in full voice with the band. In my mind, that’s what the gates of heaven opening sounds like!

The possibilities are endless with a choir, but because they are such a big instrument, it’s so easy to just let them fill all the space, all the time, and quite honestly, even a choir can get boring.

Arranging vocals is a full time job. Much intentionality is required to do it right, and keep everyone sounding their best.