Dan Rebeiz by Pete Bulanow
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Dan Rebeiz, ‘Unifying’
Michael Thomas, ‘Four Notes’
Michael Thomas
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Love Ran Red, a few production notes
Here are my production notes for translating Chris Tomlin’s (Amazon | iTunes) Love Ran Red to a live Band.
- This is a piano record. I would personally enjoy playing songs from this album, partially because it uses so much piano (and that’s my first love), and partially because it comes across as a movie score (which is how I like to think about music).
- There is room for your classical-pianist and your keyboardist-pianist, as well as your synth/programming guy on different songs, so be intentional about booking the right person for the right song (or call me up). There are lots of different piano sounds on this record that you’ll want to be aware of. There’s a standard Steinway or Yamaha grand, a more muted grand with the highs rolled off at the board, a compressed acoustic piano (Michael English’s Finally Free being a particularly egregious example of a compressed piano), and a plain-Jane keyboard-piano.
- There are also plucked sounds on this record that could be covered by acoustic guitar, but I’m not sure they were originally acoustic guitar on the record (if so they’ve been highly produced), so they could also be covered by a keyboard or programmed.
- The electric guitars are actually pretty understated on this record – standard U2/Edge delayed guitar – but one could elect to mix the guitars up to create gutsier renditions.
- Lots of cinematic toms are present, which I personally love, but they require some special preparation from your sound engineer to get them sounding big and awesome.
- There are some EDM influences, like four-on-the-floor kick, synth appreciators, and filter sweeps not usually found coming out of Nashville (maybe some Crowder influence?)
Greater
- These opening lines are right out of a Hans Zimmer score, so you’ll need your gorgeous string pads handy to not waste this moment. Maybe you’d want to consider doubling the intro. You’ll want your synth guru booked for this day.
- Programmed synth bass would be cool, but a decent live player can do this.
- This song has some of those plucked sounds on the first verse that could be covered by acoustic guitar or a 2nd keyboard guy.
- A modern piano/keyboard sound with some delay on it plays the thematic element on verse 2, or this could be covered quite nicely by some delayed guitar and simply layered with some acoustic piano (the latter being my preference).
- Make sure you have your guy who loves playing toms booked for this day.
- Starting at the 2nd chorus, you’ll want a few additional harmony vocals to join.
- If you have an old school choir at your disposal, have them waiting in the wings and enter Fortissimo at the bridge, and then again echoing the bridge part over the final chorus. This is what the kids call “epic”.
Waterfall
- Opens with electric piano and quickly gets into EDM synth dance sounds, so you’ll need to be playing to a click track to keep the arpeggiators in sync. Season with filter sweeps.
- Acoustic piano on chorus is compressed (ask your sound tech do to this) and should be played live by someone with strong (classically trained?) hands. I can see a case for two keyboardists this day, one on the grand, another doing the synth work. Pads on verse 2 can be string pads or synthier square waves.
- On that note, think about having another vocalist that sounds like you to do sound of the random overdubs. There’s room for a little extra vocal goodness if they want to run with it a little.
- Make sure you have your guy who loves playing toms booked this day.
At the Cross (Love Ran Red)
- Use compressed piano with some delay on it.
- Plucked sounds could be covered by acoustic guitar or a 2nd keyboard guy.
- Bring all your vocalists online for the bridge.
- It’s OK to build to a wall of sound on this one 😉
Jesus Loves me
- I would probably play this ballad on the house grand, even though it sounds more like a sample on this recording.
- Electric guitar can cover the quiet tremolo pads, and all other tasteful / big / ambient parts.
- Piano and Drums propel this one.
Boundary Lines
- Your sound tech is definitely going to need to listen to this recording. You’ll need a second vocal mic for the intro vocal that has the highs and lows rolled off to sound lofi, run through a tap delay, and then your sound guy will play the low-pass filter live and open that up.
- Book your synth/keyboard person who knows what filter sweeps are. They’ll also have access to vintage Rhodes sounds and compressed pianos, besides all the warm pads and undulating sounds.
- Everything should happen to a click track so the band stays tight and in sync. You’ll probably want all those 16th note delayed claps to be programmed ahead of time and a nice click going to the drummer.
- Ask the drummer if they want to play the tambourine or have that programmed.
- Program the hand clap on 2 & 4 and four on the floor kick.
- Play the toms, snares, fills, live and wail on that hi-hat like any good EDM song does.
- More of that plucked stuff that could be played by a 2nd keyboardist or acoustic guitarist.
Almighty
- This song is one of those sit-on-a-stool-with-a-spotlight solo tunes, at least to start. Not too much rocket science here, even though it feels a little complicated. Eventually it builds with lots of vocals on the chorus.
- A nice classic Yamaha or Steinway grand anchors this song. I love the bridge that drops back to solo piano. Whomever you give this solo to will thank you.
- For the signature figure that seems to go through a 5/4 measure followed by a 3/4 measure, don’t count it that way – just play straight through with a 4/4 count.
- More of those wonderful U2 guitars on the chorus.
- There might be room for a second keyboardist to do some pads on this, just don’t overdo it.
The Roar
- There are nice pads and compressed piano on this one.
- Four on the floor kick, but play it live.
- Crazy backing vocal on the chorus! Never fear, the electric guitar can cover this.
- Nice half-time feel on the bridge. You booked your choir for this right??
Fear Not
- The intro is a lo fi variant of the chorus. I don’t think it’s critical to try to sound like the record. Maybe have a 2nd mic tuned up to sound like a megaphone…or use a megaphone!
- Mechanically, this song is straightforward. One guitar playing the arpeggios, and another something – could be guitar could be keyboard – holding down the chord. Add that and solid drums.
The Table
- Grand piano, electric guitar doodling, nice drum groove. This song just comes together.
- You may or may not want to go up a step after the bridge, especially if you’re shaky and may not nail it a capella. Either way this is another one where you want your choir coming in at the bridge.
Psalm 100
- It’s cool to see some of that EDM influence. You’ll be playing to a click, but a tight live drummer should be able to cover all the drums parts. Live bass is the way to go. Straightforward Edge electric guitars.
- In fact, you may be able to play this entire tune live with your synth guy running arpeggiators, as long as you’re playing to a click. If they want to program it, that’s cool too.
- The piano arpeggiation on the bridge would sound pretty awesome if it can be played tight on a grand. Better be practicing your Hanon for the finger strength.
- P.S. Those are some great mellotron strings at the end!
I Will Boast
- This is a beautiful rubato grand piano song.
- If you have some live strings, violas, cellos, this is the time to let them sing out. Some of this could be augmented by keyboard pads, or covered by mellotron-type samples.
- There are some tasteful guitars, but I’m not sure you even need ’em – give your strings a chance to shine!
- There are some really nice harmony vocals in a few spots. The whole tune might be really nicely reconfigured as a male-female duet.
- Ends with Rhodes electric piano, which I don’t get the point of, other than to facilitate a transition to a coda of “At the Cross”. I would label this an album artifact and ignore it live by sticking to just the piano and ending the song, particularly unless you actually did “At the Cross” earlier in your service.
Jesus, This is You
- This is the guitar song on the record. It sounds like it’s from a recent U2 album.
- Keyboards – use atmospherics – maybe some keyboard / piano / melodic-chime sounds, but don’t get in the way of what your particular guitarist is doing. This is a guitar song – listen!
- There is room for lots of vocals on this. The choir can possibly come out for this. Let it build to a wall of sound. Maybe add an extra chorus.
In the End
- A neat little rhythmic device opens this tune on the riff. That could come from a keyboard guy (arpeggiator?) or a guitar guy (acoustic guitar with delay?). Since there is already a piano part, I would look to your electric guitarist to pick up an acoustic and run it through a delay.
- The piano part would probably be a modern piano keyboard sound, not necessarily a grand. Be ready to layer a nice big atmospheric pad like Absynth.
- Also that’s a pretty cool compressed drum loop on the second chorus, so you’re playing tight to a click, right?
- Kick and a couple toms build at the Bridge. The drum kit is finally in after the bridge. It’s called building tension!
REMIXes
I really love that they are offering these. It shows the songwriting can stand up to reinterpretation.Waterfall Tritonal Remix
- I don’t know that I’d attempt this version live, but if you can it’s got lots of nice production. Vocoder on the harmonies anyone?
- The programmed synth and snare stuff are epic. You can probably do a hybrid with the regular version and whatever synthy stuff you can come up with.
At the Cross (Love Ran Red) [Acoustic]
- This song utilizes picked acoustic guitar, and very minimal warm pad on the first verse.
- If you have a second acoustic guitar that can pick, there is room for some tasteful layered harmonies starting at the chorus.
- Use kick and shaker on the second verse. I would probably replace with a mic’d Djembe and shaker (and tambourine) instead, as I think a drum kit is too big for this.
- Some gentle well-mic’d grand piano comes in at the second chorus.
Let It Be Jesus [Acoustic]
- This is an acoustic piano ballad.
- There is a little extra acoustic guitar in the recording that I don’t know I would want in right away. Maybe hold off until the chorus when the tempo gets established. That way the instrumentation stays tight.
- I get the piano dropping out on the second verse and switching to acoustic guitar before bringing the piano back in. We need that sonic break.
- Personally I think this would sound so much more epic with some solo string lines. Somebody score something for this!
Do you hear things differently? Anything I missed? Leave a comment below!
Sarah Begashaw, ‘Multicultural Worship’
Sarah talks about her origins playing and singing in Venezuela, to leading a band at an intentional multicultural church in Harrisburg, PA. She’s one of the few worship leaders I know who stepped out from behind the comfort of an instrument to lead worship with just a mic in order to more closely connect with her audience.
Sarah on Facebook | Harrisburg Brethren in Christ Church
Post we discussed regarding having/being a focal point: “Is there, like, a specific place I’m supposed to be looking?”
Zion Acoustic Sessions: Amazon | iTunes
Evan Craft & Carley Redpath – “Océanos”: Amazon | iTunes
While we’re here – the making of Oceans
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Kishore Carey, ‘Honest Worship’
Kishore Carey
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What’s my motivation?
by Pete Bulanow
All the inspiration I ever needed was a phone call from a producer. Cole Porter (1891 – 1964)If we already decided we don’t want “throw away songs“, someone should be able to fill in those blanks and precisely describe why I’m doing this song and how it fits into the metanarrative of the service. That person is the producer (informed by the service planning process). This past Sunday, my community did a “Hungry Service”. We were all asked to come to church hungry, having fasted for some indeterminate amount of time, even if it was just breakfast. (The beauty of this kind of thing is that we’re asking people to invest themselves in the service before they even arrive.) Let me tell you, when you do “We are Hungry” or Crowder’s “Hungry”, when you really are actually hungry, you understand precisely why you are doing the song and it takes on a significant meaning. The longing becomes much more than theoretical and the metaphors are much more concrete. Do you have any examples of where you didn’t know why you were doing a song, or even had conflicting ideas about it, or success stories?
Redeeming Oceans
By now you’ve probably seen this version of Oceans getting bounced around the internets. I hope the people in that video have kept their heads held up high and aren’t shying away from playing, because that would be a real shame.
However, this scene is one that is repeated all over the nation, Sunday after Sunday. Musicians are getting up there and doing the best they can, what they think is the right thing, but there is no one stepping back to look at the big picture and make decisions. There is no one producing.
Just a couple weeks ago, I visited a church that had a couple play and sing during the sharing of the Lord’s Supper. The husband and wife duo brought in their own equipment – electric guitar, mics, ‘verb, mixing board – all great equipment, and they sub-mixed themselves down into the house system. What happened next may be accounted for by the fact that they didn’t have a monitor, so they were only hearing themselves being bounced back from the mains. Two things were apparent: there was way too much ‘verb on everything, and they were desperately pitchy. Much like these guys, the good folks involved are clearly good enough and gifted enough to be playing and leading church. But without someone who can diagnose what is going wrong and offer a suggestion, this kind of thing is going to continue Sunday after Sunday.
Here is a pretty fantastic drum tutorial for playing Oceans:
And let’s be honest – the guy on top wasn’t that far off was he? Ok, he got a little carried away with the triplet 16th note tom fils, but that’s kinda what the song does – come in like gangbusters. The drummer read at least a portion of the intent right. So what went wrong?
Let’s start with the electronic drums that are doing nobody any favors. It is really hard to control dynamics on those things. The whole point of those, by the way, is they aren’t supposed to be too loud. Where exactly was that most important musician, the sound tech who was mixing this? And yes, the drummer was rushing, so that didn’t help, but these are all things that can be dialed down.
Personally I’d be happy to walk into this situation and work with these guys. At least they showed up and were willing to bring it!
Post-MIDI
Technology has had a huge impact on music. It’s made us play steadier (I would argue even when not playing to a click). It’s allowed us to use samples. It’s let us loop in real time. It’s let us use loops, or play sync’d to other tracks. It’s let us auto-tune in real time. And it’s allowed us to program sequences that were otherwise unplayable. All of this has changed our ear – the way we hear music.
One group (Dawn of MIDI) has responded to this by playing acoustic music live that otherwise would seem like it was programmed. They do this by playing crazy meters, time-with-in-a-time where different people play different meters at the same time and it somehow works, that you wouldn’t think people could play. And they do this by playing intricate and repetitive patterns that, ok is indeed minimalist like Steve Reich, but is normally the domain of machines. Humans are unpredictable and random, machines are anything but.
Technology can inform our music. Integrating cultural influences such as these allows us to speak into that culture, they give us that platform for doing so. But practically how could that translate?
In a live situation, most typically this can mean integrating programmed loops or tracks. In a studio situation this can be a lot more intricate, and can mean being aware of technology and what is happening.
If Blood Will Flow
On this day (Sep 11th), I could not recommend a more poignant video than “All This Time” by Sting (Netflix). The DVD was meant to chronicle a small invite-only concert at his home in Tuscany, with a dress rehearsal Sep 10th and the main show Sep 11th. In the video, you see real-time reactions to the events as they unfolded, and the decision to go ahead with the show later that night, albeit leaving the setlist open. (Wikipedia)
Leading up to the production of the show, you see the rehearsal space and you get incredible comments from the musicians involved. Sting is the consummate band leader and loves to give his people a chance to shine – there is so much we can learn from him in this regard. But if you recall my post on my ideal band size of 6 or 7, Sting’s band is sixteen, with multiple keyboards, multiple percussionists, brass, strings – it’s insane.
Which leads us to some of my favorite quotes:
He’s got two percussionists, he’s got Jason playing the acoustic piano, Kipper playing the keyboards, and Jeff playing the organ, electric bass and acoustic bass, and guitar. He has all these elements going on at the same time, and it’s working, and it’s very soft, it’s very sensitive. And that was probably the most surprising thing, because on some nights my band is way louder than this and there’s only four guys, and it made me think, hmmm, maybe I better rethink some things when I go home. ~ Christian McBrideand
Songs have to be simple. They can have a subtext that you can find, but you shouldn’t be singing about an issue. You shouldn’t be saying, down with this or down with that, that’s just journalism. Art is something else, something veiled. And I often feel like songwriting is something like putting yourself into a state of receptivity, or to be more cosmic about it, a state of grace where the song can reveal itself to you. And I think you’re lucky if you can be in a beautiful place, because nature is full of stories, full of images. Powerful, healing images. ~ StingUltimately, one of the greatest gifts of this project is the new rendition of the song “Fragile,” developed just days before the concert. Absolutely breath-taking, and hauntingly prescient:
If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one Drying in the color of the evening sun Tomorrow’s rain will wash the stains away But something in our minds will always stay Perhaps this final act was meant To clinch a lifetime’s argument That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could For all those born beneath an angry star Lest we forget how fragile we are On and on the rain will fall Like tears from a star like tears from a star On and on the rain will say How fragile we are how fragile we are How fragile we are how fragile we are
Subdividing
Up until now, we’ve stuck with the integers of counting. Sure, we’ve counted in 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7… but those are just whole numbers. What about the stuff that goes on between those counts?
Music is divided up either by 2’s or by 3’s, stated as “duples” or “triplets” respectively.
So if we were to count 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, we can count between the numbers using “and” like this – 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. If the numbers were quarter (1/4) notes before, by adding the ands we can count eighth (1/8) notes. And we can subdivide further to sixteenth (1/16) notes by adding something between the “ands”. We count this as 1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a-3-e-&-a-4-e-&-a.
Triplets subdivide the 1-2-3-4 into a “triplet 8th note” by counting 1-&-a-2-&-a-3-&-a-4-&-a.
Laid out graphically this looks like:
All of this follows logically.
Where it gets interesting is with an eighth note swing feel. Technically it’s still a duple, and this is how you would count it, but if you swing the count, it can begin to take on the feel of a triplet.
This is where you get into the “groove”, the space between the notes. Defining how much swing, or how things feel – the human element rarely follows a perfect duple.
The “groove” is one of those things you pretty much need to stick with for an entire song, and everyone needs to agree on – because if you look at the jumble of the grid below, you can see a pretty bad train wreck if you tried to mix the triplet or swing feel with the straight duple feel. The same things happens if you mix other grooves.
One groove per song keeps everything locked into place and feeling tight.
All of this follows logically.
Where it gets interesting is with an eighth note swing feel. Technically it’s still a duple, and this is how you would count it, but if you swing the count, it can begin to take on the feel of a triplet.
This is where you get into the “groove”, the space between the notes. Defining how much swing, or how things feel – the human element rarely follows a perfect duple.
The “groove” is one of those things you pretty much need to stick with for an entire song, and everyone needs to agree on – because if you look at the jumble of the grid below, you can see a pretty bad train wreck if you tried to mix the triplet or swing feel with the straight duple feel. The same things happens if you mix other grooves.
One groove per song keeps everything locked into place and feeling tight.