Question:
i was interested in getting everyone elses take on this...
at my church we do contemporary P&W (things from the last 10 years or so) music on sunday mornings and wednesday nights, but on Sunday night we do older songs (we call 'em Pentecostal songs) and mostly the songs that the people who have been in church for 20+ years grew up on.
Our congregation really enjoys all of the music we play, but we as a praise team find it difficult to do the sunday night music simply because they're songs we've grown up on and we really want to bring them back to life and do them justice but sometimes it's just crazy...
anyhew, i guess i want to know if any of you have those special nights where you do older music, what songs you do, and what you have done to revive them and put a modern edge to them.
Answer:
...gotta love those old "pentacostal songs",eh??
...we pretty much do contemporary stuff too...but on occasion will toss in an old pentacostal song or hymn into the set....some of those songs have great lyrics man!
...one way to do it that seems to work for us is to just take part of the song eg. the chorus and use it as a bridge within a contemporary song....an example that i heard and then ripped off was "Crown him with many crowns" and "Thank you for the Cross"....i know that's a hymn as opposed to an old pentacostal song...but maybe the same can apply?
...we generally don't just do a whole set of old songs though....but maybe if you dumped the organ and got some bongo's....maybe a wah pedal for the axe?
Godspeed.
Answer:
I always try to choose songs not based on how old they are but on their lyrics. There is such a wealth of worship music, I can't see letting good music sit around because its 15 years old.
Answer:
I try to play Pass It On as often as possible.
It only takes a spark to get a fire going...
C'mon, everyone - join in!
Answer:
I would like to humbly suggest you re-think your take on this. Most churches have a mixture of ages from the very young to the very old. Many of the older members of the congregation LOVE the traditional (read old) music, and really don't need or want it "edgy". How about we be musical servants and serve the older members of the congregation by playing what they want to hear rather than trying to force them to "get with it" and go for the edge.
It strikes me that far too many Worship Leaders treat anyone over 50 as if they were dead already. Where is the servant's heart? How do we honor our fathers and mothers as the Lord has commanded if we approach the music they love as if they were geezers in desperate need of a muscial tune up?
I think the mark of a mature musician is the ability to give a compelling performance of music they may not personally like just for the sake of those who love it. I don't mean to be arguementative, but I vote for being a servant over being edgy.
Answer:
I seldom let when a song was written determine whether or not we sing it. Some songs have more sticking power than others, stylistically speaking. And if the text still speaks to the congregtation, then we are going to sing it.
Geezerjohn's statement is compelling as well. Before my parents moved and joined a new church, they felt abandoned by the leadership of their previous congregation, who had given up hymns in order to be more contemporary.
Answer:
i really didn't want this to become a debate on whether or not we should do older songs. Personally, i like the message the older songs have and i'm not downing them in any way, however, i don't always enjoy playing them (ya have to admit, some of them are just downright difficult to do!) i was more interested on what you have done to make them your own (linked them up with newer songs, changed the chord progression, changed the beat, etc.)
Jesse, i like the idea of merging 2 different songs together, that's something i've noticed Chris Tomlin does and i like the way it sounds.
oh, and just so ya'll will know where i'm coming from as far as church...everyone loves the new songs...and everyone loves the old songs...we have a pretty good mixture in my opinion, i'm just looking to build up our sunday night list and make it more user-friendly (as far as the music itself)
Answer:
I'm going to agree that some of the older songs are definitely difficult to play. We tend to just mess around with them until we find a way that we like it. I know that this probably isn't very helpful but I don't really know how to describe what we do.
I like the idea of mixing songs. We've never done that, but I think I'll suggest it.
Answer:
What makes and "old" song any more difficult to play than a "new" one?
Answer:
Originally Posted by Tony What makes and "old" song any more difficult to play than a "new" one? Changing chords every 1 or 2 beats instead of every 4 or 8 beats.
The fact that there are no original guitar, bass or drumset parts.
Answer:
If you're wondering how to re-freshen songs, then you should check out this thread from this forum, Click Here.
We have what we call "Youth Emphasis" services. I lead a youth worship team, and about once a month, our team leads a sunday night adult service. We do some re-vamped hymns, toned-down youth songs, late-80's stuff, etc. We do just about everything, really, except for old stuff in an old style or really new stuff in a heavy style. We try to compromise for the adults and the youth.
It works well. We actually had one last night, and we had an amazing time. Check out my post HERE to see the setlist we did, and you can check out my blog too (link in my sig), where I comment on it quite a bit (I'm heading there now in a few minutes to update on last night). You can ask me questions too .
Answer:
Originally Posted by bobthecockroach Changing chords every 1 or 2 beats instead of every 4 or 8 beats.
The fact that there are no original guitar, bass or drumset parts. Ah, I see...
You can probably find guitar-friendly arrangements of lots of "old skool" music. It may not all be free, but it's out there.
Other options: Just because the hymn has a chord change every note doesn't mean I have to play all of them. A little judicious editing can make a world of difference. And when chords aren't available, I or the keyboard player have written them in. Bass & drums usually play by ear or feel in those situations. It may not be ideal, but it works.
Answer:
When we have done hymns (we don't do many, as most of you know), we use the passion stuff, or crowder or tomlin.
The older people in our congregation (again, there aren't many) are in our congregation because they don't want to be in a church with people their age. They want the young people with little kids, they want the new music style, they want to feel young at church, not stuck with a bunch of old people who only want hymns and nothing else. I'm not trying to be mean, but it's funny how people can say that those who only want contemporary are shutting out the traditionalists, when the opposite is true as well.
I know the old people in our congregation do appreciate it when we have a hymn in our worship, but don't care if it's in a new style - they just like the words to them.
Answer:
Originally Posted by Geezerjohn I would like to humbly suggest you re-think your take on this. Most churches have a mixture of ages from the very young to the very old. Many of the older members of the congregation LOVE the traditional (read old) music, and really don't need or want it "edgy". How about we be musical servants and serve the older members of the congregation by playing what they want to hear rather than trying to force them to "get with it" and go for the edge.
It strikes me that far too many Worship Leaders treat anyone over 50 as if they were dead already. Where is the servant's heart? How do we honor our fathers and mothers as the Lord has commanded if we approach the music they love as if they were geezers in desperate need of a muscial tune up?
I think the mark of a mature musician is the ability to give a compelling performance of music they may not personally like just for the sake of those who love it. I don't mean to be arguementative, but I vote for being a servant over being edgy.
im not against doing old songs, but some times the old people want to do them causre they want to get stuck in the past, not neccesarily because they are better songs, but just cause the oldies don't want to move on.....
not always the case, but a lot of the time i find it is
Answer:
From various sources ( certainly not original to me ):
I agree with the post stating that the number of chord changes in older songs can often be lessened to facilitate a groove. Comparing from sources that say “easy guitar” or “3 chord songbook” can give some idea of these chord change reductions. Sometimes these books go too far in reduction so it will sometimes take some thinking to determine what can be omitted.
An extra measure or 2 between verses can make a song seem less "hymnodic "
Oftentimes chord substitutions and embellishments (sus2, sus4, add9...) give a song a more contemporary feel. So if it’s the same chord for 3 measures throw in some “sus”.
Different strum patterns, especially syncopation, can really freshen a song. With fewer chord changes, this becomes easier. ( Less chord complexity, more rhythmic complexity )
Even though you weren't addressing hymns but music of just a few decades back, looking at the hymn work done at RUF could be helpful.
http://igracemusic.com/igracemusic/hymnbook/hymns.html