One of the great things that's happened in the last few months has been the chance that I've had to play music again.
I had a burning desire to play a guitar after hearing Andy Summers' lick on "Every Breath You Take." Some kids hear Eddie Van Halen and have to learn how to play. My initial hook was the Police. Anyways, I ended up playing guitar. I graduated to heavier stuff eventually. However, I still get that little thrill when Andy starts that clean, arpeggiating riff on the radio.
Most of the bands I gravitated towards had great bass players and drummers. The Police, Genesis, and Rush were what I usually listened to growing up. I always sort of liked the bass, but never could afford to pick one up. I had a Fender Stratocaster, and that had to serve me for a long while.
About a year ago, I traded a Glock I absolutely hated for a nice Carvin 5 string bass. I noodled around on it a bit, but was never really serious.
Recently, I volunteered to play with our church band. They needed a bass player, and I happened to have both a pulse and a bass. Easiest audition ever. So I got the job. This is despite no training whatsoever on the bass, mind you. Just a lot of Geddy Lee and Sting's subliminal influence, since I'd never actually messed with bass guitar before.
If you've never played rock with another group of people, you have missed out on one of the most fulfilling experiences a person can have. I wouldn't just limit it to rock. I'd say that jamming with any band, on any sort of music, is almost a mystical experience.
However, I sucked at bass playing. The sense of melody is there, the feel is there. The ear is there. The physical ability wasn't. I wasn't a bad guitarist. But I was a horrible bass player. That was an alien instrument, coming from years of guitar.
One of the great things about playing with this group is that we have a ton of talented musicians there. They are also Christian, which means they haven't acted on the impulse to kill me when I really screw up. Which is often.
There is hope. I think I've improved dramatically with practice and guidance from the other players. I tend to get better at something when thrown in with people who really know what they are doing.
I even think that I've been able to add something to the group. I tend to gravitate towards rock music. There's just something visceral in that sort of music. It draws responses from people like no other type of music.
I'm sorry, but they hymns we grew up with in church suck. I bet church hymns have created more atheists than anything else. Listen to 90% of what's in the Methodist hymnal and you are convinced that God is punishing you for something, or he had nothing to do with this music at all. I don't think most people my age respond well to that sort of music.
However, crank up a distorted guitar, a driving bass, and a pounding drum beat, and there's something that I respond to. I think most people probably do. If you doubt me, go crank up AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long," and see if you don't start tapping along to the drum beat. See if Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" doesn't get you humming along. That's stuff that people respond to. "Enter Sandman," doesn't make you pound the steering wheel when it comes on in the car? I bet it does. Quit feeling guilty about it.
There's some darn hard Christian music out there. I had no idea. Some of it's actually quite good. Some of it resembles the South Park episode where Cartman starts a Christian band. (Watch it on Youtube. That's funny; I don't care what church you go to. It's funny because it's absolutely dead-on.)
Anyway, we played a pretty rock-ish set last Sunday, and the response was great. The audience really enjoyed it. Our pastor was ecstatic. He's a Led Zepplin fan, and plays a darn good guitar himself. He's been wanting to hear something like this for quite awhile.
I'm having fun with it. Christian music ain't just for wussies, I'm discovering.
And you so-called Christians who think rock is the devil's music? Kiss my bass. I mean that in the most loving, forgiving sense, of course.
5 comments:
I'm a strange guy. (Not that you needed me to tell you that.)
I enjoy Christian rock. I've even enjoyed some good Christian rap. But when I'm in church I want to hear hymns. Maybe it's about feeling a connection with Christians not only around the world but from past generations in a giant body of faith. Whatever. Anyway, one thing that surprised me when I started going to church with Mrs. Flametoad was the difference in hymns from her denomination and the ones I'd experienced in Baptist and Methodist church. The ones in her church are much more uplifting and positive. It really leaps out at you if you're used to singing doom and gloom.
This is pure greatness!
Who wrote the music that you played on Sunday?
We did some Newsboys, Hillsongs United, and I believe the other one was a Matthew Redman of some sort. It was a fun set.
I do see your point, Presto. I think there's a more freeing element in playing rockish stuff in church. One, the music gets to you, and evokes the visceral response that good rock typically does. Two, it's timely. It's a new way to worship God. Three, if you're deliberately trying to be an alternative church for those who were driven from established denominations for some reason, you don't want to throw the same stuff at them that drove them away in the first place.
Our relationship with God is supposed to be the most important and fulfilling relationship that we have. It's something that we should be happy about, because it's not an obligation to worship; it's a downright privilege. To a lot of people, the old hymns are a downright punishment.
But that's the beauty of Christianity. It's kind of like soda: there's a flavor out there that everybody likes. The point is to worship soulfully; with joy. Hymns might do that for some people. I can't get real happy about it, but more power to you if you can.
There's an excellent point there about the linking to the generations of followers. I think that's important to know whence we came. The counterpoint is that linking to those generations might not be a good thing. People were being driven off by the perceived hypocricsy, the holier-than-thou attitudes, and a whole host of things that we've discussed have been wrong with the established churches for years. Why not throw out the old, and try something new? If we get mired in tradition, aren't we now making those same mistakes of form over substance that drove us out in the first place? And are the old hymns THAT different from what you perceived as a child, or do you just have a more open perspective on them than what you did?? I haven't set foot in a Methodist church in quite some time, but when I did last, it was the same old thing. I got more out of the words this time, but the drudgery was still there in the presentation. It was a lot like listening to somebody playing "Shiny, Happy People" on a bagpipe. Happy lyrics, but it still sounds like a funeral durge.
For example: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MikeSAdams/2007/01/31/open_hearts,_open_minds,_and_open_legs
I like going to church in jeans. I like all the socializing and fellowship that goes on there. I like seeing people happy to be in church. I like being part of a family, one that really took us in in the darkest hours. I've never had that before out of a church. And I like the fact that I can play rock for worship. I hope that my son can grow in Christ, and not be bored to death like I was. Things you have to do are so much easier if you enjoy them. It will be much healthier for him, and maybe help him along his walk with Christ a bit quicker than the snail-ish progress that I made. I want that more than anything.
But I'm not saying it's wrong either way. I think God will use hymns or hard rock to his purpose. C.S. Lewis pointed out there are many doors that lead to the same place. It just requires faith to open into the hallway where you can find those doors.
The shift with nondenominational churches seems to indicate they are doing something right; something that the world might need right now. It's not the only way, of course.
I love God. I love music. For my love of music, i listen to both Christian music and secular music...i listen for what is musical, poetic, and entertaining....these things are found in both. For my love of God, when I want to worship Him, not every song will do...only the ones that are written with the heart to worship/exalt/praise Him.
I myself am a musician. I don't consider myself a Christian artist...but rather an artist that is a Christian...when i express myself through the gift of music...God's influence should be there. Feel free to listen to my music at (www.myspace.com/johnearth)
That last comment summed it up perfectly. I'm the exact same way.
In everything we do, we represent the followers of Christ. At our jobs, at the grocery store, etc.
God's there no matter what we are doing.
Sweet music is sweet music, no matter the genre.
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