My Wise Wife

So last night, I'm really venting about having to sing these patriotic songs in Sunday's service, and my wife tells me something she heard a pastor say once.

My wife looks at me and says,
"Churches in Bosnia would be really surprised by the things we worry about."

She's right. What am I doing? Am I really freaking out about singing songs that I don't like? Am I really worried that I might sound "bad?" Is this the life I'm supposed to live? I'm supposed to stress over thing like that? I don't think so.

I think I'm supposed to serve the body in both comfort and discomfort. I'm called to serve God's people whether they love me or hate me. To borrow a phrase I don't normally like, I'm supposed to "worship in the lead."

My wife - sexy and smart. Who could ask for anything more?

Content...I think

I feel bad for not blogging lately. There is much to tell, but just no time! This has been a nice break from my normal pace. We're having a combined service this Sunday, so I haven't had to coordinate any rehearsals. However, I have been asked to "lead the singing."

Note to worship leaders: if you're asked to "lead the singing," run. Run far far away.

I am growing excited at Mike's vision for the service. He and I have been talking about me coming on full-time, and for the first time since I've been here, I'm seriously considering it. That's a big step for me - I guess shows just how Mike and I connect in our vision.

I haven't recorded much lately. I'm going to try to grab some live Sunday morning stuff just to see if it can be done consistently. "Glorify" and "You Gave Sight" need to be finished, but you know, I'm kinda' enjoying devoting my thoughts, prayers and fingers to Sundays. It's kinda' nice to go bed before 11 at night, you know?

I'll try to get a bit more consistent with updating this thing. I miss it.

Practice

Practice went great. Had Susie Moore on bass and she did great. We did 2 new songs, "All the Freed" and Billy Foote's "Set Free." It was great. Some night, you just don't want practice to end.

I'm throwing projection in and messing with video possibilities for Sunday morning. Since the bluebird blog came around I just haven't had the same passion for blogging. It's sad, really.

I Love the Nightlife

Waiting on Romack to setup his drums. Very tired. Need sleep. Need to be at home eating Cocoa Pebbles and then drifting to sleep on couch as I watch Spider-Man 2. Yet, I am here. My dedication knows no limits.

Still clicking

Recording: tracked good acoustic and decent vocals for "Glorify" last week. Then spent about an hour finding a little 3 note delay that will run for most of the song. Laid down clicks for a ton of stuff that will take me forever to lay down. Romack will lay down drums tomorrow night. Also did guitar for "You Gave Sight" and "Remind Us." Worked a little on one of my kid songs, "He Made Me."

Live: worship at church was good Sunday. Our electric player was out, but we survived. Sometimes its kinda' nice to have somebody out because it forces everybody to thinking a little bit more creatively. I haven't played any gigs, but I did lead a 20 minute worship set with my guitar Friday night at Jason's house. Lot of fun - great worship from the people there.

Writing: got a ton of ideas, but trying to make sure I can junk recorded before I started writing other stuff.

Songs or Sleep?

After becoming enormously bummed at the quality of "I Am Glad" and no good version of "My Lips Will Sing," I actually made it work!

Tonight, I was going to try to throw some sermon stuff on the Roland. While doing that, I discovered a good version of "My Lips Will Sing." I considered adding an electric part, but found the sound to be good enough to communicate as it was. I thickened up the reverb on the vocals and mixed it.

Energized by this discovery of the new tune, I plugged in a mic and laid down a vocal for "I Am Glad." I was relaxed about it and I think it came through. Therefore, now "I Am Glad" and "My Lips Will Sing" are on my song site. (See My Songs link)

I emailed some folks (John Martin, Finnerud, Aaron Keyes, Todd Hinkie, Ross) to ask them to check out the site. I look forward to honest feedback and it does excite me that these songs might possibly be used elsewhere. However, I have to watch myself, because I get way too focused on the publishing stuff and forget that idea of contentment.

Recording Next...
King of Mercy (better version)
You Gave Sight
Remind Us
Search and Know
Home Tonight

The Voice Within

Today's Set
Praise Adonai (Baloche)
Given to Me (Wright)
I've Found Jesus (Smith)
You Are Welcome Here (Foote)
Remind Us (Wright)

Kind of a weird day. Our number was low due to a host of factors - why do people worship differently when there aren't many of them? Oh well.

Brought out Remind Us. I really like the song. Don't know if anybody else did. Kristen wasn't crazy about the verse section.

Also mixed The Cross of Christ and I Am Glad to CD last night. Drove around listening to it today. I've decided not to include I Am Glad or My Lips Will Sing on the CD to worship leaders. Two reasons.
1. Vocal on I Am Glad isn't good. Most people would say keep working on it - but I'm smart enough to know that I'm not a great recorder. When I record myself, I can never capture the true essence of it. I still posted the mp3 to www.worshipnotes.org/todd.htm.
2. UM Army is in our worship center this week, which knocks out all of the tracking for My Lips Will Sing I planned on doing this week.

Busy day - new Associate Pastor did good. We'll meet this week to start service planning.

i write the songs

The Cross of Christ
I had Justin Romack build a loop for this tune. It was a loop in the popular sense, in that it actually sound like drums. Often loops sound like some future-machine possessed by a daemon, but Justin created a nice brush kit for the song. I like live drums, but the loop just worked cool for this tune.

When we tracked the loop, I recorded it simultaneously to 2 tracks. Since Justin's loop didn't have any sort of dynamic variation, I knew we would need something to lift the choruses. My plan was to take the Drum B and effect it with reverb to give the song some size.

Then based on that loop, I recorded a scratch guitar and vocal. I had Justin come in and lay down a shaker for the intro and outro of the tune.

For bass and keys, I asked Chris Caraway and David McElveen to come in. Chris tracked first and did good - nothing too flashy. We used 2 different tones for David's keys. We had to use them both on the same track, but since the song is guitar-driven, mixing up the key parts wasn't a problem.

After bass and keys were on, I did a find acoustic and vocal part. This is always hard, because it can be very easy to obsess about these things. Since my desire is to provide an accurate demo of the songs for worship leaders, I don't have to sound like David Phelps. As long as I can skillfully communicate the feel of the song, I'm good.

The song lacked something, so I laid down a second guitar part w/ lots of chorus. It's pretty much just letting chords ring out, but it gave the tune some nice depth.

When I went to fix the drum thing, I couldn't really make it work because when I pulled Drum B, the overall drum mix was too much. So, I dropped all of the low end out of Drum B since Drum A's kick was very nice. Then I put a ringy room effect on Drum B to space out the chorus section and third verse.

All that's left is Kristen's vocals, which I hope to have done sometime Thursday night.

I Am Glad
Thankfully, I had most of this done. Months ago, I tracked Mark Saldana on drums and Chris Caraway on bass as I played it live on stage. After that, I brough in Justin Romack on the Udu. Very cool instrument.

I went back and did a new acoustic part and vocal. I've decided that my vocals on "I Am Glad" just aren't going to ever be right - I did my best.

Then the fun part. One Saturday morning, I plugged my guitar into the Roland and found a nice gritty distortion and record an electric rhythm part that really gave the song the sort of power it deserves. Then I got crazy - I found a delay effect and did a lead. Yes, a lead. It's nothing amazing, but I was proud of it. (Hey Neil Young's lead aren't that great either, but everybody thinks he's a genius.)

That one is done. I'm not doing any BGV's.

What's next....
My Lips Will Sing: click, acoustic and vocal this weekend, drums on Tuesday, bass on next Thursday and electric on the 21. It's a shame how much I enjoy this!

Ice Cream Is A Beautiful Thing

Woke up at 7:15. Ironed, showered, kissed my family and hit the door. Some sales guy brought kaloches to work. Excellent.

Grabbed a Burger King kids meal for lunch. (Free Star Wars figure for Jonah, you see.) Went to the church, turned in the Wal Mart credit card, went over to the WC, checked email.

Got two wn emails - one from Casey Corum, Vineyard worship guy. I'm hoping he can put me in touch w/ Zaffiro for our electric guitar issue. Second email was from a church in Malaysia that just did a worship CD. I found their site and listend. It's good.

Put all the songs in the projection, formatted Mike's powerpoint text, input a new song in the database. It's called "Remind Us." I'm really afraid it's going to suck on Sunday, but it works great with our theme. How's that for mixed emotions?

Grabbed my Roland from the sound room to take home for K's vocals, and headed back to work.

Home at 5...bacon and eggs for supper, then outside to play with Jonah. We drove over to borrow a weed-eater from my grandpa (the yard is ridiculous,) and managed to stop by Sonic on the way home. Simple Ice cream cone - no frills, no toppings, no mixins, just the same thing my daddy ate and his daddy before him. Sounds like a Twila Paris song. "Seventy years ago!"

Put Jonah in the bed and his nightlight went out. He totally freaked and stayed up a good while talking and continually asking me to come lay beside him.

6/5/05

Today's Set
Rejoice (Foote)
I've Found Jesus (Smith)
Praise the Lord (King)
Lifted Hands (Keyes)
You Alone (Crowder)

Set went okay. Had some sound problems in the first song, so I'm enacting an 8:50 soundcheck for Sunday mornings. Dang it. In truth, it was my fault that stuff was messed up - I tracked bass and keys Thursday night for "The Cross of Christ."

I was able to finish "Cross" - all I have left is Krist's vocals. I also laid down an electric rhythm and lead part for "I Am Glad." Actually, it's my acoustic run through some electric effects on the Roland. I liked it and played it for Chris and David this morning. They dug it.

Hopefully, I can get Kristen to do BGV's this week. I may add a ride cymbal part to "Cross," but I've got to ask Justin tonight what he thinks. I'm thinking of having him set up a small acoustic kit so we can do "My Lips Will Sing" and maybe "You Gave Sight."

AFter that, I make CD's and mail them out.

Weekending

I stayed up unbelievably late last night. I had worship practice until around 10, then ran to Sonic for a bite and came back to church to track bass and keyboards for The Cross of Christ. After that was said and done and the musicians gone, I lugged the Larivee up to the sound room to try to get a better acoustic track. I was messing with that when the phone rang. Krist. 12:30. I signed off with her and tried to knock out the acoustic part, but it didn't work - no low end.

Anyway, came home, tucked Krist in, and popped in a tape of CSI and hit the treadmill. Finished up somewhere around 1:30, so I drank a glass of water in the living room and watched the conclusion of "Total Recall."

That being said, I overslept this morning, grabbed a quick shower and arrived at the Clerk's office. Uneventful. Came home for lunch, went back to work. Work got busy when I had to work the criminal desk again.

Came home at 5 to absolutely no plans. We all lounged around saying "let's go do something," but nothing got done. Finally, I threw the family in the car and headed for Icee's. Halfway to Okay's, Kristen wondered if any snow cone stands might be open.

We drove down Timberland to Ben Stoke's stand. I ordered something called a "Big 'Un." It is quite possibly the largest snow cone I have ever seen in my life. We're talking 4 inches over the cup big! Jonah had his first snow cone. I think he was impressed.

Crashed early last night, so I did the walking thing this morning. Kinda' nice, get my workout on before work. Woke me up nice and good.

Got to work - worked the criminal desk today, which is always interesting. It's back in the criminal division where I learned something....

When I meet a woman who's been charged with deadly conduct, I automatically lose any superiority I might have. How can I be rude to woman who conducted herself in a deady manner? I was like a newborn kitten around this gal. (Yes, maam. Thank you, maam. Please don't shoot me in the ass, maam.)

I went to lunch and grabbed some Chick-Fil-A. Number 1 Value Size. Went to the church and spent over an hour scouring the web for a free download of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. It ain't there.

Went back to work for more one-on-one with society's underbelly. Spent most of my free time thinking on ways to start getting some of my songs out into other churches.

After work, I went to Kristen's family annual "School's Out" Party. Pizza, Cokes, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Bites. Nearly killed myself.

Jonah didn't nap today, so he's on the couch with Krist winding down. Kristen is watching "Dancing With the Stars." I don't know if you've seen this, but it may just be one of those ideas just stupid enough to be success.