Praise and Worship music?

[mlwarriner]

OK, so the associate pastor at our church wants to start a contemporary praise and worship band. And she found out that I'm a bassist (I believe through my wife). So now she (the associate pastor) wants me to be in on the starting up of said praise and worship band.

 

I'm totally unaware of any of the details, but she did give me a CD of songs that she likes, and that she'd like to shoot toward as far as the sound of the band. The CD is Hymnmorphosis by Revolution?

 

Anyhow - can anyone here suggest other bands that I might want to look into? From the disc she gave me, I'm guessing she wants something rockish without being too poppy or metal. Something that would appeal to a fairly broad range of people, and especially college students (we've got a very active student ministry with the college across the street).

 

 

Also - I'm not sure what the gear situation is going to be either. If they ask me to "outfit" the bass section of the band - how much amp is going to be enough? I'm thinking something around 100 to 200 watts, in a combo of some kind. We're a big church, but not huge. And I'm not entirely sure which sanctuary we're going to have the contemp. service in. I don't want to haul my own stuff in and out every week or so, but I will if I have to. I'd much rather set the church up with something of their own, and use it while I'm there.

[burdizzos]

Check out Faith +1, they've got some great contemporary Christian songs that could totally work for you.

[Fran da Man]

Matt, heres a website that has a lot of CC tunes (just click them).

On second thought i'll pm you this site...i'm shocked that it allowed to remain running.

 

Heres one for chord charts to the popular CC music. You'll want to get used to charts if you join a CC Praise group/team.

 

http://www.iwillworship.com/list.asp

 

 

pm sent

[Wooj]

I've got quite a bit of worship songs in my library back home I'll post some artists and songs later.

 

 

You'll want to get used to charts if you join a CC Praise group/team.

 

 

+1.

 

Check out the lists air1.com too for current stuff, it's one of the nations largest christian radio stations.

[bnyswonger]

At the church I play at we use a Peavey single 15" combo - one of the keyboard ones - for both bass and V-drums. It's entirely adequate.

 

They do run everything through the house, but it's all about the singers, so you don't need much.

[mlwarriner]

 

At the church I play at we use a Peavey single 15" combo - one of the keyboard ones - for both bass and V-drums. It's entirely adequate. They do run everything through the house, but it's all about the singers, so you don't need much.

 

 

i'm not sure we've got enough house to run through...i may be required to carry the room on my own. i really need to spend some quality time with the pa system and see what we're really dealing with. apparently, the associate pastor just recently "found" the board.

 

(it's on top of a cabinet in the entry way...)

[Fran da Man]

At the church I play at we use a Peavey single 15" combo - one of the keyboard ones - for both bass and V-drums. It's entirely adequate. They do run everything through the house, but it's all about the singers, so you don't need much.

Good suggestion Bob, though around this little rinkydink town here the FOH couldn't handle (in most cases) a deep voice let alone a bass.

And with an amp you'd want it to be able to be versitile and portable when needed (block parties, picinics and other outdoor/indoor uses) just to be on the safe side of things.

[bnyswonger]

i'm not sure we've got enough house to run through...i may be required to carry the room on my own. i really need to spend some quality time with the pa system and see what we're really dealing with. apparently, the associate pastor just recently "found" the board. (it's on top of a cabinet in the entry way...)

 

We were using the same rig before they upgraded the board and mains, and it was still fine. Never even romotely stressed.

 

You'll discover that in that environment you don't need very much - unless it's some sort of heavy-duty roll & roll church.

[ezstep]

+1 for the small rig.

 

In very small churches, I find that the BagEnd 1x15 is more than adequate. In the larger churches, they mic it anyway, so don't worry about taking 1200 watts and the cabs to max it out.

 

I have never found that one group whose music I really, really like. I honestly don't think that we play two songs by the same group. It is all about the song, not about the singers.

[1tallbassguy]

Better to have more than you need than to need more than you have.

 

I always enjoyed the praise songs of old Petra...like this one.

 

 

 

 

 

and the coloring song is great for the youngins.

Excellent vocals harmonies!

[mlwarriner]

 

At the church I play at we use a Peavey single 15" combo - one of the keyboard ones - for both bass and V-drums. It's entirely adequate. They do run everything through the house, but it's all about the singers, so you don't need much.

 

 

i was thinking maybe something similar. peavey makes some very nice little combos. or perhaps if they're looking to spend, i might push for the ampeg rocketbass combo. dunno. i really wish i still had my B100R combo, i'm guessing that'd be just about perfect.

 

i know i won't "need" to bring in my gigging rig, but that might be the only option if they don't have PA support, and don't have budget for gear...

 

we're meeting tuesday evening to discuss further.

[chunky-b]

I have used my Peavey Max112 in our sanctuary a few times. It seats between 450 and 500 and it works okay. We know have a new bassist who is "Way Good" and he has a Fender Combo that we run through the house.

 

As far as other music, check out some of these:

 

Third Day

 

Michael W. Smith "Worship"

[RSBro]

We do a lot of re-arrangements of Hillsong and Hillsong: United stuff. The more upbeat Maranatha! tunes are fun too, and sometimes feature Norm Stockton on the MTD 535.

 

Lincoln Brewster does good stuff too, that's doable for church. Some Shane and Shane, Chris Tomlin, etc..

[BoundandBlocked]

I like playing Lincoln Brewster songs a lot. Norm Stockton is his bass player so it provides a little more challenge than most P&W.

[Fran da Man]

Ha, it's kinda ironic how rock n rolly, funky, groovy, even jazzy that CC and it's offshoots has become. Take away the religious references and most of it is just secular music redone.

[bassthumpintwin]

Gotta love starting up a brand new praise and worship band! (That's actually how I got started playing bass)

 

As far as rigs go, a lot of it will depend on how much everyone else is bringing to the table, the size of the room, and how much (if any) is running through the PA.

If your only playing with an acoustic and a set of bongos, 100W will be plenty. If it's an acoustic, a full drum kit, electric guitar, keyboards, and multiple vox, 100W will be hard to keep up with. (Congregation size factors in too)

 

I started off with a Fender BXR100 combo. (15" speaker, 100 Watts) But I was playing in a 5 piece for the youth group in a smaller room and less than 50 people. When I started playing for regular services in the sanctuary, (A much bigger room for 300 people) I ran through the mains and used my combo as a monitor. It worked very well for me as we didnt have to crank up too loud in either setting, and nobody was drowning anyone else out.

 

Now I play for a bigger church with a louder band, and I still use a 15" monitor, but with a 300W amp. (Both Trace Elliott) Granted, it's not cranked all the way, but it's nice to have the extra head room.

 

I would recommend AT LEAST a 1x15 if you only need a monitor. A 410 or a 212 wouldnt be a bad investment for times when you need to stand on your own. I'd look into Avatar Speakers. The Neos have great response and are light enough that you dont have to dread packin your gear in every week. (A little lighter on the wallet too)

 

If you're lookin more for a combo, ampeg makes a good 115 one that I've seen used in a couple praise bands. I think they have one that pushes 200W or more now?

 

As far as good contemporary worship bands, check out:

 

Jesus Culture (specific album - We Cry Out)

Hillsong United

The Glorious Unseen

David Crowder

Matt Redman

Chris Tomlin

[BoundandBlocked]

We do a lot of re-arrangements of Hillsong and Hillsong: United stuff. The more upbeat Maranatha! tunes are fun too, and sometimes feature Norm Stockton on the MTD 535. Lincoln Brewster does good stuff too, that's doable for church. Some Shane and Shane, Chris Tomlin, etc..

 

I'm slow. I wish I didn't have this dagblasted job.

[RSBro]

Haha, it's all good!

You can't have TOO many Norm references in one singular thread, IMHO...

 

Norm actually got to record on the new Lincoln CD that should be out soon, so I'm excited to hear that.

[BoundandBlocked]

Haha, it's all good! You can't have TOO many Norm references in one singular thread, IMHO... Norm actually got to record on the new Lincoln CD that should be out soon, so I'm excited to hear that.

 

There's a video of Norm with Michael Tobias discussing the custom bass he made for Norm specifically to record the album. I'll see if I can find it. Here:

 

[YOUTUBE]5nxjviV9QS4[/YOUTUBE]

[RSBro]

Yeah I keep up with all of those from the MTD Enthusiasts page.

 

I'd like to meet him someday. He seems like an awesome cat, and has the chops to backup anything, but is humble as all get out.

[RedsFan75]

Hey Fran I'd be interested to see that web site you were referencing.

 

Most of what I play is P&W, and there were some great suggestions here already. You might check out some Vineyard Music stuff too. They are pretty good.

[RedsFan75]

As far as Norm goes, anyone checked out his instructional DVD's?

[ThudMaker]

Look up Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman as dedicated PW writers.

 

The Newsboys have 2 CDs that are strictly dedicated to PW and most are PW standards. These CDs are titled Adoration and Devotion

 

Look at some CDs called WOW Worship. This would have a collection of tunes from Tomlin, Redman, Delirious, Nicole Nordeman, Jeff Deyo (Sonicflood), etc.

 

Good luck.

[RSBro]

As far as Norm goes, anyone checked out his instructional DVD's?

 

Yes-

they are far and away worth it.

 

If I had time, I'd go back through them again, now that I have ya know, almost exactly the same MTD and all...

[Emprov]

As far as the amp goes, how large is the building/congregation? How are the acoustics and the sound system? Most of the time I've been able to get away with a pretty small rig and, for the last 5 years or so, the church that I attend has been using IEM's and running direct so no amp needed.

 

As far as the music goes, we do a lot of David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, Robbie Seay, Lincoln Brewster, etc... Older stuff that we used to do is Hillsong United, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Sonic Flood, Passion Band, stuff like that. If you like, PM me your email addy and and I can throw together a quick song list of songs that we're currently doing.

 

Edit: Also, check out some of the New Song Cafe stuff on YouTube. It's basically short interviews with some of the artists where they talk and play through some of the songs.