10 commandments for worship bands / 5. gear

1. thou shalt play in tune
2. thou shalt learn the song, not just the arrangement
3. thou shalt practice with a metronome or drum machine
4. thou shalt seek out a mentor or coach on your instrument
5. thou shalt know thy gear
6. thou shalt play less for more
7. thou shalt seek out feedback
8. thou shalt be on time
9. thou shalt learn basic practical music theory and ear training
10. thou shalt continue thy education

———————————————-

there are gearheads and non-gearheads, but i think this applies to both.

at a minimum, you need to be familiar enough with your gear to make basic adjustments on the fly - whether it be quickly tuning between songs, figuring out how to layer two patches on your keyboard and/or quickly switching between two patches on the same song, tuning your drums to get the best tone, etc..

here are some of my practical thoughts on applying this commandment to specific instruments:

::keyboards:
*do you know right where your best acoustic piano sound is?
*can you pull up a vintage wurlitzer patch?
*do you know how to transpose keys in case it’s necessary to change the key of a song last minute?
*do you know how to adjust down the “attack” on synth pads to make them more transparent?
*have you experimented with arpeggiators? (not during rehearsal please)

::guitars (the ultimate gear-heads):
*do you have good basic sounds for clean rhythm, chunky rhythm, and lead?
*are you set-up to “tap” your delay time in real-time?
*have you asked your sound engineer about how your tone/EQ is translating into the house?
*is your guitar set-up properly for good intonation all the way up the fretboard?
*are you developing your ability to listen critically to the original recording and deconstruct the guitar part, including the tone/effects that you hear?
*(related to above) - have you searched the internet for clues? (youtube.com is your friend)
*how many options for different levels of gain do you have? (clean headroom, mild breakup, warm blues, british “brown tone”, modern hi-gain, etc.)

::drums:
*how well do your tones match the music your playing?
*what’s the middle ground, meat-n-potatoes tone/tunings that sounds best across the range of songs and styles you’re playing?
*have you asked your sound engineer how the drum tones/EQs are translating in the house?
*have you had another player sit behind the kit so you can hear the drums in the house yourself and dialogue with the sound engineer?
*are you playing the highest quality cymbals you (or your church) can afford? i’m learning that this makes a big difference….

::bass:
*regardless of how your tone sounds to you on stage, have you talked with your sound engineer about how it sounds in the house?
*do you have parametric EQ and do you know how to use it? how not to use it? (i don’t, i’m just asking…)

::vocals:
*do you know your range?
*do you know where your “break” is between chest voice and head voice?
*do you know how to sing through your break smoothly?
*do you do warm-up exercises?