Be Magnified

Lately I've been feeling a lot of discouragement with regard to my career and my business. Then on Thursday night, at worship team rehearsal, one of the songs we did was Be Magnified. The words spoke to me and I felt inspiration.

I felt prompted to record the service this morning, and this song is from that service.

One King video

I was at the Essential Skills Training event last week. My official role was Event Manager but I was also pressed into service as a trainer and as a videographer.

I had purchased new tapes to record the footage for the event but I forgot to check what was in the camcorder before I started recording. As a result I ended up taping over some of the footage that I shot at the Christmas Eve service. Fortunately I still had the footage of the song that we had learned, One King. After I watched that footage I felt motivated to produce a video out of it.

I shot that footage under low lighting conditions so I used the Night setting on the camcorder. The result is that the lighting and color looked low and dull. Furthermore, I had shot the entire sequence from a fixed location on a tripod with a fixed focal length. This means that there is little to no movement in the footage; it probably would make a dull video to watch as it was.

This called for experimentation with color correction and with some creative effects. I don't know if I've overdone the effects and made this look too cheesy but it looks much better than the raw footage.

Watch the video below.

Season begins

One of the signs that the Christmas season has started is when I start listening to Trans Siberian Orchestra music. That happened last week when I pulled my Christmas Eve and Other Stories CD off the shelf and started listening to it in my car.

Another sign is when we start rehearsing a new song for the Christmas Eve service. That happened tonight at rehearsal. We started learning a new song (new for us that is), called One King. It's a complex song with key signature changes and time signature changes, and it has a really nice melody. We listened to a CD recording of the song a couple of times to familiarize ourselves with it. If we get can get the show lights and a children's choir, we could do this song like Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Roasted almonds

Was at another Legacy Discovery weekend couple of days ago. How many have I now been part of? Enough to have lost track.

Got home from the event early in the evening on Sunday. Felt like I had missed church, found out about a cell group meeting being held that night at Vern's house, and still had enough energy to get myself out of the house and on my way there.

Grabbed some snacks on the way out. A bowl on the kitchen table, a large round ceramic bowl, full of weird shaped roasted almonds. Or so I thought. My housemates must have gone grocery shopping while I was away. I grabbed a handful and popped them into my mouth as I headed for the door. Munch munch, chew chew, swallow swallow.

It didn't take long to realize that these were not nuts. Nuts have a kind of salty flavor, these did not. They crunched differently than nuts do. They tasted kind of fishy.

Decided to go back into the kitchen for a glass of water to wash down the taste. Then it hit me what these snacks really were. I confirmed my suspicion back in the kitchen when I noticed that the area on the floor were there are normally two bowls was vacant. The two bowls that the cat eats out of. Looked at the kitchen table. Saw two bowls there. One had the dry food to which I had just helped myself. The other was the little bowl with the picture of a cat on it, and contained his wet food. Why these two bowls were on the kitchen table I do not know.

The glass of water didn't help wash away the taste. I got to Vern's house and he offered me a crisp which I accepted. He also offered me ice cream. I declined, he offered again, I accepted. Ate the crisp, ate the ice cream. It helped kill the taste of the cat food. Not for long though. By the time I was on my way home I could feel the after taste again.

I came home and told Jan that those dry roasted almonds on the table had gotten stale.

Practice practice practice

I went to see Avalon at the Queensway Cathedral tonight.

The opening performance was by Jay Calder, a very talented guitarist. He played a very unique style, one in which he provided all of his own accompaniment - all with just one acoustic guitar.

Steve O was there too. During the break he said to me, "I'll have to step down from the worship team now that I've seen him play guitar."

To which I replied, "Forget that, you should just practice more."

A Christmas bug

It is two day's after Christmas. I am staying at my parent's house; I've been here since Christmas Day. I am sick and my lifestyle the last two days has been nothing but eating, drinking lots of fluids, and sleeping.

I am sick and on the verge of laryngitis though apparently safe from writyngitis. My voice is at least an octave below my normal range; if I don't recover then I will have to ask Cindy to audition me for the bass section.

It started Christmas Eve at the cafetorium, during rehearsal. I felt a tickle in my chest and sensed that some bug had already infiltrated my body. It was only a matter of time before it took over to the point of my incapacitation.

"Vern", I said, seeing an opportunity to tease my tenor buddy, "I think I'm losing my voice. You're going to have to sing loud enough for both of us."

"Oh no, you have to sing!" That's Vern - he's so easy and delightful to tease, and he takes it so well. He has a way of setting himself up for a teasing and has such a good sense of humour about it.

I prayed that my voice would last through the service. All those weeks of preparation, of learning those two new songs - they were the highlight of the pre-Christmas season for me, yet this evening, Christmas Eve, was what really mattered. All those weeks of preparation would amount to naught if any one of us was off this night. Pull together, pull through. Even if only for the two new songs, Come On Down To Bethlehem and Love's Perfect Light. If I could just get through those two songs it wouldn't even matter to me if I couldn't do the standard Christmas carols that followed. No, not just get through the new songs, but get through with excellence. A Christmas Eve service calls for a higher standard than a regular service.

The key payoff to rehearsing is to learn which parts of the song are prone to mistakes. At which parts do I tend to lose my place, or or get confused about the timing, or tend to get the words mixed up, or tend to get confused about which notes to sing. With those sections identified, it then becomes a matter of diligence during the performance to remain aware during approach of a problem spot and to take extra care to hit the right note and the right words at the right time.

During last year's Christmas Eve service, our rendition of then new song went by so quickly, it was over before I knew it. It was almost anticlimactic. Not so this year. I felt very present in every moment, every phrase, every note. And of all the anticipated trouble spots, I think that we did not hit any of them. When we finished Come On Down To Bethlehem I was elated. We did it! I patted Vern and Hardy on the back in congratulation and encouragement. We did it!

Christmas preparation

I tend to be slow in getting into the spirit for holiday preparations. However, one aspect of Christmas preparation that I enjoy and look forward to is rehearsing for Christmas Eve service. Last year the worship team learned a new song for the Christmas Eve service; we started rehearsing for it in November.

This year we are learning two new songs. We had a rehearsal tonight in which we went over these two songs. I have a copy of the two songs on CD and I've been learning them by listening to the CD. At tonight's rehearsal is the first one this year that I've been to where we had musicians and almost the full complement of singers to practice the songs.

I'm looking forward to the December 24 service.

Cover concept for Let It Rain

This image depicts my concept for the CD compilation I am producing with my church worship team.



The recording project went into a bit of a stall in the summer; gas prices got so high and the musicians were reluctant to travel to the studio, which for some members of the team is quite a drive.

The solution - when musicians won't come to the studio it is time to bring the studio to the musicians. How? A Profire 2626 audio interface, a Firewire interface, a laptop, and some digital audio software should do the trick. In theory.

I've got the Profire interface, I rented one from Long & McQuade. I've got the Firewire interface - I bought one at Best Buy. What I don't have is the laptop. I'm looking for one on craigslist. Once I get one, I'm back in action again.

First mix of Thank You

I have four songs in the process of being recorded now. Make that five, if I count the Holy Spirit Rain Down/Let It Rain medley as two separate songs. At tonight's session I went back to the first song of the bunch, Thank You. The last time I worked on this song was when we added the vocals and guitar solo (see Recording vocals).

There are still some guitar parts I've thought of adding, but I've got a lot of tracks down already so I decided to do a "premix" using what was already there. I've come back to this song after letting it rest since July and I have to say that I really like how it sounds. I am proud of the work that the musicians have put into it. A few times I've heard them tell me Remember we're not professionals, and I just have to ask them to stop saying that. They are all experienced, skilled and talented people.

We made three different versions of the mix tonight. The differences between the three are minor though, and lie in how we handled the lead guitar on the ending. In the first version we kept it the way David originally performed it. In the second version we edited his performance so it sounds like he sustained the final note rather than repeatedly picking it. In the third version we edited his original performance so that it sounded like he repeatedly picked the final note longer than he actually did.

I considered making a couple of alternate mixes, one with more emphasis on the piano performance and one with more emphasis on the rhythm guitar - there are so many different things that I can do with this song that if I try out all my ideas I will never finish this project.

Started Let It Rain medley

I had a recording session tonight. I wasn't sure what I was going to record because some of the musicians I wanted to work with where not available (see Opening the floodgates).

A few weeks ago I had a session and started a new project - the remake of Magician's Plea that I'd been thinking of starting for some time now.

So it all came down to Steve O. If he was available tonight and confident enough to track on Let It Rain then I would focus on that, otherwise I would continue building Magician's Plea.

It turned out that Steve O was available and willing to come to the studio. I had envisioned him playing acoustic guitar but he said he was rusty on the acoustic and preferred to play bass tonight.

So it all came together. Three of us at the studio - the two Steves and myself.

I brought a lo-fi recording of the arrangement we played yesterday at church, a medley of Holy Spirit Rain Down and Let It Rain. We used that to chart the arrangement, which we tweaked a tiny little bit.

Steve O played bass and Steve S contributed acoustic guitar. So I now have four songs in progress, four songs being recorded. I've got a lot of balls up in the air now, which is fine with me. It suits my INTJ personality. Plus I have lots of options and flexibility for moving forward even when musicians are not available for a session.

Opening the floodgates

After taking a bit of a summer break from my recording project (see Recording vocals), I am starting to move the ball forward again.

I met with Steve O tonight in an offline rehearsal to work out an arrangement for Let It Rain. This song is both simple and complex. It is simple in that it uses only about four chords, has a simple melody, and has only four lines of lyrics and three of those four are the same line repeated. It is complex in that it has potential for rich harmonies and textures and dynamics.

Because the song is so repetitive I wasn't sure how to structure the arrangement. How many times to repeat the verse? Where should it build and where should it come down? How many times should the verse repeat before the instrumental break, and for how many cycles should the instrumental repeat?

Steve O found a chord chart on the CCLI website. I learned that the chord progression is not as repetitive as I thought - there are some minor variations from verse to verse.

So now I'm clear how I want to approach this in the studio. To put down bed tracks, I'd like to invite Steve O to play acoustic guitar, David (who played guitar on Thank You and How Can I Keep From Singing...) to play bass, and Cindy to play keyboard, and I will do guide vocals. Once the bed tracks are done, I will have a second session to add layers and textures and to build the dynamics.

In the meantime I ponder... could all the thunderstorms we've been having this summer have anything to do with all the times that I've been singing this song? Let it rain, let it rain, open the floodgates of heaven, let it rain.

Gala squared

I just got back from an evening out at the Gala of Hope - a fund raiser sponsored by Children of Hope and HELPS International. There was dinner and a silent auction. I had fun during the auction. I bid on a sailing cruise; had some competition that kept me on my toes but won it in the end.

This is my month for Galas. Galae? Last week I attended the BBBST Big Night Out Gala. I wrote about that event in my post titled The Big Brother waiting game. After trying for several weeks to connect with the volunteer coordinator for that event, Wayne, I finally got an email from him the day before the event with the volunteer schedule.

At the event I started to understand why I'd been having difficulty getting in touch with the volunteer coordinator. The event was huge and there was a ton of stuff to coordinate. They were expecting some 700 people. They had an auction too. One of the prizes was a guitar autographed by the Rolling Stones. The starting bid was $3,500 and it went for $5,000. (I didn't bid on it - are you kidding?) My volunteer job was parking lot attendant, during the beginning of the evening. After that I got to go inside, have dinner, and be one of the silent auction monitors. I got to talk to Wayne about volunteer possibilities with the Men's Division, as well as the grant my employer is offering. At the end of the evening I felt wiped from being on my feet for so long in the parking lot, but I had a nice time.

I had a nice time at tonight's Gala as well. It wasn't as big in terms of numbers, but I had fun bidding on the boat. I also picked up a pair of folding Muskoka chairs - I figure they'll be my Father's Day present for my dad tomorrow.

Tale of Two Steves

Had a drum session at the studio on Friday night. Once again the session went well. It took an hour to set up the drum kit and mic it. Then we spent one hour on Thank You and one hour on How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. Aaron played the drums. He's probably the youngest member of the worship team, at 17. I had invited Preston to come in again to play bass and give Aaron someone to play off but Preston was unavailable. Steve O. came - I had thought to have him play acoustic rhythm guitar but we ended up having him play bass to accompany Aaron's drumming. So we now have two sets of bass tracks. Will we use Steve O's bass track or Preston's from last session? Steve Sherman recommends using Steve O's track because it was performed in sync with the drums.

What we did was a bit unusual, bringing in the drummer after we already had the bed tracks. Steve Sherman was concerned, given that we hadn't played to a click track, but it seems to have worked out and I think it was the right way to do it. Will I do it the same way when we do Let It Rain? I don't know yet, but it is the way I would prefer to do it. I prefer to treat the drums as an instrument rather than to require the drummer to be the timekeeper for the band - we can use a click track for that purpose.

How Can I Keep is finished from an instrumental point of view; it doesn't need anything else and is ready for vocals.

Aaron and Steve O. both said they had fun. Aaron got to make a lot more noise than he usually gets to at our Thursday night rehearsals! Steve said he hoped to be back to the studio do more work. Amen.

Let the sessions begin

The sessions have begun! Cindy, Preston, Dave, all traveled to the studio to put down some bed tracks. It was the Friday of a long weekend and I wasn't sure if they'd run into traffic on their way across town, but they showed up right at seven.

We played two songs, Thank You and How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. Cindy played the keyboard, Dave on rhythm guitar, Preston on bass. I sang guide vocals in the isolation booth and Cindy contributed secondary vocals.

We put down two takes for Thank You. Cindy suggested playing the instrumental break based on the tag but I hear it as being based on the chorus so that's how we did it in those two takes. I wanted to do a third take with the instrumental based on the tag as per Cindy's idea, to see where it could go, but we didn't have time for that. The chord structure for the tag is similar to the chords in the chorus so the end result may not have been that different from what we did anyway.

We also recorded three takes of How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. The third take felt the best. I really felt on, especially the last time through the chorus, and built it up through each repetition of the final take.

I listened to the session mix while driving home and got really excited about it. I was singing harmonies in my car and waving my arms around, playing air drums. I think the next step will be to focus on the percussion and rhythm on Thank You, especially on the tag. I'll want to bring in a drummer and I think a bass player too, so that drums and bass can play off each other.

Click on the play button below to hear an excerpt from the session.


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Rolling the music ball

After my failed attempt to start the Come Now Is The Time To Worship remix (see Now is the time) I'm picking up this recording project again, with a different approach.

The archives still have not appeared so I've picked two other songs to start recording first. One is Thank You - no, it's not the Led Zeppelin song. It's a song the worship team learned last year. It's one of those songs that I get goosebumps when we perform it at a service. The other song I've picked is How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. The worship team learned it last year for Vern and Angie's 20th wedding anniversary (see Twenty Years).We practiced it a lot for the anniversary last year and if I do say so myself, we really did a good job of it.

I've got a session booked at the studio for next Friday. I've booked it around Cindy's schedule. Cindy is the worship team leader and keyboard player. The guys on the team describe her as the glue that binds together all the instrumentalists. Dave, one of the guitar players, won't feel confident to put down his tracks without having Cindy's cues to follow, so I've got them both booked to come to the studio with me to start putting down the bed tracks.

I am really excited about starting this project.

A Weekend in the Life Of, Part II - Sunday

8:10am Decided to do an easy Mile this morning. I set an alarm last night, a Sat-Sun alarm on my cell phone, and it worked this morning. I probably would have slept another hour if it had not gone off.

Noticed I had a new voicemail alert on my phone. Checked my voicemail, found a message from Pastor Hardy timestamped 9:30 last night, asking if I could do the song sheets for today's service. It's kind of last minute-ish, but I can do it.

I came to the rescue last week. Cindy and Steve both realized on Sunday morning that no one had thought to print up the song sheets. What with all the excitement and preparation that went into the Saturday event, Vern & Angie's wedding anniversary, this just fell through the cracks. Steve usually does the song sheets, but he was busy sorting out a problem with the sound board he'd rented for the event, so I stepped up to do them. Steve gave me the instructions; they were easy to follow and I whipped up the song sheets in about 15 minutes. Hardy was impressed that I did them so quickly. I don't think it is right that only a handful of people know how to do this stuff and I don't think it's right that Steve had to do everything. So I offered to be an additional resource for doing the song sheets, now that I know how.

Wasn't sure if Hardy had already found someone to do the song sheets for today and I wasn't sure how early I could call their house in the morning, so I did my Mile first. Did an easy Mile. What with doing two laps jogging yesterday plus the laps I did swimming, I decided to go easy, give my body some regeneration time. I walked one lap, jogged one lap, walked a third lap. When I got home it was eight - I figured that was a reasonable time at which to call Hardy. He was relieved to hear from me.

I downloaded the song lyrics from the CCLI web site and pasted them into a Word file. Took about half an hour to do, sent the file to Hardy so he could print copies, and got on with getting myself showered and dressed.

What a feeling of team, what a feeling of community, what a feeling of family. I arrive at Hardy and Cindy's house for home church - there is a pile of song sheets all printed out. I pick one up for myself, taking pride in my work.

A few weeks ago I was in this house for a home church service. I was exhausted that day. Burned out, and nodding off. Not today. This morning I am energized. Like I just did my Mile.

1:53pm Just got home from home church. We had a congregational meeting to talk about some proposals for where we are going to meet going forward. The church offerings have not kept up with the expenses and we cannot continue to operate in this mode. The proposals are for not renting the big room, the cafetorium, at the school where we hold our services throughout the year, but to rent the smaller classrooms either once a month, twice a month, or three times a month.

I jotted down some phrases I heard from various members of the congregation. These are phrases that I heard that spoke to me about what is our congregational vision for what a church is:
- studying the word,
- praying together,
- breaking bread together (like we did at Vern and Angie's wedding anniversary; more than just a bread crumb at communion)
- worship,
- intimate time together learning about each other's lives

Some concerns I heard come up:
- wheel chair accessibility,
- consistency - when we invite someone to come as a guest, where do we tell them we meet? "Well, that depends on which weekend you come".

I talked with J about what her ideal church experience is. What does she need that would get her to come more often? (I'm thinking like a leader here, thinking "how can I create a church experience that Josephine will want to be a part of"). Some of the things she wants - a place where she can go for solitude, a place where she can go to talk to God.

She asks me what keeps me going back to JCC. Being on the worship team. A sense of community, a sense of family. Being in service. Feeling like I am a valued and contributing member.

9:40pm We got the laptop. J came with me to Best Buy to pick it up. The plan was we go to Best Buy, get the laptop, then go get our groceries and come home. After we got the laptop J says, I'm not comfortable leaving it in the car while we do our groceries; let's take it home first. Sounds like she can't wait to get her hands on it. When we get home I ask, We're just dropping off the laptop and going back out for groceries, right? Quick in and out? Yeah, she says. Then takes it out of the box, powers it up, starts checking out all the features. Yeah, this is not going to be a quick in and out operation. Usually she's the one dragging me out to go for groceries and I'm the one who wants to play with the new toy. Got a little role reversal thing happening today!

Eventually we get our groceries and come home for dinner. I put groceries away in the basement and do some work on my computer (the one we don't need to fight over any more). When I come up, dinner is ready - and the laptop is in the kitchen, J and her mom are using it to watch a DVD. A Filipino rock band video.

It's like having a television in the kitchen, J says. Thank you! she says, unprompted, a big smile on her face.

Accentuate the positive - that smile, the smile that lights up her whole face, her eyes crinkle a bit around the corners, that's her When you smile the whole world smiles with you smile. That's one of the best things I've seen in this relationship in the last two or three weeks.

We watch a few Filipino music videos, J, her mom, and I. When was the last time the three of us did something together like this? Spend quality time. I feel some anxiety, thinking I've got some homework to do and I'm not doing it. But I remind myself that this is family time that we're sharing; that this time counts as being productive and on purpose.

Twenty Years

8:03am Big day at church today. It's Vern and Angie's 20th wedding anniversary. It's also about 20 years since this church was started. Vern and Ange have been there since the beginning.

It's Mile time. My body is not to eager to be moving right now. It'll change its mind when I get outside.

9:22am Back from my Mile. It was - I struggled with it this morning. Felt like I was pushing it, even on the first two laps. The third lap - didn't make it all the way jogging. Did the first quarter, felt like I was just pushing too hard, so I walked the rest of the third lap. When I got home I did some Tai Chi moves in the backyard - what I remembered of the moves I learned in 21CL.

10:37am Breakfast time conversation with J, is a trip down memory lane for both of us. For J, visiting St. Joseph's yesterday was a trip back to her old neighborhood. She used to live their when she first came to Canada.

"I lived there too when I first came to Canada" I tell her.

"What do you mean when you first came to Canada, you were born here".

"Exactly," I reply. I was born in St. Joseph's hospital. I remember my parents saying they've lived on Pearson and on Westminster, though I don't remember those houses.

11:00am I'm going to have to learn the discipline of stretching when I exercise. My leg are feeling cramped up.

1:05pm This handsome bum is going to a wedding! I heard there is going to be dancing so I is wearing my dancing shoes. Better have a polka waiting for me!

2:28pm Traffic was starting to back up on the 401 just before I turned off at Guelph Line. Some people who arrived after I did said traffic was backed up even further now.

Steve, the sound guy was all frazzled. "I wish you'd gotten here two hours ago," he says when I arrive. I would have if he'd called me. Of course, I wouldn't have looked as beautiful if I had, but I'd have made the sacrifice.

The rest of the worship team has arrived. Dave is plugged in and is warming up by practicing his Rush repertoire. Distortion guitar, loud amplifier, outdoors, sounds great. Aaron jams with him on the drums. What a joyful noise!