Sunday Challenges

Sunday.  Home with Red–sick.  Or supposedly so.  We thought he was running a low grade temp.  The thermometer says no.

Tired.  Emotionally tired dealing with problems that seem cyclical.  Unproductive.  Ineffective.  Angry.  Prayerful.  Repentant.  Frustrated.

Much up in the air.

Solutions?  or Attitudes?  Or both?

Training, or planning, or cooperation?  Or all the above?

Resting.  Do my part.  Try to be a postive influence.  Try to let other’s problems be THEIR problems. 

Let it go.

Keep giving.  Keep serving.  Keep smiling.  Keep encouraging.  Keep trying.

New energy and spirit will come tomorrow, even when I ponder giving up today.  It makes a difference.  I love to serve.  I love to give.  And I wish it could all be more sometimes.  More prepared.  Better suited to suite everyone.  But, unrealistic expectations never helped anyone.  And, it’s nobody’s fault necessarily.  There is no perfect system, method, or week.

Breathe deep.

PS:  I got up 15 minutes earlier…OUCH!  5:30.  Got there early today and waited in my van prayerfully singing (and cleaning out my purse—-where do all the dirty Kleenex COME from …disgust-amundo!).  Walked in at 7:00, sharp.  I don’t like to go in early if other ladies aren’t there yet!   Felt good to hit a personal goal.  Maybe today I’ll get lucky and finishe the last two “icky jobs” on my chore list sitting on there far too long!

Aviom Review

My new favorite word:  Aviom.  No.  It’s not water.  I am #1…no, not because I am the best…because I am the most trouble. 

I love stage monitors…and I love them balanced, and I love amps…just a hair over everyone else so that we can all hear ourselves.  And it turns into the war of Amps, and not being about to get true house sound because of stage sound.  And upset AV people, and upset stage people, and never getting problems fixed. 

Aviom.  I can hear what I need to hear.  I can hear myself.  Tip:  Mute all channels out…only unmute what you need to get only the instruments on the stage…not monitors and house speaker sound.  You never get them set if you don’t mute them all, then unmute and set volumes for each you want individually.  If we all unplug and change lines…we all get new Aviom numbers, which is most annoying. 

Another tip: Get your own earplugs.  Sharing earwax is so 80s.  or 60s.  Heck, it’s just plan disgusting.  I had to use it last week and some 70 old man with grey hair and yellow ear wax had used it last…or so it appeared.  Get the kind of earplugs that wind around your ear, or something more substantial than just plugs.  I like to be able to take one plug out if I need to hear stage or house sound.  Like to underscore…if I don’t have the speaker’s channel…like today.  Ugh.  The kind to the right are my fav. right now. 

I love Aviom.  Let it never fail.  Never.  Ever. 

As I personal note, I also “love it” when the worship minister calls me over before we go onstage for the service…first “real service” on camera, and we’re all shaking it out backstage trying to relax.  Hesitation.  Eye contact.  I say, “What? Like, are my pants unzipped or something?”…hint of a smile in the eyes.  Oh my gosh!  I said, “Well I’m glad you told me that, and are we on the same wave or what?”  He says, “Yeah, and I am like so glad because I didn’t want to have to say the words.”

Oh geez. Can’t believe I did that.  I can’t get it off my mind. 

And, as a NOTE:   I would not have forgotten had the “Inspected by number 23″ circle stickers been taken off the toilet and sink in the new backstage bathroom!  Come on now.  Last week I thought, “I will not obsess.  It is new.  They’ll get to it.  Just leave it.  And using great self control.  I did”  This week, I thought, “I should just take them off myself and it won’t bother me when I ‘go’.  Be a servant.  Just do it!”  Lesson:  In being an obessive servant , don’t forget to zip your pants!       

My son said after the service upon hearing me retell something “Funny that happened”, he says, “Mom, it’s a good thing you did, cause they got a close up of you like from the waist up!” 

Thanks, son.  Glad you were paying attention.  (As a note, it’s not a good idea to try to google a pic for un-zipped pants.)  Ugh.

We now have a ”backstage”.  You learn things about people you never wanted to know…or even thought about.  B.S.   wants an “occupied” sign for the baths, even thought the bathroom door locks.  Hmmm.  You mean, like an airplane?  No door rattling…or what if you forget to lock?  Oooh.  That’s bad.  Yeah, maybe we need a sign.  Ideas for signs? “the king is on the throne.  do not disturb”? 

Other suggestions?   

Okay, maybe just “occupied is best.”  Still, why not have a bit of fun with it?  If your sign wins, I’ll post a pic next time I play. 

Marx at His Height

A Gift for the Keyboardists out there.  Very fun.  (3:00+; requires sound)

Chico Marx and Beer Barrel Polka.  He hammers it out with quite the entertaining flare!  

First Night

Night one. Finished. The first comment I heard was: “Wow. The Spirit of God fell down out there. It was powerful.”

All I need to know. Where there mistakes?

Yeah.

But, it was good.  It was fun. –Now, one more time.

Amazing to work five weeks so hard on a peice and play it twice. In the fast paced world of Sunday morning praise and worship week after week in a whirlwind, we just don’t get to plan to do a worship event this well.

It’s been so refreshing to have saxes and horns and penny whistles and tubular chimes and an astounding picked guitar peice.

I’m in awe that our hodge podge can learn something so intricate and beautiful and give it back to the Lord in worship…that the testimonies of people coming from such “low” circumstances have turned around to bless our body with such strong people.

One beautiful lady from a broken family background jaded by weight issues and anorexia and self esteem problems gave her testimony.  A man ravaged by increasing depths of substance abuse and drug problems all his life…then to join back in and worship to “Blessed Be Your Name”, or “In Christ Alone” with full orchestra sounds going on.

It’s just chilling. People were out of their seats. I believe God brought those who needed to hear and will continue to touch people tomorrow.

Me

Performance Day Tomorrow

Last practice.

I’ll fill bass. Just one song I need to work on for strings now. Three soccer games AM/egg hunt PM/. Whew. Tomorrow is sure full. Shoot…so is Sunday.

The strings just start grinding on my nerves high pitched through the monitor with no voices to tone them down for me. By that song at the end, I’m tired, my ears are tired, and I’m not wanting to play in the key of E with 4 sharps! Ughhhhh!

Maybe I can find a sound that doesn’t give me a headache in the upper octave. That would help.

For now, Wal* Mart for panty hose for my daughter for Easter morning and a vaccuum cleaner–killed mine on the patio last night picking up an unsuspecting penny…bye-bye Hoover.  Been good knowing you.

Freakin’…

First, a praise: They upgraded my friend’s chance of keeping his eyeball from 5% to 30% today. The chap plans on playing in the freakin’ Easter celebration…with his eyes closed. Yeah, he’s that good. Wow. Talk about dedication and a person who won’t let go of what they love doing until the grave. Praise God! What an inspiration.

I wish I felt inspired tonight. I have a freakin’ knot in my back about to kill me. Relaxing even sounds stressful. I’d take a long hot bath, but that seems to waste time. I have the time, but that’s not the point. Time is not to be wasted in a week like this! Be prepared!

Geez. I’m a freak. A freakin’ freak. And I’ve been around my little Navy brother too long because everything’s freakin’ somethin’. Which is better than what he could say, but it’s freakin’ annoying to be so freakin’ freaky.

Did I mention the air conditioning is out at the church. Man! Turbo lights and no air. I was freakin’ pourin’. Some youth girl came and saw me wrestling with my shoulder length hair trying to cram a mechanical pencil in it to get the stuff off my neck and said, “Here’s this if you need it.” I’m like…”What the…? What? What did you need need? What is…” Oh my gosh…a hair rubber bandy thingy. I worship you, my child. You are my handmaiden, my servant…God sent you here for me. I just know it.

Yeah…things get freakin’ melodramatic on week’s like this.

Sunday Challenges

Today, at the church by 7:15 to set up after a wedding. Praise God for servants who went in last night and set up stage and my instrument…heavy, heavy, Roland. Ahh.

But….still missing…the ground plug for my amp. BuZzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Ugh. So, I had to do without. I hate weddings. Not really, but when the stage has to get broken down, it’s a pain. I can’t wait to get into the new multi center…though I have a feeling we may have to break down every single Sunday to keep basketballs from hitting equipment. sigh.

I lead in with the wrong song today–got the order switched. Palm Sunday…four baptisms and tons of visitors, the Lord’s Supper, following an awesome videography of “Do You Know My Jesus” (by that famous pastor of days past whom I cannot remember to save my life).  And I lead in with the wrong song in that special moment.  SO glad it is NOT about “me”! .

I should have double checked order. Too much going on with catata and all. The pastor lost his Bible before the service and I left my order of worship…somewhere…???  And the hunt is on, people running like ants to find that.  We were doing good, let me tell you.  

Then again, sometimes I think our mistakes make people wake up from the “show”, to realization that we are real, what we are doing is real and living, authentic, prone to not being all polished up and ready for them to sleep through. We are working hard, and expect them to. Our mistakes reveal that effort sometimes better than a clean set. I think it shocks them back into attention. That’s my new theory/inspiration and I’m sticking to it. Mistakes are okay. Lack of preparation/laziness isn’t.

Someone got upset today in practice over sound. Always puts me in a funk I thank God for other team members who get involved and can say to the person, “It’s creative critique, we all need it. Part of the process. It’s okay. Just keep moving.”

You know how it is…So hard to communicate with the sound guy 300 feet away up in a sound booth. I still have a cold and don’t feel like yelling up there, so after the one comment, it still may not be good.

Give and take, and try and fail, and try and succeed, and fail and try. Every week.

Church was out at 11AM. Back 12:30-4:30 for band practice for the Easter Cantada worship celebration challenge. So, all in all….I’ve been in a adrenaline sweat since 7AM…It’s now 4:30. I need a bath just to go back to church tonight.

Well, that’s all the Sunday Praise Band commentary. Time to rest and enjoy some Sabbath Sunday night! Nobody said it isn’t exciting!

Keyboarding & Praise Band: Keyboarding, Metronomes, Floppy Disks Drives

• Buying a keyboard?

• Curious about electronic keyboards? Want to know more about the electronic keyboards and what they can do?
• What is a good low cost starter option for electronic keyboarding?
• What factors should I consider when comparison shopping?
• How I can use the metronome and recording feature on my keyboard to be a better keyboardist?

I tried to address questions people often ask me as I wrote the keyboard blog today. Click here to read more: Electric Keyboarding Considerations .