Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

The Eraser

Transcribing songs and arrangements is fun for me.  I wish I could find a job that paid me to transcribe drum parts all day.  Man that would be awesome.  I've started charting out all the songs that I get asked to play when I "fill-in" at the various churches I play from time to time.  And I'm starting to amass quite a library of charts - so after my gig with Nathan back in June, I compiled all my various charts and alphabetized them into their own designated folder, so that now when I chart out a song, it goes in the folder.  And then when I do a gig, I just go to the folder and pull out the songs I need for the services.  I've even got more than one chart for the same song, for those songs that were recorded by more than one artist. 

Anyway, today and tomorrow, I'm doing ALOT of transcribing...I've got charts to create for this weekend's services at Hope Creek Church and I've got anywhere from 2-3 hours of songs to transcribe for "The Approach" worship experience that is taking place at Crosspointe Church in Cary on Friday night.  We've got rehearsal tomorrow night, so I've got to get the rest of these charts together.

Well, as I listen to these songs in iTunes, once the song is over, it goes to the next song in my library.  Today one of those songs happened to be Thom Yorke's, "The Eraser."  I took a break and decided to transcribe the rhythm of that (seemingly) random piano part that creates the bed for the song.  I did this once before with The Pyramid Song off of one of those later Radiohead albums.  Thom has a knack for creating these somewhat random repetitive phrases, but upon closer inspection make complete and perfect musical sense.  For instance, the phrase for "The Eraser" is a typical 8 bar phrase, but because of how the piano is played it sounds alot weirder.   There is a delay to the piano as well, so what follows below are the beats (in bold)that the initial piano chord falls on in the verse phrase:

Count along if you will:
| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3  4 |

| 1 2  3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | repeat

I love digging into songs like this.  It makes them come more alive to me.  Fun stuff.  Well...back to work!

Modern Worship compared to the History of Jazz and Rock

I guess I've been thinking about worship a little more than usual, probably because of that article I read about a week ago, and also because my wife is an Artist in Residence at the Duke Youth Academy this summer again, and for the past week and continuing through this week, she'll be attending their worship services and plenary sessions when she can (in addition to leading her own workshops on Art and Theology).  She mentioned to me last week about all the "explaining" that is going on before some of the worship services they are doing - each night they worship using the traditions of different denominations.

Lately I've been listening to the radio a bunch and skipping to another station when ever a commercial is played.  So throughout the day (while I'm in the car), I'll skip through a bunch of different stations and hear many styles of music.  It just so happened that tonight, my station was on Shaw University's channel and I was listening to some jazz - it turned out it was Spyro Gyra, from a new album they have out.  I thought it sounded like smooth jazz (not my favorite), but the drummer was playing some interesting stuff.   Sort of like Dennis Chambers,  channeled through Omar Hakim with a bit of Weckl thrown in - though he never turned the beat around like Weckl, you could sense that he might do that when he plays this song live.  And then I thought that most people wouldn't think of Dennis Chambers, they'd think of Carter Beauford, but you can't get to Carter (IMO) without first going through Dennis.  (And you can't really get to Dennis without going through Billy Cobham). 

My point being, that like a lot of things, drumming styles have evolved over the years, building on the styles and personalities of the musicians who have come before.  Which makes me think of Jazz - Modern Jazz.  How did we get from New Orleans Dixie (and my lack of Jazz History here will be evident) to Smooth Jazz?  Couldn't we have stopped at BeBop?  Or let's take Rock Music.  First there was the 50's, Chuck Berry and the like, and then The Beatles on up to the present day. (Brandon, feel free to step in here and fill in the gaps.)  And crossing the boundaries between these two styles, we have (more or less) Prog Rock: Weather Report, Genesis, Rush, etc.

So now I start thinking about how in many churches, worship has been changing.  And I started trying to compare various styles and forms found in worship services to the stylistic changes of Jazz leading into Bebop, to the more electric stuff in the late 60's and 70's, on up to "smooth" jazz.  Why did someone try to electrify Jazz, was it because they were trying to be "more relevant" or "reach a larger audience" to try and more or less show "them" that Jazz could be as "cool and hip" as the Modern Rock of the day.

Yeah, I know this is scattershot...I'm not the best at organizing my thoughts, but I thought I'd write down what I could. 

So where is Modern Worship at compared to the stages that Jazz went through?  Will there ever be a point in worship, where we don't have to state the obvious?  That somehow the leaders can trust that the congregation knows the chords and the melody, so well that worship can go places we never thought it could, that worship becomes something more than just a simple chord chart.

Or I guess for that matter, we could use the history of Rock and Roll.  You know, what's the modern worship equivalent of Dylan going from Acoustic to Electric?  Have we seen something that ground breaking and controversial related to worship?  Or the equivalent of the Beatles or Bryan Wilson in the worship scene?  Not that there would be a specific person, but more a "movement" -  a direction that took place that was different from where worship was before? 

I guess it's the evolution of modern worship that I'm considering, when I really think about it.  Where is it going, where are we going?  What does it all mean?  Are we progressing and drawing ourselves closer to God, or are we fooling ourselves as we try new ways and expressions of worship?

Maybe it's not even worth considering or having this discussion...but I sort of started thinking about this earlier and had to write it down...though I could explain it alot better to you in person.  (I like to talk with my hands, and I usually can't say EXACTLY what I'm trying to say...)  But that's what Blogs are for right?  Or maybe that's what this blog is for.  Me trying to make sense of it all.

Apple Loops Utility

I just downloaded the Apple Loops Developer Utility and am looking forward to digging into that a bit.  It is sort of the toolkit (from what I understand) to formulate your loops for use within Garageband and Logic.  You can add all this Meta Data to the soundfiles and stuff.  It looks pretty cool.  I can't wait to start messing with it.

Rock it.

Oxygen 8 is now working...

Wow.  This seemingly took forever, and I almost gave up but my friend Mark Williams gave me hope.  He said it was possible to get the keyboard to work, even though it wasn't the newest version of the keyboard (mine still says Midi-Man on the back) by using a Midi interface. 

So I pulled out my old MOTU USB Fastlane and downloaded the new drivers for Intel based Macs, did some fiddling and got it to work.  Woo Freakin' Hoo!  All the sites I visited last night, made it seem that if you don't have an Oxygen 8 v.2 your basically out of luck, well thankfully that's not the case.  I played through most of the synths and keyboard sounds in Garage Band this afternoon and then took a little snooze. 

It's 4:39am...

More updates.  I'm trying to spend less time online these days and consolidate my emails, so over the past week I've been trying to port all my email stuff over to Google and just answer my mail online, as opposed to downloading it to my computer.  I was really liking Thunderbird, but the last update I downloaded messed up my email, and I ended up losing a whole bunch of email.  A couple of which were gigs.  Ugh. 

So if by chance you were the guy wanting me to come to Asheville to record with you this summer...I'm up for it!  I just lost your email - I wasn't trying to blow you off or anything!

Also, I'm enamored with this new flash based online file storage thing called the Box.  So I'm in the process of uploading a bunch of demo tracks to it.  The next time you look on my demo page, it should be staring you in the face.

Oh, let's see...I'll be playing at Hope Creek Church this weekend and next.  Also, I'll be playing with Nathan Fancher at Crosspointe Church next Friday night.  I'm looking forward to getting to play with the guys again in Nathan's band.  It's gonna be a fun evening of music for sure.

Image Journal: Interview w/ Godfried Cardinal Daneels

"Francis of Assisi, he too was an artist, following Christ's example.  He found the way to deep happiness.  Such beauty disarms us when we find it.  It shows us our own possibility and opens us to what lies beyond ourselves."

I just finished reading this awesome interview in the IMAGE journal # 54.  My wife recommended I read it, and so I had some time to sit down tonight and read it - digest it, if you will.  If you get a chance to read this interview, please by all means pick up a copy and devour it.  Below follows some excerpts from the interview:

"Lamentably, liturgy too often becomes a didactic and cerebral event, a kind of performed catechism lesson.  It becomes something that we have hold of rather than something that contains us.  It is no longer an encounter.  it is no longer the place where I enter to recognize myself and reality and allow myself to be transformed by Christ.  Occasionally Catholics are drawn to the liturgy of the Eastern Church because of its power and mystery."..."We should not ignore people's dissatisfaction. We can learn from it.  A liturgy can become so understandable that it no longer inspires."

"The celebrants role is one that should be fostered with a sensitivity to people and appreciated for being grounded in a community - as one who helps people to see in depth.  The celebrant helps the people to see beyond the surface, into an invisible world."

"The arts, for example, can help the church to avoid the trap of didacticism or being to cerebral."

"The average believer, moreover, has become conditioned to conceptual thinking.  This is a problem for the church.  The hidden layers of the gospel stories are overlooked in favor of an understanding of concepts.  A concept naturally has the advantage of tightness and clarity.  It shows the contours plainly.  It says something.  When you have a concept, you know something, and concepts are certainly necessary.  Symbols and narratives, however, are something else entirely.  They are not matters of clarity and correctness, but of suggestiveness and waking enthusiasm and appealing to intuition and the senses."

And this was my favorite paragraph from the interview...

"You can explain the faith through catechesis and theology, and explanation is necessary.  But ultimately the one who is the object of our faith can't be fully grasped with concepts.  In theology and catechesis there is room for symbolism and poetry, which are means of saying much without pretending to say all.  This is also why liturgy is so important.  If we do our work properly - attentively and with humility - we can find transcendence by means of it.  Through the play of word and light and music and our own movement - our senses become attuned to God's presence.  For this to happen, we must not forget that God is the initiator.  Our role is to give a response and not to claim his role for our own.  Christ is the true actor in the liturgy.  He is the one who should have the stage, ultimately, and we must make room for him to enter.  The liturgy is a mystical reality, and we must respect that.  I consider a homily, for example, that is without any poetic quality whatsoever to be a failure.  Compare that with the parables of Jesus.  It is necessary to mull over what he said, to puzzle over it and let it sink in.  Too often the church falls short in its preaching, reducing the homily to exegesis or an action plan."

What I find amazing is that this interview is with a Catholic Bishop who lives in Mechelen-Brussels.   I doubt he has ever set foot in the neighborhoods and communities in and around Durham and Chapel Hill where I live and play. I doubt he has ever thought about "Contemporary Christian Music" and probably has little concern for the state of "modern worship."  Yet, I feel that a lot of what he is talking about in the interview could/ or can be directly applied to modern and emergent worship environments I find myself playing in and also in the church I call home, which is a rather traditional Episcopal Church.

Upon reading the interview, I feel validated in my suspicion liturgy is more "exciting" and life giving than we give it credit for and that his thoughts about homilies can be applied to the various sermons I sit through at some of the more "modern" churches I play at.  Also, the thread I feel throughout the interview is one of how the order of service is something that has a creative undercurrent and one that can be accentuated by a better understanding and grasp and inclusion of the notion of aesthetics, art, drama and shall we say (yes we shall) mystery.

I feel like he might be saying that our life is to be lived as a liturgy, that possibly there is a connection between how we view and express the liturgy of the church and how we view and live our life.  I know that may seem real simplistic, but hey that's why I'm a drummer and not a theologian - right?

As usual I can't find the words to adequately express and sum up my thoughts, but I really enjoyed this interview (actually, it reminds me of a book I read a long time ago - after sitting down and talking with its author - that got me excited thinking about the various aspects of worship, art and theology).

Here's one last quote from the interview that I'll leave you with:

"Art is saying what can't be said and seeing what can't be seen.  Faith is also seeing what is not visible.  But we can't do without what is visible.  We need what can be said.  One of the readings at Christmas says, "What was invisible has become visible."  Art gives us the power to bring forth something that the senses wouldn't otherwise perceive.  Art feeds supposition.  It brings you further. "

How the Music Business Works...

If you have any questions about how the music industry is "run,"  read this article.  It should be a very informative read.