YOU CAN BE THE BAND - Part I
(Flail, Choke, and Drone!)
(originally published in Worship Musician Magazine)
Flail, choke, and drone? Isn’t that dangerous?
Over the years, the “Tips for Tight Teams” articles have mostly focused on ways to lead praise from a worship team perspective. I’ve always endeavored to consider how we might make our teams sound musically tight, all the while honoring God. Along the way, we’ve explored issues from hearts to charts to vocal parts. We’ve gotten “out of the garage” and “into the flow,” and sometimes even found ourselves slightly contorted as we stood with voices (and hands) raised loud and high, or we fell down on our faces in deep worship and adoration to the Lord.
“So,” you ask, “what could flailing, choking, and droning a guitar possibly have to do with whole-team tightness?” Nothing, perhaps, and yet everything, if you happen to find yourself being a solitary leader! The relevant question is, “What if I’m the only-lonely one on stage?” In this issue of Worship Musician! Magazine, how about we step outside that “team box” for a while, and consider what skills we might need if we had to go it alone? Today, let’s talk about what it means to be a guitar-centric, team antithetical worship leader.
WHERE TO?
First of all, we’ll have a look at simple solo accompaniment techniques that are specifically aimed at guitarists (though applicable, in one way or another, to all chorded instruments). Secondly, when your guitar has to be the team and your voice has to be the choir, we’ll consider what it means for you to cover it all—alone. As you can see, you may very well need to flail, choke, and drone after all!
FLAIL
Flailing is probably one of the first techniques you ever learned on your instrument, but because it implied adding in a good deal more rhythmic movement than most beginners attempt, you might only have thought of it as strumming with passion. After years of effort, you may now be skilled enough to express that passion in your solo worship leading times—every time.
I recall, as a young man, working with a wiry, Barney Fife sort of fellow named Curtis. We were surveyors for the city where I lived, and cutting a line with our machetes through some thick undergrowth in woods out in the county. Curtis, being many years my senior, was leading the way, rhythmically whacking left-right-left-right. I was bringing up the rear, taking out any leftover weeds, bushes, or brambles.
Suddenly, I was given the perfect opportunity to richly relish that old saying: “Age before beauty.” As Curtis passed by an ancient tree trunk, hacking away as he walked, a large swarm of irate yellow jackets came tearing out of the roots, fury in their wings! What a sensory overload!
Close your eyes, try not to laugh, and imagine a wiry little Gollum-of-a-man with a machete in his hand, running, screaming, and yes, flailing overhead through the woods with a frenzied host of furious yellow jackets all around and over him... Now that’s what strumming with a passion should be like! I doubt such perfect flailing has ever been seen again!
As a lone worship leader, you may at times desire to express that same kind of passionate flailing-while-under-attack technique. To begin to flail, play your guitar, strumming down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, counting: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + (spoken as: one and two and three and four and):
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
(For free Flail, Choke, and Drone pdf downloads please visit:
http://www.worshipworks.com/freedownloadsmain.html)
CHOKE
Next, we’re ready to add the choke. No worries, you won’t turn blue. A choke strum involves striking the strings with the outside of the right hand and the pick at precisely the same moment. This is done in such a manner that it deadens all the strings at once, and causes them to make a percussive sound as the pick passes over them. Whenever the team is playing together, the snare drum fulfills this function. But when you are all alone, the choke can add that familiar snare drum back beat on beats two and four. We hear it in so many of today’s pop-style worship songs, you’ll recognize it right away.
In the following example, “ch” stands for choke. Play, strumming down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up. Choke on the second and fourth beat as you count: 1 + ch + 3 + ch + (spoken as: one and choke and three and choke and):
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
Choking adds a wonderful effect to your already steady strumming. It’s as though you’ve included the snare drum back into your mix. When you really get into flailing those strings, the choke brings extra life and intensity to your one-man-worship band.
(For a demonstration of flail, choke, and drone on the guitar, please visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/sandyhoffmanmusic)
DRONE
And finally, we drone! Droning chords usually share the same key, and also share one or more common tones within the chord spellings. In the following example, we’ll be playing the E chord, A2 chord, and B4 chord consecutively. These are all in the key of E Major, and share at least two common tones (notes) with one another. The common tones are the “open B string” and the “open high-E string.” Listen closely to how the common tones tie these chords together into a versatile worship-chord progression: E - A2 - B4 - E.
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
A2 A2
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
B4 B4
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
(For free pdf downloads of “Color Chords” [droning] in the keys of E and G, please visit:
http://www.worshipworks.com/freedownloadsmain.html)
The droning effect created by common tones can be heard in a myriad of worship songs. There are droning chord possibilities in every song, in every key, and on every chorded instrument. Experiment with these to your heart’s desire, then add flailing and choking to your drone to give the listener the sense that you really are the whole band!
Sometimes solitary,
Sandy
Sandy Hoffman serves the worship community at
Christ Church Santa Fe, NM and beyond. Find
out more about his “Tips for Tight Teams”
online at: www.WorshipWorks.com
Over the years, the “Tips for Tight Teams” articles have mostly focused on ways to lead praise from a worship team perspective. I’ve always endeavored to consider how we might make our teams sound musically tight, all the while honoring God. Along the way, we’ve explored issues from hearts to charts to vocal parts. We’ve gotten “out of the garage” and “into the flow,” and sometimes even found ourselves slightly contorted as we stood with voices (and hands) raised loud and high, or we fell down on our faces in deep worship and adoration to the Lord.
“So,” you ask, “what could flailing, choking, and droning a guitar possibly have to do with whole-team tightness?” Nothing, perhaps, and yet everything, if you happen to find yourself being a solitary leader! The relevant question is, “What if I’m the only-lonely one on stage?” In this issue of Worship Musician! Magazine, how about we step outside that “team box” for a while, and consider what skills we might need if we had to go it alone? Today, let’s talk about what it means to be a guitar-centric, team antithetical worship leader.
WHERE TO?
First of all, we’ll have a look at simple solo accompaniment techniques that are specifically aimed at guitarists (though applicable, in one way or another, to all chorded instruments). Secondly, when your guitar has to be the team and your voice has to be the choir, we’ll consider what it means for you to cover it all—alone. As you can see, you may very well need to flail, choke, and drone after all!
FLAIL
Flailing is probably one of the first techniques you ever learned on your instrument, but because it implied adding in a good deal more rhythmic movement than most beginners attempt, you might only have thought of it as strumming with passion. After years of effort, you may now be skilled enough to express that passion in your solo worship leading times—every time.
I recall, as a young man, working with a wiry, Barney Fife sort of fellow named Curtis. We were surveyors for the city where I lived, and cutting a line with our machetes through some thick undergrowth in woods out in the county. Curtis, being many years my senior, was leading the way, rhythmically whacking left-right-left-right. I was bringing up the rear, taking out any leftover weeds, bushes, or brambles.
Suddenly, I was given the perfect opportunity to richly relish that old saying: “Age before beauty.” As Curtis passed by an ancient tree trunk, hacking away as he walked, a large swarm of irate yellow jackets came tearing out of the roots, fury in their wings! What a sensory overload!
Close your eyes, try not to laugh, and imagine a wiry little Gollum-of-a-man with a machete in his hand, running, screaming, and yes, flailing overhead through the woods with a frenzied host of furious yellow jackets all around and over him... Now that’s what strumming with a passion should be like! I doubt such perfect flailing has ever been seen again!
As a lone worship leader, you may at times desire to express that same kind of passionate flailing-while-under-attack technique. To begin to flail, play your guitar, strumming down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, counting: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + (spoken as: one and two and three and four and):
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
(For free Flail, Choke, and Drone pdf downloads please visit:
http://www.worshipworks.com/freedownloadsmain.html)
CHOKE
Next, we’re ready to add the choke. No worries, you won’t turn blue. A choke strum involves striking the strings with the outside of the right hand and the pick at precisely the same moment. This is done in such a manner that it deadens all the strings at once, and causes them to make a percussive sound as the pick passes over them. Whenever the team is playing together, the snare drum fulfills this function. But when you are all alone, the choke can add that familiar snare drum back beat on beats two and four. We hear it in so many of today’s pop-style worship songs, you’ll recognize it right away.
In the following example, “ch” stands for choke. Play, strumming down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up. Choke on the second and fourth beat as you count: 1 + ch + 3 + ch + (spoken as: one and choke and three and choke and):
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
Choking adds a wonderful effect to your already steady strumming. It’s as though you’ve included the snare drum back into your mix. When you really get into flailing those strings, the choke brings extra life and intensity to your one-man-worship band.
(For a demonstration of flail, choke, and drone on the guitar, please visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/sandyhoffmanmusic)
DRONE
And finally, we drone! Droning chords usually share the same key, and also share one or more common tones within the chord spellings. In the following example, we’ll be playing the E chord, A2 chord, and B4 chord consecutively. These are all in the key of E Major, and share at least two common tones (notes) with one another. The common tones are the “open B string” and the “open high-E string.” Listen closely to how the common tones tie these chords together into a versatile worship-chord progression: E - A2 - B4 - E.
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
A2 A2
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
B4 B4
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
E E
/ / / / / / / /
1 + ch + 3 + ch +
Down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up
(For free pdf downloads of “Color Chords” [droning] in the keys of E and G, please visit:
http://www.worshipworks.com/freedownloadsmain.html)
The droning effect created by common tones can be heard in a myriad of worship songs. There are droning chord possibilities in every song, in every key, and on every chorded instrument. Experiment with these to your heart’s desire, then add flailing and choking to your drone to give the listener the sense that you really are the whole band!
Sometimes solitary,
Sandy
Sandy Hoffman serves the worship community at
Christ Church Santa Fe, NM and beyond. Find
out more about his “Tips for Tight Teams”
online at: www.WorshipWorks.com
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