I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s such a cool quote that it needs visiting every few months. At least for people like me, who just rip off Edge riffs and cool pedal phrases like, ‘That tone is so organic’, and then think, ‘You know, I’m pretty superstar.’ So, thinking back and remembering ways that I’ve killed the music (or, in some instances, the entire worship vibe), is quite helpful. What gets scary, is when I’m all laughing at myself, and then realize that this happened last week, not two years ago.
(One of my favorite Garden State scenes. ‘I knit you a shirt.’)
And the quote from the film is, ‘If you can’t learn to laugh at yourself, life’s going to seem a whole lot longer than you want it to.’
So, here are some rememberances. And if you know me, and have played music with me, please feel free to add more if you are remembering a certain instance in which I killed the music, but do not see it listed. And if you feel so inclined, you are welcome to list some of your own personal rememberances……but be forewarned; once you start, it’s a dark, scary road. It seems like all good fun and mirthful laughter, and then you realize that your list is like, 43 things long. That’s when the crying starts.
But anyway, my remembrances:
I have hit the big, huge, distorted, power stance electric guitar entrance in E when the song was in F.
I have ended solos with a big, bended note into a big staccato stop, only to realize I was a measure and a half ahead of the band.
I have finger-tapped before I knew how to.
I have started songs, where it was to be my guitar only on the intro, with my volume knob down.
I have then taken the next 3 songs searching through every cable connection on every pedal, trying to find why there is no volume. It is usually when my guitar is turned over in my lap, and the soldering iron is getting hot, that I realize it was because I had turned down my volume knob.
I have realized, sadly, that there is not a ton of embellishment in the above story.
I have played the same riff in 3 straight songs.
I have solo’d over the slow, feeling-filled, female vocal solo, and called it counterpoint.
There was this one time we stayed up way past midnight. (Okay, that’s not true…well, I have done that, of course, but I definitely stole that quote.)
I have hit a note in the soft part of a song, with lots of overdrive on, so that I can swell into it all tastefully. The volume pedal was not on.
I have led worship (as in, singing up front), with a black BC Rich Mockingbird.
I have (live……as in, in front of an audience), had 7 delay pedals on at one time.
So then, yes, I have owned and had on my gigging board, 7 delays pedals at one time.
I have sang the harmony line as the lead line, and then chided the background vocalists for not being able to find the harmony.
I have walked off stage with my in-ear monitors still hardwired to my aviom, and pulled my whole mic stand onto my pedalboard as I was walking off stage during announcements. You can’t hide that.
I have……okay, this needs some background. I used to have the church ‘recording studio’ (veeeeery loosely translated) in the master bedroom of me and my roommate’s bachelor pad. When we were recording, we would slide a mattress in front of the double doors. Well, I went out for something (probably thought the ice cream man was playing a U2 song or something), and when I came back the doors were shut. Rather than thinking, ‘Hmm…I bet they’re recording’, I walked in, knocking the mattress onto my rig (which was a 30 watt Orange AD30 combo stacked on top of and plugged into an Ampeg 4×12 at the time……I know, talk about overkill and not driving your speakers at all……sad times), which then knocked my rig on top of our singer who was recording Ave Maria. Everyone was fine. Somehow.
I have led worship barefoot because the stage was ‘holy ground.’
And lastly, I have suggested that we start off an Easter service with ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe. And we did.
Yep. Definitely tears right now. Some of laughter at myself, some…………not so much of laughter. I am not a superstar.
(hehe You just can’t mention ‘superstar’ without Mary Katherine Gallagher.)
Splendid.
Karl.
Guitar for Worship 