The band and vocalists I work with are a fine group of people, who have been together long enough to be quite distractible at rehearsals. Wondered if some of the conversational chaos might translate to blog land. Here’s a smattering… identifying people by their instruments, not names.
[immediately out of song #2. keyboard player noodling a bit on keys, slides into a recognizable ditty]
me: (shaking head) can’t believe you’re playing that.
vocal: is that Amy Grant?
me: no that’s ‘Musical Instruments’ by Michael W. Smith. It came out in like 1984. I owned the book in high school, and worked and worked to be able to play it. And look, he’s over there pounding it out with no problem.
drums: well at least he’s not playing ‘Friends’
keys: (starts a moving rendition of the ‘Friends’ introduction.)
me: (unable to stop myself… in a bit of a ‘lounge-y’ voice) ‘Packing up the dreams God planted….’
drums: NOOOO!!!!!! (covers ears, dramatic display of disdain) This is NOT a high school graduation.
me: hey, that song came out when I was in high school. So we were allowed to use it at graduation. It should not be showing up at graduations now.
drums: by the time I graduated, it was all about ‘Good Riddance’.
electric: oh yeah! That Green Day song?
me: ah, and after that it was that whole ‘five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes’ song.
vocal: from Rent? I used to like that song until choirs started singing it.
me: (realizing we have a larger purpose) hey, how about we move on to song #3?
[near end of rehearsal]
me: how about we do ‘Love the Lord’ one more time before we go?
drums: I’m pretty sure I’m going to screw it up, but sure let’s go ahead.
me: you’re speaking bad things into existence. Say “I’m going to kill this song”.
drums: This song is going to kill me.
(we do the song. perfectly)
me: see? you did great!
drums: yes, but I was singing along wrong.
Set list
- Love the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)
- Holy is the Lord (Chris Tomlin)
- Lord We Pray (Billy Foote)
- Son of God (Starfield)
