Amish Guitar

My friend Akelda the Gleeful over at Saints and Spinners uses the term Tenor Rush to describe that emotional reaction one has to music. That reaction where, despite whatever mood you are in, you become mush--your eyes well up with tears, your nose runs, your hair rises on your neck. It is the music that gives you goosepimples. I had never heard this term before and, being a good librarian and an English major, I've been trying to track down the term and get a authoritative definition or an example of the phrase being used in a publication. So far I've not been able to which leads me to believe it is not a common term.

No matter.

Today I ran across a link that a friend posted to her Facebook profile. I may not be able to define the tenor rush in words, but I experienced a powerful example when I followed the link.

Susan Boyle, a 47 year old contestant on Britain's Got Talent has quite recently made many people rethink their preconceived notions of people by their looks. Her common looks and accent belied an incredible singing voice. And, she chose to sing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables--a song guaranteed to jerk a tear or two even when sung badly. Put that song, with her voice, and then realize that she is making a dream come true while she sings of a dream dying...well, it is more powerful than words can share. All I can say is that, hearing that song expressed in the way she performed and the surprise she dropped on the audience and the judges just made my day in a way that has carried me through the evening.

Here is the link to the youtube video (the embedding link has been disabled). Enjoy. I did.

I can't get Sunday out of my mind.

It was an unusual Sunday morning at church. We didn't have a regular service. Our pastor instead lead us through a prayer service, divided into four sections: Praise, Lament, Confession, and Blessing. Interspersed in each section were songs both by the praise team and the 4 part A Capella singing I wrote about in my last post. Normally the team plays their 3-4 song set in one block and then goes back to the pews for the rest of the service. But this Sunday, since that would have meant a lot of up and down, we just stayed on the platform behind the pulpit.

As it happens, in our praise team we have an Alto (my cousin), a Tenor (not my cousin) and a Bass (me). It has been sooo long since I have sung in an ensemble and I miss it so very much. I love to hear choirs and quartets alike. I love to sing in small groups and get to the point where our voices blend into one sound; no single person's voice dominating the rest.

My cousin is a wonderful Alto with a deep, rich tone and she has had voice training. She often sings the tenor part when she and I are in a group. The Tenor is a fabulous singer who sings the higher notes (G?, A?) like a bird. I'm not half bad myself, having had voice training and singing in the high choirs in college. Add to us three the Song Leader for the hymn singing, a brilliant Soprano and we had a wonderful quartet.

And that's when the magic happened.

There were times I was completely lost in the sound of the four of us singing there on the dais. Each of us knew when to hold back, when to crescendo on the moving parts, how to phrase, how to breathe. There were times when my chest vibrated with the sound of the chords we made, far beyond the note I was singing. It was, for me, a perfect place to be that morning, and I was a little saddened when we finished the last hymn.

But it wasn't all perfection.

Our last song as a praise team was "Come, now is the time to worship." And it's a song that I know fairly well and have no problem with on the guitar. However, as I played, I sounded awful...just awful. I sounded about a half step flat from the lead guitarist (who is amped {I'm not [thankfully]}). I thought maybe I was on the wrong frets as I sometimes do that, but no, I was just out of tune. So I stopped playing. However, even after I stopped playing, my guitar was out of tune. Huh? you might ask. Well, it was the weirdest thing. I must have been standing the right place for the voice of one of the congregation members to echo off my sound board...and he was singing a half step down.

I still couldn't play because the clashing sounds were so distracting. I just concentrated in singing the song at the right pitch. Looking at the guy singing, however, was a beautiful sight. He had no idea just how off key he was, but he was enraptured by the song he was singing. And I decided right there and then I would rather have my congregation off key and enjoying the music than to be timid about making a mistake that they make no music at all.

I've been trying to work out a way to post sound clips here on AG. I've worked out a hodge podge way of doing so via g-cast.com, though I'm sure there is an easier way to do so. The nice thing about g-cast is that the service is free and I can make podcast episodes via a toll free 800#. The quality through my phone won't be hi-fi, but I think it may work.

Here's an (non-musical) introduction I created as a test: Amish Guitar Intro

I'm still trying to figure out how to have the link open in a new tab/window so my reader(s) doesn't have to navigate away from my page. As I said, I don't find this ideal, and I'm open to any suggestions my reader(s) may have. Thanks.

The gig got canceled due to flooding.

I should explain a bit. There is a county park just to the south of our church and every September the park service holds a celebration there. Think arts and crafts, food, old tractors. See, part of the park is an operating grain mill powered by the local river that has been operating since the late 1800s. So the celebration hearkens back to a simpler life.

Our church has had a food booth there for something like 22 years. Recently we've also been involved in the community worship service there. That was the service our praise band was going to play at.

But not this year. For the first time in it's 33 year history, the celebration has been cancelled due to torrential rains and flooding. Yeah for me, bad for our church. We're stuck with 75 homemade pies, dozens of sheets of cornbread, about 5 gallons of homemade ham and bean soup and about 40 pounds of sloppy joe meat. Sadly, I'm on a strict diet or I would consider it my duty to help out.

Getting back to the subject at hand, as this is a guitar blog, I am both relieved and disappointed at the same time. I guess part of me wanted to prove I could do it, or at least see how far I could go playing by ear. I'll be playing before my home congregation tomorrow instead. Since no one really had anything planned, we're just going to do the same thing we had planned for the community service: old fashioned hymn sing, sermon, pass the plate and get out by eleven. It will be easier to play in front of this crowd.

Last night the praise team had another practice for the upcoming community worship I wrote about earlier. One of the members had gone through most the hymns and chorded them out, so that's good. I still feel very unprepared, but I'm going to do it anyway. Why? Because my modus operandi seems to be that I worry and fret and fear performances and it always turns out ok. And, if it doesn't, I can stop playing and just sing.

Thankfully I've learned not to change strings the night before a performance. :^)

Some good news is in order, however. I played my song Caitlyn's Starshine for my friend Doug. Some of you longtime readers may remember Doug from when I asked him to critique another song of mine. He was honest then and it hurt. This time, however, he really liked it and wanted me to show him the chords.

Yeah me!

I am in way over my head. Our church praise team was asked to lead an old fashioned hymn sing at a community worship next Sunday. I thought it would be mostly the same songs we play Sunday mornings. Nope. Old Time Gospel. And no chord notation.

Now, I've got enough music theory under my belt that when they said, 'Don't worry, most gospels are based on I, IV and V,' I knew what they meant. The major chords built on the first, fourth and fifth tone in a given scale. That's all well and good. It's another thing to play by ear to it. Especially if it's some weird a** key like A flat.

Thankfully, I'm not the only one in the group who feels completely unprepared. Another fella in the group plays exclusively off of chord notation. So, we're going to stand in the back and do the strumming equivalent of mouthing "watermelon watermelon" during the service. :^)

Wish me luck. I'm gonna work on I, IV, V in the more common keys this week.

Hoo boy.

Mark your calendar. Today is the day. Call the children in. Wake the neighbors. Today is the day I officially announce that I have crossed the line between being someone who is learning guitar and who is a guitar player.

I have groused about this dilemma before on Amish Guitar. And I've come to an early conclusion that one does not ever stop learning guitar. The question has always been about when I describe myself as learning guitar or as a player.

Today, while playing in the praise team at church, the switch happened. It wasn't an epiphany. The sky didn't split open and a golden pick descend as a dove. I simply remarked after church that I was not conscious of my playing. Or should that be self conscious? I just went up on the dais and made music with my friends.

I played guitar on three of the four songs. And, I wasn't perfect. Chord changes weren't as smooth as butter. I got lost a few times. The difference was that I felt I was making music, not organized sound from an odd shaped box with strings.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this. I've written before of frustrations. I've written before of accomplishments. I've written when my playing has gone extremely well; when my guitar sings and I make a place in the sound that is magic. The difference today is that today all the sound, the music, came out natural. The chords came out without my conscious thought. The rhythms were organic. The mistakes came out without hanging a blinking neon sign stating "Newbie". I jumped into that void and found myself on the other side. I found myself contributing to the musical sound of the group instead of being the musical tag-a-long.

I have no illusions that everything will be peachy keen from here on out or that I'll be able to sustain this feeling from now until eternity ends. However, I will remember this time as the first time I felt like I played, I really played.

Tomorrow I will have what can arguably be my first public solo. Our worship minister has asked my daughters to sing during offertory. They'll only sing if I accompany. So, it looks like I'm playing in church for the first time alone. Usually I have the rest of the praise team to drown out my playing.

We're doing two songs: Magic Penny and Jesus Above All Names. Easy chords for the most part, except Names has a Bm that I have yet to really master.

Wish us luck!