closed sphere. But that’s not the case at all. and recording the albums are putting a lot of master of sweep picking and can ride these
The vision behind what Hillsong is doing is to thought, time, energy, and I would even say crazy lines over the top of the worship songs,
be a resource to the local church. I know that divine inspiration into the way these albums but not all of the guitar players can play that, it
is Brian and Bobbie Houston’s vision behind sound. And we want to honor that and respect pulls focus to that player. And we want to keep
doing the Hillsong Conference. We have these that. So, we’ll tell the musicians that there are the focus on the right things. Like I said before,
amazing resources like songwriters, worship specific albums parts that are in these songs it’s not necessarily about skill level or ability.
leaders, and producers, and we’re all on the for a reason – let’s just go ahead and honor that There are tons of examples in the bible about
same journey. I think that they’re trying to and stick to the album parts. where God chose to use people that were very
provide any church with the resources to further
God’s Kingdom.
underqualified for what He was asking them to
We’ve had guitar players before who are do, but He still made it happen. And that’s how
professional, studio/session-quality musicians, we’re approaching musicianship. We know that
That’s what we’re trying to do here in New York who could shred hard. And I used to play in not everyone can grow to be a session level
City. There are a ton of churches that are like a Heavy Metal band, so stylistically even, my musician, but the point is to be faithful with
family to us. I’ve even been sent to play a youth guitar playing was very different ten years ago. what God has put in your hand. You never
conference at Chris Durso’s church. He does But we think it’s important for everyone to be know what God can do with that.
these youth conferences almost every week. on the same page. There are four services at And we’ll send teams to this small church on Hillsong NYC every Sunday. If someone comes So, we do have the training videos, and it’s
Long Island. It’s just about however we can to the 10:00am service with one worship team, honestly an invaluable resource for our teams
help to further God’s Kingdom. We all have the and then comes back to the 7:30pm service and it keeps everyone on the same page.
attitude about wanting to help see it happen. I where there’s a totally different worship team, Not everyone has the same ear training for
would love for a 150-person church in Montana they are still going to have the same experience picking out guitar parts, but they can watch
to feel like we’re all on the same journey, and as far as worship goes. Or, if they have the the videos and find out how Nigel is playing the
that whatever they are doing at Hillsong NYC album playing on Spotify and use it to worship guitar line, or what the delay actually sounds
is being done in partnership with them. That’s during their commute to work, then we want to like on a certain song. The other thing that I’ve
how I see it, and that’s why it’s really important be respectful to the time and energy that the been encouraging the guitar players to use is
for me to get as many people plugged in as team has put into the way that those songs MultiTracks.com. It’s not a specific platform to
possible and to build the team so that it’s a sound. Hillsong, but the Hillsong songs get uploaded
strong as possible. I think that’s how lives get
to MultiTracks. It’s inexpensive and you can
changed. God uses people to change other It also keeps the spotlight off of any one person. log in and make a rehearsal mix and single out
people’s lives. Suppose we have one guitar player who is a a specific guitar on a song. Sometimes there
are four guitars on the recording, and you
[WM] How close do you like things to be can solo out each guitar and find out what
to the albums and what tools do you use to each guitar is playing. I’ll often send guitar
make that happen? players to the MultiTracks site to help train
their ear even more, and to try and replicate
[Dave] The people from Hillsong Worship the parts through ear-training rather than
in Sydney will go in and record training watching the video.
videos for each instrument and then
upload them to their Vimeo accounts, and Obviously, the goal is to get everyone to
then give the creative teams across every practice on their own and put enough care
campus access to those videos. We use in on their own so that they try to get better
those and send them to all of the musicians at their craft. As a guitar player, if I’m going
that are on the creative teams. One thing to be serving on a Sunday, then the better
that we stress really hard as far as playing that I can train my ear to hear things, the
for a Sunday service, we generally say to better guitar player I’ll be.
stick to the album parts. We literally say
that almost every week. There are a lot of [WM] Dave, you’ve so generous with your
different reasons for that, one of which is time, thanks again for sharing these pearls
that the people in Sydney who are writing of wisdom with us!
August 2017
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