between songs on piano, what’s your thinking?
[Jared] I’m always thinking of what’s coming
next. If I know we’ve got two worship songs
and they’re in different keys, we might finish one
and the worship leader reads a verse or goes
into a prayer. I’m hoping that we’re not going to
go back to the song we’ve just finished, so I’m
looking for a way to subtly modulate during that
period so that we’re ready for the next song. Or
if I don’t know where we’re going, I’ll stay in the
key and do some pretty piano-y version of the
song we’ve just sung. If whoever is speaking
is getting excited, I’ll match my playing to their
level of projection. So, if they’re praying and
they get more and more enthusiastic, I don’t
want to just be playing a pad while they’re
getting all passionate. I want to almost movie
score the moment. I want to be able to use the
music that I’m playing to help people on that
journey.
People talk about music being emotionally
manipulative, but I think that God gave us
music. Music is such a part of who we are as
people, It is a cliché, but Saul brought David in
to calm his spirit through music or to change the
atmosphere. I think that’s a huge part of music.
So, if someone’s exhorting a group of people
to have a new level of faith, I can help them on
that journey through some dynamic music. The
band will go with me. If I’m playing the worship
song we just played, they’ll come in and we
can go back into the bridge or wherever. It’s not
rehearsed that way. Our rehearsals are so short,
keyboard sounds?
[WM] Who might you say is an influence or
especially in my campus. We meet in a cinema,
inspiration as an arranger?
so we don’t have a venue during the week. We [Jared] Just the RD-800 sounds. I assign just get together on Sunday morning. By the the 4 layers for piano, pad, a Rhodes and a [Jared] Ron Huff was a guy whose work I
time we’ve set up our stage in the cinema we Hammond. always loved, on Amy Grant and Michael W.
don’t have long to rehearse before doors open
and people come in.
Smith’s stuff back in the 80s. I love an arranger
[WM] You mentioned that you have a college who can take a song somewhere it wasn’t
degree. Was classical piano your focus? going to go without dominating the song.
[Jared] Actually, it was an arts degree with a [WM] Have you studied orchestration?
[WM] What’s your live keyboard rig?
[Jared] At our church we use a Roland RD- major in music rather than a music degree. So, 800. At our main campus, they use Yamaha my focus was really composition and history [Jared] I’ve studied on my own. I have Alfred
keyboards. and a bit of theory. I really am self-taught when Blatter’s “Instrumentation and Orchestration”
it comes to arranging. book. It’s always my go-to. If I’m writing for
[WM] Do you use MainStage or just the
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oboe, I’ll go read his chapter on writing for oboe
August 2019
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