KEYS
WAX ON , WAX OFF , SETUP , TEARDOWN | David Pfaltzgraff
First things first , yes , the title of this article is a shameless Karate Kid reference .
I recently had the chance to play with a worship team at a church where I ’ d never served before . When I was asked to play I spent some time connecting with the worship leader the week before to talk about the keys rig .
This is something I always try to do the first time I play somewhere because I always want to know what ’ s typical there , what gear is going to be available , and whether or not it ’ s okay if I bring gear of my own . After that conversation I had a basic gear list in my head made up of both gear I knew the church already had , and some gear of my own that I ’ d gotten the okay to bring along .
The service turned out great and I ended up feeling like the keys rig did everything I needed it to . I was able to show up about twenty minutes before the start of soundcheck with gear in hand , get everything put together , and even had a bit of time to spare .
Afterwards as I was loading up my backpack , I thought about how many times before I ’ d done this exact thing to various degrees of success .
Which led to me wishing I would ’ ve had a Mr . Miyagi-style teacher emphasizing how important the simple , routine processes are to success , in any area of life … it ’ s true . But I could ’ ve especially used some wisdom sooner when it came to taking my keys rig into new or specific environments .
Allow me to share a couple examples so you can learn from my mistakes .
NO USB ONBOARD , RED KEYBOARD
A few years back I was invited to play keys as part of a group made up of members from several local worship teams . We were intended to come together , learn a few songs , and serve as the opener for a night of worship that would feature a well-known worship band in concert .
When we met to rehearse in one of the participating church ’ s auditoriums , I was able to easily connect my MacBook running MainStage to the church ’ s Nord Stage 2 keyboard via a USB cable and the rehearsal went well . I left that night after confirming that there would also be a Nord keyboard at the concert venue that I could use the night of the performance .
A few days later I showed up for our 5 PM soundcheck , backpack and laptop in-hand . As I hit the stage and started unpacking , I had an unfortunate realization . While the provided keyboard onstage was indeed a Nord , it was an older model that didn ’ t have the ability to be connected to a computer over USB .
I was doomed . My entire game-plan hinged upon the programming I ’ d put together in MainStage , but without that USB connection I had no way to get my computer talking to the keyboard controller .
The wax on , wax off takeaway from this experience ? Now I always bring a MIDI to USB cable or an interface capable of handling MIDI if I ’ m not sure which keyboard I ’ m going to be expected to plug into .
In case you were wondering , the solution for that night ’ s concert involved me sprinting a couple downtown blocks back to a parking garage to grab a spare MIDI controller I had left in my car .
IT WON ’ T STICK WITHOUT A CLICK
It was the full-band rehearsal before the big Easter Sunday services and I ’ d been tasked with jumping between guitar and aux keys