BASS
BE PREPARED | Gary Lunn
I hope this isn’ t more of a venting session as it is a sharing session. Well, to be frank, I have been involved with a couple of engagements lately that left a lot to be desired in the preparedness department, and I feel the need to share.
To reflect on a incredible gig that I played in the past, the Daniel Kolenda crusade that I was a part of eleven years ago was one of the most significant for me. The crusade was a continuation of the ministry of Reinhard Bonke, who was a German evangelist called to Africa. He reached millions for the cause of Christ and for the Kingdom of God. Daniel Kolenda became his successor( www. danielkolenda. com), and he was the worship leader and the evangelist on this crusade in 2015.
There were 400,000 people there on the last night. Hearing the sinners prayer repeated in two dialects across that big of a crowd was life changing! Getting to that moment was not bad at all. We had an artist who knew what songs he wanted to play. The charts were meticulously prepared, and demos were distributed ahead of time. We even had a rehearsal in Nashville before we left. We were prepared and ready to play! The recording went smoothly.
Fast forward to a conference that I recently played for. The charts were not written conclusively. A lot of details regarding parts to be sung or played were up in the air and not prearranged. Songs were being added last minute( and they weren’ t always simple songs). Things were in flux up to the last minute that we went on live stream!
The problem with this is when you are around that kind of unpreparedness, it can sometimes breed apathy in the musicians. The same thing happened recently at a multi-artist, gospel music showcase that I played for. We showed up haven written charts to demos that turned out to be the wrong-arrangement versions. Mass confusion ensued. Pressure to get a few songs ready took up our time to rehearse all the rest of the songs. Big mistakes were made and it wasn’ t the band’ s fault.
As musicians, all we can do is the best we can do … and then try harder.
• Practice your scales and modes. Know what you’ re doing!
• Practice dictation( writing charts by ear). It will help you learn each song( that you chart) to a deeper level.
Speaking of charts, I never use paper charts at a live event unless I absolutely must. A very significant part of my preparation is copying every chart and mp3 on to my iPad for reference, practice, and reading at the gig. The main program that I use on my iPad is called ForScore. It has many cool, editing features, but is still relatively simple to get up and running quickly, just for basic chart reading.
The band leader can email you charts and you can open them directly into ForScore, but you can also load charts in from Dropbox or Airdrop them directly into the program.
Dropbox’ stores your ForScore login and allows you to load files directly from your Dropbox account for opening up in ForScore. It copies the mp3s to a designated memory section designated to ForScore, so you always have them no matter what you do with your iTunes library( you can also access songs from your iTunes library but it’ s not as safe in the long run). Once you load the charts into a setlist you can easily assign an mp3 to each chart. Then you can play the mp3s while practicing the chart. There are also controls that allow you to play the mp3 file at 3 / 4 speed, or 1 / 2 speed. This is a very handy feature for rehearsing sections. You can even change keys!
ForScore has many annotation tools to choose from. Pencils, erasers, staff drawing tools,
highlighters, crude notation“ stamps”( including notes, rests, accidentals, etc.), the ability to add lines of texts or numbers, and much, much more. With an iPad stylus you can do just about anything with ease.
You can also use your iPhone with its great camera( with flash) to scan charts in quickly, name them, and save them to your phone. It even flattens a curved page, brightens it up, and turns it into a small black and white pdf document that I can either upload to Dropbox, email, text, or Airdrop right to my iPad into ForScore. I think it costs $ 4.00 and it’ s totally worth it.
Gary Lunn Gary is a session player / producer / writer in Nashville, TN. He plays for many recording session accounts, does home recording and producing. Email him for questions, comments or scheduling at: garylunn @ me. com
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