Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 126
BASS
THOSE DARNED CHARTS | Gary Lunn
In today’s world it seems that it is all about
survival. To make it through 2020.
The good news is that we are over half way
there. The bad news is that some of those darn
worship song chart writers (that we always
read) have not improved in their chart writing.
And, as far as I know, they still do not write
charts in numbers (a.k.a the Nashville Number
System), not to mention their lack of accurate,
consistent bar/measure indication. I could go
on, but nonetheless, it can be frustrating for
any musician who is trying to do/play their best,
sometimes in spontaneous situations.
Every time I read through one of those charts of
a song that I am not familiar with, the first thing I
notice is that I have absolutely no clue on which
beat the chord changes should fall. Without
having heard the song several times, there
really is no way, typically, that you can correctly
sight-read the chart. For worship leaders who
play an instrument while they lead... yes, these
charts are fine. They already know the song
that they are going to lead with. But to bassists
who have to play the root note correctly on
every downbeat, it can be difficult or disastrous.
Often I see the chord changes placed above
the word in the song when they occur, but I find
it almost impossible to accurately count and
play each chord the proper number of beats
before the next chord is to be played. If I don’t
already know the song, as a solid bassist, I am
officially hosed. There will be many mis-played
chords (or lack of chords played).
So you may be wondering (if you don’t already
have your own system), what is the easiest
way to fix these “glorified” lyric sheets? Here is
my process.
If I haven't had time to listen to the song before
rehearsal (it does happen...) then I will get my
trusty Apple Pen and enter into edit mode
in Music Stand (an app for church worship
music). As the band plays the song I usually
turn my bass off and start counting/marking my
chart as fast as I can. And by the way, having
a correct chart by service time is way more
important than attempting to play every note
during the rehearsal.
Typically, a chart will have one chord over the
lyric with no indicator of how many beats you
actually play that chord. For example, if a song
has an A chord and a D chord over the first line,
I need to know exactly how many measures I
am to play those two chords. It might be one
bar apiece or it might be two. So let’s say it’s
two bars of A and two bars of D and my chart
looks like A D over the lyrics.
The easiest way to fix this is to insert an extra
bar per every measure played. Now my chart
will look like A A D D. This totally
shows me that I play two bars of A and two
bars of D. Each letter name represents one bar
(4 beats for each chord in 4/4 time, etc.) This is
one of the “easier” chart fixes.
Indicating split bars is the other most-needed
editing requirement. This will show you how
many beats in a measure each chord will get
if there is more than one chord in a single
measure. For example, if a section of a song
has three beats of G and one beat of C, your
chart probably looks like this: G C G
There is absolutely no way that you are able to
tell how many beats each chord gets, even if
it’s over the lyric where the change occurs. To
fix this you need to quickly draw parentheses
around the first G and C (to indicate that they
occur within one measure). Then, simply draw
a single hash mark ( ` ) under or over the C
chord (meaning “one beat for this chord”). Now
you have 3 beats of G and one beat of C clearly
indicated. In a song where the G chord gets 2
beats and and the C chord gets 2 beats then
it is not necessary to draw any hash marks in
that bar (we call this a “split bar” or an “evensplit
bar”). Of course there are many variations
to this, but at least now you know how to mark
it on your chart so that you will play it correctly.
The only way to become accomplished at this
skill is to practice doing it. The more you do
it, the faster you will become. This will greatly
increase your confidence in learning a song
so please practice this before rehearsal. The
outcome will be that you better represent your
most important post in the band, thus bringing
a new level of excellence to each service.
Blessings!!
Gary Lunn
Gary is a session player/producer/writer in Nashville,
TN. Contact him at [email protected] for scheduling
or any questions.
[email protected]
126 September 2020
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