Little changes...

So much for time off.

After much prayer, and (4) weeks actually of actually being retired from music ministry (again), I'm heeding the call have taken a new position in music ministry. It's hard to stay away.

I'm sure to get some upset emails from the St. Vinnie's folks: guys, I wasn't planning on this. It's closer to home and enables the family to go to mass together every week. I still love you all!

I'd be real easy and self-serving to come into a position where there's an existing team, and just do what worked for my previous band at St. Vincent. I'll have to overcome my enthusiasm and stick with a plan that is much less about me, and more about the community I'm called to serve.

Here's the plan: slide in - change as little as possible in the short run. Figure out what's working, become a part of the team's routine, and just do my best as a part of the team. Work with the existing folks to understand our strengths and weaknesses, building a rapport with the folks in ministry, and go from there. The best thing to find would be something that requires very little change. It's much safer to merge than to turn sharply anyway!

God bless you and those that prayed, tugged, bugged and begged. God bless all of those who have served in this role, and God bless all of you that serve in music ministry.

Updates on me

It's been too long since my last post.

Here's the skinny:

• July '08 - Feb '08 - Helping out at St. Louise, in Bellevue with LIFE TEEN. Subbed with St. Stephen the Martyr, St. Jude (Redmond, WA), Holy Family (Kirkland, WA) and Mary Queen of Peace (Sammamish, WA)
• August '08 - Bass at Steuby NW with Angus McDonell, Sarah Hart, David Yackley, Dylan Drego and Mark Grosjean - loads of fun!
• November '08 - keys at Seattle Youth Convention with St. Stephen the Martyr (Renton, WA) - again, loads of fun! Can't beat just sitting in the back with (4) keyboards and the laptop making a joyful noise!
• Feb '08 - July '08 - Returned to St. Vincent de Paul (Federal Way, WA) as they searched for a new LIFE TEEN music ministry leader. They are still searching - respond to me if you'd like a hook-up.

Right now, I am discerning a new calling - an unexpected one! It's a welcome call, but it's working against this whole idea of getting Sunday afternoons back for the family.

Please pray for me and my family for guidance and wisdom.

God bless you in His ministry.

(c) 2007-2009 by Art Leonard. All rights reserved.

Getting Started in Planning for Mass

Mass happens. Be ready.

I've focused for a while on stuff that can be applied to any Worship Band. This time, I'm going all-out Catholic! Whoo hoo.

Let's break the parts of mass down. If you've never noticed this before, it might be a bit of a learning experience. I happened to be blessed with parents that sent me to Catholic School for 12 years. So, if you haven't learned this stuff before, you can always read the GIRM. (Actually, every Liturgical Minster should read the GIRM.)

LITURGY of the WORD

• Opening Song


• Sprinkling Rite (optional)


• Kyrie Elison


• Gloria


• Responsorial Psalm


• Gospel Acclamation


• Profession of Faith (can be sung... but probably not)


• General Intercessions (

LITURGY of the EUCHARIST

• Offertory Procession


• Holy Holy


• Memorial Acclamation


• Great Amen


• The Lord's Prayer


• Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)


• Communion


• Hymn of Praise (optional)


• Exit Procession (instrumental when done with Hymn of Praise) - OR - Closing Hymn
  

Recording the Band LIVE!

Let me be up-front on this. You aren't going to like this article.  I'm not going to give you the key to making an album you can sell from some random concert or Sunday that is going to sound awesome. This is not an article for audiophiles. In fact, it's going to tell you how to do this in a way that will alienate you from audiophiles.

If you want to record something that sounds like you recorded in a studio, record in a studio.

If you want to have something that you can listen to you band and say, "That sounded pretty good," and you're not going to care that it doesn't sound the same as it did in the room, keep reading.

First, I'm going to tell you what you're up against:

• Without a significant investment, you won't capture what you hear in the room. You just don't have the mics. So much of what you listen to depends on the room.
• There is no such thing as a really good live rock band sound.  It's just hard to get right in the room. To take that same equipment to make a signal that sounds good anywhere is just nearly impossible.
• Monitor speakers interfere with isolation.
• And you won't have any real isolation.

Since the FOH (Front of House) mixer's job is to provide sound to the room, the secondary task of recording will almost always take a backseat. 

That said, here's some advice I can give about recording a live band into something that will be tollerable.

• You need to have a person dedicated to recording during set-up and sound check.  You can't use someone in the band, and you can't use the FOH engineer - they're too busy.  I've tried it.
• Using just the FOH mix will not give you what you want.  It will likely be overly vocal heavy, not in stereo, and mixed for the room.
• Record each channel individually if you can. I used my MOTU Traveler and a Berhinger AD/DA box, though there are better options out there.  This gave me 16 channels at 48khz. This takes a LOT of time to set-up.  You need inserts on the main mixer that are not taken up by things like compressors and ample cabling to make it happen. Other options include newer firewire mixers like the Mackie ONYX or... almost anything else on the market. The hard thing is going to be setting your levels to something nominal since the FOH mixer will be set for something.
• Other options: M-Audio and other companies make small stereo, portable recorders that can record the room and give you a good idea of your sound in the room without the need for going to the lengths I describe above.

Ideas for Sunday, April 27th, 2008

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

This Sunday, Jesus speaks to us about the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. He speaks to loving Him through keeping His commandments.

Opening: Shout to the North

Psalm: Let All the Earth Cry Out (Angrisano)

Offertory: Alive In You (Maher)

Communion: Jesus, Wine of Peace (Haas)

Closing: Send Your Spirit Down

I wrote a song last year specifically for this weekend, next weekend, and Pentecost called "Send Your Spirit Down". (Available at http://www.myspace.com/artleonard). Check it out. Sheet music is available via email - just leave a comment.

My Cheap In-Ear Monitoring Solution

You've all seen these great systems for in-ear monitors. They're fantastic and the even cooler thing is that they WORK. They reduce the overall volume and allow you to focus on making music.

Systems run at around $300 - 2000 per transmitter / receiver / headphone set depending on wireless needs (2 - 8 channels), mixing capability built into the base unit, and interference handling. I have heard mixed things about baseline units, basically that if more than two people are using them, there are issues with interference and reliability.

When I was having trouble hearing myself, I figured it was time to invest in a better way to hear myself.

But problems I've had with in-ear solutions are:

• They are too expensive for most Catholic bands
• Are dedicated to individuals, so when you have higher turnover in your band, it can be problematic
• If you add someone to the band at the last minute and they don't have the monitors, they can't participate
• A drummer isolated from the room doesn't know how loud they are in the room.
• They can be a mixing nightmare as the sound-man needs to tend o individual mixes.

So, I actually come up with a solution that is inexpensive, and simple to use. It doesn't solve all of the above problems, but it does drop the cost.

I had to give up on wireless to keep the cost down. I sit at a piano. It's not a problem for me to be tethered. Same with the drums. I can even do it on guitar and have had great results.

So, what do I use?

I have a Rolls PM351 Personal Monitoring Station (~$99), Shure e2c in-ear headphones (~$99), and a headphone extension cord (~$8). This is probably the cheapest set-up I have seen yet.

The PM351 allows me to plug my mic and an instrument in as well as a monitor. My mic then has a THROUGH port to go to the sound system, as well as the instrument (which comes out as balanced, so I don't need a separate DI box!). The sound engineer then builds a mix like he normally would, and I take my monitor mix from the same mix as the singers. I can then blend my own voice and instrument with theirs, adjusting it up or down. My mixer some something interesting with phase inversion that allows me to adjust my own voice independent, even if my voice is there in the monitor mix!

The end result is for $207 + tax, I have a personal in-ear monitor system that works for my voice as well as my instrument. I have also used the Rolls PM51 which is the same as the PM351, but without the instrument input for about $59. That means you can do this for a singer for only $167 + tax.

There are tons of expensive systems out there that will run circles around the proposal I have here, like the AVIOM system.

I'm talking about a cheap solution.

I suppose it might be cheaper just to tell the drummer what I think about his volume control... ;-)

Warm-Ups!

We all hate that cacophony that preludes a rehearsal or performance the warm-up. The incoherent din that precedes a all that we do - that gobbledygook of noise is actually all NECESSARY.

This morning, I got to play along with St. Jude's again on the song, "Don't Wait 'Till the Battle Is Over". It was tons of fun. I was just playing the one song at the ned of mass. The problem is I haven't been playing piano every week, and while it hasn't made me rusty per-se, it has made it so my muscles are not always ready to go on notice.

I got a 2 minute warm-up with the choir before mass. I then sat out for the rest of mass to sit with my family. When the choir came to the final song, I came up and played. It's an energetic setting made buy the Total Experience Gospel Choir in Seattle. It was awesome and it rocked (can a song" Gospel"?).

The issue I had was that over the course of this 5+ minute song, my forearms began to hurt something fierce. I've hit this more and more recently where my arms just aren't getting the exercise they used to. When we got to the end of the song, I was just in pain. I made it, but if I had had to go on to play something else, it would have been very difficult and would have affected my playing.

So, what am I getting at?

Before you start rehearsal or mass, take a few minutes to warm up. We all like the silence and want to communicate, but we as musicians need time to warm up our muscles. This is no replacement for rehearsal during the week, but it's still important to get the blood flowing to those places where we need it before we actually need it. This is not an opportunity to launch into the most daring work of the day.

• Drums - practice a couple rudiments
• Bass & Guitar - Work on a couple scales together
• Piano / Keys - Warm up the singers
• Singers - Warm up with a few scales and vocal exercises.

Each one of these deserves an article in an of itself.