It used to be the norm, but lately it seems kind of unusual for me to play both of my church gigs. I'm either out of town, got a better paying gig in town, or my (AM) church gig cancels on me.
My AM church gig was pretty easy. A couple of hymns (with a "hackety-sax" transition), a chord sheet, and a big song with page turns every six measures. Pretty easy stuff, though I never trust that what we do in rehearsal will work in front of the congregation (I'm talking about the aforementioned transition). It really did, though.
Now that we're back to acoustic drums and a bass amp on stage, things sound and feel pretty good. We're a band again!
Maybe it was the weather, or maybe I'm recovering from the weekend, but I crashed pretty hard once I got home. Multiple hour nap. Yes.
My PM church gig was ok. I thought I had a pretty good mix going (mixing on headphones and checking without) with the vocals plenty out front, and it was questioned whether or not one of the singers was loud enough. I also had a complaint (these are all from within the band, stationed in a corner of the church and away from the church speakers) that the piano was not loud enough. The gain on the vocal was fine. I turned up the entire mix and bumped the piano up and panned it to the band side of the room. Too loud, I was told. I set the volume back to where I'd begun the mass. Everybody was happy for a minute. At the end, I got a comment that the mix seemed muddy. I give up.
The pianist and the guitarist tend to play the same thing at the same time (both doing an arpeggiated/finger picking accompaniment) on the same song, or both playing in the same register (and both playing bass notes). To keep it from being a big mush, I panned the piano to the left (opposite) side of the church (since I assume that the sound of the acoustic piano is also contributing to the sound in the room, as well as being picked up by the vocal and drum mics, coming down the center and panned right, respectively). I had the guitar panned right. In my headphones, it works really well. Piano and woodwinds in the left ear, vocals in the middle, guitar and drums on the right. Somebody else wanna come mix for a while? How about I stop and play my instruments for a little bit?
Oh yeah! I play sax and flute sometimes when I'm not chasing the gain on the guitar! My soprano is feeling good, and flute felt great--thanks.
Moving on!
I'm totally hooked on bassist Omer Avital. His newest record, Suite of the East, is great, but the one I like best is Live at Smalls. Totally awesome. I found him by chasing down YouTube videos of one of my favorite sax players, Joel Frahm. Check this one out (same band as Live at Smalls). I'd kill to play in this group.
