Tuesday, June 30, 2009

strange instrument. "theremin" and "ondes martenot".

I didn't know this is so weird will i watched this in youtube. They called it "theremin". Saw it in the science center of Singapore. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA00Wug6uyc).
Basically it works as a radio antenna. Hence, when the frequency of the antenna is cut out by one's hand, it sounds with the respective frequency. It's a musical instrument which is having "untouched" operating system.. haha..

Hence, its frequency can hit a very deep bass.. I was shocked when i 1st hear it when no one is beside it. It was way too deep!
See this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW0B1sipLBI&feature=related

Anyway, another instrument to be introduced is the ondes martenot. Knew this because i saw Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead genius guitarist) played this before. This instrument is more fascinating. It produces many kind of sounds, the idea was initiated from a engineer (frogot his name) wanted to find the frequency of a radiowave during the early 20th century. There is a string, a keyboard and a control board on this instrument. Connected to a series of speakers, it sounds very special.

A gong speaker for percussion/mallet/halo sound. A stringed one for string harmonics/reverb. A normal one and a lyre-shaped loudspeaker (produce sympathetic resonances). Hence, the sound reproduced is very "real" compared to the organ or electronic keyboard..
Try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9UBjrUjwo

Erm, just my newly discoveries.. Perhaps it's already very outdated for some of you, just take me as a "suaku" human being! Cheers!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Another thought on worship band.

That day i talked with a friend, and we get something like this:

Worship leader's job is to get the congregations to be attentive towards God, and ultimately to bring them into a worship. Church worship session have songs with a similar theme, and that should be what the worship leader trying to get the congregation to think about. Hence, preferably, the worship tunes should be synchronized with what the pastor wanted to preach.

Also, worship leader shall have the anointing to affect the congregations, spiritually (holy spirit and stuff like that). But, i was thinking, should worship be done together just like in group prayer (same thought, same spirit and everybody says "amen"!) or just different people different touch/thoughts?

Personally, i think that if it's not done in "togetherness", it'll be messy. Everyone will be having their own stuff and there is no unity. Even in the normal "world" bands, they play with same philosophy (you can see how badly a man can be changed once he's affected by the culture of the band he joined). Similarly, in church worship team, we all play different instruments, but our spirit should be aligned. The team have to follow what the worship LEADER leads, and not to lead individually.

But, how a pianist worship with a piano? Perhaps you can imagine the piano as a voice, just another kind of voice. Take 5 people sing together in harmonics, and we change all the 4 voices to string, left one human voice. It's the same isn't it? And you can also notice how a person usually free-worship in spirit- don't know what is he singing at all, only God knows via spirit... Haha, but for pianist, can't just free flow, only if you have the skill or talent. Else, tough.. very tough..

Now, i have another problem: if we just follow what the worship leader wants, and play it very harmonically, is it enough? This may be true for a thought: "good worship does not occurred naturally, but we have to "do" it out. This is very true.

Still, i do think that there is an element missing.

Perhaps this is not too important as christian shouldn't worship only at church, but it's an everyday "thingy"!