So I used to hate the show Making the Band because I thought it was completely lame and P.Diddy annoys the hell out of me.  However, his new show Making His Band is totally awesome because it features real musicians playing actual instruments.  No dancing, no skimpy clothes, nothing but pure musicianship.  Me Like.

What was interesting to me about this show is that some of the musicians are “church musicians”.  This is what leads me to this blog.  On the first episode the main conflict was between Mike and Kris.  Mike is originally a drummer but for some reason auditioned on keys and made it into the house as a keyboardist.  The whole time he kept saying that he feels much more comfortable on the drums yet he continued to work really hard at his auditioning pieces on the keys (he was almost cut after the audition but the judges let him stay on the show as a drummer).  Kris on the other hand BLEW the judges away on the initial audition on the drums.  He showed them chops and flair that absolutely floored them.  That kinda got to his head because he definitely slacked off on his drum pieces for the second audition.  During the episode, one of the things Mike said was that church musicians such as Kris got by on flair and chops, but had no solid technique to make them legit.  Needless to say, Kris butchered his second audition and was asked to leave the house.  When the judges told him they were disappointed because he blew them away with his fills and chops in the initial audition they also asked him if he had practiced hard for the second audition (the second audition was simple fingering and rudiment exercises performed at random bpm’s).  His response, “No, not really.”  How sad.

The whole conversation between Mike and Kris really got me thinking about the idea of “church musicians”.  Growing up in the Church as a “church musician” I think a lot of my fellow musicians and I learned to label “Church music” as something sub-par, something to be somewhat embarrassed about.  Whenever people would ask me what I play and where I play I’d say “I play bass and guitar…but I just play for my church” as if there was nothing noble about it at all.  True, some church music isn’t really all that technically challenging and most of it is by ear (and some of it is just downright cheeseball) but I think a big reason why we’re so shy about the fact that we play “church music” is because we don’t pursue it with excellence.  Excellence doesn’t mean we need to be freaking Guitar Heroes or Beethoven on the Bass, but just digging deeper to get to the next level.  I think the big problem is we (or I should say, I) usually don’t approach church music with the same reverence that we would approach a regular gig where we’re practicing and rehearsing constantly, drilling the songs into our heads, learning all the changes and grooves, etc.  We naturally take pride in anything we pursue with excellence right?  That should apply just as equally to “church music”.  So what if the song (or all 5 in the pre-sermon top set) are “4 on the floor” for the drums, driving 8th’s by the bass, and a I-IV-V chord progression?  If we really realized the privilege we have in what we do, we’d choose excellence over “just getting the songs”.  After all, the Sunday gig is probably the best gig of all.  This probably means I should start practicing again.

Here’re some “church musicians” who pursue excellence.  Norm Stockton is so awesome.  The keyboard solo is a bit intense but it still sounds great.

-nebola-

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