Tag: U2

A Kinda Sorta Review of the New U2 Record

On By adamdolhanykIn church band, church culture, electric guitar, reviews, thoughts, worship1 Comment

THE RECORD

Almost every review of the newest U2 record Songs of Innocence has told me more about the the reviewer and their issues than the record itself. When a reviewer starts admitting that they “don’t really like U2 that much” or by saying that they haven’t liked a U2 record since Actung Baby, why should we care what they say? When a reviewer spends (as many of them did) the opening half of the review critiquing and complaining about the way or method the band released the record, what does that actually tell us about the music itself? The answer is of course: nothing.

I actually like the new U2 record. It’s not their best record, but it’s certainly not their worst. The songs themselves are far better than most of the critics have given credit for. The final result of Dangermouse’s production work is a debatable point but again, it’s an interesting take on the music of the most iconic band since the Beatles. So now that we’ve had a few weeks to come to terms with the music and implication of the records surprise marketing/distribution method maybe we can look for some takeaways?

Instead of debating the finer points of U2’s latest offering, I would like to look at the response it has drawn. I feel like looking at Songs Of Innocence’s reception will shed light on issues that affect us as worship leaders and church musicians.

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Why Use Delay

On By adamdolhanykIn electric guitar, worship4 Comments

This article is part of The Month Of Delay at the Real World Worship blog. All throughout the month of March we will be looking at different aspects of the delay effect in worship music.

 

There has been a lot written about “HOW” to use the delay effect, specifically in worship music, but less said about “WHY”.  The how may not help you at all until you know the why. For example, if someone is asked about how to use your delay pedal, and they tell you “How” to set it up for slapback sounds, would that help you if you want to create ambient swells? Or if you are playing a lead part, do you want to know how to set up your delay pedal for the rhythm guitar? These are of course rhetorical questions, but they make the point, so in this post we will look at 4 reasons “Why” you would want to use a delay pedal in your worship service.

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Q&A

On By adamdolhanykIn Arrangment, band practice, blog, church band, church culture, electric guitar, leadership, thoughts, vision, worship3 Comments

Every so often I like to look over the Google searches that bring people to this blog. It’s interesting what people look for, and what brings them my way. There are a few great questions, and a few ridiculous questions. What questions are people who stumble upon this blog asking? Let’s find out.

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Vocal Range, Hymns and Other Questions

On By adamdolhanykIn blog, blogs, church culture, electric guitar, leadership, thoughts, vision, worshipLeave a comment

WordPress lets me see the Google searches (who uses Bing?) that bring people to this blog. I thought I’d use those search queries to do a miscellaneous topic post of sorts. So let’s start off with…

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The Electric: U2 and Modern Worship

On By adamdolhanykIn electric guitar, thoughts, worship8 Comments


Each Week I’ll try and address different aspects of the practical side of playing electric guitar in church music.

This week we’ll talk about worship bands, U2 and Ripping off The Edge.

The Edge

David Evans more widely known at “The Edge” is the guitar player from the band U2. If you don’t know who U2 is you have my permission to crawl out of the rock you’ve been living under for the last 30 years and download “Where the Streets Have No Name”,”Desire”, “Bad”, “With or Without You” and “Crumbs From Your Table” as a sample of the different eras of the Edge’s playing. Also watch the music video for “Streets have no Name” because its awesome.

Modern Worship Music: Just Rip Off U2?

Ever hear someone make a statement like that? Ever make that statement yourself? The reason that people make the comparison is that many worship bands, most notably Hillsong United use the “dotted 8th note” effect that the Edge pioneered (see example at the bottom of the post). And since Hillsong and other worship bands use the guitar effect associated with The Edge and U2, people associate modern praise and worship music with that band.

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The Electric: Getting “That Sound”

On By adamdolhanykIn electric guitar, worshipLeave a comment

Each Week I’ll try and address different aspects of the practical side of playing electric guitar in church music.

This week we’ll talk about getting “That Sound”

 

Have you ever wondered how your favorite guitarist or band gets “that sound”? Maybe you’ve looked up all their gear on the internet. Then maybe you’ve done the math and realized that their gear would cost you what you make in a 5 year period or more. Can you get “that sound” as a normal guy trying to put a rig together on a budget?

What Do You Want?

If you just bought a Boss Metal Zone distortion but want to do country you may be on the wrong track. Define the sound or sounds you want. What do you like? What does your church band play? Do you play other stuff outside of church? My rig has purposely been set up for country (Buddy Miller, Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams), U2/Coldplay (which means i can do any Christian worship band that rips off those bands cough. cough. Hillsong. cough.), and  rock (Death Cab For Cutie, Arcade Fire, Daniel Lanois) and REM (I rip off Peter Buck a lot)

Do Your Homework

There is no way around it. You have to do the research to know what you want, what musical and technical terms mean, and what gear is right for you.

Let’s say you’re an acoustic guitar player who wants to branch out. You’ve had an old Stratocaster lying around and you’ve decided to play more. Start with something as simple as reading the Wikipedia page on Effects Pedals. Learn the difference.

After you’ve learned what kinds of pedals there are and what they do, you’ll have to figure out what you need. Read up. If you like a certain style of music and you find that a lot of the bands you like use the same pedals (Boss DD-3 Delay or Line 6 DL4 Delay for examples) then that would be a starting place.

Versatility

Let’s say you love August Burns Red and Metallica before the Black album and love to jam at home to those riffs, but the church band you play with wants really bad to sound like David Crowder band. A “metal zone” or similar pedal will pretty much only get you one sound. A Tube Screamer into a tube amp that’s cranked on the “hot” channel with it’s Mids scooped will give you Metallica’s Ride the Lightening, and then if you set the amp to clean it can give you 20 other bands from U2 to Stevie Ray Vaughn. Metallica, U2, SRV all use some version of the Ibanez tube screamer. 1 pedal 3 sounds is a much better value than a single genre pedal.

Most of us are on a budget. Putting a rig together will take time. If you can buy 1 pedal to do the job of two or three then you’ll be better off 9 times out of 10.

Boutique is Not Always Better

Speaking of the Ibanez Tube Screamer. Everyone has one. Brad Paisley, the Edge, SRV. Another pedal that I constantly read about on pro guitar players boards is the Boss DD-3 (or DD-5,6, or 7) or the Boss RV-5 reverb. What I’m saying is that if you read gear forums or blogs or talk to the guy in the Guitar Center trying to upsell you, they’ll for the best sound you really need this [insert more expensive pedal here]. The reality is that a stock TS9 and a lower end TC Electronics Reverb are my go to pedals.

It’s Not Always Pedals.

I was talking to a guy who was asking me how to get the sound and tone from some Hillsong guitar player. I jokingly told him to just rip off the Edge 🙂 But then I looked at the Youtube clip he had sent. The reality was that for all the different pedals he had at his disposal 80% of what was going on was because he was playing through a nice Amp. U2 uses VOX AC-30’s. Coldplay uses Fender Deville’s. Brad Paisley uses Dr. Z. Buddy Miller uses Swart. Metallica used Marshalls and later Messa Boogie’s. The point is that if you have an electric guitar and you have money you’ve saved up you would often be better off getting a good amp than a bunch of effects pedals.

What’s the Point?

It’s worship all about Jesus and not about gear? Yes. but if you look at your pastor’s office you’ll probably find a lot of books (commentaries, maps, histories, dictionaries). Maybe he has a computer with bible software or an ipad with all his notes. These are all tools to preach the gospel and teach the bible. Musical gear are tools make music to praise Jesus, serve His church, and share the gospel or respond to Bible teaching in song. Just as a pastor needs to learn to put a message together, musical servants in the church need to learn how to put a song together. All for the Glory of Jesus.