Is Humble Musician an Oxymoron?   All to often I hear musicians complaining about playing in there respective congregations. I have even found myself frustrated in playing along with other musicians, when their style or approach was contrary to my own. I am of the opinion that many of the issues could be resolved by healthy forms of communication. However, the fact of the matter is many believing musicians, atleast the ones I have dialogued and spoken with, are not at a place in their walk were the lines of communication can be opened. With boots dug deep into their respective positions a mexican stand-off ensues and no one wants to budge. Your’s truly has found himself at this very place, and even when I released my will in order to accomodate a worship service, I held a grudge in my heart.

As musicians we need to recognize that foremost we are followers of Christ, and find our identity in that very fact. As followers of Christ we must take upon ourselves the daily task following Him. It sound all good at first glance, but the deeper we look into this concept the more we begin to understand that, there are steps involved in this daily process that may not be so appealing.

“And he said to them all, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23

First, we must deny ourselves. Wait one minute, Rev! What exactly does this entail? It literally means we must lose sight of ourselves and our own ambitions. Trust me without self-denial, the rest of Jesus’ statement is not even in reach. Many have quoted this scripture to me, and conveniently left the self denial out, probably because in fact they haven’t been taking up a cross either.

Second, take up his cross daily. Many would interpret this to mean, they should bare burdens daily, as Christ bore ours on the cross.  The truth is Christ came to free us from our former life, into a new life, that only can be accomplished by way of the cross.  He tells us in Matthew 11:28-30:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Our second objective is to in fact, recon ourselves dead to sin, and resurrected to new life.  Without such a concience effort, we will never properly follow Christ.  You see as a selfless musician you must truly lose site of yourself, and let Christ take center stage in your heart.

Prayer:  Father, not to sound cliche, but I want to decrease that you may increase in my life.  Help me daily recon myself dead, and alive with you.  You are a awesome Father, Lord, and Friend.  There is truly no one like you.  Give your musicians a heart to lead by example, and show forth your goodness, in your congregations across the globe.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

I was writing an entry into my personal blog this morning, when I thought to myself, this scripture applies perfectly to my maturation as a musician as well.  So I began to type out a variation of my thought geared towards my fellow musicians.

I tackled this subject some years back in a devotional entitled, Frustrated?  My purpose was to give bass players who are frustrated with their musical progress, hope that in time things will get better.  Judging from the feedback I have received on the site, I feel as if the words hit the mark.  Now, I am writing to encourage those who feel as though the progress has stopped, and they simply are not improving as musicians.  Don’t lose faith.  Don’t give up.  It’s all a part of the process.

In my personal blog I wrote:

Have you ever waited patiently on something to take place in your life, only to receive notice, that it would be delayed?  How did it make you feel?  Often in our walk as believers we trust in a trustworthy God to deliver a promise in our life only to experience delay in the things we hope for.  Almost certainly every believer has had to endure some sort of delay when it comes to our spiritual growth in God.   If we are not careful we will find ourselves, moving away from the grace in which is so prevelant in our salvation, and we begin to find ourselves working for those things in which we desire.  The sense of accomplishing works for Christ only momentarily, provide a source of fulfilment when we find our heart condition, is quite possibly more saddened than our previous encounter.

What are we to do?  How are we to get out of this cycle? According to the proverb, it is only when that desire is fulfilled, that I will experience something greater than my present situation.  Right?

I am persuaded that too often I have misunderstood the process, in which God uses to mature, and strengthen me.  God knows exactly what I need, and he uses deferrals, in my life, that I might see  “Life” through the eyes of Christ.  When we are sick we seek medical assistance for those things that ail us.   When Our hearts are sick we attempt to self medicate bye things that often make the matter worse, instead of trusting in God who hears and heals.

Some of you guys may be thinking that’s great brother, but what does that have to do with my musical maturation.  My response is nothing and everything.  We all know that musical talent can be found in believer and non-believer alike.  Talents can also be found in part-time believers, but that is a “Whole-nother” post unto itself.  The only thing that separates christians, is that we are sanctified as a gracious act of God towards us.  Sanctification, simply means “set apart for a purpose”.  In the context of this post, that purpose is to play our musical instrument unto God.  The same measure we are yielded in our daily life, is the measure God see’s when we come together as a local congregation to worship him.  Let us turn our affections to Him as we worship, and not on the set of skills we are able to bring to worship.  Am I saying, don’t practice your craft? Heavens, No. I am saying, don’t let it be a point of frustration, because you think you should be further along.  Instead, focus on experiencing God, past the other frustrations in life.  Even if your playing doesn’t sound any different in your ears, you will feel a deeper connection in your heart, and the talent will eventually catch up.

Prayer:
Father, help me to understand that you are not bound by time, nor are you driven by progress reports.  Your ways are truly above my ways, and beyond tracing out.  I can’t understand how you operate, unless you give me revelation.  Lord, I thank you for sending your son Jesus, to fulfill the Law.  I thank you for extending your grace towards us, because it is truly amazing.  Lord, continue to give insight and revelation so that your child will be edified.  Teach me to trust in your my king, and not the scales or runs, I bring to the sanctuary, where your people assemble to meet you.  Increase my capacity to listen to your heart, rest in your grace, and seek you in the things of life that often go overlooked.  Take your rightful place in the thrown room of my heart, teaching me to love your ways above all else. In Jesus Name.  Amen.

 We get our english word worship from the combination or two words.  The first being worth, which is defined having value.  The second is the suffix -ship, defined as something which shows, or possesses.  Therefore there can be no worship without a value being placed on something.  

As musicians we must understand that worship begins well before we pick up our instrument to play.  It’s not associated with a particular time in service, nor is it something we do solely on Sunday morning.   If we are not careful as musicians we can find ourselves infatuated with the idea of worship, although missing the origin of where worship begins. 

Worship begins in our hearts and is carried out with our lifestyles.  We should not settle for anything less than pure worship, that touches the heart of God. 

Prayer: Father I thank you for the opportunity to worship you with my life.  I count it an added bonus to be able to serve in your house as a musician, when you church comes together.  Lord I want my playing to be an extension of a life dedicated to serving you.  That when others hear your child play they will be able to experience our love in every note.

In Building Scales: Major Scale we utilized numbers to identify the intervals within the major scale. These numbers or intervals help us to identify from which degree of the scale a note is being generated, in relationship to the note played before.

This is often referred to as relative pitch. The identification of the relative distance between notes allows us bassist to know where to place our fingers to play the appropriate note. Each interval in the scale has a distinct sound one from the other.

As we begin to practice hearing these intervals, our fingers begin to gravitate towards certain sounds. Coupling this technique with humming or singing the intervals of the scale will accelerate our ear training.

Excercises:
1 – 3 – 2 – 4 – 3 – 5 – 4 – 6 – 5 – 7 – 6 – 1 – 7 – 2
Then try going backwards.
Or then alternate the direction you play the intervals in.
1 – 3 – 4 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 6 -4 – 5 – 7 – 1 – 6 – 7 – 2

you can use this as a blue print, and start jumping bigger intervals.
1 – 4 – 2 – 5 – 3 – 6 – 4 – 7 – 5 – 1 – 6 – 2 – 7 – 3

Your ear will begin to hear the differences in the intervals, and your hands will begin to gravitate towards the sounds you hear.

We will take a look at two specific components of music to identify that will  help you be well on your way to playing  any song by ear, called Interval recognition and Chord recognition

Interval recognition is a very useful skill in order to deterime the melody of a song, musicians must have some ability to recognize intervals. The ability to tell how two pitches relate to one another is referred to as “relative pitch”. One very useful method of developing releative pitch, is to associate each possible interval with the first two notes of a popular song.

Chord recognition works in conjunction with interval recognition. Hearing the harmonic structures that support the melody of a song is chord recongition. Musicians often practice hearing different types of chords and their inversions out of context, just to hear the characteristic sound of the chord. They also learn chord progressions to hear how chords relate to each other in the context of a piece of music.

Gospelbasslines: How long have you been playing bass guitar?

John King: About 25 plus years, since the age of 11 or 12.

Gospelbasslines: How long professionally? What made you know your were ready to step into the professional arena as a bassist?

John King: At the age of 15 I was introduced to playing professionally in high school. Then I had the opportunity of performing with my high school band directors band Images & Infiniti. So I never really weighed whether or not I was ready to play professionally or not. I was given an opportunity and I accepted it, I embraced it, and learned much from it.

Gospelbasslines: Lot’s of bass players gradually make their way to bass guitar, did you play any instruments prior?

John King: First, I was introduced to the piano. I had brief affair with the trumpet. I had a serious relationship with drums. And then I met the bass guitar, that’s where my focus has been since..

Gospelbasslines: Who has influenced your playing style the most? Why?

John King: I have had numerous of influences, making this a hard question to answer. However, I would say early on it was definitely Stanley Clark. Stanley was doing it all, great upright chops and crazy electric bass skills.

Gospelbasslines: Can you remember any particular concept or element of playing that gave you problems in your maturation process?

John King: Many. I have struggled with how to improve a technique, play a little faster, smoother, cleaner and or etc. Grant it, some problems I had then are not a problem today but in some ways, are issues that I continue to improve upon today. So with every obstacle, concept or element I conquered there’s maintenance and yet another hurdle or obstacle. What I’m getting at is, being a better or a great musician, I think, is a life long maturation process, where with every concept or element conquered there is still work to be done.

Gospelbasslines: Was there ever a time, you wanted to give up?

John King: Sure, there have been times when I wanted to throw in the towel and there will probably be others. But I’m glad to say, I’m yet holding on.

Gospelbasslines: Are there any technical aspects, or exercises you can give to those starting out, that are tangible enough to help them grow as a musician?

John King: Play with all of your fingers on the fret board. Always alternate fingers in the right. Be sure not to hold the bass with your left hand when playing. Find a comfortable position for holding your bass when going from finger to slap style. Expose you ear to as much music as possible. Listen and practice.

Gospelbasslines: Have you had any, Southwestern Airlines, “Wanna Get-away” Moments, as a musician?

John King: I’ve had other get-away moments but this one is the standout. I had a fall off stage during a performance. Fortunately, I was all good. Even though a lot of people saw me fall including the drummer, no one else in the band knew I had fallen. I was behind the other players and I never stopped playing. I was down but not out. I didn’t worry about getting up, I just continued to play and one by one my band mates noticed I wasn’t there, and when they did, all they saw was the bottom of my left foot still on the stage. Could have been worse.

Gospelbasslines: What gear do you own?

John King: Ken Smith 5 string, a pair of Auilar 12″ cabs and an Eden World Traveler Amp.

Gospelbasslines: What has been most beneficial to your growth as a bass player?

John King: First, a great family of musicians and lovers of music. To that I will add … being blessed to have been around some of our areas best. Which allowed me to grow musically in an atmosphere of respect, appreciation and understanding of what power and influence music has and is. This didn’t mean I always got to play but it gave me the privilege of participating form the inside. You knowﾅup close right in the heart of the action where I was humbled and learned to humble myself to the schooling I was being exposed to.

Gospelbasslines: If you were stranded on a dessert island, and could have 1 song, what would that song be and why?

John King: A Word Form The Lord by Thomas Whitfield.

Gospelbasslines: Has God given you any vision or direction on what he wants you to do as a musician?

John King: Share and be a better example…with I’m sure more to come.

Gospelbasslines: Let us know what’s coming up for John King

John King: There’s nothing major I would like to pub right now. However, I would like to thank you for this opportunity and also thank James Ross for introducing us. Be sure to check out my group Good 4 The Soul at www.good4thesoul.net & www.myspace.com/g4ts. You can also check out my personal page at www.myspace.com/johnpking, my artist page www.myspace.com/johnpking1 and my Fanreach at www.reverbnation.com/johnking.

Shawn, thanks again for allowing me this opportunity. I really appreciate it and look forward to staying up. I have also included a banner code that I would like to add following the interview that will direct people to my reverbnation site where I will posting my music. If you have any problems with it you can also get it directly from my Reverbnation site.

Sean Byrd: Actually, the first instrument I learned to play was the piano. I started taking piano lessons when I was 8 years old, along with my elementary school music class. It was my introduction to reading and understanding music.

I have always been around music and musicians. My parents play instruments. Well, My dad still plays trumpet and my mom plays a little piano and played the clarinet when she was a child.

I also heard a lot of music at church. So, I was really introduced to the musical sounds of many instruments from day 1. Although I learned piano first, I really only knew how to read the music. I would try to pick out songs and chords or melodies but I wasn’t getting too far, as soon as I wanted to.

At 11, I started playing the alto saxophone in my middle school band. This was the first instrument in which I was experiencing fast success in comparison to many failed attempts such as the drums and my slow piano progress.

GospelbassLines: So when did you pick up the bass?

Sean Byrd: I didn’t start playing the bass until I was in high school. I had actually even worked on the guitar before the bass. Let’s just say that I was interested in many instruments but I was waiting for the one that would really capture me. I was content with the saxophone. I did well playing it but apparently it wasn’t the instrument that was going to convince me to pursue music as a career because it was just a hobby for me for years.

GospelbassLines: So what lead up to playing the bass?

Sean Byrd: One day while playing at my grandparent’s house with my little cousins, we were looking under a bed upstairs in a guest room or decoration room, as my grandmother would call it, and I found a dusty case and opened it up. It was an old bass guitar that belonged to one of my uncles. He bought it when he was stationed in Germany. He never got around to learning how to play it so he left it at my grandparent’s house. This discovery changed my musical life and not only so but changed my life entirely. I called him while he was stationed in Hawaii and asked him if I could take it home and learn how to play it. He agreed and the rest is history.

GospelbassLines: How did it change your life?

Sean Byrd: I lived and slept with that bass. It consumed countless hours of my day. All I did was practice the bass. It was extremely difficult at first. I couldn’t even play one string without making the other ones ring. I didn’t know how to use my hands to play it at all. I started watching the bass player at my church, Donnie Riles, while I was in the choir pretending to sing. [laughs] I tried every week to memorize what his fingers looked like when he would play. Eventually I started figuring out the notes and started seeing repeated patterns on the fret board. It was a slow but progressive process.

GospelbassLines: What was the pivotal point from the early frustration?

Sean Byrd: One Sunday evening, my grandmother, MeMe is how everyone referred to her, told me to pray and ask God to show me how to play and to anoint me to play. I did just what she said. She was not only my grandmother but she was my pastor.

She would sing songs for me when she came to our house so I could try to hear and follow. The problem I had was that I was used to playing the sax so I would start trying to play the melody. I had to learn how to hear the harmony and chord progression and also hear the rhythms. It was very challenging for me at that time. I was about 14 or 15 years old at the time. I started to practice a lot more and pray even more. About 6 months later I was filling in during church services. I wasn’t doing anything fancy, just getting by, but I was learning a lot real fast. God truly blessed me. I believe it was due to prayer and dedication that he not gifted me because that comes before birth but he anointed me to understand music.

GospelbassLines: Do you have any advice for our readers that will assist them in hearing, the harmony and chord progressions you referred to?

Sean Byrd: Memorizing note relationship is good and it’s not very difficult. If you take a major scale for example, and listen to how all 7 notes (notes 1 and 8 are the same note 1 octave apart) sound in relation to the tonic or root, you will start to memorize intervals. Try this in the key of C. C=1, D=2, E=3 etc. Memorizing common progressions is also good for example, 2- 5-1; 6-2-5-1; 3-6-2-5-1; 7-3-6-2-5-1. If you notice, the distance from each note to the next is what we call in theory, a 4th.

GospelbassLines: I’ve heard a bass player who you’ve influenced say, Learn your pentatonic scales. Once a person learns the pentatonic scales, how does that knowledge transfer to playing gospel/worship music?

Sean Byrd: Understanding the concept of the pentatonic (5 tone) scale gives you a basic foundation for improvising. In a major key, the pentatonic would be 1-2-3-5-6. You will notice that playing the same notes but starting on the 6, will give you the relative minor pentatonic. Ex. C major and A minor.

GospelbassLines: You mentioned Donnie Riles has been influential in your bass playing. Are there any other musicians who influence your style? how?

Sean Byrd: There are too many musicians to name. Everything that produces sound can be and inspiration and stimulate you to try and duplicate it or respond to it through your instrument. Ex. Guitarist can imitate motorcycle sounds and chainsaw sounds with distortion pedals. LOL! I think that’s cool.

GospelbassLines: If you were stranded on a desert Island, and you could only take one song, what would it be and why?

Sean Byrd: I would probably write it on my way to the island. It would go like this I know I’m not about to be stranded on this island I know I’m not about to be stranded on this I just got stranded on an island. LOL! Why I want my last song to be the truth! LOL!

GospelbassLines: Who is in heavy rotation in your CD player right now?

 Sean Byrd: I love praise and worship music. I also like good instrumental music. I really dig XM Radio. I can’t name any specific favorites.

 GospelbassLines: What gear do you own? Basses, Amps, Strings etc.

 Sean Byrd: I am somewhat of a collector. I have a Ken Smith custom bass, a KSD, a Washburn and others. I am currently using 2 4×10 Eden cabs. I have a SWR head. Im using Smith strings on my Smith basses.

 GospelbassLines: What would you consider to be some of the most important technical aspect to playing the bass? Reasons?

 Sean Byrd: Break bad habits early. Practicing with a metronome is good. Proper fingering and finger placement is important. Learning the fret board is also important.

 GospelbassLines: You took theory in college?

 Sean Byrd: When I was in college music theory came easy to me. Learning other instruments made so much sense. I could start to see how they were all related. I thank God and give him all the glory. Yes I would practice for hours and hours but I truly believe that if you pray and believe, God will do more than you ever expected.

 GospelbassLines: What has been most beneficial to your growth as a musician?

 Sean Byrd: Prayer and worship has been the most beneficial factor in my growth to this point. I’ve gotten back to praying and worshiping God more so that I can continue to grow in him. In return, he always increases my understanding of himself and the things he has created, like music.

 GospelbassLines: Do you have any technical factors you can add to that? (to the previous question)

 Sean Byrd: Be persistent in practice. Be disciplined and play with faith. If you believe you are able, you will be.

 GospelbassLines: Also add anything else you would like to see on the interview. Plug your album, any groups you are in… if you wanna talk about people you have played on the same stage with, go right ahead.

 Sean Byrd: Thanks again for doing this.

 Sean is a very talented professional musician, music director, educator, producer and minster of the Gospel. His ability to play multiple instruments is phenominal, yet he remains humble and given to the Lord. You can find out more about Sean Byrd at http://www.myspace.com/seanbyrdmusic

The distance of one fret is called a half-step (semi-tone), while the distance of two frets is called a whole-step (tone).

Major Scale pattern.

The major scale has 7 notes arranged in the following pattern:

Root – Whole Step – Whole Step – Half Step – Whole Step – Whole Step – Whole Step – Half Step – Octave

Lets apply this pattern to a C Major scale, as in any other scale the name is determined by the root note. In this case C.

C – (whole Step) D – (whole Step) E – (half step) F – (whole step) G – (whole step) A – (whole step) B – (half step) C – which is the octave.
** Note that E & F and B & C have no sharps or flats between them.

The Major Scale on the Bass looks like this:

Note I did not include notes in the diagram. The reason is, because no matter what note is designated as the ROOT, of the major scale the same pattern will apply. Eb Major, or F Major, even C major, all use this same pattern. You simply start at the root note and apply the same finger pattern. ( There are alternate patterns that compromise the major scale, but for the purpose of this example we will stick to this pattern.) In our example we made a C Major Scale Simply follow the diagram to play a C Major.

The notes in F major are: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F. Apply the same pattern starting
at the F an you will be able to play a F Major.

The Numbers in our diagram, indicate the scale degree, as well as the interval when communicating with musicians, one might say, really emphasize the 7th, remember that position we will go into further detail later.

This lesson on scales, is only the beginning in learning scales, there are 7 other scales that all are built from the major scale called “modes”, there is one other which is considered major while others are minor, dominant, and diminished, we will also get into those terms as we progress. 

Practice:

Practice playing the major scale. Once you have committed the major scale pattern to memory, begin to make it rhythmic. A good exercise to utilize is playing the intervals in different orders.

Instead of playing the 1- 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – Octave

Try playing 1 – 3 – 2 – 4 – 5 – 7 – 6 – Octave. This excercise is called, staggered intervals