My Turn

Ann ranted a while back... I guess now it's my turn. I don't like to rant. I don't feel it serves much of a purpose when trying to engage in meaningful dialogue. But a recent post by Courtney (as well as subsequent posts by Ann and Laura) gave me pause to consider just some of my historical frustration with Pentecostal music. I suppose you could call this a "rant." I guess I will know if I struck a chord or if I was simply playing random wrong notes by the number of responses I get.

I am a classically trained musician (piano major) who just recently came in out of the cold fresh into the world of Pentecost. (Ok, more like ten+ years ago, anyway, but the musical trauma of the experience remains with me vividly). My chief frustration (among a few) to this day remains a lack of printed instructional material for Pentecostal musicians. Consider the chorus we sing, "In the Name of Jesus" (we have the victory... demons will have to flee... etc.). Who wrote that chorus? I was unable to find this information anywhere. Maybe this is a clarion call for me to be the one to compile a set of instruction manuals for Pentecostal musicians with note-reading backgrounds.

I'm not saying there aren't materials out there. I have two or three large collections of choruses with chord symbols. But these compilations never contain melodies. These are assumed. And vary widely from congregation to congregation, or from district to district. There are literally thousands of songs. So where do you start if you want to be able to play anything that might be randomly selected on the whim (or, hopefully, the spirit's leading) of the worship leader?

Which leads me to frustration number two. How do you accompany a song you've never heard before? Usually start with a I chord. Then try a IV chord, probably. Then either back to I or maybe to V. Or a ii perhaps before the V. (With apologies to those unfamiliar with traditional music theory). Unless it's a special in which case any number of unconventional or unexpected chords may underlie the melody. In which case I just end up still trying to play I, IV, V (maybe a ii or a vi or the occasional III) and it often sounds like I don't know what I'm doing. Well who can blame me?!!

A third frustration (and maybe this is God simply teaching me humility) is that my hours and hours of college practice room madness did me precious little good when trying to "play Pentecostal." I was a fairly (if barely) adequate classical pianist. But as a Pentecostal keyboardist I am barely mediocre. I can bang out the tune and often a chord with my right hand and octaves or a simple bass note with my left. I don't usually get much further than that. I can't play any fills or runs and we don't go in much for the fancy progression. I would love to. But I don't have the slightest idea where to begin.

Ok. This rant is over. I will try to put together something more productive and less destructive next time. Unless you want to hear more along these lines.