what a weekend! haha...funny weh...
hello people!! the two events passed by and oh!....some funny, fun, not so funny and miserable things happened. either i'm too sensitive or people are just not sensitive i don't know. well let's go to the synopsis of what were the two events about:
1st event ( the music workshop):
i don't mean to be rude or anything but does a music seminar ring anything to you guys? i know it's good to be balanced in the spiritual side and the technical but it seems that the spiritual side of awareness is way too much emphasized. 1st of all a music seminar and a worship seminar are two completely different seminars. the first seminar leans more towards music....MUSIC....does anyone know what music means? let me look up at dictionary.com
music (noun)
1.The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.
this is the closest i can find on the meaning of it in general. so,we can make it somewhat 70-80% music and 10-20% on the spiritual side of how to be an effective musician and worshipper, how not to distract the other musicians and the congregation, how not to play out of synchronization(time and tune) on a sunday worship service, how to be a servant with humble attitude (get rid of pride), a lot of hands-on, advice and demonstrations on equipment and other things that can be done in the certain amount of time given. a worship seminar on the other hand can be totally focused on the spiritual aspect and maybe on how to use a musical instrument as a tool to worship God because MUSIC IS NOT WORSHIP. we can use music as a tool to use to worship God but this action is not worship. it's actually what comes out of the heart of the particular musician that plays and not his/her sound. musicians are burdened with the responsibility not to distract other musicians and the congregation from their focus towards God in corporate worship (i.e. in a sunday service) which eventually translates as:-
1) not to play out of tune
2) not to distract others (inclusive of people with pride who likes attention who then plays or
tries to play like an all out soloist)
3)not to play out of time (drummers and the bassists are the ones that hold the band and
their timing has the utmost importance in keeping the band tight but if the
guitarist and pianist or the other lead or back-up instruments don't have a good sense of
time on their own then that could spell trouble either way)
4)many more
If a person knows he's playing at a very shaky level. he/she should find a way to solve it or at least be open to what others say and just solve it( i'm talking about those who can't hold a chord firmly, constantly runs out of time, doesn't tune the instrument etc - basically called beginners).
hahaha....it looked like i just stretched up too much on what i was supposed to say huh?.the workshop was basically around 10-15% on how to eliminate problems on the technical aspect on musicianship and 80% at least on worship in the 1 and a half hours time, 30 minutes was spent in a time of worship. a further 20 minutes was spent on a speech or introduction of himself and the workshop (it was a collaberation with his dad), 10-15 minutes for tea time and another 20 minutes for hands-on, 10 minutes for a Q & A session which i think he just answered 1 question 10 minutes for worship and the remaining time for a wrap-up and closure. the only good outcome of the event was that we got to collaborate for the first time in a music workshop with the presbyterian church in port dickson, i personally got to speak and have a chat with Pastor Zadok and that it was a good exposure for the young ones. the content of the music workshops which involves our church is repetitive for countless of times already. the musicians in our church especially the young adults and the adults are in denial to accept and receive what has been said all this while by the facilitators for years as in since the day i stepped in to the church in 1996 but a few of us( maybe just a few of us) have received or gained from elsewhere or somehow just acquired the knowledge but we are by far at a higher point of understanding music. with that said, many people would want to listen to us? who are of the younger generation and which may have gone some sort of training to pick up a musical instrument from the more stubborn adults themselves who still remain at the level when we first saw them 9 years ago?particularly enough i have tried but failed countless of times on trying to deliver the message and knowledge on technical aspect.
matthew is good in terms that he is a degree holder in piano(classical). he plays brilliantly on the piano (says my sis) and he is a qualified music director in his own church. he plays well but he stressed on things like musicianship at a higher level( which he didn't say) where he urged musicians not to copy a cd. but i find that that is in terms of improvising as in once you can play the song in it's original arrangement like nobody's business then you can improvise and blend in with the band! but it was a sad sad day. some or most, i don't know, but a lot of people got the message not to copy the cd at all which in turn will lead to people trying to play at different chords or even improvise and changing their the whole song at their own will. i don't really know what to say. and he didn't answer me and the rest of the group about how to gel in with the band and not play messily because i was trying to reach out to the young adults and adults through a third party(matthew).hahah.my church has lots of people like them(the young adults and musicians) who look up highly at "amo-lang" or the whites...caucasian people in general. that didn't seemed to work so i didn't really want to try so hard on it and i just let the workshop run. at the end of the day had a nice time talking to some of the guys and pastor zadok from the presbyterian church. overall it was on "OK" workshop. i'll give it a C rating for the technical side....heheh..better log off now before i talk more crap so catch y'all later yah?...
posted by Isaac Ng @ 12:26 PM
0 comments
