Chinese Service Musings

In my church, we have a Chinese service and an English service, and to save ourselves loads of scheduling grief we have the same band playing for both services on Sunday. We practice for the services on Wednesday evenings, first for the Chinese service, then for the English one.

Couple of things I noticed after playing for the Chinese services for about half a year. First, the melodies for the Chinese worship songs tend to be quite active. In other words, they tend to fill up all the main counts of each bar, just like the melody of All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, for example. Because of that there isn't really much room to add in more musical elements without making it distracting or gimmicky.

That's actually great for the musicians, because we can quickly run through the songs, play a simple bare-bones accompaniment, and that's good enough. Rehearsals for the Chinese songs get done really quickly, in about half the time we take for the English songs. Sometimes the Chinese backup vocalists stay behind and sit in for the English service rehearsals, and watch us struggle through all the stuff we need to put in for the English songs. I wonder if they feel as if we are not putting in as much effort for them as we are for the English service?

(Side Note: my brother – as in blood brother, we-have-the-same-parents kind of brother – has started playing on the worship team also, playing keyboards. Because he is less confident than I am, he is of course happy at having to play a lot less for the Chinese worship songs!)

Another thing I noticed also is that the worship leaders for the Chinese service are more dependent on hand signs rather than vocal cues. That's pretty frustrating for me, because I believe in vocal cues. Hand-signs only direct the musicians; they don't lead the congregation. If you are using mainly hand-signs, you are more a lead singer than a worship leader, since you are singing TO the congregation rather than leading them in THEIR singing. Are you with me?

God knows, I did try to explain that especially to the Chinese worship leader scheduled on the most recent Sunday. I encouraged her on a number of occasions to use vocal cues, and even demonstrated them for her a few times. She'd just tell me it's really difficult, and I'd try my best to explain to her (in my pathetic Chinese) that it's difficult only if you are obsessed with keeping up with a slick vocal performance. If you are more focused on leading the congregation than on your own singing it is very easy!

Anyway, I do understand why she might be struggling with this. Bear in mind that she doesn't see other Chinese worship leaders using vocal cues, whether in church or on the Chinese 'worship' albums. So within her immediate circle and exposure she doesn't see any immediate confirmation of my advice. And showing her how well the musicians respond to my vocal cues during the rehearsal just doesn't seem to impress her for some reason. *sigh*

That's the force of habit for you!

One thing playing for a wide range of worship settings has shown me is that there is an equally wide range of worship ministry cultures. Those who are afraid of offending others will take that to mean that there are no absolutes in worship ministry, no methods that are more effective than others, and claim that I am dogmatic and carnal by insisting that things be done my way.

I choose to see things differently.

I choose to believe that when you've seen a wide range of worship cultures and settings, you can see what works universally and what doesn't. And what works universally is usually based on how people really are, because fundamentally we all struggle with the same issues and problems. Or to express it in Scripture:

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man."- 1 Cor 10:13 (NIV)

And because most of the time people in the congregation are not able to read the minds of worship leaders and will therefore need something more obvious to direct them than hand-signals given to musicians, vocal cues are still going to work no matter what the language, what the culture or whatever the music style used.

Of course, if I ever come across any exceptions I'll definitely keep you posted!

In case you missed my previous blog post, I'm writing an e-book about worship musicians and singers. Do send in your book title suggestions and the questions you'd like me to answer in this e-book. I want to make it as useful as possible to people in worship ministry, so help me by giving me your questions! You can email me here.

Thanks!

Send Me Your Questions!

Quick announcement: I'm going to write my NEXT e-book soon. It's been stewing around inside me for quite a while and I think it's time to sit down and start on it NOW. So I'm going to need your help in two areas (for now):

1) Help me think of a suitable book name about recruiting, understanding and leading worship musicians and singers. Names are really a big challenge for me, so far all I've come up with is "Herding Cats - How to Recruit and Lead Church Musicians and Singers". What do you think?

2) Give me all the questions you have about recruiting and leading musicians and singers. Questions like: Should you pay your church musicians? I want to make this e-book as useful as possible to as many people as possible, even to non-musicians who may have to lead worship teams.

Please don't feel shy to either email your questions or leave them on my blog here. Thanks!

P.S. So email me with your suggestions for the book title and your questions about musicians and singers! And ask your worship team people to send in their questions too! :)

WARNING – Is Your Soul in Danger of Being Snared?

I've been pondering this alot recently: the prosperity of the soul.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. (3 John 2, NKJV)

According to that passage of Scripture, if our souls prosper all the areas of our lives will prosper. That's something that I really want, especially when I realized Matt 25:14-30 suggests that we are to double the wealth God has entrusted to our stewardship. 3 John 2 tells us to seek the prosperity of our souls, and that will set the other areas of our lives right. That includes our physical and financial health.

It's like the idea expressed in Matthew 6:31-33.

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (NKJV)

Matthew 6:31-33 tells us that giving priority to God's kingdom leads to our material needs being met. Let's face it, for some people that alone will be a drastic improvement! But I find myself desiring more than that. So I kept asking myself, how do I cause my soul to prosper, so that I can prosper in all the areas of my life?

Yelling at Jessiah

In the meantime, I've also realized that I have been quite bad-tempered towards my elder son recently. I would yell at him when he doesn't follow my instructions or when he tells me absolute nonsense to make excuses for his mistakes. The troubling thing is, my reactions are entirely out of proportion. Jessiah is actually a great kid, very obedient AND a fun kid to be with. Why am I blowing up when he occasionally messes up in some very small matters? Why am I having anger problems? Here's one of the reasons I discovered.

My Soul Ensnared

Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go,
Lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. (Prov 22:24-25, NKJV)

This passage of Scripture tells us that one way to end up with anger problems (and your soul ensnared) is to associate with bad-tempered people.

When I first looked at this passage, it seemed like such a cop-out. I can't imagine saying to someone "The reason I'm bad-tempered is because I've been hanging around bad-tempered people…" It sounds like I'm just trying to make excuses for myself and avoid the blame! But if I reject this verse I am saying that I am that unchangeable in my character, that what can drag others down won't drag ME down.

If I ever think that I am too good for this verse, you'll know for certain I'm deluded!

I got my soul ensnared when I chose to associate with two bad tempered people in particular. I did my best to be calm and even-tempered with them, but after many years I grew tired of it. In the end I started blasting at them whenever they wilfully chose to ignore my boundaries.

Actually, they didn't really get it at the beginning, because they were not really bright. They were the sort who only understood very hostile words, blindingly obvious threat displays, throwing stuff around the house and other things you learn from watching Hong Kong and Taiwanese soap operas (That's why I don't like my kids watching TV). My blasting was like what you'd get from those hard-core teachers who could structure a scolding into lecture notes and sermon points. So by the time they understood what I was doing, discovered that I saw them as bratty kids and talked to them accordingly, they ended up feeling like fools.

Yeah, I made them realize they were fools and that I wasn't to be messed with. But at what cost? My soul got ensnared and Jessiah suffers for it. If I go on like this I am more a fool than they are!

Conclusion:

Maybe, just maybe, I'll have to get my soul out of this snare first before it can really start to prosper as God intended? I've decided that I need to deal with this anger problem before it gets worse and before I infect Jessiah with that same spirit. So if I ever come across anything useful or enlightening from the Bible, I'll certainly let you know!

In the meantime, do learn from my mistake. Don't let your soul get ensnared. Keep people with chronic anger issues as far from your life as possible. I was proud and thought that those angry people couldn't affect me. I was wrong and now have to get myself out of this fix. Please don't make the same mistake I did!

Be blessed, everyone!

P.S. And pray for me of course! Pray that God will grant me wisdom and patience… Thanks!

Hosanna (Paul Baloche) Worship Leader Tutorial

Hosanna (CCLI Song No. 4662491) by Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown is a great fast song to use for a worship set. This video shows how I'd do this song in small group or even for congregational worship. Pay attention to how I structure this song, it's different from how Paul Baloche does it in his album.



One thing I've grown to appreciate is how Youtube allows me to add notes and comments to my playing and singing as it goes along. You get a behind-the-scenes look at my thought processes and reasoning, and see how I actually apply the principles and concepts I teach in my e-book, Invisible Worship Musician.

So enjoy the video! Please leave your comments, either in the comments section of this page or on the original video page at Youtube. And feel free to share it with your worship team people or other worship leaders you know! :)

Drumstick exercises

One of my friends, Chingmei, shared this video with me via Facebook a few weeks back. I think it's a great video, with a drumstick exercise that I find pretty challenging.

Here's the vid.



If you find it useful, share this with your drummer friends! And if you don't play drums, watch it and you'll discover that a drummer's life isn't as simple as everyone else thinks it is... :)

Be blessed!

Random Musings (really)

Personal blog post

"I'm sorry, I can't make it back for lesson. I'm still stuck at school..."

And with those words my afternoon's teaching appointment was cancelled. It would have been nice if the student actually thought of calling me BEFORE I made the trip and was standing at his doorway, right? But for some strange reason I wasn't irritated or upset in any way. Maybe it was because of the agreement we had, that I would still be paid in the event of any last minute hiccups like this.

Or maybe it's because it's a hot, still Singaporean afternoon.

I don't know how other people feel about it, but I feel very serene and calm in the midst of the heat. I walked away from the student's place, through our local HDB flats and headed towards the bridge over a canal to feed the fish with some expired bread that I brought along from home for this purpose. It's good to have some time alone for myself.

... ...

One thing about me - I am very much a loner.

I don't mind being by myself. In fact, I quite enjoy it. Don't get me wrong; I love talking with people especially in a coaching setting; and public speaking leaves me feeling high for a long time after that. But this is one afternoon I am glad to be by myself, enjoying the stillness and allowing myself to soak in the serenity around me.

Being a loner means that I am better at the Christian stuff that is best done alone - prayer, bible reading and bible study. If you consider my other interests and pursuits, such as research, music and ancient styles of 'conflict resolution', you'll realize that they are very much loner-style activities too.

Of course this means that I have to work very much harder at the Christian stuff that requires living in community, like all the 'one anothers' we see in the New Testament, such as exhort one another, forgive one another, encourage one another and all that. So I don't get to gloat very much over people who struggle with the prayer and bible reading stuff. :)

It's rare to really really click with a loner. There are so many different types of loners, with different flavours of personality traits, so they don't necessarily get along with each other. :) The greatest compliment I ever gave someone was to say "When I am with you, I feel as if I am by myself." I wonder how many ladies would see THAT as a compliment! :D

... ...

I made it to the bridge, took out my bread and started feeding the fish with it. I usually go there on Monday mornings with Jacques. We stop there for a while to feed the fish before we continue on to my in-laws place and he goes to his kindergarten classes. The fish feed differently on the bread when it's a hot Tuesday afternoon, I noticed!

Thought of getting more bread to feed the fish with, but the only shop nearby is a Sheng Siong supermarket. I'm boycotting Sheng Siong, so I decided not to get the bread from there. The fish will just have to wait for another day!

Just in case you are not from Singapore, we Singaporeans usually buy our groceries and foodstuffs either from supermarkets (which are air-conditioned, dry and smell better) or wet markets (which are not air-conditioned, they are wet, smellier but the food is fresher). Sheng Siong was running supermarkets but recently bought over a few wet markets. And very soon after they bought over those wet markets they inflicted a 30% rent hike on the stall holders renting the stalls there.

What was their excuse? They claimed that the hike was necessary to pay for bank interest fees, taxes and maintenance fees. I don't buy that. Sheng Siong should have already calculated how much they could earn from buying over the wet markets; and if they were not going to earn enough to recoup their investment through rentals, why should the stallholders and their customers be penalized for it?

Some people speculate that Sheng Siong is deliberately trying to drive the stall holders away so that they can appeal to the government to convert those wet markets into supermarkets. I don't know about that, but I won't be surprised if this happens. Anyway, the wet markets Sheng Siong bought over are not near my place, so it doesn't make any difference if I boycott them. Besides, the stallholders are the ones who suffer if the wet markets are boycotted. I'd rather boycott the Sheng Siong supermarkets, let Sheng Siong feel the pinch directly!

... ...

Yeah, it's pretty rare for me to blog without any teaching points whatsoever. Well, if you find this and read it, it's because you were really looking for it. Thanks for reading! :)

This Weekend...

A couple things on my heart this weekend:

The resurrection - If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Cor 15:19-22, NIV)

This weekend we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection. Through this we receive forgiveness of our sins and justification.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (Rom 4:25, NIV).

Personally I believe it is so easy for us to let this truth be crowded out of our hearts through the things of this world. Or we may get too caught up with getting our lives in shape that we forget that we are working out of a position of victory and success, that in God's eyes the matter is settled through the death and resurrection of Christ, and we are now to walk the land and claim the victory.

Without the cross and resurrection, Christianity would be only a self-development program amongst many, such as NLP, the Sedona Method and even Ho' oponopono. We cannot reasonably expect to have more results in our lives than practitioners of those methods if we forget the cross, the very source of our power!

Servanthood - For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:27, NIV)

Even before the crucifixion, Jesus was still pouring out his heart to his disciples and serving them. If we get so caught up with preparations for our church Easter service that it all becomes a burden, then we'd have missed out on the meaning of Resurrection Sunday. It's not about putting on the most impressive show or the most elaborate song and dance routines. It's about remembering the reason for our hope, celebrating it with our siblings-in-Christ and maybe seeing yet another person born into the Kingdom of God as we commemorate this occasion.

So if you are getting frazzled by a demanding choir director or worship team leader, or if you are the one doing all the frazzling, stop! Take a deep breath, drink some water and focus your heart and mind on Jesus, who stooped down to wash our feet even before his crucifixion. How do you think he would feel if we forgot his gentle and humble heart and let ourselves get caught up with complex chord progressions, weird vocal harmonies or we end up losing our joy and peace because of trying to organize a slick show?

Anyway, that's what I’d like to share for now. Be blessed and may you have a joyful weekend remembering the reason for our hope and faith!