Padtastic Korgy

It's been a weird time lately, but I've had lots of people ask me how i play 'pads' and what are 'pads', so I thought I'd blog it and then direct everyone here.

Firstly, what are 'pads' - put simply, if you listen to songs like 'Our God Reigns' you will hear those kind of string sounds, weird keyboard sounds that just seem to sound angelic ... thats pads.

I use a Korg M1, and also my Laptop to make these sounds, I also have a little mixer to match the sounds up. The Korg is generally left on 'Dream Pad' while the laptop could be a full string orchestra or any number of other sounds that I have downloaded. However, don't be fooled into thinking that to have pads in your band that you need to invest so heavily. Most keyboards have sounds like 'Synth Strings' - that will do, especially if you can add a little reverb / sustain to the sound. Your Sound guy may also be able to knock some of the treble out as well, which will make it sound less harsh.

It's important to note, that pads are nothing like playing piano, and the style of playing pads is all about simplicity. When every other member of the band drops out and you're just playing Majesty (Delirious) it is an incredibly humbling and awe inspiring moment.

I have spent quite a bit of time perfecting my own way of playing pads, so I'm going to share that now....

Firstly, it's essential that you understand standard chord triads, i.e. the chord C Major will consist of C, E, G. The simple method of making a triad is to count 5 and 4 (including the notes that you are playing) example:

1 2 3 4 5,1 2 3 4
C (c# d d#) E (f f#) G

That simple method also applies to Minor Chords, however in that situation you would count 4 and 5 in the same way as above.

Confused yet? Hope not!

Ok, you can play triads, let's zoom on a bit...here is a nice easy example, Delirious Majesty consists of 4 chords, they are: B, F#, G#m and E. If you played them as triads you would be playing the following...

F# ---- C# ---- D# ---- B ----:|
D# ---- A# ---- B ---- G# ----:|
B ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:|

B ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:| (LEFT HAND)

Now if you play that, it will sound reasonable, if a little wide in range. So, try playing this...

B ---- A# ---- B ---- B ----:|
F# ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:|


B ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:| (LEFT HAND)

You will see in what I play, that the F# lasts for 2 bars, and the B lasts for 2 bars. I'm hoping that you will notice a significant difference in tone.

Although what I play is much more simple, thats the key to pads, the brain work comes in when you are looking at a set of chords, what goes through my mind is, how can I simplify them, how can I move my hands less, if you look at my example above, the range is from an E to a B, thats just 8 semitones (inclusive of the E and B) whereas playing in triads spans a whopping 15 semitones.

I think it will make sense if you play it!

New Gear :o)

Thought it was about time I elaborated on the 'Creativity' side of this blog. Fortunately, the world that is BT has supplied me with money. In the words of Homer Simpsons Brain 'money can be used to purchase goods and services'.

Ok, First Baby, an IBM T42 laptop, a rather nice, slim line, reasonable laptop. It's nice! I can now work on the move, and be creative wherever I am...yay!

Midi to USB connector...this helpfully connects the laptop and the korg together, and with a little mixer I can take the padtastic sounds from the korg, and integrate them with a full orchestra from the laptop, or a wicked synth, or a drawbar organ...the list goes on :o)

Pod XT Live...the ULTIMATE in guitar effects. I am awaiting delivery at the moment, but I've had a really good demo thanks to Trevor Durrant Guitars, I can also hook this up to my laptop and configure all the effects. Dan and I were fairly excited when in the middle of a guitar shop I was playing the exact intro from Tim Hughes new Happy Day song...I'm looking forward to working a lot with this box of tricks!

Thought seeing as I was getting some new effects from the Pod that I should get a new guitar too! My Variax 500 that I had before just wasnt me. Again, I'm awaiting delivery, but I have played it, its a VERY nice guitar! Basically, Fender have closed their Japan Factory, this was one of the last guitars, its a 60's re-issue, and there's only 6 of these limited edition guitars in black imported to the UK. Mine arrives next week. The guys down at Trevor Durrant Guitars are going to set it up for me, bless them!

I guess, the theme for this little interlude is not 'oh look at me i have money', because I really don't, and I'm not a particularly good player of anything. But, I'm investing in stuff for the purpose of worship, and I hope and pray that God loves that.

:o) God put a smile on your face.

Something quite amazing has happened!

James 5v19-20 reads:

My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

They say that there is a party in heaven when someone accecpts God into their lives, well, 3am on Saturday 14th of April, there was another party.

This is a true story of God simply being amazing. AMAZING.

There's simply way too much to type, but in short, one of Dan's friends who lives quite far away happaned to call when we were not far from her house, on one of our random drives. She is a very mixed up person and Dan has been there for her a lot lately, but has fealt inadequate, he didn't feel he had the words to show God's love to her. She has been a Christian all of her life, but fell away about 18 months ago.

When she said 'I can prove that God does not exist' my face must have lit up. That was the moment I knew that God's hand was in this. My reply was a high pitched (Almost J.John in style) 'Reeeaaallllyyyy?!'. I prayed a lot over the next 4 hours, before I offered her the chance to re-commit her life to God.

She said yes.

This evening was truely amazing, and words simply cannot explain God being so AWESOME!

Testing...

Well, as the title says, I'm testing...currently I'm at work, which has
restricted access to blog sites, so I have found a nifty way to email an
address and then it appears straight on my blog.

Well, that's the theory.

Anyway, the not eating didn't last long, nor did the depression, I'm
back to 80%, still a little dissapointed, and I still have an incredibly
painful hand, which is now bruised all across the top. Nice.

Back to the monotony of life...getting the train to work this morning
was nice, I saw my friend Susie, we had a good catch up, I guess I
learned that God is a God of detail.

'Blessed be the name of the Lord'...

Said Job. After such personal tragedy, he simple said, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord'.

What a chap! Going through a little depressive time at the moment, and i want to follow Job's example, but I can't. Maybe going without food isn't the best option, I don't know, I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm needy, I'm a smoker and I'm a joker...I'm so not worthy even to pick up a bible let alone read it.

Hmmm, I know this is a spiritual battle and all that, but I'm losing at the moment, and I'm down in the dumps. Hopefully I'll cheer up soon enough.

Travelling with Matt yesterday was good, if a little tiring (not because of Matt's company, just a long way and very late!) and we were talking about God's awesome power but how we both have a lot of stuff to contend with, and we're both dealing with it, but it's taking a while.

I am greatful; I have a nice car, a nice home, great friends, I'm in a wonderful church, and a key member in an annointed band. Maybe it's just my human need for more, but I feel incredibly lonely.

Self indulgent I know, but then, nobody reads this anyway...so all is well with the world, the hard shell goes back on, the fake smile, and the internal need for something new to break through.

Oh Lord, won't you change me? Won't you fix this broken heart? Who else but you can do this?