I've been playing worship sessions at a nice cosy church every last Friday of the month for a couple of months now. Hosted by Shalom Baptist Chapel, JAR @ the Well (acronym for Jam and Refresh) intends to deliberately bring worshippers from out of the hustle and bustle of city life and simply enjoy God through worship and music, and it achieves this aim very well because of its location: it's near Tengah Airbase!
The acoustics are amazing; there's a high, tapered ceiling, and the floor's nicely carpeted, which produce nice reflections with not too much pre-delay (carpets absorb sound). Whenever I step into this church, I feel inclined to be silent, to be meditative, and to be wary of my speech because of how small I feel.
My rig for the night was an experimental one: full pedalboard (the one I have mounted on a PT-3) into a Line 6 Spider III. It's a 30W amp with a 12" speaker, which is my preferred wattage and speaker size. I ran it pristine clean with no EQ and no drive to experiment with the concept of relying purely on the pedalboard for tone.
So the night went on, with powerful worship, amazing moments of pure adoration through the music, and all the while, just genuinely having a good time with the rest of the band.
The acoustics are amazing; there's a high, tapered ceiling, and the floor's nicely carpeted, which produce nice reflections with not too much pre-delay (carpets absorb sound). Whenever I step into this church, I feel inclined to be silent, to be meditative, and to be wary of my speech because of how small I feel.
My rig for the night was an experimental one: full pedalboard (the one I have mounted on a PT-3) into a Line 6 Spider III. It's a 30W amp with a 12" speaker, which is my preferred wattage and speaker size. I ran it pristine clean with no EQ and no drive to experiment with the concept of relying purely on the pedalboard for tone.
So the night went on, with powerful worship, amazing moments of pure adoration through the music, and all the while, just genuinely having a good time with the rest of the band.
The worship leader came up to me after and asked how much my amp was, expecting it to belong to the "expensive" category. "I love your amp" were her specific words. I guess she wasn't expecting that I paid $150 for it, and that it was a solid state amp.
So, which component was responsible for good tone? The amp? The pedalboard? The fact that I used analog pedals? The more I contemplate about it, the more I think that from a listener's perspective, it doesn't really matter if I used digital or analog. Both types of gear are thus a means to an end: undistractedness in playing. Perhaps the mark
of good gear is not just that it sounds good, but it doesn't distract
you while you're using it; it becomes an extension of your creativity,
and you don't need to fight it to get good tone out of it.
What mattered lay in the generic rather than the specific: did I keep good time with the band? Did I play wrong chords? Did I use the right scale over the right progression?
If you insist on getting a particular piece of gear, by all means, save up, buy it, use it, and don't be distracted by it. Let the gear do its job by helping you express what you want to play.
Photo credits go to the amazing Chang Ning.
Due thanks to the amazing Yi Xin, whose heart for God and worship inspires the rest of us in the band to give and play our best.
What mattered lay in the generic rather than the specific: did I keep good time with the band? Did I play wrong chords? Did I use the right scale over the right progression?
If you insist on getting a particular piece of gear, by all means, save up, buy it, use it, and don't be distracted by it. Let the gear do its job by helping you express what you want to play.
Photo credits go to the amazing Chang Ning.
Due thanks to the amazing Yi Xin, whose heart for God and worship inspires the rest of us in the band to give and play our best.
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