Did I mention it's an independent praise band? Meaning not tied to a specific church, but available to playing any and all events/services that may open up.
I like that about it. Of course there are those "built-in" weekly "gigs" but that's okay too. This way we have more freedom.
Stylistically it's modern worship. Sometimes called contemporary. So yes, I am playing power chords and doing solos and using a full compliment of effects, and actually using distortion most of the time. No it's not hard rock. But a few songs get close.
Well, we've had 4 rehearsals now. Following the second Eric Phillippe resigned. He was actually one of the main catalysts for getting it started. Definitely instrumental in pestering me to play again so much that I finally gave in (with other nudging as well). With Eric we had a name, but the name stays with him, so now we don't. He was doing the male lead vocals and playing acoustic. Needless to say that was a set back, but we did find someone else to step in and are moving forward again. For me it's been more difficult as I was very much looking forward to working with Eric again. I think everything could have worked really well too after getting past the initial birthing pains. It's good to play again, and the level of musicianship in this group is superb, but it seems empty to me without Eric. But I'm not going to leave it too. It's been good to rekindle old friendships and currently I very much need that social time, even if it is only every other week.
It's been a challenge for me to recapture my "sea legs". Most of the songs I've never heard which adds to the difficulty. It's one thing to start playing after a long break with songs you are comfy with, but doing so with all new material seems like I've never played before. I find myself longing to play some of the things I've played over the years such as King's X or other such bands simply for the comfort of knowing the songs. Of course it's slowly coming back, and these songs will one day be comfortable, but one thing that's hindered the process has been arthritis in my left hand index finger, which does a large part of the work of guitar playing. It aches almost constantly now, at times becoming very intense. I'm not sure what to make of it and try not to worry about it. With the storm front that's moved in over night though it's almost throbbing this morning. Hard to ignore.
The band is a male vocalist/acoustic guitarist, female vocalist, female keyboardist, her husband running sound, a percussionist, and then father and son bass and drums, and myself on electric guitar. 8 in all. So far it's sounding pretty good over all.
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