Last night’s band practice was fun. It was nice to get more personal with some of the folks at church since we haven’t had the opportunity to really HANG OUT with anyone and get to know them more personally. I may see if Denis would be up for hosting a buffet dinner for the band members and their spouses/children in late March or early April. We’ll see.
So last night I went over to LM’s house for the rehearsal – he lives in a brand new development in Rock Hill and has the house all to himself since he’s a bachelor. It’s a nice house but typically “bachelor” in that there are two big screen tvs in the house and very little furniture.
I wasn’t the only one auditioning last night – there was a guitar player named Mike who showed up. He’s been attending at to the main campus in Charlotte for two years but has recently made the switch to the smaller campus in Rock Hill where we attend. As I flipped through MB’s piano book to see the songs they sing, I realized that I didn’t know ANY of them. Well, I take it back – I know three of them. I was shocked at how little crossover there was between this worship team and the one in NoNJ. I told the worship leader, GB, and he seemed excited about finding out about some new songs that the band could do. You know I’m jazzed about that since I loved almost all the songs we did in NoNJ.
The rehearsal only went until about 9 p.m., but then GB wanted to have Mike audition, followed by me. I told him I was fine with that, and after about 20-30 minutes he came over and we quickly picked out a song (one of the three I knew) for me to play on the piano. We started, and at the chorus I piped in with my harmonies and he seemed to approve. He then asked me if I’d be willing to sing and NOT play the piano, and I said I would be willing to do either and that I was just USED to singing and playing at the same time since we didn’t have the luxury of extra band members in NoNJ. At that point he had me step up to the mike and sing one of the new songs that I didn’t know well. Again I only came in at the chorus and didn’t mess up too badly. I told him that sometimes I pick out the lower tenor harmonies as opposed to the obvious altos, and he said that as long as it’s in key, he’s fine with that.
One the audition was over we had a chat about the expectations of the band, the background of the church, and the importance of life groups. He stressed that being in the band does NOT count as a life group. *lol*
At 10 p.m. he finally invited me to continue coming and that in a few weeks or so he’d add me in as a substitute and we’ll go from there.
And with that I headed home.
It was a fun night, and I LOVED the pianist, MB. She was just so friendly and nice and we totally hit it off.
That’s awesome, Jaynee, I am excited for you!!
Sounds cool and his policies are similar to our worship leader’s – seems tough, but makes sense when you think about how easy it is for people to bail – he wants to make sure people are committed. In our case, team vocalists are expected to also participate in our choir. Not a traditional choir, more like a large background ensemble of 20-30 people, and we do contemporary music or hymns with contemporary arrangements.