What is up with my choir and these hard songs???

[Fenix]

We are singing Joann Rosario's "Holy God". It is harmonically simple to play but the song has so much instrumentation to it; 2 or more guitars, strings, synth pads, bass, you name it. Its a sweet song but we only have 2 keyboards and drums. We can play the bare-bones of the song but it may not do the original song justice. By God's grace we will pull it off but at this point i am not even sure how to begin to approach it. Here is a Youtube link to the song in case anyone has any ideas for the patches and stuff we can use, bearing in mind that we only have 2 keyboards.

Holy God by Joann Rosario

What do you do if you have a song with lots of instrumentation in it?

[sjonathan02]

We are singing Joann Rosario's "Holy God". It is harmonically simple to play but the song has so much instrumentation to it; 2 or more guitars, strings, synth pads, bass, you name it. Its a sweet song but we only have 2 keyboards and drums. We can play the bare-bones of the song but it may not do the original song justice. By God's grace we will pull it off but at this point i am not even sure how to begin to approach it. Here is a Youtube link to the song in case anyone has any ideas for the patches and stuff we can use, bearing in mind that we only have 2 keyboards.

Holy God by Joann Rosario

What do you do if you have a song with lots of instrumentation in it?

a. Can you upload the song here to LGM, I can't get youtube at work.

b. You can't worry about all of the instrumentation; just play with what you've got.

[under13]

You arent alone. My group wants to do all these crazy Isreal Songs with horns and what not, when its just me and the drummer.Not Happening. We just do some simple songs.

(I'm at work, so I couldnt really listen to the song)
 Since you have two keyboardist I suggest that on songs like these, one of you plays Piano, and the other plays synth bass, and split it with a horn patch or strings or whatever. If you can get another keyboard to go above the first one, that would be even better.

Also, dont be dissapointed if you guys dont ever sound like the cd. They have a bout 7 pro band members, pro singers, and pro mastering and editing etc.

[Fenix]

a. Can you upload the song here to LGM, I can't get youtube at work.

b. You can't worry about all of the instrumentation; just play with what you've got.

a. Are.You.KIDDING?????? 

b. How do i upload the song? I have it on my PC but i'm not sure how to upload it.

[Fenix]

You arent alone. My group wants to do all these crazy Isreal Songs with horns and what not, when its just me and the drummer.Not Happening. We just do some simple songs.

(I'm at work, so I couldnt really listen to the song)
 Since you have two keyboardist I suggest that on songs like these, one of you plays Piano, and the other plays synth bass, and split it with a horn patch or strings or whatever. If you can get another keyboard to go above the first one, that would be even better.

Also, dont be dissapointed if you guys dont ever sound like the cd. They have a bout 7 pro band members, pro singers, and pro mastering and editing etc.

Man you are BLESSED!!!! Get out of my head. I was thinking along those lines too. I was gonna split the first board into bass and synth strings. The second board can be split into piano and nylon guitar. I still want to upload the song to LGM though.

I will suggest the idea in church tomorrow and we will see what we can do. If it doesn't work out by Saturday night, we will scratch it completely. 

[sjonathan02]

a. Are.You.KIDDING?????? 

b. How do i upload the song? I have it on my PC but i'm not sure how to upload it.

Go to the media section of the site and follow the directions.

If that doesn't work, I'll try to type 'em out for ya. 

[under13]

Man you are BLESSED!!!! Get out of my head. I was thinking along those lines too. I was gonna split the first board into bass and synth strings. The second board can be split into piano and nylon guitar. I still want to upload the song to LGM though.

I will suggest the idea in church tomorrow and we will see what we can do. If it doesn't work out by Saturday night, we will scratch it completely. 

You can do some crazy stuff with these synths. I heard one guy Play piano, Horns and bass at the same time on a roland XP-50. I would have recorded him, but I was in such awe, that I forgot I had my recorder with me.

Besides the fantom, what other board do you guys have?

[Fenix]

You can do some crazy stuff with these synths. I heard one guy Play piano, Horns and bass at the same time on a roland XP-50. I would have recorded him, but I was in such awe, that I forgot I had my recorder with me.

Besides the fantom, what other board do you guys have?

We have the Motif XS-8. I am in love with that board man. It is SO sweet. My bassist was trying to persuade the P&W leader to chill on teh new songs. We have learned a new song every Sunday for teh past two months and it is hard cuz tehy are always these hard songs with lots of instrumentation involved. The last song we did, i had to switch btw 4 different voices. By the time the song was over i was TIRED.

[diverse379]

I almost want to say you guys have got to be kidding me

but then I caught myself I remembered when I first started

so I apologize


when I first started I met nate mcnair
the Md for hezekiah walker for his first 11 years on the gospel scene


I learned from him the importance of stacked sounds and creative sound choices

if you only have two keyboards that is more than enough to get the job done.

here are some common layers to have

and when you get a chance get a cheap roland brain the little one
so you can add even more layers

I used to have two midi brains hooked up to my keyboard


for most contemporary
you can layer
a piano horn string
and have a bass in the lower part of the board

you can layer a rhodes with a string sound which automatically gives you a nice bass sound

you can have trombones with piano
which gives you a mello horn sound

dont worry so much about what sounds are being used
but worry about what sounds you have available

pretend you are a conductor
your keyboards are your orchestra

if you go to any club
concert whatever
they can do a rendition of a song with
just a bass and piano and drums

or a qaurtet
of bass horns piano

or a small string ensemble
or an orchestra

catch some live music performances
and see how they get it done with smaller ensembles

and duplicate these sounds

all that being said

just really layer those horns

with piano and bass


that is a classic sound that used to be on the old roland boards already set up

I always program a few of these layers in my keyboards

some others I like to use

if you can split try these
a good calypso set up
is steel drums with bass

and split with bass piano and harmonica

[Fenix]

I almost want to say you guys have got to be kidding me

but then I caught myself I remembered when I first started

so I apologize


when I first started I met nate mcnair
the Md for hezekiah walker for his first 11 years on the gospel scene


I learned from him the importance of stacked sounds and creative sound choices

if you only have two keyboards that is more than enough to get the job done.

here are some common layers to have

and when you get a chance get a cheap roland brain the little one
so you can add even more layers

I used to have two midi brains hooked up to my keyboard


for most contemporary
you can layer
a piano horn string
and have a bass in the lower part of the board

you can layer a rhodes with a string sound which automatically gives you a nice bass sound

you can have trombones with piano
which gives you a mello horn sound

dont worry so much about what sounds are being used
but worry about what sounds you have available

pretend you are a conductor
your keyboards are your orchestra

OK first off, you are blessed for posting this. These are perfect for the song. Thank you so much and soon as i get to church, we are working this out.

[Fenix]

Go to the media section of the site and follow the directions.

If that doesn't work, I'll try to type 'em out for ya. 

Why did you delete your directions? 

[sjonathan02]

Why did you delete your directions? 

Cause I'm confused. 


1. Go to the Video/Midi section of LGM

2. Click 'upload file'

Should be simple from there, depending on how you have your file saved.

[Fenix]

Cause I'm confused. 


1. Go to the Video/Midi section of LGM

2. Click 'upload file'

Should be simple from there, depending on how you have your file saved.

LOL OK. I am there right now and it has been saying "loading" for the past five minutes. Its in .wma format.

[sjonathan02]

LOL OK. I am there right now and it has been saying "loading" for the past five minutes. Its in .wma format.

It used to take a minute for me too on my old home computer.

[Fenix]

It used to take a minute for me too on my old home computer.

I don't think i can upload this song. The file size limit is 3mb. My file is 5MB. I could email it i suppose.

[sjonathan02]

I don't think i can upload this song. The file size limit is 3mb. My file is 5MB. I could email it i suppose.

Check my profile.

[Fenix]

Check my profile.

Its says "hidden"

[under13]

I don't think i can upload this song. The file size limit is 3mb. My file is 5MB. I could email it i suppose.

Thats wierd. I have 17mb files in my gallery

[sjonathan02]

Its says "hidden"

Try again.

[musallio]

OK first off, you are blessed for posting this. These are perfect for the song. Thank you so much and soon as i get to church, we are working this out.

Like Diverse has said, you can sound very rich with 1 board...
2 boards mean you have about 6 instruments/ sounds with most boards..

On all my banks (in my frowned upon Casio!) I have 32 layered & split sounds...about 25 sound like a band (before I've even added the band effects)..

Like Diverse instructed, most of the sounds are sounds I've heard from live performances & recordings...& some were just my own unique combos from trial & error because sometimes you want to sound different when you play..
Oh my, & this thing of mine is only a 32 polyphony, so you better make good use of those 128s!! U have enough with you for sure man..it's not the instuments that matter, it's the sound..


ok, U said U've been doing a new song each time for over 8 weeks..!!! Man U should sit down with the choir & spell out what you guys want to achieve.
It's all good that you are being exposed to all these new (difficult--yikes!!) songs, but you've got to have some songs/ style that your audience can identify you by..This is particularly important if you plan to go on & record.

I believe that you also need to get a feel of some songs..even if you repeat every 3rd week..By so doing you also get to master some songs / familiarize yourselves with them..

At the rate you are going, you might be invited to a function where they expect you to perform, say 4 or 5 songs, given short notice , & you'll struggle to learn/ revise all the 5 songs in the given time & underperform.

Maybe this is 1 way you convince your choir to slow things down a bit.

Another suggestion you could throw at them is that you guys actually alternate between easy & difficult songs..
You could also do easy songs but do them better than the recording...
For an example of that, you only have to view my post on youtube..simple but the people love it so much..I've had to translate that song for some guys from France &..all over really! But there's nothing fancy in that song..it's just how everything is mixed up together & it feels good. (explain this to them Fen..)