Agenda for first 2017 rehearsal, templates.

agendas/2017-01-03.md

@@ -0,0 +1,280 @@
+### Warm up, getting settled.
+
+Start practice with the first band member starting some groove, or small piece.
+As others come, they join, make up a part, check levels, etc.
+
+### Quick summary of band goals.
+
+The main band is optimized for experience musicians. There are some habits that
+make it difficult for new members to jump in. For example:
+
+* Song selection changes on short notice.
+* Material is given on short notice and not always entirely accurate.
+* There are lots of songs to learn.
+
+We need new people rotating into the music ministry in order to keep it
+healthy, but jumping directly into the primary band is not the an easy task. We
+need a different format that gives intermediate players and new members a
+chance to get up to speed with the music. That's what this band is intended to
+be. We are not creating a new, separate band in the music program but a new
+format to introduce new members and experiment with new practice methods. 
+
+This band is pursuing excellence through rigorous preparation. We will:
+
+* Have songs chosen a month in advance,
+* Have accurate material available from the beginning in the correct key,
+* Prepare the song order in advance,
+* Not make changes to the song selection or material,
+* Have an agenda for each practice, and
+* Emphasize personal practice for learning parts.
+
+For band members we will have lead sheets with all the chord changes recorded
+and any runs notated. For the vocalists we will have individual parts recorded.
+For both we will have reference material. We want to make personal practice
+time meaningful so we won't make changes that waste the time our members have
+spent practicing.
+
+Our goal for every song will be first to be able to play it as well as the
+recording. Of course it will take time to develop that level, but that is the
+goal. First we will learn the music as it was written, and play it as close as
+possible to the original. Once we know the song inside and out we may begin to
+play with it as a band, but our first goal is to duplicate the professional
+sound.
+
+Ultimately the goals of this band are:
+
+* To develop a new culture of excellence through preparation at New Life,
+* Give new members an entry point to the New Life music program,
+* Create a place for people to learn new skills (or learn a new instrument),
+  and
+* Prepare people to transition to regularly playing in the regular rotation.
+
+### Choose new songs
+
+### Short summary of my musical philosophy
+
+There are lots of different approaches to music. I'm going to massively simplify
+and distill down to two extremes. There are extremes, not actually what happens:
+
+1. Musical performance is a highly coordinated effort and the goal is to create
+   a specific sound in concert. Replicating perfectly a pre-defined part is
+   ideal.
+
+2. Musical performance is a form of self-expression and the goal is to
+   communicate the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the musician.
+   Creating music that is honest about the feelings of the performer is ideal.
+
+Classical, orchestral music is the stereotype of the first model. The individual
+musicians subordinate their individual expression to the purpose and goal of the
+broader band. You have a part to play and you do not deviate from that part.
+
+Jazz is the stereotype of the second model where an emphasis is placed on the
+improvisation of the members. Often the written music serves only as a
+guideline or structural base for what the musicians will play.
+
+Of course, these are simplifications. Actual musical performance lives in
+between these extremes. In the orchestral setting obviously emotional playing is
+crucial to the performance, but it's happening on the level of the group, not
+the individual. And in jazz you still have structure, even if it is emergent:
+not scripted. Any time you have more than one person playing you have to have
+some sort of syncronization. There is a reason that you very rarely see large
+groups of player all improvising at the same time. Look at big band jazz, for
+example, and you see a lot of the same structure as the orchestra!
+
+So where do we sit? Well, close to the middle, I think. We have music that we
+are asked to play. But this is not just a performance. We are part of the
+worship service so our playing is a personal expression to some extent. Music is
+part of how I express myself to the Lord, how I worship Him. A lot of that
+happens on the platform here.
+
+But, we are also leading the congregation in worship. It is not purely about our
+self-expression of praise to God, but also about creating an atmosphere that
+makes it easy for members of the congregation to express their praise and
+worship. We do this as a part of a larger team. I'm working together with the
+other musicians, and with the praise singers.
+
+In many ways a worship team can be more free-flowing and improvisational than a
+typical band, because it is this expression of worship. At the same time that
+freedom of expression exists within the larger context of the church body. In 1
+Corinthians Paul talked about the body of Christ:
+
+> **12** Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts
+> form one body, so it is with Christ. **13** For we were all baptized by one
+> Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we
+> were all given the one Spirit to drink. **14** Even so the body is not made up
+> of one part but of many.
+
+> **24b** God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that
+> lacked it, **25** so that there should be no division in the body, but that
+> its parts should have equal concern for each other. **26** If one part
+> suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part
+> rejoices with it.
+
+This truth applies in the context of music as well!
+
+*Purpose for this section: setup the motivation for growth. Frame the musician
+as a thinking, feeling agent in the music-making process. All individually
+responsible for the collective end-result.*
+
+### Attitudes of the Musician
+
+* Humility: we are all in service to the music.
+* Curiosity
+* Playfulness
+* Tastefullness/Discernment
+
+### Paying attention/levels of thinking.
+
+There is this guy, Benjamin Bloom, who categorized educational goald into six levels of thinking:
+
+1. gathering knowledge
+2. comprehending and confirming
+3. applying knowledge
+4. analyzing: thinking about a whole in terms of it's various parts
+5. synthesizing: putting parts together to form a whole, many parts into a new
+   whole
+6. evaluating: making comparisons and judgements. What worked best?
+
+I know a lot of what I'm sayin some of you already know. It's easy to zone out.
+I know because I catch myself doing it all the time. Instead, let's pay active
+attention, even to the things we know. Work your way up the levels. If you've
+already mastered what I'm saying, be analyzing it, or evaluating it. Maybe you
+have something to contribute.
+
+### On Practice
+
+*Discuss my views on "Natural Talent" vs practice & hard work.*
+
+Effective practice:
+
+* has well-defined, specific goals,
+
+  Aimless exploration has a place, and just playing for fun has a place. Those
+  are great, and I'm not saying you shouldn't do them. I probably spend just as
+  much time playing for fun as I do actually practising, because I like playing
+  music. But that's not practice. The point of practice is to improve something.
+
+  When we do sit down to practice, we should have a clear, measurable goal. For
+  example, I want to learn the chorus pattern from Glorious by Martha Munizzi.
+  Or I want to improve my sense of rythym. Good goal, how are you going to
+  measure it? I'm going to choose some rythmic pattern and play it along with a
+  metronome. I'll record myself and that's how I'll judge my progress.
+  
+* is focused,
+
+  Practice is not always fun. Y'all are all adults, so this is probably
+  something you have already learned. I learned to enjoy practice because I
+  enjoy the results. I try to choose things the practice that I like doing. But
+  even then, often I don't want to get started. Practice needs to be focused,
+  with effort.
+
+* incorporates immediate feedback,
+
+  Again, the whole point of practice is specifically to improve something. The
+  time we spend practicing affects how we play. When I was in band in school we
+  had practice logs. You had to practice so long a week and get your parents to
+  sign off on your time. You would sometimes see these kids who would have a
+  full sheet, but still play horribly.
+  
+  "Did you practice?"
+
+  "Yeah"
+
+  "How did you practice?"
+
+  "I don't know, I just played the music."
+
+  What happened is they just mindlessly played through the music over and over,
+  not paying particular attention to how *well* they played it. They'd practiced
+  for hours playing it poorly, so of course when they performed they played it
+  poorly. When you are practicing, if you make a mistake, stop and immediately
+  correct it. This is why many teachers tell you to play it slow first until you
+  have it correctly, then speed up. You will play the way you practice, so make
+  sure you practice it correctly!
+
+  But this goes beyond just am I playing the right notes. This is where
+  tastefulness and discernment come into play. When I personally practice I am
+  constantly asking myself, "Do I like what I just played?" or put another way:
+  "If I was in the band recording this for a record, would I be proud of it?"
+  How does it compare to the original artists? Does it sound good? Is it good?
+  This requires that you have good musical taste and discernment!
+
+  It's also very subjective, and I've found that there is a difference between
+  how things *feel* while you're playing, and how they *sound* as a listener.
+  So, one of your best practice aids is a small audio recorder. Record yourself
+  as you practice, then play it back and listen to yourself critically. Be mean!
+  This requires courage! You have to be able to say, "OK, that sucked, but I'll
+  get better." Don't quit playing. It can be easy to get drowned in all the
+  things you did wrong, but if you can learn to ignore how far you have to go
+  and focus on what--specifically--you can improve, then you are in a good
+  place. Comes back to humility.
+
+  Here are some of the kinds of things that I have noticed in my own playing
+  when doing this:
+
+  * My timing is off.
+  * I'm wrong on some of the notes in that run.
+  * It doesn't feel like it does when Y plays it. He sounds so smooth, my run
+    sounds jerky/stilted/not grooving.
+  * I'm not getting the dynamics quite right.
+  * He's playing some other stuff I missed when I first learned this. I need to
+    go back and re-listen again now that I know the line better to pick up
+    those subtle differences
+  * They're voicing this chord a little different than I am.
+  * The tone of his bass is different and sounds better in this situation. What
+    is it about that tone and how do I replicate that? Is he playing that part
+    higher on the neck?
+
+  Then you identify how to fix that, and work on it. This is where a teacher, or
+  others can help. I'm happy to offer ideas about how to practice things
+
+  The key is, you need to get immediate feedback and address it. Working with a
+  teacher is great because they can offer feedback based on their greater
+  experience, but to maximize the effectiveness of your practice you need to be
+  evaluating yourself as you practice.
+
+* pushes the boundaries of your comfort zone.
+
+  If you are practicing something that you are already really good at then you
+  are not improving. The point of practice is to improve something. That means
+  you have to work on something that needs improvement.
+
+  Howver, it is possible to overreach. You need to work something that is far
+  enough outside your comfort zone that you have to strecth, but not so far that
+  you can't reach it at all. We want to fail, but be able to learn from the
+  failures.
+
+  You can and should adjust the difficulty of your practice on your own to find
+  the sweet spot. Too easy and you don't progress. Too hard and it's no fun,
+  it's frustrating, you burn out, and you don't progress.
+
+  Learn to simplify. For example, if I'm learning a new song on drums, first I
+  may try to get the basic pattern and stick to basic fills. Then when I can
+  easily keep the tempo steady and navigate the fills without drifting from the
+  tempo, I'll learn the accents that the drummer who recorded it added. Then I'll
+  work on the specific fills they used.
+
+  Or on bass, first I'll learn the basic bass line based on the chord
+  progression. Then I'll listen for alterations the original bassist added. Then
+  I'll work on unison runs they do. Then I'll listen for ornamentation that the
+  original bassist added and try to learn that.
+
+  If I'm learning a run or a hard passage, I'll slow it down to where I can play
+  it comfortably. Then I'll bump it up 5bpm at a time until it's hard but
+  doable. Then I'll practice that, correctly. If it's too fast for me to play
+  correctly, I'll slow down until it is easy at the slower tempo and possible at
+  the faster tempo. Keep going until it is easy at the original tempo. Now I
+  have the lick, and more generally, I've added all the patterns from that lick
+  to my muscle memory. I can re-use the lick, or parts of the lick in other
+  places. Maybe I'll even practice that.
+
+  Practicing time: practice with a click. Set the click to 1-2-3-4. Practice
+  your rythym. Now put the click at half the tempo, and make it only 1 and 3. Do
+  it again. Same tempo, but put the click on 2 and 4 now. Do it again. Half the
+  click again, only on 1. Again, only on 2, then only on 3, then only on 4. Take
+  these excercises and vary the tempo. How slow can you go (in small increments)
+  and still keep the tempo steady? How fast? It's not about showing off to
+  yourself, it's about pushing your boundaries. If you feel like you have really
+  solid time, push yourself more. Can you put the click on just the 8th after 1
+  and 3? Move it around on other 8ths. 16ths? What if you combine these with
+  other excercises?

notes/first-meeting-recap.md

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Welcome to the new life music team! Each of you has expressed interest in
 working with the new rehearsal band format experiment. For those of you who
-were not able to make our kickoff meet
+were not able to make our kickoff meeting, here is a summary of what we
+discussed:
 
 **Why are we starting this band?**
 
@@ -100,7 +101,7 @@ to the reference material in preparation for the first practice.
   - Start working on the major parts of the song.
 
 
-Finally, thank you all for your interest in this new endeavour! We am looking
+Finally, thank you all for your interest in this new endeavour! We are looking
 forward to the opportunity to work with each of you.
 
 Thanks,

templates/schedule-email-template.md

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+Hi Band,
+
+Here is our schedule for <month>.
+
+*Practices:*
+
+* Date 1, 7-8:30pm,
+* Date 2, 7-8:30pm,
+* Date 3, 7-8:30pm,
+* Date 4, 6:30-7pm (sound-check before service).
+
+Playing for service Date 4.
+
+*Songs:*
+
+* [Song 1](link-to-reference-track)
+* [Song 2](link-to-reference-track)
+* [Song 3](link-to-reference-track)
+
+<Notes>

templates/set.latex

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+\documentclass{article}
+\usepackage[margin=0.79in]{geometry}
+\usepackage{helvet}
+\usepackage{leadsheets}
+\usepackage{array}
+\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
+
+\newversetype{verse1}[name={Verse 1}]
+\newversetype{verse2}[name={Verse 2}]
+\newversetype{verse3}[name={Verse 3}]
+\newversetype{tag}[name={Tag}]
+%\newversetype{outro}[name={Outro}]
+\newversetype{prechorus}[name={Pre-chorus}]
+\newversetype{bridge1}[name={Bridge 1}]
+\newversetype{bridge2}[name={Bridge 2}]
+
+\setleadsheets{
+  bar-shortcuts={true},
+  title-template = tabular,
+  verses-label-format={\bfseries}}
+
+\begin{document}
+
+\input{../songs/<song-dir>/<song-name>.latex}
+\pagebreak
+\input{../songs/<song-dir>/<song-name>.latex}
+\pagebreak
+\input{../songs/<song-dir>/<song-name>.latex}
+
+\end{document}