Background:
I've played piano for over 20 years. I took lessons for the first 7-8 years from a lady in the neighborhood, but the lessons were mostly "here's some music, practice it until it sounds good, and I'll give you something else". I've had no formal training in music composition or theory. About 10 years ago, I was asked to join our church choir - my first run at "public singing" in a leadership position. Over the next 5-8 years, I assisted the music director by occasionally providing piano accompaniment for adult and youth choirs, and continued singing in the adult choir and a smaller men's ensemble. Today, God has blessed me with the honor of leading worship as part of a small worship team - I play piano alongside a bass guitar, drummer, percussionist (bongos, cymbals, tambourine), and 1-2 acoustic guitars (and occasionally, an electric). I also get to sing with 3-4 other people on the team, usually handling the Tenor part.
Today:
We recently purchased a new keyboard-synthesizer-workstation: the Yamaha MOX8. I've just unboxed it, and am noodling around with it to see what all the little dials and buttons do.
I'm looking for some resources on how to evolve from my current role as pianist into one that uses the synth effectively. As a pianist, I'm usually providing a bit of everything: some bass, some background chords, and some melody all mixed together. As a keyboardist, I know I need to let the bass take care of his part, and let the acoustic guitars have their own voice, and I'm more responsible for filling in the spaces between. Additionally, there are those in-between times when a soft, warm, background pad can provide a subtle underscore for a speaker or prayer - something that maintains the atmosphere of worship, without being a distraction from the important thing that is going on.
I'm also looking for some tutorials on how to effectively use this specific instrument. With little composition/theory background, I'm not very accomplished at generating my own arpeggiations, and not really sure what voices should be layered to provide the right sound. Then, there are all those knobs to adjust effects like attack, decay, etc. that I can't even define, let alone set properly. I'm not concerned about sequencing or doing any pre-recorded stuff, honestly. Our worship leader and drummer tend to set the pace, so anything pre-recorded would either have to have very frequent on-the-fly tempo adjustments, or our group would need to be refocused to center around the pre-recorded track. We don't currently use in-ear monitors (just the drummer in his sound-box), so we're basically following the worship leader as we go.
I understand that as with any instrument, it's going to take time and lots of practice and experimentation to get the right sound. I'm willing to put forth that kind of effort. I just need some assistance in knowing where to start. Are there any books, videos, websites, or other resources that I can take advantage of? Would it be recommended to have a one-on-one session with an instructor from a local music shop?
I've played piano for over 20 years. I took lessons for the first 7-8 years from a lady in the neighborhood, but the lessons were mostly "here's some music, practice it until it sounds good, and I'll give you something else". I've had no formal training in music composition or theory. About 10 years ago, I was asked to join our church choir - my first run at "public singing" in a leadership position. Over the next 5-8 years, I assisted the music director by occasionally providing piano accompaniment for adult and youth choirs, and continued singing in the adult choir and a smaller men's ensemble. Today, God has blessed me with the honor of leading worship as part of a small worship team - I play piano alongside a bass guitar, drummer, percussionist (bongos, cymbals, tambourine), and 1-2 acoustic guitars (and occasionally, an electric). I also get to sing with 3-4 other people on the team, usually handling the Tenor part.
Today:
We recently purchased a new keyboard-synthesizer-workstation: the Yamaha MOX8. I've just unboxed it, and am noodling around with it to see what all the little dials and buttons do.
I'm looking for some resources on how to evolve from my current role as pianist into one that uses the synth effectively. As a pianist, I'm usually providing a bit of everything: some bass, some background chords, and some melody all mixed together. As a keyboardist, I know I need to let the bass take care of his part, and let the acoustic guitars have their own voice, and I'm more responsible for filling in the spaces between. Additionally, there are those in-between times when a soft, warm, background pad can provide a subtle underscore for a speaker or prayer - something that maintains the atmosphere of worship, without being a distraction from the important thing that is going on.
I'm also looking for some tutorials on how to effectively use this specific instrument. With little composition/theory background, I'm not very accomplished at generating my own arpeggiations, and not really sure what voices should be layered to provide the right sound. Then, there are all those knobs to adjust effects like attack, decay, etc. that I can't even define, let alone set properly. I'm not concerned about sequencing or doing any pre-recorded stuff, honestly. Our worship leader and drummer tend to set the pace, so anything pre-recorded would either have to have very frequent on-the-fly tempo adjustments, or our group would need to be refocused to center around the pre-recorded track. We don't currently use in-ear monitors (just the drummer in his sound-box), so we're basically following the worship leader as we go.
I understand that as with any instrument, it's going to take time and lots of practice and experimentation to get the right sound. I'm willing to put forth that kind of effort. I just need some assistance in knowing where to start. Are there any books, videos, websites, or other resources that I can take advantage of? Would it be recommended to have a one-on-one session with an instructor from a local music shop?
