Playing Piano Behind Communion
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- As a church musician, one of the hardest things to teach is how to play music behind prayers, altar ministry, and communion. Here is a live example of how I chose to fill over ten minutes of space during a recent communion service. I have muted the pastors' mics, so all you hear is the piano.
I created this sound in Ableton, combining Ableton's Grand Piano (doctored up with some stock effects), a free electric piano from LABS, and a pad from Analog Labs called "Shut". You do not need expensive sounds to produce a high-quality result. Although you see a KORG Nanokontrol in the frame, I was not using it at the time, instead mixing through Ableton's interface.
Though the camera gave me some trouble while attempting to film and play at the same time, I hope what I was able to capture is helpful enough to share.
As to my thought process, I tried to listen to the pastor's cadence and match his energy. There were times of speaking in which I played less, often just moving between chords in a key, and then times of distributing communion elements, during which I played out more, featuring some well-known songs.