Long Rhodes Home: Finding The Rhodes Pocket

For worship one weekend in July 2011 at Fellowship Bible Church in Topeka, Kansas we have a scaled back worship team.  Acoustic guitar, Bass, and Keys.  The set list was “I’ll Fly Away” done in a “boom chuck” old country style, “Hosanna (Praise is Rising)”, “Because of your Love”, “Son of God”, “In Exile”, and the Starfield version of “Hosanna.”

My rule of thumb is that the bigger the band, the more difficult the music becomes – even if the music is simple.  More players means more refined parts – everybody has to be aware of everybody else and then not step on any toes.  In these full band situations, if your music isn’t scored, you have to create your own part that works with every other part.  Less is more, but figuring out the correct “less” can be a challenge even if that “less” is technically simple to execute.

Typically in smaller bands, things get a bit easier.  There is a lot more leeway and freedom to express one’s instrument.  Everybody can fill out more and play a little bit more without having to be concerned as much with what everybody else is doing.  It is, in my opinion,  a bit easier.

As a pianist in a small band, I’ve historically been called to anchor the band with  a solid rhythm core while providing some fills in the empty spots.  This task is something that I have filled over the last zillion years so I’m comfortable there.

The trouble is, this doesn’t work today – for a number of reasons.  The first, we have a very solid and full rhythm guitar player in our worship leader, Bill Horn.  Secondly, we have the stylings of the extremely talented Ben Engstrom on bass.  The third  is that Bill specifically doesn’t want me on piano, he wants me on the Rhodes.

I’ve only been at Fellowship Bible Church for a little over a year now.  I’ve played with Ben a few times during this duration, but Bill is the new kid on the block.  I wasn’t sure what to anticipate for what these two would bring to a scaled down Sunday – so I practiced with my Rhodes sounds at home thinking that I’d probably fulfill my traditional role.  I figured Ben would fill out the bass parts with some “pretty” and that Bill would probably do more stylizing on his acoustic.  Then I assumed that even if I was wrong, I’d be able to easily correct my style and play whatever is missing.

I was wrong.

I had predicted Ben correctly but I missed on what Bill was going to play.  He brought the core rhythm to the band.  Not a problem right?  After all, I had anticipated this contingency right?  Yes I did, but incorrectly.  I know how to  express a piano and can make it fit with just about anything that a praise and worship band is going play.  The Rhodes is a different beast.

The Rhodes’ tone can vary dramatically depending on your velocity and whether or not you’re playing a simple or complex chord, a single note, focusing on rhythm, putting down lead parts, and don’t get me started on the sustain and the tonal personalities found in the different registers.  It is much more dynamic than what I’m used to using, especially on the fly.

What this means is that everything I did was wrong.  When trying to fill out the music I was too busy.  When I simplified I was too simple.  I absolutely could not find the pocket; everything I did stepped on or interfered with what Bill or Ben was doing.  For our Saturday night services I was a wallet that never got stuffed into its pocket, instead, I was just kind of dangling there, right on the edge of the pocket, but never actually in the zone.  It was frustrating.  Everything I would try to correct my position in the band just didn’t work.

After each set we would gather in the green room and chat.  Everybody knew we weren’t quite gelling.  Bill would coach and encourage us and we would go out and do the next set, only to not have that elusive zone.  By the time we finished up our second service on Saturday night, I was just frustrated.  I couldn’t figure it out.  At Chili’s I talked it over with my wife and Wyatt – both who of which were at the mix desk and have had to listen to my playing for many years now.  We all agreed, I need to go to piano.

When I got home Saturday night I cranked out the most frustrating songs, “Hosanna” and put it out on piano.  PERFECT!  It was decided, I was going to ask Bill to go to piano.  Saturday morning as I slept, my head didn’t really let me hear piano music.  Instead, I kept hearing some Ray Charles works where he played his Rhodes.  I’m not a huge fan of Ray Charles’ works – While I love his music, it just hasn’t been a focus of my music consumption experience.  However, the man was a master on the Rhodes .  While the genre of music that he played didn’t at all match the genre that we were doing at Church, I began to feel that I could attempt to apply some of the styles that I could hear in his music and then slide right into the pocket.

After arriving at church Sunday morning I hit Bill up for permission to do the piano.  Even though I had kind of figured out what I needed to do to make the Rhodes work, it was all theoretical.  Even with our short rehearsal time, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull even a simple Charles’ style out of my… um… nevermind.   Bill, God bless his heart, said “no.”  ARGH!  We did our quick Sunday morning rehearsal, talked through some of the songs, talked about our frustrations with the music and committed to committing to our parts.

In my head, I realized that I’m going to have to channel my inner Charles.  Which, for a white guy who likes heavy metal way more than classic R&B, is going to be a very difficult task – especially without any real practice time.  This was going to require a special level of concentration for my Sunday morning worship offering to God.

Now I’m not going to lie, I’m not even close to the late Charles’ talent level.  However, there are some basic principles that I picked up on when he played the Rhodes:  He wasn’t afraid to jam with it.  In many songs it sounds like he avoided the sustain pedal unless it was something that he needed, he didn’t really rely on it to glue the song together.  He tied his music together with finger technique and wasn’t afraid to put some air between his notes.

With all that in mind: these became my governing rules for our remaining two worship offerings: Jam, use the air, and the sustain pedal isn’t very important.

MONEY!

Well, more change than dollars, but money is money, right?  I finally found the pocket and felt like I was getting into it instead of dangling just outside.  By the time the set from the third service ended, I think we had nailed what we were looking for.  It still wasn’t perfect, but compared to the first two services, I really started to feel like I was getting “there”.

The fourth service was even better – we were finally playing like a three piece band.  Still, not perfect, but we had really come a long way in a very short span.  It was encouraging.

Concluding thoughts:

I think all of the songs we did had an element of “sameness” in them, at least from what I was playing.  I only had a few common hooks for my contribution.  However, with a little bit more time, I think I could have developed the parts a little bit more and given each song a more unique identity.  But hey for on the fly changes and adjustments in an unfamiliar environment, it worked and for that, I’m happy.

Despite my frustrations with the Rhodes tone, I’m glad Bill forced me to stick with it instead of letting me head to my comfort zone in the piano.   It really forced me to think through these songs that I’ve been playing for years now and cast a new vision for my contribution to our corporate worship offering for that day.  I think it will be fun to explore this instrument more in the future.

One of the things that we spend a lot of time talking about in my musical circles is gear.  We want this bit of gear and we want to play it our way.  When somebody hands us something that we consider sub-par or something that we aren’t comfortable in playing, we get frustrated.  We all want to bring our best worship offering to God on Sunday morning – and frequently, that means bringing something that we know how to bring.  However, in worship, obedience is among the most important.  Bill wanted Rhodes despite my protests on the matter.  My job was to humble myself, and apply my God given gifts to the conundrum that I thought I was encountering.  However, my own measure in my own abilities was a bit wrong.  While it wasn’t great playing, I did eventually find the grove – even after I thought I couldn’t.

This just stands as another reminder, humility is important.  So we’re good… as long as Bill doesn’t start making me memorize.