by Don Chapman
Instead of starting Easter out with a celebratory
bang, this year I wanted to begin on a more
somber tone and build up to a climax.
We began with the song I wrote with worship
leader Tim Light, Journey to the Cross, just me at the piano with track and strings.
One of our soloists, Melinda, did a fine
job.
The stage is dim and the song gradually builds,
adding band and choir, changes key and ends
big with full lights. Then we launched into
my uptempo version of Christ Arose.
As I've said before, I
nearly pulled my hair
out trying to arrange this
hymn, but after
trying a million chord
substitutions I finally
found something that worked!
[click images for a larger
picture]
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I've also told you about Tara, the girl who
toured on a Broadway production of Fame, who showed up in our choir a few months
ago. She sang my original demo for Christ Arose at HymnCharts but she really let it loose
on Easter, complete with Mariah Careyesque
whistle voice at the end. |
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We continued in an upbeat mode with Hillsong's
Salvation Is Here, then cooled down to a new midtempo version
worship leader Steve Smith found of Desperation
Band's Amazed. |
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Steve, Melinda and Tara sang Phillips Craig
& Dean's Are You Amazed using Igniter Media's footage from Jesus of Nazareth. I used this video very successfully a few
Easters ago at my previous church and it
was only more stunning projected on Brookwood's
gargantuan screen. |
We tried the video several ways. One way
was for me to play along with the track (both
my keyboard and the audio track would be
heard live.) Another way was for me to have
just the track in my in-ears and follow along
(only my playing would be heard live.) The
problem is the track is sooooo slow that
it just didn't feel right. Plus you can't
react to the energy of the crowd.
Lonnie, our church media guru, recreated
Igniter's video into a "flex track"
- he chopped the original video into several
pieces and could jump ahead, fading sections
in and out, to keep up with our faster tempo,
so we did it live. This way he made sure
the image of Jesus shrouded in light as He
rose from the dead was timed perfectly with
the end of the song. It was quite a moment
- three great vocalists, me at the piano
and live strings with gripping images.
Steve was conflicted about the final song
choice after Pastor Perry's sermon, but finally
decided on the crowd-pleaser Jesus, Messiah by Chris Tomlin. It brought the congregation
to their feet in worship. Then, as the group
dismissed we reprised an instrumental version
of Christ Arose. We did five services and officially broke
the 10,000 mark for the
first time.
[remember DX7s?! I've had that keyboard for
over 20 years and it still works!]
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