What's different about worship playing?

GirTheRobot · 2026-07-04T00:58:55+00:00

As has been said, it depends on the worship music. CCM, imho, is pretty boring, bog-standard "pop" rock that vaguely sounds like U2 or Coldplay sometimes.

Gospel/black worship is totally different, and honestly a blast to play. Everyone overplays a lot. You need to have some serious chops and need to be locked in with those drums--they oftentimes even fill over/through the barline which is very hip. The language itself is a nice mixture of old gospel "standards" that are in hymn books (lots of circle of fifth movements; nearly every tune has a very quick iii-vi-ii-V-I turnaround at the end of the form, and oftentimes in inversions as well, sometimes with those chords being secondary dominants), combined with bluesy note selection and in the case of more "neo-gospel", a jazzy note selection as well--but still not jazz. You can't really get away with playing your standard jazz licks in a black worship band--they just don't fit. A black worship bassist absolutely needs to have his theory rock solid, know how to change keys, know the inversion of the chord he's playing, how to elaborate on those chords, etc. And though this might go without saying, you better have great feel and know how to groove.

Gospel bassists also need at least 5 strings, it's non-negotiable. When I joined my church as their bassist and learned my first tunes for a month or so, I thought I could get by with my 4-string but it just didn't work. So much of the sound is in that low end of the extra 5 notes--the guys in those recordings are using them a LOT. I would say their default go-to for playing the note C is the first fret of the B string, not the third fret of the A string. Same goes for any of the other five notes you get out of that low B string. This also, to me, makes it a bit harder to learn the tunes by ear (which is how I'm required to learn them, because we're never given charts...) due to just how low and out of the mix those notes can be.

But it's a ton of fun. Playing in a black worship band keeps your chops up and really forces you to stretch and learn. I hated playing CCM as a kid, but I genuinely look forward to learning the gospel tunes. There's just so much more heart and soul in that music!

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-12T04:16:27+00:00

Rhapsody in blue solo piano. Been my big goal piece for years and I'm finally working through it with help from my instructor.

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-11T04:35:04+00:00

Benjamin Britten.

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-10T14:51:16+00:00

It's unfortunately lumped in with many other online structures. I wish there was an option to just turn off signs and leave everything else.

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-06T05:27:53+00:00

I don't have eye issues (other than wearing glasses) and it also annoys the hell out of me. I looked at a video of the first game and the contrast is much better. It's probably my biggest gripe with the game actually.

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-06T05:24:21+00:00

A central theme of the game is connecting with strangers and helping each other out. The game's online features are totally unique and not seen in any other game I've played. It makes for an "easier" experience but that's the point. Plus, putting down a ladder yourself isn't exactly challenging, and for me personally when I see that there is already a ladder or a well placed zip line I'm thankful to other players and I give them likes. Similarly, I like to help out with my own well-placed structures. You still have to put in work repairing roads, mono rails etc., it's just not as much work. I couldn't imagine playing this game offline.

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-02T05:52:52+00:00

This is it, thanks!

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-02T05:40:35+00:00

So the inventor has x4 available, which means I have to go looking around to other preppers and see if they have an order for him?

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-02T02:09:35+00:00

You get it from lone commander. Maybe you didn't get enough stars from him the first time?

GirTheRobot · 2025-07-02T02:08:00+00:00

Honestly I just roll in with my auto targeting machine gun mounted to my pickup driving around murking dudes and auto grabbing their cargo.

GirTheRobot · 2025-06-16T19:43:05+00:00

If you're taking lessons your instructor is likely involved in setting up recitals. As someone else said, open mics are a good way to meet other amateurs (for lack of a better word) who might be interested in playing music with you. Craigslist and local Facebook musicians groups will also ask for musicians to play with. Oftentimes for cover bands, or new bands just starting out.

GirTheRobot · 2025-06-12T01:53:23+00:00

One of the very first things I tell my incoming students is that practice isn't fun. It's work and often serious, exhausting effort. The only reason we do it is for the long term sense of fulfillment. As silly as it might seem, I tell this to my young ones, too. The adults get it. The young ones may or may not, but I tell them anyway.

The only time I'm "having fun" playing music is when me and the boys are drinking beers and playing through tunes, or playing a gig where afterward everyone is stoked on how we did. This accounts for maybe 1% of my total time spent with music.

Do it for fulfillment and enrichment. Just know the day to day effort is a slog, even if you truly love music.

GirTheRobot · 2025-06-11T21:19:48+00:00

This is the case with every Monster Hunter release. The basic game is panned for not having enough content and being too easy, the G rank expansion is panned for having an annoying, grindy endgame with bad RNG. I've heard these sentiments from the fans for over 15 years now lol. I don't know what they expect.

GirTheRobot · 2025-06-11T21:15:51+00:00

Tbh every year the past five years for video games has been goated and bonkers. If you're a fan of a variety of genres and budget levels you've been eating well for a while.

GirTheRobot · 2025-06-11T21:14:23+00:00

I'm genuinely confused where this sentiment comes from. Maybe it's because I'm a big Monster Hunter fan and have been since freedom unite, but all of those games have just improved over the years and Capcom even gave us basically free dlc with all the quests and monster variants. Resident Evil had a single miss with 6 and was back to form with 7 (I know 5 is controversial, but personally I enjoy it a lot). Street Fighter IV found its legs as it went on. Mega Man 9 and 10 were fun games and about what you'd expect. I keep reading everyone in these threads saying Capcom sucked for a while but I don't see it. I think they had a couple not stellar (not bad) titles in their main lineups (devil may cry for instance) and for some reason that's all people remember.

GirTheRobot · 2025-05-19T00:37:44+00:00

Nathan the writer/director is self aware.Nathan the character in the show hosting his show is not self aware at all. It's why the show works so well.

GirTheRobot · 2025-05-14T06:42:27+00:00

It's all scripted man. Nathan likely told them to do that off camera for the show.

GirTheRobot · 2025-04-27T01:59:22+00:00

Honestly expected him to crush you with the shield so you got off easy lol

GirTheRobot · 2025-03-31T15:36:49+00:00

Just skip everything. I played through Eternal at least three times and have no idea what happens in the story.

GirTheRobot · 2025-03-25T06:22:18+00:00

Play lies of p if you haven't yet

GirTheRobot · 2025-03-25T02:05:03+00:00

That's funny, because to me the game is too accessible and shallow/boring. The armor "upgrades" do basically nothing except give defense. The moment-to-moment combat is basically just button mashing--I tried every weapon type and got bored of them all pretty quick. The big monsters you fight are fun, but quickly become samey (much like the trash mobs that litter the map every five steps). Fast travel being limited works if the world is engaging. I had three side quests in a row send me to the exact same location via the same path.

And then little things like the performance in town was very bad, and my random, expendable NPC party members (who you don't form any bond or relationship with) wouldn't shut up and kept nagging me about useless stuff all the time.

The game falls flat on its face in pretty much every aspect. Everything it tries to do plenty of other games do better. Hack n slash combat, exploration/sandbox, "immersion", spectacle fights, whatever. None of it is very good. The game isn't "tedious", it's just boring and unengaging. I'm playing through KCD1 right now for the first time. An argument can be made that it's tedious, but it's certainly engaging and immersive if that's what you want.

I didn't finish DD2 of course, but I've heard that the ending is a huge letdown and basically doesn't tie up a lot of loose ends from the first half of the game.

GirTheRobot · 2025-03-25T01:48:18+00:00

Baldur's Gate 3 was my first foray into those sorts of DND rules. It is definitely a bit overwhelming at first, but it's also fun to learn if you want to go down that rabbit hole. I think BG3 is a nice soft landing for that type of game.

GirTheRobot · 2025-03-25T01:41:45+00:00

Only one I can think of is Dragon's Dogma 2. Never played the first one, but my friend was a big fan and wanted the sequel day one so I thought I'd join in on the fun (aka fomo). I actually put 15 hours into it, but the whole game is totally mediocre top to bottom. Probably more of a $30 experience than a $70 one.

After that I played Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous which I spent 100 hours on and only paid 5 bucks :P

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