Pete Bishop

Just Breathe

Here's a neat trick. we'll first a question... if you are a musician.....what is the quickest easiest way to settle into a groove and force yourself to connect and listen to the people your playing with? It's not by listening harder... you gotta breathe. That's right. breathing in time with the groove that your playing will force you and your body into that groove. Try it some time. Either breathe through the rhythm of the length of measure.. in...1,2,3,4...out.. 1,2,3,4, or if you can breathe in syncopated rhythm to the drummer or your instrument. It will instantly change the way you play. Westerners are notorious for our bad breathing habits so don't be surprised if this freaks your body out. But it works! Oh yea.. and on fast songs be careful not to hyperventilate.

What I learned from Ben Folds

What I learned from Ben Folds:

Man what a great show! Outside of seeing U2 at the Pontiac Silverdome this may be the best show I've been two. Great Sound, Killer band, great harmony, tight, killer musicianship.

What else did I learn?:

I think he and Rob Bell are the same person. They Look a lot a like. Come to think of it I've never seen them in the same place at the same time.

I was reminded how much I love to play piano

I was reminded how important song writing and music as a medium to communicate is.

I saw true Worship, not for God but it was fascinating to witness from the world view I have now.

More Worship leaders and teams inside the church need to attend concerts outside the church.

Here is a an excerpt from a show Ben Folds did for MySpace. ( Ps. Some of Ben's stuff contains swearing (not the piece I have here) so if you may want to weigh that out if you choose to listen to his other pieces.)

Crazy Week

one of those weeks... no time to blog.. no time to breathe... but hey.... Kevin Max of Dc Talk fame is playing over at Ogden this weekend if anyone is not doing anything on Sunday night. I had the chance to play with Mr Max at a wedding once. I accompanied him on Rhodes to  Maybe On Amazed. Anyway here is the info if your in the area. Local wunder Kid Jake Rye is opening. Should be a great show.

Sun, Mar 9, 6pm – 9pm

Where3201 E. US Highway 223, Adrian, MI  49221

DescriptionKevin Max, formerly of DC Talk will bring his amazing vocals to Ogden Church and Lenawee County for a concert. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students.

The Art of Listening

I have been a musician for most of life and have had the privilege  of getting to work with some great artists. One of the skills you need as a musician is the ability to listen. Yet I'm always surprised  at how many musicians have never really learned how to listen... sure they learn their part.. but in context they have never acquired the discipline of listening to the other players around them..music is a language and you have to be able to talk in terms of pitch,dynamic, arrangement.. etc... ever been around a loud talker who never shuts up? Thats kind of what its like to play with someone who doesn't listen to whats going on around them. One of the things we  have been working on is  listening to each other and speaking the language of music, one of the ways you can do that is by taking away other forms of stimulus.. so today I made the band practice with blindfolds on...the positive change was immediate because your forced to...listen... try it sometime, its harder than it looks (no pun intended) or sounds...

Kids in the Studio

So Barb and I have never really been "stage" or "sports" parents. Meaning we've never really pushed our kids in one direction or another vocationally or socially. We've always just kind of let our kids figure out who God made them to be and then encouraged and supported them in that. Our daughter Amanda is a sophomore in college and has started a band with some friends of hers.  That being said....As a musician and studio rat let me just say I was giddy last night hanging out with her and her friends and tracking a song at local studio Red Letter. It was really cool watching her  drum and produce and the band interact. For their first time in a studio they did a good job and the song was actually really cool. That will be one for the memory books....

MMM...bop..???

Ok so I have never been accused of being a Hanson fan (remember mmmbop) but today I was on one of my favorite audio forums and there was a post on  a Hanson's documentary ..it is about the break from their original label to island/def jam and then how they walked away from that to go independent. Its a pretty fascinating look at the business of music. I have had a couple friends get chewed up by it so it peaked my interest to watch it.. well the fascinating thing is .. man those boys are good.  The songs were great "pop" songs and their vocals and arrangements were killer. If your a studio junkie you'll dig it as there is a lot of studio/songwriting stuff. If swearing bothers you don't watch it because their is some in there. The very interesting thing is the documentary is really more about the insanity of the business than Hanson themselves. I'm going to have go check out some of their tunes. Its called Strong Enough To Break.. you can check it out here. ( ps. the editing and cinematography is actually quite good as well)

Interactive Worship

So for the last couple years I have been using and loving Ableton Live for backing trax. Every week I get to produce our click trax and extra instrumentation for our Worship/special tune age. Integrity music has taken that idea to the extreme. You can know get many songs in Ableton format to add to or supplement what your doing musically. Check it out.

• Integrity Media and Interactive Worship Live (IWL) jointly announced that they have signed a licensing agreement that will allow IWL to convert songs from Integrity's music catalog into Interactive Backing Tracks (IBTs) which allow churches to use the original master recordings to augment their live worship service.

Great idea. As for me.. I'm going to keep rocking our own.

Probably Late To The Show

...but Im totally diggin Erik Mongrain. Killer chops.

Whats that smell?

Why didn't they have this when I was touring? Can you imagine 4-8 people in a van driving all night after of fill up on make a run for the bathroo......errrrrrrrr............border!

I Forgot I Forgot I Forgot

Before I became a follower of Christ I felt that "most" of the ccm music I was exposed to was... less than spectacular. Shortly after following Christ I stumbled on this band. Their pop sensibility, songwriting and arranging just blew me away. I just recently found this album again....I forgot how good they were. One great big "huya" if you can tell me who this is. I get the goosebumps every time I hear this song.