Creative Chaos @ West Ridge: “Acoustic Crash”

I haven’t jumped on the Creative Chaos train yet… Here’s my first ride! Several weeks ago, we put a call out to all people at West Ridge who [1] owned an acoustic guitar, and [2] knew how to play it…at least a little. With some a little preparation, we invited them to show up at rehearsal having practiced two songs that we made available on our website. About 60 folks showed up (we were hoping for 40). They ranged in age from 4 to 70-something. We miked a few, ran a few direct, and then had them lead worship with our band. It certainly created chaos…we called it “Acoustic Crash.”

[There are more photos at the bottom of the post]

The result was powerful, memorable, and sounded PHENOMENAL! It created a few challenges for us, of course, but was well worth the effort.

So worth the effort that we did the same thing at Easter with singers. What did we name THAT? You guessed it…”Vocal Crash.” 80+ voices. Amazing.

This Sunday, it’s “Drum Crash.” A little lower scale, and not the same “open invitation,” but we’ll have two drummers and two percussionists along with our normal band.

SHOULD YOU TRY THIS AT HOME:
[1] Keep it simple: Song choice is key. Go for the song(s) that are simplest to play in a chaotic environment, but have the most impact vocally and instrumentally. For Acoustic Crash, we chose “Forever” (because it is so familiar to the players), and “Glorious One” because it is so dynamic, but has a very simple chord progression.
[2] Set the players up for success: Over-prepare and over-communicate on your end. Provide simple charts that are clear on arrangement, but easy for a non-music reader to follow. Pick a recording to provide as a practice tool, obviously, but choose to play that same arrangement in the worship service. Otherwise, you have the potential to confuse the heck out of folks who are already nervous or very excited.

More Photos of the craziness: