Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Do I need piano or Noteworthy? (Read 4189 times) previous topic - next topic

Do I need piano or Noteworthy?

Do I need piano or Noteworthy?

In church, we need a pianist when we sing a hymn or for choir
but with iPad or Galaxy pad, not any more, IMHO.

Here is my thinking.

On the pad we display notes with 5 lines or 11 lines.
we just touch the notes on music sheet with your finger,
then iPad will play the notes. You don't need to hit white or black key,
 just notes on the sheet which is diplayed on the pad.
You only hit the notes with proper beat.

With this App in your pad, you can play quite any music with simple training.
But I don't know this app is already on the market or not.

I think piano is required only for recital or for profesional.

In a small church, a pianist and piano is quite too much.

steve

Re: Do I need piano or Noteworthy?

Reply #1 –
Technology can do a lot of cool things these days.  Not only are there machines as you describe, but other equipment allows you to just tap to the beat to get a whole orchestra.  To me, I still prefer the experience of live musicians (even with a few mistakes!), especially in a church setting.  I mean, the pastor could prerecord a sermon as well, but instead it's (most of the time) given live.

Certainly, if the choice is between no music and a backing track from NWC, I'd pick the backing track.  But I just don't think it's a reason not to hire a musician.  Of course, I just came back from cantoring the Sunday Mass, so you can tell my bias.
Sincerely,
Francis Beaumier
Green Bay, WI

Re: Do I need piano or Noteworthy?

Reply #2 –
For myself, it's live music all the way, especially in church.  I have many reasons for this, but let's just go with flexibility for now.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Do I need piano or Noteworthy?

Reply #3 –
Once upon a time, many years ago now, my friend Larry was engaged as a substitute organist for a small church that had an electronic organ of a make he hadn't played before. He spent a few minutes beforehand getting familiar with the stops and deciding what registration to use for each part of the service. The first part went fine. As the sermon began, he ran one hand down the full row of stops to turn them all off - set the registration he had chosen for the final hymn - and waited. Sermon over, time for the hymn. He started playing. Only a faint squeak came from the organ's speakers. He added stops. Only a bit more sound. All stops engaged, swell pedal all the way down, still pppp. Getting a bit frantic by now. Suddenly he realized that the organ had a "practice" stop - designed to reduce sound so the organist could practice at a volume only he could hear - and that he had accidentally turned that stop on while turning the rest off. Still playing with one hand, he reached over with the other and flipped the practice stop off. The sound went instantaneously from pppp to ffff and everybody in the church, Larry included, jumped about three feet in the air. For some reason, he was never asked to substitute at that church again.

OK - reason for story: if we go to Ipads or the equivalent instead of live accompaniment, where are delicious tales like this one going to come from? Every organist has several. It would be a pity to see the genre die.

Re: Do I need piano or Noteworthy?

Reply #4 –
How about both? I've taken the time to figure out how to configure NW for those rare occasions when we don't have an organist or pianist available, and the instruments at both churches which I serve as pastor have MIDI-capabilities. With the digital organ we have, it's MIDI channel 1 for upper manual, 2, for lower, and 4 for pedals. Good fun.