claves and a train wreck

Claves?  Yep, claves.  It’s a musical instrument, usually 2 short, thick wooden dowels, that make a bright clicking sound when struck together.  It’s also the default sound that my metronome makes.  

Our worship team practiced Thursday night with the click of a metronome in our ears in an effort to help tighten up our sound. Our sound guy tells us that we have a tendency to get faster on fast songs, and slower on slow songs.  He said that all of us struggled with pace at one point or another, but I think that he was just being kind.  I know that I’m the main culprit.  Some of that is intentional–the ebb and flow of live music, you know.  But it’s not always a good thing, and playing/staying in time is pretty important in the musical world.  We all want to get better as musicians, so the idea of playing along with a click track sounded like a good idea.  But there’s a catch–

It’s really difficult to play along with a click track until you get used to it!

The click-click-click-click in my ears was distracting, and forced me to fit my phrasing into the clicks rather than flowing with the feel of the song.  Mr. Metronome seemed to be a rigid taskmaster, and I fought to stay within its restrictive boundaries.  I lost my place in songs because I was focusing on the click rather than the words or chord changes.  I definitely noticed the places where I tended to speed the song up.

But as we worked with the steadying rhythm on the metronome over the course of our rehearsal, I realized that it was having the desired effect–we stayed together, on time, and the music began to sound better, cleaner, more in sync.  As we rolled along, I began to develop a comfort level with the sound of the clicks in my ears, eventually getting to the place where it wasn’t a distraction.  I found myself trusting the other musicians to hear the clicks, and I could simply keep pace with them. As I spent the next few days reflecting on the experience, it dawned on me that God’s word is kind of like a metronome for my life.  Psalm 119:9 drops this bit of wisdom and beauty on us

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.

If I learn to hear the voice of God, to keep in time with the voice and heart of the Father, my life will reflect his character and nature.  It’s not easy.  At first it can be downright frustrating and distracting to hear God’s click-click-click-click in my ears.  But as I practice and learn to move with the rhythm of God, I develop the skill to listen, to walk in step with God’s Spirit.

And that’s a very good thing!

If you were at midtown Sunday morning you witnessed a classic train wreck!  We came out of the chorus of the second song, headed for the second verse.  But (much to my dismay) I sang the opening line for the second verse of the next song!  The band kept playing, which is to their credit, but I lost it.  I was a little embarrassed, and busted out laughing.  It took me a few bars of the song to get my composure back, and we played on.  I don’t think that the worship suffered for it, but it sure was funny…

I guess there will be days like that. It happens to the best of ’em.