Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:32 — 6.1MB) | Embed

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I play a Martin DCME acoustic guitar, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson I learned from losing my rhythm.

When it comes to your website, you want to make sure you’re hosting it with a company that is reliable and it’s using technology for today’s internet standards. That’s why we recommend HostGator. HostGator offers hosting plans for as little $3.96/month and offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and a 45 day money back guarantee. Visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/hostgator to sign up for HostGator web hosting today.

Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum! Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.

What I Learned Yesterday:
I mentioned in a previous episode that I sing and play guitar at my church. What I didn’t tell you is that I’m the worship leader and I’m, shall we say, rhythmically challenged. Most of the time I’m fine. That’s not to say that I always keep in rhythm. I don’t. I have a tendency to speed up as a song goes on. I have to really focus to keep from speeding up the tempo.

However, speeding up the tempo isn’t usually that big of a deal. The band sticks with me and we all stay together. The drummer has worked with me in rehearsals to help me more aware of my tempo during the entire song and I don’t really ever get so fast that it’s hard to sing along, it’s just faster than it was when we started.

If gradually getting faster as songs progress was my only problem, I probably wouldn’t bother telling you about it. After all, it’s a problem that most people won’t notice. My bigger problem is that I will flat out lose my rhythm from time to time. That is, I’ll be strumming along, playing a song that I’ve done a hundred times before and add in a extra beat or even skip a beat. When I make this type of mistake, it’s noticeable by everyone. We’re all off. Well, actually, the band and the congregation are together, but the guy singing into the microphone and leading everyone is off.

When this happens it creates an awkward moment. I instantly realize what I’ve done, of course, and try to figure out how to get back on track. I think what normally happens is that once the odd beat has passed, I’m back on the normal rhythm and the band and congregation just have to sync back up with me. This process usually takes a couple of seconds. Then we’re all back together and the awkward moment is behind us.

This past Sunday I made a mistake that I only make every 5 or 6 months. That is, I play the song in a time signature that is completely wrong. Now, I don’t know how to read music and I know very little about music theory. Think back to your 6th grade music class and you might remember something about 4/4 time, 3/4 time, or even 6/8 time. Those numbers represent the time of the song.

This last Sunday I started a song that I’ve been playing for 5 or 6 years and didn’t realize my mistake until it was too late to turn back. The song is in a 6/8 time signature and has a long instrumental intro. Instead of using my guitar pick with a palm muting technique that I normally use, I decided to play the intro more softly and use a finger picking technique. My finger picking skills are very limited and I can only do basic picking patterns. As a result, I started the song in 4/4 time.

I was oblivious to my error throughout the entire intro. When it came time to begin singing, I instantly realized my mistake. I backed off the microphone and played through the chord progression again to see if I could work out a solution. No solution came. I decided to go ahead and sing the song as best as I could. It was awkward. I was trying to fit the words into rhythm patterns that they weren’t intended for. It was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I began to panic. I started sweating and I could feel my face turning red from the embarrassment I was feeling. After what seemed like an eternity, I finished the first verse. I had no idea what the chorus would sound like so I sang the first verse again, trying to figure out how to wrap up the song as smoothly as possible. As I finished the verse again (as awkward as it was the first time through), I decided I had to go for the chorus.

The transition to the chorus actually worked to my advantage. Somehow it triggered something in my brain and the normal strumming pattern emerged. Yes, I changed the rhythm of the song in mid-song and course corrected back to the proper time signature. It felt good, but the song was still awkward. After singing the chorus, I gave the drummer the cue to end the song and it was over.

Here’s what I learned.

I know that I am going to make mistakes when I play the guitar. In fact, I make a mistake almost every week. Most of the time it’s a wrong chord and the congregation doesn’t even notice. The band is there to help cover up my goofs. Sometimes I sing a wrong word. Those mistakes are pretty obvious. Sometimes I lose my rhythm, and sometimes I play a song in the wrong time signature. And every once in a while I’ll start a song in the wrong key and I have to completely stop the song and start again. Like I said, mistakes are inevitable.

However, I don’t let the inevitability of mistakes keep me from playing. I know that my role as worship leader of Crosspointe Community Church in Edmond, OK is a role that God has called me to. I am a firm believer that God will use us for ministry and do great things, despite and through our shortcomings.

Now, you may not be the church-going type. That’s okay, there’s still stuff in this episode for you too.

The fact is, we all mess up. Life will knock us out of rhythm sometimes. Sometimes we mess up in very public ways and we embarrass ourselves. Sometimes our mistakes are much bigger than playing a wrong time signature. We can’t let those mistakes keep us down. This coming Sunday I will get back on stage, plug in my guitar, and do my best. I will learn from my past mistake, and try my best not to repeat it.

Mistakes are what make us better. They only defeat us if we let them. In that way, it is only we who can defeat ourselves. The mistakes do not hold that power.

I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.

[sc:stuff]