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You know how, sometimes, you totally forget to take your guitar capo off between songs?
(ed: entered by Michael Lee on behalf of Sharolyn, who is scared of the internet)
** Updated Feb 10, 2007 **
Welcome to all of you who have linked in to this post. We’d love it if you stuck around for a little bit, and check the place out. It’s a multi-author blog, with a few main contributors, and about a half-dozen more who throws their $.02 in. If you want to know what the Addison Road blog is all about, you can read this post. Our front page has the latest posts. If you’re looking for something with more meat on it, let me suggest four posts: Why I Am Not Emergent, The Dementape Letters: One, 60 Months, An Open Letter to Music Pastors, and Soft Men.
Stick around – put your feet up! It’s a good place to hang out.
Sarah 1:30 pm on 19 September 2006 Permalink
That was pretty much the most amazing thing ever! That’s why it’s the heart that counts, right? Anywho, it definitely makes me feel better…
michael lee 2:27 pm on 19 September 2006 Permalink
I think sometimes it actually is the performance that counts!
But i get what you mean.
Len Jones 9:35 am on 25 September 2006 Permalink
I feel your pain – been there and done that – threw away the t-shirt. Blessings and thank you for sharing.
Henry Wang 11:52 am on 25 September 2006 Permalink
My friend linked me to entry… and i just wanted to say…
I’ve done that before… !!
Its ok Jesus loves us even if we forget to take off the capo and other mistakes =)
Ritchie Carbajal 4:11 pm on 25 September 2006 Permalink
here’s a switch: i’m on keys and i’m handed a guitar chart that requires a capo. the worship leader who handed me the chart doesn’t know the difference and wonders why i’m playing in the wrong key. anyways, i get blamed for the train wreck.
shaeman » Blog Archive » Holy is the…..CRAP take that Capo off! 5:15 pm on 25 September 2006 Permalink
[...] You guys have to go here and check this thing out. Be sure to listen to the end… [...]
John 7:17 pm on 25 September 2006 Permalink
Wow,
Now I have a new thing to fear… heh
f 8:55 pm on 30 September 2006 Permalink
oh my. I’ve done that before too!! it actually messed me up big time. that guy has a good voice. :)
amyjane 4:19 am on 16 October 2006 Permalink
i think you did a pretty good job of just playing it off!
John Westphall 5:05 pm on 17 October 2006 Permalink
The same thing happened to me. I was playing guitar for the worship band and the top of the page had (capo 2) and we were playing in Em but I didn’t notice the (capo 2) was if you played in Dm. I started and the leader becan to sing and soon he gracefully turned and said,”let’s try another key”. I felt about . that small.
michael lee 11:00 pm on 4 February 2007 Permalink
Just FYI, Sharolyn, you hold the world record for most linked-in to post ever. Congrats! This still makes it to the top 10 most visit posts every single week.
Bobby 8:03 am on 5 February 2007 Permalink
I saw this happen to Big Tent Revival once at a Harvest Crusade in San Diego… The singer had his capo on the wrong fret, so the band came in a half-step off. You could see the frantic looks even from the grandstands – but everybody locked in pretty quick – that was impressive (at the time). At least it was only in front of a couple dozen thousand people.
And now, off to continue my mission of resurrecting ancient posts!
michael lee 5:31 pm on 10 February 2007 Permalink
Todd over at Monday Morning Insights just linked to this again, so I updated the original post a bit.
Gino 8:50 pm on 12 February 2007 Permalink
I suspect that when he got to “lift up our hands” he realized what was happening and was praying in his head “God help me!!!” but the real payoff is when the band comes in on “together we sing….” HLOL!!!!!!! I’m about ready to post this on my xanga.
Gino
Gino 8:53 pm on 12 February 2007 Permalink
I must also add that you can tell he’s straining his voice trying to get to those notes and you can tell it sounds higher in key before the band comes in.
Joey Jones 7:55 am on 13 February 2007 Permalink
This is great! Thanks for sharing – this is the kind of stuff we normally bury in the archives somewhere and try to pretend never happened. Nice to see it isn’t just our church.
Mike Radebaugh 6:20 am on 14 February 2007 Permalink
Where’s that third hand when you need it???? Fret not, for thou art not the only worship leader who has had this happen. How about the Sunday I asked the rythm guiarist to just strum the chord and I’ll begin singing. You guessed it. Didn’t take capo off. Screeeeeech. Backup. Start again. I even think God gets a chuckle out of this. He is the audience anyway. Keep praisin’ Him!!!
Loren Wheaton 7:57 pm on 17 February 2007 Permalink
Somebody break out the road flairs and call 911, there’s been a train wreck and it’s a BIG one too. Been there, done that and have the scars and the tee shirt to prove it. All you can do is break the mood, humbly have a good laugh and get right back into. That had to be the most hilarious, painful thing that I’ve ever heard. Sure was embarrasing.
Loren Wheaton 8:02 pm on 17 February 2007 Permalink
[quote comment="15866"]how about this for a joke on your lead keyboard player………….going to church way early before any of the other musicians get there and transposing the lead keyboard to whatever key, and the whole band trying to figure out what key their in……..or even tuning the guitars, bass, and any other instruments, all different keys….now thats a laugh[/quote]
I seem to remember that “Stoning” is Biblical. That’s not funny.
Becky 3:24 pm on 19 February 2007 Permalink
I’ve kept the capo on – but at the first sour note, I stop and start again. It shows your congregation that you’re human too, and you’re just real people coming together (“together we sing…”) to worship the living God. The first time (yes, I’ve done it like 3 times) that I made that mistake, one of my team members told me later that she liked me even more now that she knew I wasn’t perfect! Take an embarrassing musical moment as an opportunity to break down the invisible wall between the stage and the congregation.
Blaine Fallis 3:34 pm on 20 February 2007 Permalink
What? Sounded pretty good to me. What are y’all talking about?
Tim 7:50 pm on 20 February 2007 Permalink
Wow, what a train wreck, I am thankful to be a keyboard player, although I can can kinda relate vocally.
dave 8:38 am on 24 February 2007 Permalink
Our former senior pastor, a gifted guitar player in his own right, was leading some worship songs on a Sunday night, broke a string, looked up and said, “Anybody have a G-String?” A quirky smile came across his face and he turned crimson.
Tom 2:52 pm on 26 February 2007 Permalink
For anyone interested, that is the popular Christian recording star C.R., (I will only give his initials to avoid any further…
michael lee 4:32 pm on 26 February 2007 Permalink
Dude, I have no clue who that even might be referring to. Chad? Wanna spin up the ole’ CCM Superpowers and tell us who CR might be?
Credence (Clearwater) Revival?
Cris tRomlin?
Cindy laupeR?
Morphea 4:42 pm on 26 February 2007 Permalink
No one I know. But my library stops at about 1997.
Cerise
Nick 2:56 pm on 27 February 2007 Permalink
I like the music theory talk from the keyboardists. Little do you know, generic guitar-strumming worship leaders don’t deal in theory. They deal in “where do we put our capo?”…Slap on a capo and strum E2, A2, and B2 as hard as they can….and boom-You have an instant rock star. You know, leading worship will really ruin your guitar playing!
Back on subject, mistakes happen. Probably should have stopped and started over in the right key.
nick 9:50 pm on 27 February 2007 Permalink
Yikes! I didn’t mean that to sound so harsh. Should have proofread before posting. I loved the sound clip. It’s been good for a laugh every day for about a week now. Thanks for posting it!
Morphea 9:48 am on 28 February 2007 Permalink
OK, I agree to a degree (hey, that rhymes) and don’t really think you sounded that harsh, either, but I know some guitarists on this blog that may tear you a new one with that “slap on a capo, instant rock star” talk.
Maybe not. Corey?
Cerise
josh 3:01 pm on 6 April 2007 Permalink
totally the band’s fault. i’ve been on both sides of these situations, usually as a band member, and you’ve got to keep your ears open. there’s no excuse for being out of key for more than a bar or two.
i know the worship leader in the clip very well, and i can say that he’s used to working with professional musicians who would notice that he was in the wrong key before they came in.
as a side note, this song was released to the internet without his permission. in fact, he didn’t even know the recording existed until someone grabbed him and said “hey, you gotta hear this!” totally not cool on the church’s part for sending it out as a joke behind his back.
so for those of you thanking the author of the blog for his humility, its not him in the recording. he’s just passing on a small-time, sub-culture meme that is probably more hurtful and embarassing than he intends it to be.
Sharolyn 6:22 pm on 6 April 2007 Permalink
When I posted this, I was a very (completely?) inexperienced blogger. I would make a different choice today. I got it as an e-mail forward, and I guess I felt like I was forwarding it. The post took off, and I felt horrible. So please accept a sincere apology from your sister in Christ. Mike, you can delete the whole thing.
Stick 10:17 pm on 6 April 2007 Permalink
I dunno… it certainly wasn’t posted with the intention of “embarrasing” or hurting the artist. I’ve been a musician all my life, and have things like that happen all the time…
For example, today (Good Friday service) I’m sitting on stage at the piano (which is directly behind the pastor’s podium). The pastor is praying in the midst of a lovely communion service, and guess who’s cell phone goes off… and it’s my wife, so the ringer is set to a blasting hip big band track. Needless to say, this hasn’t happened to me before, and likely won’t happen again, because now I’ll think to turn it off.
And I’m sure this artist in this clip is much more careful about where his capo is.
Anyway, point being, the post is meant to spread a little fun… it’s one of those “laughing WITH him” occasions, I hope. We’ve ALL been there, and will probably be there again…he’s just the one that managed to have it recorded at the time. Shoot, I’m doing 3 am services on Easter… it’ll probably be me doing something silly at least once! It won’t be my cell phone though! HA!
michael lee 10:42 pm on 6 April 2007 Permalink
Man, I just don’t want to meet the guy who has something like this happen to him and CAN’T laugh about it. I have no patience for people who take themselves that seriously.
Also, I’ve posted this on several other sites (including Todd’s huge Monday Morning Insights blog that keeps linking to it), but this is NOT anyone associated with this site. We are not a church, we do not have a worship team, this is not us poking fun at ourselves.
This is us laughing at an anonymous clip of a worship leader, frankly, because most of us lead worship and we’ve all done things equally dumb ourselves. And we laughed then, too
Chad 1:57 pm on 11 April 2007 Permalink
[quote comment="70776"]
as a side note, this song was released to the internet without his permission. in fact, he didn’t even know the recording existed until someone grabbed him and said “hey, you gotta hear this!” totally not cool on the church’s part for sending it out as a joke behind his back.
so for those of you thanking the author of the blog for his humility, its not him in the recording. he’s just passing on a small-time, sub-culture meme that is probably more hurtful and embarassing than he intends it to be.[/quote]
Just saw this…
Josh, if you ever read this, just know that we have nothing but love and affection for the victim of this musical indescretion.
Nick 6:14 am on 25 May 2007 Permalink
This is the post that got me hooked on the Addison Road experience. Something happened Wednesday that I feel like I need to share.
I felt like I was a little critical of this guitar player as well as painting all worship leader-guitar players in one brush stroke. Well, I think my comment caught up with me.
Wednesday night, I left my capo on the 3rd fret, and when my bass player looked at me puzzled, I yelled out “it’s in B” but I was playing in C. Luckily, she caught on, but not before I led the group in a song- that should have been sung in A- in C. You know that feeling when nobody is singing because it’s too high? Not to mention, it was too high for me…but I bulldozed through it.
I wish I had a recording to post.
Mike 5:15 pm on 8 July 2007 Permalink
[quote comment="13335"]What did Mike and Aly do to “Strange Fruit”?[/quote]
“Strange Fruit” by Billy Holliday?
Travis’ Blogspot » Blog Archive » Always Check the Capo 8:22 pm on 24 September 2007 Permalink
[...] Check it out here. [...]
Don’t Forget To Take Off Your Capo! 12:48 pm on 30 October 2007 Permalink
[...] you do this will happen…CLICK HERE to listen to a mistake we’ve all made at some [...]
toby 1:48 pm on 30 October 2007 Permalink
can we say train wreck !!, with a side of smash !! and embarrasement !!
Jeff Myers 11:08 am on 31 October 2007 Permalink
I think the best part about that is…I think anyone who’s ever played with a worship band for long enough has probably been a part of a moment like that. As hilarious as that was…I can already think of about ten times something like that has happened to our band. Awesome!
JC 7:12 am on 1 November 2007 Permalink
If I didn’t say it before (been a while since I’ve been on or seen/heard this post re-posted)…I can’t listen to this song any more without waiting for that crash to happen. They played this song in church the other day, and I just smiled and cringed as the worship team approached that part of the song. Can’t get it out of my head. Please warn me before you post any more of these so I can choose/not choose to have the song mishap locked away in the musical part of my brain forever. I can’t remember my anniversary, but I can remember stuff like this forever. JC
Holy is the…WHAT WAS THAT?!? « Duane Collicott 6:51 am on 2 November 2007 Permalink
[...] 2nd, 2007 by dlcollicott This is what happens when you guitarists forget to remove your capo between [...]
Bobby 8:40 am on 2 November 2007 Permalink
I play with several different worship bands on various occasions and I have this problem when doing a worship set with my own band… I can’t remember what key we usually play the song in. I mean, we might do it in A, or D, or E, or G. I just don’t remember. So I guess. Usually coming out of a prayer, I start playing tastefully and quietly.
I think I’m about 3 for 5 in guessing the wrong key. And when I say wrong, I don’t mean, wrong for the band or wrong for the singer. A couple times it has been the wrong key for humans. I’m glad our singer is a good sport, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously to admit a mistake and reboot. I feel like that approach is less distracting than trying to bluster through an obvious mishap. .
Capo Issues…Again « Nathan Wright 5:34 pm on 20 April 2008 Permalink
[...] We’ve all heard the infamous “Holy is the Chord?” and we know all much capos can mess up a whole band’s set. I found this on Carlos blog [...]
Straight Up » Blog Archive » Links…: Christmas Edition… 8:14 am on 26 December 2008 Permalink
[...] thought I had Made Every Worship Leading Mistake, this however I have not done. (so so so [...]
Andre Lai 11:09 am on 2 January 2009 Permalink
Ouch. My ribs hurt from laughing so much.
I have done this before though. The other one is totally blanking out on the lyrics of a worship, while my vocals was supposed to carry the song. Blank stares and confused looks all around. My youth band still gives me a hard time about it.
Chad 9:48 pm on 14 March 2009 Permalink
Part 2 of my Ongoing Quest to Stimulate more Conversation:
I think this is the new best way to do this song.
Phil McCarthy 11:57 am on 6 May 2009 Permalink
Hey at least the drummer stayed in key!
But there again, I’ve been there. I usually stop and say let’s retune the guitarist shall we?
Phil.
brian 8:13 pm on 10 June 2009 Permalink
@josh – Josh, you’re kidding, right? It was the band’s fault? The band was being unprofessional? He’s used to working with “professional musicians”?
I would expect the worship leader to stop, apologize & laugh it off, re-establish the mood, and start over again.
A “small-time sub-culture meme?” Could you be any more condescending? Lighten up :)