Pedal to the floor...

I think Marty Haugen’s Gather Us In (GIA Publications) is a pretty cool piece of music. While it was written “back in the ‘82” it has endured over time. I chose it this week as a gathering song, but wanted to give it a fresh approach for an even more contemporary sound. If you recall, there are a lot of chord changes...not difficult ones, just a lot of them. The first phrase alone has 4, the next another 4, and so on. I’ve often found when I change something up I usually take things away or simplify the music. Maybe that’s a more modern approach. (?)  So, for the verses of the song I asked the bass player to stay on D, the root of the chord. The bass pattern along with the chords we played looks like this:

We just kept that D pedal the whole time throughout the verse until the 3/8 bar, where the C occurs (“light of this”).  There, we just played a C2, but hit it big and let it ring for a dotted quarter note.

You’ll also notice that I asked the guitars to play a D5 (and A5, C5, etc.) chord instead of a regular D. That just leaves out the 3rd, giving it a more open sound. Then it’s easier to mute it to add more rhythm and not sound so folksy.

For the 2nd half (where it goes back to “Gather us in” on A) we didn't really change anything until the last C again (“sound of our name”) where we again hit it and let it ring, but stretched that measure out to a full 6/8, singing “sound of our name” over the C2 chord.  Then we played the turn-around, really strong, to head back to the next verse.

The song doesn't need any of these changes. It works so well as Marty Haugen composed it.  These are just some ideas to change things up a bit, and maybe raise some eyebrows!

Next week I’d like to share some ideas I have for changing up I Am the Bread of Life (Toolan/GIA).