Grace Liao: Musical Testimony (Urbana 2000)
Violinist from the worship teamby Grace Liao
1. How do you worship with your violin? Sometimes words cannot express to God what I am experiencing in my heart, so I sing through my violin. When my violin was found after it was stolen in June, my appreciation for this gift was renewed. From this experience, I was reminded that my violin is a gift from God, and He wants me to play it for His glory! Therefore, when I am playing the violin, my heart is worshipping God and thanking Him. I sing the notes that I play because I see the violin as an instrument that closely resembles the human voice.
2. How do you approach a song with no music or music with only the lead sheet (when only the melody is printed)? I cry! Just kidding. I would first learn the melody and the harmonic structure of the song and see what is missing. Does the rhythm need more definition? Which register (soprano, alto, tenor, or bass) needs more reinforcement? If I am playing more of a rhythmic motif, I think up an interesting rhythm that is different from what anyone else is playing. If I am playing a more melodic piece, I write out a countermelody or a harmony that would complement the vocalists by highlighting the melody.
3. A theory question: How do you approach chord changes in a song? What do you play when the melody is sung? In general, I extract notes from scales within the chords of a song and make up a melody with those notes. But, if the song has a bluesy melody, then I play notes from the blues scale in the same key that the song is in. There are many ways to play through a chord change (i.e., bridge one chord to the next). One of the ways that I am fond of doing it is to play a common note shared by two adjacent chords. This technique is effective for creating or releasing musical tension because the melody connects the underlying harmonies. Another way to play through a chord change is to play the notes of the next chord. If you decide to play in this manner, I would minimize the gap between the notes bridging the two chords. This method propels the music forward by creating a melodic shape. I try to avoid doubling the melody that the vocalists are singing because first, it can be distracting and second, in my opinion, it is not as artistic. Lastly, I like to play during pauses in the melodic phrase to complement the established melody.
4. If I am a classically trained violinist, how can I utilize the skills that I’ve learned to play current worship songs? If you are classically trained, consider yourself blessed! You have already learned the ABC’s of playing the violin, and now you can use lots of vibrato when you play a beautiful melody, you can play staccato notes when the music gets exciting, you can use false harmonics to add tone color. The possibilities are endless. The name of the game is expression! All my life, I was taught how to interpret other people’s music, but now I have the freedom to create my own music. One aspect that I have enjoyed about being a part of a worship team (as opposed to a chamber group or an orchestra) is that I have the liberty to express myself the way God has made me.
5. How can I improvise better? First, listen, and listen well. It is so important for us to listen to other musicians and to hear what has worked for them, and to hear what is coming out of our instruments, and to hear what our hearts are singing. We didn’t take aural training classes for nothing! So I transcribe other people’s solos. In doing that, I am learning the solo melody and variations, understanding the structure of the solo, and memorizing the solo. When I improvise, I can hear a tune in my mind. I imagine the violin as my vocal cord, and I sing the melody with it. Then the next question that I get is usually: How do you know what to play? Since scales are the building blocks to melodies, the first thing I would do is to master the blues and the major modal scales in different keys. Try this at home: Take three notes of a C blues scale and make a 12-bar melody over a standard blues form (I IV I I, IV IV I I, V IV I I (V) ) using only those three notes. See what happens!
6. What aspects of the team rehearsal do you like the most? Unlike orchestra rehearsals where you are reprimanded for playing notes not written in the music, I am encouraged to develop new riffs or melodies in our team practice. When I worship, my heart is like a well of notes that spring up melodies constantly. It is frustrating when I cannot remember a good tune that I just improvised. So, I like to keep blank staff paper in my worship music binder to jot down ideas.
7. What does your individual practice time look like? I like to warm up by playing scales to a metronome (e.g., quarter note = 56) because I can focus on improving the tone and intonation of each note and experiment with different rhythms. Besides playing the major and minor scales, I learned the blues and the major modal scales (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian). The three scales that I use the most are the blues, the Dorian and the Mixolydian scales. I highly recommend learning those scales because they are like the salt and the pepper to food in jazz music. It is also important to maintain your fundamental skills, so I practice the Kreutzer études, Bach sonatas, and violin concertos. But one of my favorite exercises that I have learned this year is to play with a CD of a backup band. You can play free-style improvisation. Be unrestricted and play whatever comes to your mind. Then, begin to develop a melody and work with that.
8. How do you approach an instrumental groove? What do you play when it’s your turn to solo? A groove has a GROOVE, an underlying rhythm similar to our heartbeats that is constant. The rhythm of the groove is most likely played by the drummer and the bassist, but the violin is such a versatile instrument, it can act as a rhythm instrument. I like to play double stops or a short motif in repeating rhythms when I am not soloing. Playing music is expressing an idea or ideas with musical notes. So, I create a theme and expound on the musical ideas through variations or repetitions. Writing out a theme and a variation is a good place to start. To make the music more interesting, I often imitate sounds of other solo instruments such as the flute or saxophone.
9. Why do you make faces when you play? I cannot see myself, but people often tell me that my face is very expressive when I play. It reflects the degree of intensity that I experience in worship when I feel the Spirit moving powerfully through the music.
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