Why I love Apple Inc.
Let me start by saying, there are a lot of reasons that I prefer Apple products over just about everything else. This post is just going to highlight one of the reasons and experiences I recently had with Apple.
A while back I begin to notice a problem with my iPhone. The microphone would stop working during phone calls. Obviously this is an important feature of the phone since the microphone is what enables you to use it as, well….a phone. I dismissed it for a while thinking it was no big deal, a software bug that would get fixed in an update. But the problem persisted and continued to get worse, so I made an appt. with the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Birmingham. **Quick Sidenote: making the appt. was easy using apple’s retail store app. they emailed me the time and i added it to ical with complete ease. That was simple and took about 20 seconds to schedule my appt. End Sidenote** When I got to the store, and checked in I could see they were super busy, as they usually are, so I waited a few minutes for my appt. Then a gentleman came out and asked about my issue, I explained it to him, and he took my phone back for a diagnostic test. It came back normal with one software glitch that could have happened during a restore from backup, he said, but knew that had nothing to do with my Mic issue. Apparently my issue was hardware based and was of no fault to me. To my surprise, he told me the only thing they could do is replace my phone with the exact same model for $150.00. ”HUH?” I said. I was caught off guard because typically with a problem like this with an Apple product they would just give you a replacement phone, say thanks, and send you on your way. I was a little disappointed that they would expect me to pay. I understood why I had to pay (my phone was just out of warranty, and I didn’t have apple care) but those of us that have experience with Apple Customer service can attest, thats not the Apple way. I didn’t really have any options at that point, they were swamped, I wanted to get back home to work, and I wanted a phone that made phone calls, so i paid up and left with my new iPhone. When I got back, I decided I would send Tim Cook (CEO) and email and let him know about my disappointment in the store. A few days later I got a phone call from the Store Manager about my situation. (Thanks Tim for sending that email on to them) She gathered some info form me and asked me why I was disappointed in my experience. I made sure I told her that the guy who helped me did nothing wrong, he was quite nice, but the end result I received was not one I was accustomed to getting at the Apple Store. Was it the ‘by the book’ thing to do? Yes. Was it what most companies would do? Absolutely. Was it ‘Apple-esque’? No, it wasn’t.
Anyway, the manager was great, she called me back yesterday and they are refunding my money for the phone. I was thrilled. She obviously doesn’t want customer’s to have bad experiences with Apple or their products, even though there are MILLIONS more customers and having a few disgruntled ones wouldn’t hurt their business at all. Me being upset with them would not have hurt their bottom line one bit. Thank you Apple for treating the customer right. For being concerned with my satisfaction in your product, more than you are about your bottom line.
Thank you Suzy (Apple Store Manager) for being polite and actually calling me back.
I am an Apple user, a loyal Apple user. And I will be for good.
Bradley.
Pro 5 Awesomeness
As you may have read, I am a big fan of Renewed Vision’s software ‘ProPresenter.’ It has revolutionized worship software and let me say we have come a long way from transparencies and overheard projectors! Anyway, I wanted to take a second and make sure that everyone knows that RV is gearing up for the release of version 5 of ProPresenter. It looks really great, with some amazing additions, and a few tweaks that I will greatly appreciate. Go check out all the new stuff you’ll be able to do with Pro5 here. It’s got everything…from twitter integration, to a new stage display, to DVD ripping, to Multi-Screen cues, to planning center online integration, and song select reporting. I mean come on RV, you’re making it a little to easy on us out here! I’ll upgrade as soon as I can. That is all.
When it all comes together
Short Blog post, but wanted to share.
At church, we have band/worship team practices on Monday evenings. So last night we had our normal 6pm rehearsal and it was great. Have you ever had one of those moments as a musician where you’re playing a song and it all comes together? I’m sure you have, but let me explain it a little better. We just started working on a song that I just love. It’s called “To The King” by Travis Cottrell. Anyway…we had played it a couple of times and were working through it again, and it just happened. I could hear all the notes, the melodies, the drum rhythms, the guitars, everything. All of a sudden I got a little giddy. It was a great moment where a song that I loved, came to life. Honestly, I’ve probably have listened to this song 100 times, and worn out at least 2 CD’s that I have burned of it from iTunes. But to hear a group of musicians that you love playing with, bring a song to life is such a cool feeling. A feeling of accomplishment. A feeling of pride. A feeling that this song is going to be used to glorify Christ through the sounds of His church singing it! I could have played that song over and over last night just listening to the wonderful sounds of worship we were making. Moments like that get me excited about leading all over again. Excited to lead a song that urges us to bring everything to God and lift shouts of praise and adoration to Him! I pray that as we introduce this song on Sunday that God would use it to move His Church to worship. That they would be inspired, as I am, to bring Him honor, glory and praise forever and ever, Amen!
“To the King, eternal, immortal, invisible. To the King eternal, to the only wise God!
By the way…Travis Cottrell (Author of the song) just released a new album today! RUN and go get it. it’s great!
Recent Videos
Here are a couple of videos i’ve shot recently for things we have going on around the church. The first I shot on the Panasonic HMC 150. It’s a great camera that shoots onto SD cards, and can record up to 1080p
You can find more about it here.
The second one below, i shot on the 7D. it’s a stop motion video, so I shot the stills then edited it down in Final Cut with Voice Over added and some text to help it along. nothing fancy with After Effects or anything, just some standard text with color. It’s for a teaching series we are having called Lego Church
Both of these videos are pretty simple, straight forward videos. I’m not one for very fancy edits and the like. These can both be achieved with relatively simple setups. For the first video, I shot it in the park, with just the camera. added a music track and just cut together a montage to show the idea and convey the message. On the second one, i had a little more setup. Used some lights from an Arri light kit and used a seamless piece of white paper. Shot all the stills, edited them in Adobe Lightroom, so they all would look the same, then took them into Final Cut Pro and cut them together. Added some simple text for effect, and the voice over for the message. I did the VO very simply, using just garage band to record it with a pretty nice Shure micophone. that simple, added a track I got from Stockmusic.net and there you have it. Both very simple, but both get the point across. (i hope) Maybe this will encourage you to pick up a camera and shoot a little footage for an upcoming event you may be having at your church!
See ya soon!
Whats in Your Dock?
This morning I got to the office and knew I had a blog post I wanted to finish, but as I was firing up my computer and going through my Tuesday morning routine of email, twitter, facebook, and iTunes shopping, I thought of something that could be useful to some, me included. What tools do you use daily, usually those are the ones you keep in your dock of your computer (mac) I don’t know where you keep them on a PC (HA!) So I thought I would do a walk-through of what’s in my dock.
Mail app – my choice client for email. love it, and it comes standard on every mac. It’s not an extra purchase like MS Office Outlook, etc.
Safari – I know many of you are lovers of firefox and chrome, but i’m so used to safari, I can’t give it up. I use it A LOT.
iChat – great communication tool for me. I can link my AIM, Google Talk, and Facebook chat all in one place. very nice.
ProPresenter 4 – Hands down the best presentation software out there. Highly recommend that you check it out!
iCal – This little app has come a long way in it’s function, but it works great for me. I have numerous calendars for church, personal, family, etc. that I can update on any of my devices and they all sync together. iCal + Google = awesome, for me.
iTunes – Tuesday’s are great because new music comes out and I generally shop and see whats out first thing on Tuesday morning. But i typically have music playing while I work. Currrently while I am typing this post I am listening to Matt Redman’s new record. It’s great!
Twitter – It does the job for me. multiple window options, easy to use, and doesn’t take up a lot of screen real estate.
Photoshop CS4 – Use it daily for my job. can’t think of the last day I didn’t use this program. It def. speaks for itself.
It’s Not You, It’s The Band…
Huh? You may be looking at the title of this post and thinking, thats a pretty selfish thing to say. Especially if you read it like this; “You didn’t mess up, the band did.” “The played that way to fast” “you sounded great on that song, but the band sounded terrible.” Yes, all of those so very selfish and vain, but I think of that statement another way… “It’s not you that makes a great team, it’s the band.”
Where would we be as worship leaders, if it weren’t for the band. Remember the last time you decided to sing the chorus again at the end of a set? Or that time you played an extra interlude and following your lead, the band crescendoed for the perfect turn around into the bridge. I could go on, but you get the point. None of this would have happened well had it not been for the chemistry and trust you have in your team. I can’t stress enough how important it is that you, not only surround yourself with good musicians, but that you trust them as well. It also helps if you are friends, but thats a given. I encourage all you worship leaders out there to work hard at trusting and developing chemistry with your team. You won’t regret investing time into each of them, getting to know them, and just laughing with them. But this also applies to YOU. Open yourself up to your team, be vulnerable, and transparent. Simply put, be real to them. If you struggle with a song, let them take over and bring you along. If you are struggling one morning in church to lead effectively because you were up all night with a sick baby, let them pray for you and lift you up. It will be the difference.
Surround yourself with love, trust, respect, musicianship, and leadership, and you can’t go wrong. It’s not just you, it’s the band.
Bradley
ProPresenter 4 (features I love)
Check out the video below of my review of SOME of the features of ProPresenter 4 from Renewed Vision. I did not do a full in depth review, just wanted to take a look at some of my favorite features as a Worship Leader, and how easy it makes presenting visuals in worship.
Some of you may be wondering what I used to view the “stage display” feature…well I did that with a great app called AirDisplay, that I will post about in full detail next week! So be on the lookout! (i’ve gotta keep you coming back every once in a while right?) 
Here is a link to ProPresenter online. www.renewedvision.com Renewed Vision has several other products that some of you may be interested in taking a look at and implementing them into your worship services. I’ll be sure to make mention of tons of other resources in later posts.
I hope that this post was somewhat insightful and gave you some cool tips on how to make ProPresenter work for you in your church! We use it in my church in every ministry just about, and it has been a tremendous asset to our staff and volunteers! Thanks Renewed Vision for a great product!
the iPad…is it worth it?
When the iPad launched last spring, I was pretty skeptical…at first. I thought there was no way I really could use something like that, after all I owned an iphone. I didn’t see what good it would do me to spend another 500-700 bucks on something that i honestly thought I would rarely use. So, like any reasonable apple fan, I bought one anyway. HA! Just kidding. Actually I started doing a little research on ways that I could potentially use it. I looked up apps, read reviews, played around with them at my local retailer and started seeing that I could get a lot of use out of this piece of hardware. So I bought the 32GB WiFi version and now I can honestly say that in 2010 it was the best investment I made as a Media/Worship guy. I use it everyday, it numerous ways, most of which I am going to blog about and clue you in on as time goes by. Just to give you a hint of all the ways I use it, here are a few tasks the iPad handles for me.
- Calendaring (syncing across all my devices and computers) will cover in a later post.
- To-do lists.
- Remote controlling ProPresenter and other programs on computers
- Chord Charts
- Guitar practice
- Bible reading and study
- Book reading
- Song Writing (well, i’m trying at least, unsuccessful at this point)
- Blogging, Note-taking
- Digital portfolio for my photography
- Website Analytics tracking
- Music, Videos, and Photos
Plus a whole lot more. The great thing about the iPad is that the battery is amazing. I can typically go a week without needing to charge it. Depending on how many episodes of Modern Family and other shows from Netflix I watch.
Let me take you through a typical Sunday morning with my iPad. Remember I’ll cover the how-to’s and in’s and out’s of the apps I use in later posts, so this is pretty general…
Sound check starts at 8am, so I have my iPad attached to my microphone stand if I need to reference any Chord Charts during practice or during worship. Then we go to Community groups, in which i take the iPad and use it as my “Digital Bible” as I like to call it. I can look up verses, as well as commentaries from various folks via apps, or online. Then we move on to Worship. I have it with me during that time as well. Chord Charts while i’m leading, then I use it to monitor ProPresenter if need be from my seat in the sanctuary. I don’t have be sitting in front of the Mac upstairs, I can control it if I need to right from my seat. I usually flip between that and the teaching guide and digital bible that are all condensed into one app. If someone has a question about the church calendar, i’ve got the master calendar right there. If you are rockin’ a Digital Console for your sound, then you can even change mixes from the iPad from anywhere!
I think Apple has really hit a home run with the iPad and I can’t wait to see what the next version brings. Also looking forward to sharing with you all the apps and how-to guides on all things iPad and iPhone later. But if you have some spare change from a tax refund, or a side job, then I would recommend investing in an iPad very soon. A great piece of technology, that actually is very useful and practical.
-Bradley
PS: the picture at the top is being used because it also has 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram in it. Roll Tide!
How Do You Lead?
I’m looking forward to just blogging some of the ways and techniques that I use in leading worship. Most of these posts will be experience driven and hopefully spur on discussion among readers on things they do in leading that inspire worshippers, cross generational gaps, and communicate God’s message in new ways. Stay tuned folks, first entry here should drop next week!
-BradleyMy Guitar Gear Setup
Here’s the deal. I don’t have a very sophisticated guitar set up, and I don’t think that you have to in all settings. In fact in the average church setting, what I have will probably work just fine. I’ve had no problems with it at all. Along with that, I would like to say that I’m NOT the best guitar player, and i’m sure there are some of you out there who know a lot more about it than me, but this works for me and it’s a nice concise set up.
Guitar: It’s important to have a guitar that you love, and that you enjoy playing. I’ve had guitars that I didn’t enjoy playing and that didn’t sound that great. Thats 0-2 people, and thats not good! So a couple of years ago finally got a guitar that I love playing and that I enjoy listening too. I decided to go with a smaller body guitar because it fits me better (i’m a small guy). To me there’s nothing worse than seeing someone on stage and they are completely overshadowed by an oversized guitar. I play a Larrivee and I have really enjoyed it. I bought one that I could install my own pick-up of choice in, and I went with an LR Baggs pickup which sounds great.
Director Box: I think DI boxes are equally important for sound. I love using the LR Baggs Acoustic DI. It has great controls that really let you manage your tone, before it ever gets to FOH.
Tuner: Everyone needs a good tuner, and you can’t go wrong with Boss TU-2 or now TU-3
Line 6 Delay and POD: I don’t play much electric but when i do, I usually play through this Delay and the Line 6 Pod. Since i don’t play a lot and it’s mostly just rhythm i’m not to concerned with tons of effects. I just need a nice overdrive sound with some delay on it. So these two things do the trick just fine. I’m sure there is much fancier equipment I could use, but these 2 work. One thing i’ve learned is that it’s ok to have simplicity in gear, don’t make it harder than it needs to be. Keep it simple and focus on leading, inspiring, and being a transparent worship leader. I’m not saying that tone isn’t important, IT IS. But for some folks, like myself, electric guitar isn’t my main instrument, so I just need it to sound good, and the easier the better!
Boss AB Switch: I love using this switch from boss. Makes it super easy to switch between guitars on stage, and lets me have less cables to get tangled up in. I usually will have an acoustic and electric on stage at once and they go out to 2 different channels, so this allows me to still only have 1 guitar cable for both guitars.
Here is a picture of my stage set up and what it looks like, minus the guitars sitting out:
So there you have it. Questions? Comments?
-Bradley
