A Day in the Life - Michael W. Smith & Katinas Benefit

Well, quite unexpectedly, I ended up playing last night with multi-Grammy winner Michael W. Smith and the Katinas and Natalie Grant.

My friend, Sam Katina, called me about 3 days ago to play pre-service music for a benefit concert that they were holding for the victims of the tsunami that hit their home islands of Samoa. I was, of course, honored to do it. It was going to be the standard "acoustic nylon string guitar playing hymns" before the event for a few minutes type of situation. I have done a lot of this type of thing over the years so this part of the story didn't stress me out too much.

Sam and I play phone tag over the next few days as I fruitlessly try to get a few more details of the event. We never actually did speak one on one about the event until I arrived there.

On the day of the event, my lovely wife calls and says that this event is in the newspaper today and that Michael W. Smith, American Idol-Melinda Doolittle, and several other artists were going to be appearing as well. At this point, I began to think "maybe I should actually practice a bit for this thing" this might be a bigger deal than I initially thought.

I left work early to go home and practice for a few minutes, put on my "cool" clothes, and put my nylon string in the car and also brought my electric just in case. (It was a good thing I brought it.)

I arrived there late because of some traffic and already people are lining up outside for the event. I get in and get set up. The sound man asks me if I have an acoustic steel string guitar for another artist Jeremy Camp to use. I said "no", didn't know I needed to bring one for him. He ended up bringing his incredible McPherson acoustic anyway, although he did end up using my capo.

We did a few second sound check and, thinking I was just going to be playing pre-service for a few minutes, I told the soundman not to worry too much about my on-stage monitor volume because I didn't want to screw up anyone elses mix. (This decision I would later regret.)

We gather backstage and I start to get the vibe that the Katinas are going to want me to play with them (something I have done before) because their guitar player wasn't able to come. Sure enough, they ask me to play with them. Here was my instructions moments before we were walking out on stage "We'll do Blessed be the Name in E, How Great is our God in C, and Smitty (Michael W. Smith's nickname) will probably want to do Draw Me Close in Bb.

Luckily I was pretty familiar with all of those songs so I figured I could at least keep up with them, although I was now suddenly pretty nervous that Michael W. Smith was now in the mix.

We met backstage for literally about 2 minutes and then it was time for me to go out and play the pre-service material. "15 minutes - end right at 7pm" No problem. Well, I played a few things as folks are getting seated saving my "big" songs for the last five minutes and wouldn't you know everyone comes out 5 minutes early. So, the songs that I really prepared for I ended up not playing.

I go backstage, and Michael W. Smith is back there along with everyone else. Everyone was very gracious and personable. He eventually rounded the room and came up to me "Hi, I'm Michael". We exchanged pleasantries for a second and then he went out on stage and did one song then the Katinas get called out on the stage to play with him and they motion me to come out with them. So, off I go out on stage, playing with one of the biggest artists I've ever worked with not having a clue what we are going to play.

Do you ever have those dreams where you find yourself in school in class and the teacher says "Ok, today is the final exam" and then you panic because you haven't come to class all year and by the way, you're in your pajamas for some reason? It was one of those sorts of moments.

So, the Katinas (who have worked with him) immediately play the song. I find myself scooting over to look over Michael W. Smiths shoulder so that I could see his hands on the piano. Oh, and by the way, I can't hear a thing I am playing. The only thing I can hear is a few echos of me playing in the house. Which tells me, "Great, I'm nice and loud in the house, but meanwhile I can't hear anything I'm playing and don't even know what key we're in."

Mercifully, the song ends and he goes into the song I am familiar with in Bb so at least I was able to throw in a few licks on nylon string guitar that hopefully I didn't embarrass myself on.

We get through and walk off the stage. I breathe a sigh of relief. Then the Katinas and me by default get called back up a few more times to play songs that I don't know. But they all knew what they were doing so I just blended in and through in a few things when I could.

The night closed out with me playing with the Katinas for three songs at the end.

Everyone was pleased. I was very humbled and blessed to be there. They are great guys. And it was a surprising and wonderful break from working at the computer writing the blues course and chemo therapy appointments.

Musically, the ability to hear chord changes and know what they are saved my rump. This, above any other skill, is vitally important to be a musician at this level. This is a skill that is never formally taught yet called upon on almost every recording session I've worked on, and on some of the really high-profile live dates with major people.

Hearing chord changes is something that I want to do a course on in the future. It's not mystical, it just takes familiarity with music theory and real world practice.

To all of the people that say "I don't need to know music, tab is just fine for me... and music theory is too much work...it's just useless information". To all of them I say "Maybe learning Stairway to Heaven off of the internet by someone's incorrect TAB is where your musical world is at, but in my musical world, doing the things that I am asked to do, you need to understand music and how it works."

Here's a short homemade video of highlights from last nights event that someone put up on YouTube. You can see my face occasionally sprinkled throughout it, and but you can't really hear a note I played (which might not be a bad thing). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVVUAl3VqyE

Keep up the great work. Keep Growing in your Playing. Making music is a wonderful thing!

- Steve Krenz