Soon Baboon Soon
Every week, when we make music together as worship teams, we have essential musical decisions to make. So here’s a humorous yet insightful story of what it takes to make music together. It’s a book called Soon Baboon Soon by Dave Horowitz. It’s the story of a baboon who has to wait his turn to play his triangle in a percussion orchestra. You can watch me read it here: bit.ly/SoonBaboon
Here comes a drummer.
--
Here comes his brother.
Here comes another.
--
He’s a drummer like his brother and his other brother (Yeah!)
--
Wait, primate, wait.
--
Monkey see…Monkey do…
Monkey beat…Monkey…
--
BOOM!
--
Soon, Baboon, Soon.
--
Chimpanzees play timpani.
Lemurs laugh along.
--
Orangutans bang everyTHANG.
Gorilla’s got a GONG.
--
C’MON! (says the frustrated Baboon)
Hold on.
--
A GONG
A BONG
A CRASH
A BOOM
--
Psst…don’t just stand there.
Hit it, Baboon.
--
Ting (the Baboon finally plays his triangle)
--
(That ting had zing!)
--
BRAVO, Baboon, BRAVO!
I wanted to share this with you for one reason. Sometimes, when we make music together, it’s tough to wait. It’s hard to walk into the room prepared enough to listen to each other to play in context with each other. We get caught just trying to play all the chords on the chart, strum the right rhythm, or beat the regular beat.
Some of the most significant things we play are rests. Some of the best stuff we contribute is not to play or to play less, so the little we do can say something, be meaningful, and communicate. A great way to practice this is to play along with the recording, producing yourself into what’s already there. (you can thank Jeremy Graeff for that one!)
So here’s my challenge to you. Would you experiment with waiting? Would you experiment with being the Baboon? Saying, “I’m going to wait. I could play right now, but I’m going to wait so I can listen. What else is happening, what’s already going on in the music? What can I add to that? How can I defer to my other monkey friends so I can be the Baboon that waits?
And sometimes, calling myself a Baboon helps me wait. Otherwise, I get antsy. And really, would that “ting” have had “zing” if the Baboon would’ve been “tinging” all song long? I doubt it. Be the Baboon!
-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)
Soon Baboon Soon (Nº 42)
