Roland U.S.

Chapel Rock Christian Church

Going Digital In A Grand Fashion

by Jim Bybee

As churches feature more and more contemporary music in their worship services, the piano is becoming much more than a musical centerpiece. The presence of a grand piano on the platform is dramatic and visually appealing, and its rich sound forms the core of a lot of modern worship music. However, while an acoustic grand piano sounds and looks beautiful, its size and weight makes it difficult to move around a facility, and routine maintenance (such as tuning) is needed to keep the piano sounding its best. Additionally, amplifying the piano’s sound in a large church requires some sophisticated microphone techniques, and can prove quite difficult in high-energy worship ensembles that include drums and guitars. A Roland digital grand piano is a perfect fit in these situations, combining the beauty and elegance of a concert grand with all the benefits that digital technology has to offer, such as consistent tone that’s always in tune, key transposition at the touch of a button, a wide variety of sounds, song recording and playback, and much more.

Chapel Rock Christian Church is one such church that’s discovered the benefits of digital technology for praise and worship. A large, active church on the west side of Indianapolis, Indiana, Chapel Rock has an average Sunday attendance of around 1400 worshippers. John Holsapple, the Director of Communication Arts, has been at Chapel Rock for the past seven years. When he first arrived, the church’s Steinway grand piano was in a state of disrepair. As John says, “It had seven cracks in the soundboard. We had tuning dilemmas all over the place. It was just awful.” Realizing that a replacement instrument was necessary, John and Chapel Rock approached Piano Solutions, a dealer in Carmel, Indiana that sells both fine acoustic grand pianos and Roland digital pianos.

Choosing between an acoustic grand and a digital grand was hard at first. As John says, “[Piano Solutions] can show you the very best acoustic pianos, and it makes it a tough decision.” Ultimately, the many advantages of the digital piano won them over. “We went for the digital piano, and our bottom-line reasons were: we won't have to tune it anymore, and we like the flexibility of the instrument as far as being able to transpose. For our purposes, this is phenomenal.”

That was over six years ago, and Chapel Rock’s Roland KR-1077 Digital Grand Piano is still going strong. As John says, “I’ve been very pleased with [the Roland piano]. Everyone has.” The instrument is moved throughout Chapel Rock’s facility constantly, and the digital piano’s relative light weight (in comparison to an acoustic grand) has proved very convenient. “I had a big grand piano dolly cut down, and we move [the KR-1077] all over the place, and it works well,” John says. Amplification is a breeze, too; for Sunday services, they just plug the piano’s line output into the house sound system. “Plugging in with a single cable makes things a lot easier,” he says.

The look and sound of the Roland digital grand is so authentic that most people don’t even realize it’s a digital piano — even when it’s being played alongside an acoustic grand. On two occasions, Chapel Rock has brought in a second piano to do a “four hands/two pianos” duet performance. As John relates, “People walk in, and there are double grands onstage with the lids lifted, and it gives you a real fun, artsy feel when you walk into the room. One time we had a digital to match [our KR-1077], and [another] time we had an acoustic piano, and in the house they couldn't tell the difference.”

John also appreciates the Roland piano’s ability to play SMF (Standard MIDI File) music. “We've used it just to create ambience,” says John. “We had one year where the choir did their program at Christmas, and we used CD [backing] tracks and I didn't use a live band at all.” Since he didn’t need the piano onstage, he put it to good use elsewhere. “We set the piano up out in the foyer, lifted the lid, and just let the digital grand play Christmas music while everyone walked in,” John relates. “Surrounded by [winter decorations], it was just a wonderful holiday feel when you walked into the room, with the ‘player piano’ doing its thing.”

In addition to the digital piano, Chapel Rock employs other Roland digital instruments to cope with the challenges of live sound. For drums, they’ve used Roland’s V-Drums for years, and they’ve recently upgraded to a V-Pro kit and TD-20 Sound Module. One big advantage of electronic drums is the ability to control volume, something that’s difficult when using acoustic drums. As John says, “We just need sound control, that’s everything.” A Roland XP-30 Synthesizer is a regular on the Chapel Rock platform as well.

Ultimately, using Roland’s digital technology to eliminate sound hassles and maintenance issues allows John to focus on the music and his director’s role. “I always consider it a collaborative effort,” he says. “I'm into pulling together gifted people and watching them use their gifts. That's my role: letting people do what they're good at.”

To learn more about Chapel Rock Christian Church, visit their website at www.chapelrock.org.
For more information on Roland’s line of digital grand pianos, click here.
Photos courtesy of Shawna Renee Photography.