The popularity of contemporary Christian music is in full bloom. However, the acoustic environments in many churches can make it difficult to present the high-energy CCM sound at controllable volume levels. Electronic musical instrument technologies make it easy to tackle the everyday sound reinforcement issues that arise when presenting CCM music, along with providing superior sound quality and additional conveniences that can’t be beat. Many churches are enjoying these benefits every week, and one is Zionsville Presbyterian Church (ZPC) in Zionsville, Indiana.

Located on the northwestern edge of Indianapolis, ZPC draws worshippers from the communities of Zionsville, Carmel, and Westfield, as well as the greater Indianapolis area. Sunday’s attendance averages 1,000 over three different services. The early service is traditional, while the mid-morning service blends both traditional and contemporary worship styles with music led by the ZPC choir. The late service features all contemporary worship, with a full praise band and up to six different singers.

Daniel Shreve, the Praise Band Leader at ZPC, has been with the church for over 13 years. During his tenure, he led the music at all three services until last year, when Tim Dommer came aboard as Director of Worship and the Arts. Now, Tim leads praise during the first two services, while Daniel continues to lead the contemporary service.

ZPC’s seven-foot Schimmel acoustic grand piano provides the musical centerpiece for the first two services, with Jennifer Hufford handing piano duties in the first and Tim in the second. Daniel leads the praise band on keyboards during the late service. Until very recently, he took a “rock and roll” approach with his setup, playing a portable stage piano and a Roland JV-1000. The two keyboards were mounted on a stand, and he played them while standing up. When a bassist wasn’t available on a particular Sunday, he’d MIDI in a Roland JV-1080 sound module, dial up a bass patch, and play bass parts with his left hand. He came to rely on the flexibility this setup offered, with two playing surfaces and many different sounds at his disposal.

In the summer of 2007, it came time to retire ZPC’s second grand piano—a Kawai that had seen better days, used in their chapel—and Tim and Daniel began thinking about replacing it with a digital grand piano. Their search led them to Piano Solutions, a piano dealer in nearby Carmel. They showed them the top-of-the-line Roland KR-117M, as well as another less expensive digital grand. Ultimately, choosing the Roland was easy. As Daniel relates, “The other piano was quite a bit less money, but we just couldn’t get over the difference in the Roland’s quality of sound and how it played.” They also saw the Roland as an investment for the future. “We might be building a new sanctuary in the next two to three years,” he says, “and the Roland will take us a long time past that.”

With their new KR-117M purchased, Tim encouraged Daniel to abandon his two-keyboard rig and try playing the Roland digital grand during the contemporary service, believing that its physical presence would better relate his leadership role to the congregation. However, Daniel was initially skeptical. “I thought, ‘I don’t know about that’…I’ve been standing and playing for 13 years in the contemporary service, and I like the flexibility of the two keyboards. The digital grand will sound alright, but I won’t be able to do some other stuff that I’ve been able to do,” he worried. But once he gave the KR-117M a shot, there was no turning back. “It doesn’t miss a beat…the flexibility, the great sounds available. Also, the keyboard action is fabulous. The last couple of weeks, we haven’t had a bass player, and I just connect the KR-117M’s MIDI OUT port into my JV-1080, and it’s just like it was before. I’ve got so much more than what I had.”

One big advantage Daniel sees in using a digital instrument over an acoustic in a worship setting is volume control. “Volume control is a big issue to me, especially when you’ve got a pastor who’s praying, or you have something where you need some underlying music. During times when I play the Schimmel, I never feel that I can just play it quietly enough to where I’m not interfering,” he says. “With the Roland, I can just turn that little volume knob and adjust as I need to.”

With the new KR-117M finding its home alongside the Schimmel in the main sanctuary, ZPC still had to resolve the need for a piano in their chapel. This led them to purchase another Roland digital model for that purpose, the KR-103. They’ve also employed a Roland KR-105 piano in their choir rehearsal room for the last few years, where the volume control is also greatly appreciated. “Our choir room is a little acoustically challenged,” Daniel says. “We’ve used acoustic pianos in there, and it’s very difficult for a director—and even for the members who are singing—to really have a good experience. Being able to control the volume and point the piano’s speaker in the direction where the sound needs to be is wonderful.” The KR-105’s portability works out great, too. “We’ve put it on a roller so we can move it in and out as needed. It’s a great little piano.”

Another convenient aspect of using digital pianos is the fact that they don’t need to be tuned. An acoustic grand, such as ZPC’s Schimmel, needs regular professional tuning to sound its best. “We should be tuning it once a month, but it doesn’t always happen,” Daniel says. “And our old Kawai grand, it had some real tuning issues. With the Roland pianos, we never have to worry about that, and I love that part of it.”

In addition to digital pianos, ZPC employs other Roland gear on a regular basis. They have two different sets of V-Drums, one for performance in the contemporary service, and another for rehearsals. “Our stage is all hardwood, built for beauty rather than musical acoustics. We use in-ear monitors because we really have to control our stage volume,” he says. In this application, the nearly silent acoustic properties of the V-Drums are an essential improvement over an acoustic drum set. As Daniel puts it, “The V-Drums have been a godsend.”

ZPC also makes use of a Roland VS-2480 24-track hard disk recorder, regularly using it to record the praise band during worship services. As Daniel relates, “We take direct feeds from everything onstage, hit record, and mix it down later. We use the recordings to evaluate what we’re doing and how we’re sounding.” The recordings are also extremely useful in helping new musicians learn ZPC’s material. “Every church does a song a different way, and we’re no exception to that. It helps somebody new learn the way we do it. They can go home and practice with the recording, and the next time they come to rehearsal, they know exactly how we’re going to do it.”

So, does Daniel miss trading in his old two-keyboard setup for the KR-117M? “I miss standing [while playing] a little bit, just because when the congregation stands up, I felt like I was one of them. But if I don’t have to go back, I won’t. I packed up those other keyboards, and now they’re sitting in storage. I’m not giving up this piano!”

To learn more about Zionsville Presbyterian Church, click here.

For information on Roland’s extensive digital piano line, click here.