A Blog For Worship Leaders Who Lead Normal People In Normal Churches ||| RealWorldWorship.Org
Are you trying to keep up with the Jones? The Jones that go to the “cool church” on the other side of the city. The Jones who go to the “artsy church” in the nearest urban center or college town? The Jones who go to the big, well known church in your tribe or denomination?
Well… Stop it. Stop it right now. Stop it right now, and here’s why…
Let’s be honest about two things:
1. Church bands tend to “overplay” and step over each other on a regular basis
2. Church bands are often a hodge podge of who’s available instead of who is needed.
What I’m going to suggest will hopefully unmuddy the waters sonically speaking and give structure to arranging and picking your church’s band for a worship service.
When I put a band together for a Sunday or Wednesday I first look at who is available. It’s all well and good to want a thick analog synth sound on a song but if all your keyboard players are on vacation, you’ll need to rethink your plans. Once I know who is available, I start to fill roles based on my “5 point band”. I admit that I don’t always do it consciously, because I’m so used to doing it. But it’s always there in the background of my mind. So here are the 5 points that I look for to put a band together. I’m going to write them in order of importance.
For someone out there, this is going to be a mind blowing, revolutionary thought. So by all means, feel free to sit down for a moment and catch your breath.
For the rest of you, who hopefully get the playful spirit in which I wrote the above sentence, this is a valid conversation for us to have.
In some church traditions, this is a pointless conversation with an obvious answer: of course not. But for many evangelical churches, the question I posed would mean a complete paradigm shift. The worship leader is ALWAYS the person singing. Whether they sing on their own, or if they are also the piano player, guitarist, or even bass player, the worship leader always sings. I’m going to propose that maybe this thinking is why your church’s music ministry is struggling.
In this series I try and address different aspects of the practical side of playing electric guitar in church music. This week we’ll talk about chord voicing and how they can be used when playing in the church band.
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO PLAY THE G CHORD
A while back I was asked to play electric guitar at the last minute. The church had an electric and an amplifier and that was it. No overdrive pedal, no delay, the amp had some reverb but the options were pretty much just “on” and “off'”. What’s a guitar player to do?
Preface
I started playing bass when I was 12. When I was 14 I picked up the guitar. I’ve been playing both ever since. I led worship for the first time at age 14. I learned to practice by playing in bands in high school, and worship teams in my teens and 20′s.
Not everyone who plays in a church band has that kind of background. A lot of good folks learned to play their instrument on their own and don’t know how to play and practice with a band. The following series of posts will be thoughts on how to serve God and His church well, by learning how to practice well. Here’s a few thoughts and musings on “Finding A Place” in the band for you and your instrument.
Preface
I started playing bass when I was 12. When I was 14 I picked up the guitar. I’ve been playing both ever since. I led worship for the first time at age 14. I learned to practice by playing in bands in high school, and worship teams in my teens and 20′s.
Not everyone who plays in a church band has that kind of background. A lot of good folks learned to play their instrument on their own and don’t know how to play and practice with a band. The following series of posts will be thoughts on how to serve God and His church well, by learning how to practice well. Here’s a few thoughts and musings on “Finding A Place” in the band for you and your instrument.
Preface
I started playing bass when I was 12. When I was 14 I picked up the guitar. I’ve been playing both ever since. I led worship for the first time at age 14. I learned to practice by playing in bands in high school, and worship teams in my teens and 20′s.
Not everyone who plays in a church band has that kind of background. A lot of good folks learned to play their instrument on their own and don’t know how to play and practice with a band. The following series of posts will be thoughts on how to serve God and His church well, by learning how to practice well. Here’s a few thoughts and musings on “Finding A Place” in the band for you and your instrument.
Part 3: Finding Your Place In The Style
“Style and expression in worship are always secondary things when compared to the heart that is looking to worship Jesus”
People in the church come from a wide range of background and experiance and bring with them a wide range of expression. As an individual memerber of a church family, I don’t want to come expecting my preferences to be met every single Sunday, but I come to seek God, and serve Him and His people. The flipside is that as a worship leader, part of how I serve God and His people is by helping them express their worship in song to God. This means that a church with a healthy music and arts ministry should have a wide range of expression to match a people with a wide range of expression.
If you play in a normal band you generally only play in one style of music. People in a church band generally need to have a familiarity with several styles of music including, Pop, Rock, Country, CCM, Classical, Chorale, and Folk. This can be stretching. But stretching can be good.
How Does This Work Out?
“I had to play something totally out of my zone and I really grew because of it”
Let’s say you’re a bass player with a background in alternative rock and you’ve been asked to play on Sunday. You get the set emailed to you a few days before and it’s heavy on Country Songs (I’ll Fly Away, Tis So Sweet, He Touched Me, etc). If you show up to practice and start throwing down aggressive bass riffs it’s probably not gonna work out well. If you’re seasoned, you might throw “Live at Folsom Prison” or “Comes a Time” by Neil Young on to your iPod to get a feel for how a bass part works in that kind of music.
Another example, this one from my own mistakes. One Sunday I was playing lead guitar for the church band and the leader had a song on the set that I’d done many times before. The problem? I just started playing what I had always played (it was very U2-ish with lots of delay). The Problem? He wasn’t doing the song that way, he was doing a really straight forward, no-nonsense arrangement. I should have known better, but I didn’t, and I kept thinking “why isn’t he doing this right?” until the 2nd time we practiced it and I realized that I was the one who was off. Could the band leader have been better in explaining what was going on? Sure. But would all this have been avoided if I had just followed my own advice in Part 2 of this series and stopped and listened to what was going on? Absolutely.
What if I Just Don’t Play That Way?
“If I can learn how to play my instrument with skill, and to do so while playing well with others, then I think I’m giving my best offering.”
This is a good question. What if you’re a musician with a background in country and blues and the church band is really heavy on Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)? Or Visa Versa. I think there’s three ways to look at it.
1. For Band Leaders: I try to know the strengths and weaknesses of those I serve and play with. If I’m thinking indie rock, I’ll probably not ask the blues guitarist to play until next week when we do a set of songs that have a roots/country feel. But then at some point you also have to come to the realization that you won’t always have “the sound” you are aiming for and there’s more important things going on, and you ask the blues guy to play because that’s what’s important.
2. For Band Members: It’s always good to learn. If you’re church plays a certain style that you’re not used to, it’s usually not a bad thing to learn something new. I can think of a few times where I had to play something totally out of my zone and I really grew because of it. If the band leader asks me to do something a certain way, and I don’t try because “that’s not how I play” then am I there to serve or be served?
3. For The Times You Just Have to: Sometimes things are thrown together at the last minute. Someone is sick. Someone can’t make it. We need a drummer, and can you help? In those times when I’ve had to do stuff out of the ordinary for me I’ve just tried to do the best I could, do a lot of listening during practice and remembered less is more.
Why Does This Matter?
“I come to seek God, and serve Him and His people”
It does and it doesn’t. Style and expression in worship are always secondary things when compared to the heart that is looking to worship Jesus. So in that sense all the stuff I’ve written about isn’t that important. But, Psalm 33 tells musicians to play “skillfully” for God, and in the Bible our offerings are always to be our “first fruits” or in other words: our best effort.
The point of this series is to encourage musicians in the church to serve well. If I teach Kid’s classes I want to learn to communicate in a way children will understand. If I go to Mexico to build a house I want to learn the basic terms and tools of construction. If I felt lead to feed the homeless, it might help to know how to cook.
If I can learn how to play my instrument with skill, and to do so while playing well with others, then I think I’m giving my best offering.
Communication + Patience= Success.
“practice makes perfect”
If you find yourself in a situation with a church band that’s doing music that’s different from what you are used to then be patient and communicate.
-Be patient with yourself: You’re learning something new. That always takes time. Remember when you first picked up your instrument? It takes time.
-Be patient with them: They may be speaking another language musically then you. They may not realize it. Patience and grace can be two way streets. Extend it to them and you’ll most often find it extended to you in return. The blunt flip side is that if you or I are hard to play with then we might not get asked to serve with the band again.
-Communicate: If you’re in the band and unsure: “What do you want here exactly?” “This is the way I’m hearing it, is this what you want?” “Is this what sound you are looking for?” If you’re the band leader, head off problems before they start.Personally, I write arrangement notes on the chord charts for the band. I try to communicate the sound and style we are going for, etc. Generally speaking communication makes the world a better place.
How Do I Learn?
“People in a church band generally need to have a familiarity with several styles of music”
Mostly by doing, practice makes perfect, the more you play the better you’ll be at this. Also by listening (new music is a good thing) and by asking (see communication above). You can see it as a chore or you can see it a fun to explore and learn. It’s all how you view it. I learned about country music because of playing in a church band, and I had to learn about things like sustained chords for the same reason. I’m glad I did, and I’m a better player and musical servant for it.
The Finding Your Place series was written on my other blog. I’m reposting it here over the next few months. It was one of the main impetus for me starting this blog and I felt it’s content would be worthwhile here.
If you read it before I’m sorry, but I think it’s a helpful series and hopefully useful to those who read it.
-Cheers, Adam
Preface
I started playing bass when I was 12. When I was 14 I picked up the guitar. I’ve been playing both ever since. I led worship for the first time at age 14. I learned to practice by playing in bands in high school, and worship teams in my teens and 20′s.
Not everyone who plays in a church band has that kind of background. A lot of good folks learned to play their instrument on their own and don’t know how to play and practice with a band. The following series of posts will be thoughts on how to serve God and His church well, by learning how to practice well. Here’s a few thoughts and musings on “Finding A Place” in the band for you and your instrument.
Part 1: Find Your Place in the Spirit.
“The time spent interacting with God is the foundation of any service I offer”
For the most part when you show up to a church band practice it’s either early (6am is my standard wake up on a Sunday) or you are rushing to get there after a long day at work for a mid week service. The point I’m making is that it’s not always under the most ideal circumstances. So come prepared.
The worship I offer God and the music I play comes out of the week leading up to Sunday. The time spent interacting with God is the foundation of any service I offer. If I show up having spent little or no time relationally with God then how can I lead people in His praise? If I haven’t spent time learning to be a servant than how can I serve in music and song? If I haven’t learned more about being humble before the Lord, then how can I be humble as a musician?
We all have bad days. We all have bad days that group together to form bad weeks. What I’m talking about is isn’t always living a life of “sunshine and roses” but what I’m saying (and I’m saying this from experience) is that the relationship built with God, even in the toughest days and weeks is enough to overcome my human weakness and put me a place to serve my band, the church, and most of all my God and Creator Jesus Christ.
Nothing I’m going to talk about in future posts can happen well or happen over a long period of time without first finding yourself hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:1-4) and having the Holy Spirit of God begin the transforming work in your heart and mind.
Real World Worship 