Category Archives: Practice Series

Practice Strategy #3

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This is post #3 from a short series on practicing which was originally inspired by this post.

For this series I’ve asked 4 members from our worship teams to write about their own personal practice strategies they use to help them prepare for Sundays. This is going to be some helpful stuff for worship leaders and musicians alike.

enjoy!

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Chris Boudreau - Electric Guitar

Occupation: Network Analyst, Musician

Years on Worship Team: 15 years

Favourite Band: David Gilmour

 

Hi everyone !

My name is Chris and I am blessed to be involved with the worship ministry at SBC over the last 5 years; my musical background started about 20 years ago, first with trombone then guitar and other instruments.

Well, my routine is quite similar to Troy’s but also a little different too..

As soon as I have the set list, I create a playlist of the songs in iTunes and sync it to my iPhone. Then, I sit down and listen to all the songs in order and just listen to what each song is about, and figure out the basic song structure and progression. After the initial listen, I will follow along with the chord charts while listening and figure out where my parts will come in for each song. When that’s done, my next step is to figure out what I don’t need to play in order to set aside space for the other instruments in the mix.

Once I know what I don’t need to play, I focus in on my parts and learn them as recorded. I will also figure out an alternate part that compliments what was played on the recording. I like to do this for several reasons, but mostly to prepare for the “what if we try this” scenario at practice. For instance, if we decide to start the song off with a short instrumental, or if Caleb asks me to add lib a short instrumental part later in the song; this lets me build on the original melody if needed or just add some different colour to the existing parts.

Going with the format that Troy used on his fantastic post, here are my top 5 tips or observations I’ve learned:

1.) 15-20 minutes a day everyday is the best approach to become comfortable with the material. You are spending 15-20 minutes everyday practicing something on your instrument right ???

2.) Don’t just learn the song, learn the style, the keys, scales and musical influences the song is crafted upon; jam along with the recordings and improvise to find out what works and more importantly what doesn’t work. Spend some time playing each song in different positions on the fingerboard, different pickups, different effects to find what would work best. Experimentation can really help get the creative juices flowing.

3.) Practice your playing and the techniques you are learning with the guitar “unplugged” from your effects and amp; working on your fingering and picking techniques with your guitar all by itself, will help you get a better and more consistent tone down the road.

4.) Keep your instrument well maintained and setup to sound it’s best – you can learn to do the majority of guitar setup work yourself with just a few basic everyday tools and pretty easy to follow instructions; there are dozens of really great tutorials up on Youtube that walk you through the basic stuff.

5.) Most importantly, spend time in the word and in prayer, prepare your heart for service and worship, and remember that we have been blessed with these gifts to be used by God for His glory.

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How about you? What are some of the things you do in your practice time? Share your ideas.

Practice Strategy #2

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This is post #2 from a short series on practicing which was originally inspired by this post.

For this series I’ve asked 4 members from our worship teams to write about their own personal practice strategies they use to help them prepare for Sundays. This is going to be some helpful stuff for worship leaders and musicians alike.

enjoy!

_____________________

Tiffany Anderson - vocalist

Occupation: Student (Teaching)

Years On Worship Team: 7 and a half-ish

Favourite Band: Coldplay (until Christmas music kicked in)

 

On my most organized of weeks I like to create a playlist on iTunes of the songs from planning center, because that way I can put them on repeat and whether I’m focusing on them directly or they’re in the background I’m becoming familiar with the parts.

At least once during the week I sit down and sing through each song a couple times, trying to listen to the different harmonies (and the melody) to find a comfortable part (and a backup if there’s another vocalist).

It’s when songs are in a different key that the challenge appears!  But, like you said in your blog, by practicing we can adapt easier to last minute changes because we have a more solid foundation than we otherwise would.

I think that’s basically it!  Nothing too fancy, just listening to songs over and over and singing to the parts, trying to pick out different ones or add in a new one I don’t hear being sung.  I don’t do this every week, even though I should, I always feel more prepared when I have gone through this routine.

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How about you? What are some of the things you do in your practice time? Share your ideas.

Practice Strategy #1

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This is post #1 from a short series on practicing which was originally inspired by this post.

For this series I’ve asked 4 members from our worship teams to write about their own personal practice strategies they use to help them prepare for Sundays. This is going to be some helpful stuff for worship leaders and musicians alike.

enjoy!

_________________

Troy Haws – electric guitar, drums, worship leader

Occupation: Student / Musician

Years on worship Team: 8 years-ish

Favorite Band: …right now…Chet Baker (Jazz Trumpet and crooner)

How do I practice for Sunday? I’ve mainly played drums on a Sunday – what I’ll do there is learn the beats for the song or the general feel; figure out the dynamics of the song and any extra parts I can add and then play some beats and exercises with a metronome to keep my time up.

Guitar is similar: for learning the songs, I’ll listen to it, figure out the arrangement, figure out the dynamics of the song and grab the guitar parts. Then I’ll jam along to the track until I have the parts I want figured out. Then I’ll change things if I have time to make it my own by changing the riffs but keeping with the dynamic feel of the song and in the same style.

If I’m leading worship, I’ll spend more time looking at the message of each song and praying about song choices.

Over the last few years I have basically been trying to figure out the most effective way to practice and how to get things down. Here are a few things I’ve learned:

  1. 15 minutes of concentrated, planned out practice can yield better results than an hour of distracted practice! So take that time to do the hard stuff for a time and then feel good afterwards about accomplishing something.
  2. Learn from the original, then ditch it if possible. You want to gain the ability to make up your own stuff. Try to analyze what is happening in your part, then slowly diverge from it, while keeping the general idea.
  3. Play along with records. Its the best substitute for a live band. Try to learn what they’re doing and then play something similar.
  4. Make music at all times.; even practicing. Find a way to be creative in your practicing (e.g different rhythms for scale patterns) and you’ll always be making music when put on the spot.
  5. 15 minutes of playing on your instrument is better than nothing… just pick it up if you don’t have a lot of time. At least you’ll keep your fingers moving.

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How about you? What are some of the things you do in your practice time? Share your ideas.