Tag Archives: worship band

Excellence > Perfectionism

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There’s a tension that I have faced in ministry ever since I started playing on a worship team at age 15.  The tension is encompassed in, and sometimes created by the pursuit of excellence.

The word excellence by itself seems like something we would all like to have more of.  Think of 3 things you do well.  Would you not like to be “excellent” at those things?

I have seen 2 different positions expressed by worship team members surrounding the idea of excellence.

Position 1)

We are doing this for God’s glory.  It has to be as prepared, polished, non-distracting, and as perfect sounding as we can possibly make it.  Each worship team member is expected to be as prepared as they can possibly be.  We work hard, and pray a bit.

Position 2)

We don’t have the ability to change lives, God does the work.  People have busy lives, sometimes too busy to practice but what’s important is the heart of the person.  We’re just glad they’re serving in spite of the many responsibilities they have to juggle.  We pray hard, and work a bit.

 

You might find yourself on one position or the other.  During my time in ministry I have found myself bouncing back and forth between the two positions and hardly ever finding the sweet spot between the two.  There are moments when I try to uphold Position 1 but after the 4th band member has shown up 20 minutes late for rehearsal AND only 1 person has practiced their parts that week I can feel myself starting to lose it.  In those moments I want to scream Position 1 at them.  Am I right to do so?

Other times we start in to practice.  Most of the band is prepared and all that’s left is to pull all the musical pieces together.  But something feels off and after stopping and asking the team if anyone was feeling “off” that week you find out the bass player is “just not feeling like they’re in a good place spiritually.”  Is that the time to get back to practice and not waste everyone’s preparation or is it time to surround that individual and pray for them?

 

On paper there are some good things and bad things about both of these positions.  But the thing you need to remember when you are leading people is that PEOPLE are not PAPER.  People have struggles, burdens, short-comings, and inconsistencies.  And people can also achieve great things on their own and especially when they are led well.  If you are in Christian leadership your primary concern should be helping those you are leading become better disciples of Jesus.  Becoming better musicians is secondary.

A disciple who is a musician will view his/her musical abilities as a gift from God that can be used to bring Him glory.  They will find joy in doing their best for God.  It will become their “spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12) and not just an obligation.  Their goal will be to make Jesus famous (John 3:30) and they will prepare their own hearts for that in prayer and eagerly join in as the team prays together and asks God to work.

Don’t be overbearing on your musicians when they aren’t prepared.  They will just begin to resent you.  Find out what’s on their heart.  Point them to God’s truth.  Instruct them gently and speak words of encouragement to them.

Don’t ignore the preparation of your team to frequently stop and pray.  They will begin to think that their practice time doesn’t matter and they might assume you haven’t practiced or prayed about this at all yourself.  Teach them to rely on prayer in their own lives and model for them a desire to ask God to be glorified by everything you do.

 

Lead the way.  Everyone thought John the Baptist was a pretty big deal.  Maybe people will think the same of you.  But John pointed people to Jesus, and that is our primary responsibility.  

Do you have a personal philosophy of “excellence”?

Worship Training

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We’re all born with every skill we will ever need imprinted in our DNA to be called upon at any moment from our endless knowledge database with all the muscle memory to perform said skill at the level of a virtuoso.

…right?

No, I guess not.

In which case an opportunity to learn new skills and be given the tools to develop and grow is something we should jump on, especially as musicians.  And that’s exactly what our worship teams did this past weekend.

I’ve run a few worship team training events and they’re a little different every time.  I feel like this past Saturday was our best yet.  Here’s a rundown of how it went.

I planned it as a 2 hour event (the poster above is a lie).  I figured if we keep it short we’ll have an easier time getting them out to the event and keep them engaged throughout.

There was candy (everyone loves candy) and coffee as people arrived.  We started off with 10 minutes of chatting about stuff that had to do with everyone, some reminders on in ear monitors, reminders about being on time for rehearsal, small stuff like that.

From there we transitioned into an instructional video on stage presence put together by Gateway Worship.  It’s a fantastic video and if you’re looking for something to help teach this important concept to your teams I would highly recommend it.  You can find it here.

The next hour and a half was devoted to individual instrument instruction.  Since I’ve been involved in the Worship Victoria project I’ve gotten to know some incredible musicians from other churches.  I made some phone calls, sent some emails, and asked some of those individuals to come and do some instruction time with our players.  For a few honorarium dollars I had a room full of some of the best musicians in our city ready to spend an intensive hour and a half with our team to help give them some new tools in their tool box.

Leading up to the event I had given the instructors some ideas about what they could spend time focusing on with their instrumentalists.  Every section had different needs.  We covered off electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, vocals, audio, drums, and piano.  They all had a pack of 6 chord charts with a CD of those songs in matching keys to use if they needed some examples.

The sessions were a huge success.  The place was buzzing after the hour and a half and I received a lot of positive feedback from members of the team.

That’s it.  Not really a magic formula but if you’re looking for somewhere to start with your next training event maybe this will point you in the right direction.

My humble advice?

1. If you choose the instructors route then get musicians your players will look up to and respect, not to mention make sure they’re good teachers.

2. Plan something for the whole group.  The stage presence video applied to everyone, not just vocalists and so everyone was engaged with it.

3. Give them something they can put to use right away.  Teach them something new, but make sure you don’t go too far past their capabilities or they might just get discouraged.

4. Have fun.  This is an awesome community building opportunity.  Laugh lots.

Stage Presence

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It’s comical isn’t it?  And painful at the same time.  But fast forward the clothing and hair styles 20 years and I’ve seen this same picture in every ministry context I’ve ever served in.      A few years ago I came across some excellent footage of me leading worship as a 17 year old at my youth group.  I looked like this picture, plus a little more awkward-teenage boy-ness.  10 years later I don’t look like that anymore.  That’s because over the last 10 years I have worked hard on something really important.  It’s a crucial skill that needs to become second nature for anyone who spends time on a stage in front of people:

It’s called stage presence

Stage presence is awesome!  You know why?  Because it helps you communicate to the people in front of you that you really care about being there.  It says that you really believe in what you are saying/singing/playing/miming.  It communicates to your audience that what you’re telling them or asking them to join in with is worth while.  In the context of leading worship it serves to support the words and the music and it helps your audience enter in to worship with you.

Here’s the other thing about stage presence.  Sometimes you might think to yourself that you look foolish.  Sometimes you might think to yourself that it’s pointless.  Sometimes (and I hear this a lot) you convince yourself, “that’s just not me.”

Let’s help you get rid of some of those excuses by getting you to ask yourself a few questions.  I’m convinced that anyone can learn stage presence if they’ve already taken the frightening step of getting up on stage in front of people.

1. Do I genuinely mean what I’m singing?

- This is not to say that lack of stage presence means you need to get right with God, but if you’re there to serve and point people to Jesus shouldn’t you try to convey some authentic joy about what He has done in your life?  If the song is joyful – be joyful.  If the song is reflective – be reflective.  If you’re singing “We stand and lift up our hands”…keep them in your pockets, of course.

2. What is my role and how can I perform my role to the best of my ability?

- I’d like to think heaven is full of all the instruments and tools that we love to use here on earth to worship God…everything except music stands.  I hate music stands!  Come prepared so that you’re not glued to your music stand for the whole 5 song set.  You know your music more than you realize, if you don’t you need to fix that because it means you’re not practicing which also communicates that you don’t care.  If you’re prepared you will be confident in your parts.  If you are confident in your parts you have more freedom to make eye contact with the congregation, move around on stage, pump your fists etc. :)

3. What do I look like on stage?  Is that how I want to look?  How can I take small steps to be a more engaging worship leader and serve the congregation better?

- If you are on stage playing worship music in front of people then you are automatically leading worship.  You might not think that (though you should) but the congregation is certainly thinking that.  Find out if there is any video footage of a recent time you’ve been on the worship team.  Most churches will be able to get that footage for you or at least be able to set it up for the next time around.  Watch it and evaluate yourself.  It might help to compare yourself with someone who you think has great stage presence.  Make a list of the things that you need to work on and start working on them.  You don’t have to jump way out of your comfort zone right away to attain better stage presence.  All you need to do is commit to practicing it and working on it and you’ll get better.

 

I hope you’ll challenge yourself with this.  I promise you this is important and I promise you that you can learn to have great stage presence.

 

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!

_____________________

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.

_________________________

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

Thank You

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This won’t be one of those “popular” posts.  This won’t be something that people get excited about, or convicted about, or inspired by.

But it matters A LOT

Thank You

Thank you to the Dads who take time away from their families mid-week to come to practice.  Who stay up late playing guitar and listening to the practice tracks on headphones.  Who wake up early on a Sunday and miss what might be their only sleep-in opportunity of the week.

Thank you to the students who really don’t have time for worship team, but do it anyway because they love to serve.  To the vocalists who sing alone in the car practicing for Sunday on the way to school.  To the guitar players and drummers who are always pursuing ways to improve their skills.  To the keys players who serve humbly, holding the band together but never asking for the spotlight.

Thank you to the moms who leave their kids at home with dad for the night or the morning, knowing that when they get home they are probably further behind on their to-do list for the week.  Thank you to the empty nesters who have served faithfully for years.  We need you.

Thank you to the sound techs who are the first ones in and the last ones out.  Who have the most important and most thankless job next to the preacher every Sunday.  Thank you to the media operators who are way overqualified to follow a script and click a mouse, but do it because they are projecting words of truth for hundreds of people to engage with and respond to.  Thanks to the camera operators, what you do is important even when you don’t see it.

I know that it’s not always easy.  I know that your families and spouses need you.  I know that you have responsibilities.  I know that life can be crazy.

And so Thank you for serving

Thank you for giving your best

Thank you for your faithfulness to this ministry

Thank you for loving Jesus