YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
[ SWITCHING IT UP | Vance & Michelle Shepherd ]
In today’s modern worship, the songs consist
of more and more musical parts; multiple
keyboard tracks, anywhere from 3-6 electric
guitar tracks, double acoustic guitar parts,
multiple drum loops in addition to the acoustic
drum set, and often times synth bass in
addition to a stringed bass. What great training
ground this is for your youth worship team as
future worship leaders, recording artists, and
musicians, to hear how all of these different
multi-parts work together to make today’s
contemporary worship sound.
It can be very beneficial and valuable to your musicians, what a great thing to have players really see the benefit with For King & Country’s
team to take your 20 – 30 song repertoire, and that are multi-instrumentalists, and can speak stage show.
switch the parts around between your players. the language of the other players on the team.
For this month’s worship event with our student
It really helps to round them out as a musician
or singer, whether songwriting in the studio, or With our singers, we encourage them to sing band, we had the keyboard player that usually
assigning parts on a live worship team. different styles, with different vocal ranges, to covers flute, synth, B3, strings, brass, and
help round out their sound. You will find that leads take all the piano parts in the worship
In one of my first touring rock bands we would there are singers who are only comfortable set, and also play bass guitar on one song,
cover songs by Journey, Styx, and other bands singing in their head voice, or they can only sing as well as lead a song vocally, and sing alto
from the prog rock era. We had a rhythm guitar in full voice. We challenge them by switching and soprano harmonies throughout the set.
player, and a lead guitar player. It didn’t take out their vocal parts for each worship event. We had our keyboard player that usually plays
long to figure out that the lead player couldn’t One singer might sing an alto harmony on a piano parts take all of the other keyboard
play rhythm to save his life, nor could the song one month, and then sing the soprano player’s parts. It was somewhat of a learning
rhythm player handle a lead part of any kind. part the next time. In our experience, this has curve for both keyboard players to switch their
Neither one of them could cover the gig by been proven to be one of the most valuable roles, because they’re two totally different
themselves if they were called upon to do so. things we can do in their training. styles of playing. But they are both rising to the
occasion, and are being challenged to be great
With our students, I might challenge our electric
guitarists to play a finger picking electric style We recently just had a night out with some of musicians in any type of circumstance. Don’t
on a song one month, and then the next time our students to the Road Show’s concert event fall into what is easy as a leader and always let
they play that song, do the power bar chords in Las Vegas, featuring Bethel Worship, Zach your pianist be your pianist – think outside the
instead, teaching them 2 completely different Williams, Natalie Grant, Matthew West, and For box, and challenge your team with new parts,
styles of playing on the same song. King & Country. What a night! The highlight of even if they’re not as good at it right away. We
the evening was the band For King & Country. feel that this is extremely valuable training while
When a student starts to show signs of boredom, They were hands down one of the most they are in their youth, and will set them up for
not practicing, or not being enthusiastic about amazing live stage shows that we’ve ever seen, many different types of playing situations in
playing, we also encourage them to try picking secular or Christian. What really impressed their future.
up another instrument. This seems to always our students is that most of the musicians on give them back their excitement, and re-kindle stage were multi-instrumentalists, switching May you be blessed as you pour into the next
their love for music. It also lets them see how parts and instruments all throughout their set. generation of worship leaders and musicians!
other instruments are arranged and executed in It was great to see this being done with another a musical piece. Being that our goal is to raise professional touring band, as we have always up the next generation of worship leaders and done this with our students, and they got to
April 2018
Vance & Michelle Shepherd
Founders of The Shepherd School Of Music in Las
Vegas, NV, where they work with youth to raise up the
next generation of worship leaders and musicians.
www.ShepherdStudiosLV.com
WorshipMusician.com
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