It’s always going to be better to do a decent or catalogue of songs starts to feel stale and your songs is worth the effort if you also have a
job of covering the original song authentically overly familiar. Even though most of the time clear vision for where you’d like the alternative
than a below average job of making it your own we’re playing other people’s songs as worship instrumentation or arrangement to go.
when you don’t have enough time to do so with musicians being artistically invested in our excellence. music is a big part of helping foster impactful
ROOM FOR BOTH
times of corporate worship.
Lastly, I’d encourage you to make sure that
Often when I see this conversation play out
you don’t use “finding my own sound” as an Taking the time to invest in changing things up online it gets pretty vitriolic. Many people have
excuse for lack of preparation. When finding as a team can be a real shot in the arm for a passionate opinions on both sides often rooted
you or your band’s sound is done well it should song that your band already knows. This goes in conviction. I’d propose that there isn’t an
actually take more time than it would to have hand in hand with the second ingredient that I approach that’s always better or worse than the
simply covered the original version. If you think goes a long way towards the ‘making it other, but rather that there’s a time and place
don’t have a clear artistic vision (or the time to our own’ landing successfully. When your team for both. It’s up to you to decide what’s best for
develop one) for how you’re going to change has a lot of energy and a feeling of momentum you and your worship team. Last note, if you
up the song that’s a good sign that you’re not you can leverage that to get creative with songs, ever need anybody for a Beatles cover band,
going to get the best results and it might be transitions, and instrumentation and actually let me know. I’m there.
best to stay true to what was laid down in the increase the momentum in the process.
studio or during the original live recording.
I listed lack of time above as a reason to consider
WHEN TO GO FOR “YOUR SOUND”
sticking to the original. In the opposite direction
if you find that your team is breezing through
So, when should you chase after making a mid-week rehearsals or weekend soundcheck
song your own? Well, a great indicator that it with lots of time to spare investing some of that
might be a good time to do that is when a song time into spicing up your approach to some of
December 2019
David Pfaltzgraff
Founder
and
Lead
Sound
Designer
at
SundaySounds.com, a site that resources worship
keys players and guitarists around the world.
David currently resides in Des Moines, IA with his
wife and two boys. He enjoys volunteering in his
church’s worship ministry, old synthesizers, and a
good super-hero movie.
SundaySounds.com
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