classical double bass player, then absolutely all of a sudden that’s out the window because voicings. But all of that is stuff that you can
you need to learn how to read. If your end the Holy Spirit wants to do something else. learn on the journey. And just being around
game is just to be a session guy that plays at So, we follow what the Holy Spirit wants to other musicians who already know how to do
Jazz functions or at clubs or weddings, then do every time, and that means maybe doing a that, musicians that you want to sound like.
you need to be able to read a chart and work song that we’ve never played before, or making But I think especially for the worship musicians
your way through the arpeggios and chords up a song on the spot, or we could be doing a the crucial thing is just being able to play on
and chord changes and leading tones and all song that we did twenty years ago. The easiest the fly. You have classical musicians come in
the rest of that. But if you just want to be a way to be able to let everybody know what the and the charts do have… you know, this is the
church musician… at our church we have chords are so that everybody is on the same crescendo, this is where we repeat this bit, this
people from all different backgrounds and all page is the numbers system. It’s just so simple. is the ending, or hold this bit, or whatever. It
different musical backgrounds come in, and As long as everybody knows what key we’re in, doesn’t have all of that, it’s very much open to
they just want to give their best, they just want which are the major chords and minor chords, interpretation. A lot of the time in church your
to give to the Lord. We don’t want to disqualify everyone is on the same page. So that’s the key worship leader becomes your conductor in the
anyone because they don’t know anything thing in a church setting. way that they bring it up or down. They’re the
specific. We have classical pianists come and
ones determining which way the song is going
play with Rock n’ Roll guitarists who can’t read But absolutely you want to be the best you can and which way the service is going, so you
a note, and it works. I think the most important be on your instrument before you get there, so want to make sure nothing is going to hinder
thing in that environment is learning those chord spending your time learning the scales, learning you from being able to follow them as best as
numbers, the Nashville number system. In a C how to play in different keys, even at different you can.
major scale, C major is chord one, D minor is tempos and time signatures, all the different chord two, and so on. Knowing which ones are arpeggios, and how to get from one chord to The Psalms talk about playing skillfully unto the
the major ones, knowing which ones are the the next in a way that is not distracting but Lord, so we don’t want to just come and not
minor ones, knowing how they work together, I interesting enough that it can just keep flowing know anything, but in terms of learning how to
think that’s really important in a church setting, with the song. read… absolutely I’ve spent many many hours
especially at Planetshakers, we tend to go off
learning how to read and being the best that I
book a lot. We’ll have the songs we’re doing in Then playing a triad on a piano, just up can be. In that regard, as a church musician
the set list and then we get to the service and and down the piano you can learn different we don’t tend to do that very often. We learn
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February 2019
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