KEYS
WHEN TO SIMPLIFY KEYS | David Pfaltzgraff
Everyone’s heard the ‘K.I.S.S.” acronym at
some point or another. ‘Keep it simple, stupid’ is
a very direct (if not a bit harsh) way to talk about
an important truth: sometimes in life simplifying
things is the smartest choice to make.
In the world of music it can be tempting to look
down on the ‘simple’ in the name of ‘skill’. I’ve
often fallen into the trap of viewing a particular
chord progression, piece of gear, or musical
idea as objectively better simply because it was
more complicated. Ofcourse there’s nothing
inherently wrong with something being more
musically or technologically complex, but in
the same way an idea’s complexity does not
automatically determine its merit.
In this article, we’ll explore three specific times
when simplifying your worship keys approach
might be the right call. Learning the ability to
edit oneself both musically and technologically
is an important skill that every worship keys
player would be well-served to develop.
WHEN IT SERVES THE SONG
This first scenario is probably the most
obvious one. We’ve all heard ‘play to serve
the song’ and sometimes that means keeping
things simple. Whether that means matching
the restraint demonstrated on the original
recording that your worship band is covering
or acknowledging the context of your specific
church and not playing ahead or above what
your congregation is ready for musically, the
ability to show restraint out of a musical respect
for the song is vitally important.
It can also be very difficult.
For worship keys players there’s a huge shift
going on in the parts we’re being asked to play
that can make for really jarring role changes
from song to song. In one song there might be
tons of diverse, interesting parts to play with
complex leads, interesting chord voicings and
exciting layered synth sounds. The next song
could very well be a ‘piano and pads’ ballad
where the original recording features nothing
more than whole note chords played on all the
downbeats.
It’s really important to develop a healthy
flexibility for those types of role changes across
songs and different worship sets, even though
you very likely will prefer the times where you
get to stretch your musical muscles a bit more.
WHEN IT SERVES YOUR BAND
The second scenario is similar to the first,
but with an important distinction. So often
in modern worship bands we can get really
focused on the original recording of a song
our band is playing. This makes sense and is
a very useful tool to help everyone practice
and prepare at home that often makes it much
easier to bring things together quickly during inperson
rehearsal.
When it comes time to perform live at church
there’s a really important mindset shift that has
to happen, but oftentimes doesn’t. There’s a
stark contrast between a band of musicians
all playing along to the original recording as it
plays back from memory in their heads and a
band of musicians who’ve all used the original
recording as an inspiration and rehearsal tool
who then are all playing along to each other.
I would propose that actively listening to the
unique and gifted members of your worship
team and letting it influence the musical choices
you make from the keyboard shouldn’t be
secondary to the musical ideas present in the
original song but rather should be considered
in tandem right alongside them.
106 July 2020
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