No two bands are alike and each individual
band member will contribute their best, from
their own unique musical voice. It’s a good
thing to let that influence the complexity of your
choices both musically and technologically.
For example, if you’re a part of a weekend band
with two very talented and high caliber guitarists
who’ve come thoroughly prepared you might
(and should) approach your role on keys a bit
differently than you would if the band that week
only included one electric guitarist who was
only comfortable playing barre chords.
You might be thinking the weekend with ‘barre
chord guy/girl’ would be your opportunity
to shine and fill out the band further but in
my experience it’s those times that it’s even
more important to adjust your complexity to
complement the skills and expressions of those
you’re playing with. In that particular context,
perhaps you do find a few more opportunities
to contribute layered sounds and melodic right
hand parts, but not to the extent that you’re
standing too high on top of the rest of your
band.
WHEN IT WILL HELP YOU WORSHIP
Look, I love gear and exciting musical ideas
as much as the next person. Truly, I could
talk about synthesizers, laptops, controllers,
and chords for days and days. But there have
been a number of times when I’ve invested
a ton of time and effort into preparing deeply
complicated live performances only to realize
that so much of my focus is required to execute
them during a worship service that I have no
bandwidth left for what really matters: leading
and engaging in worship.
Let me be very clear: a huge part of the worship
team’s expression of worship during church
is the act of playing music with excellence
in a manner that enhances and inspires an
attitude of worship and doesn’t distract from
the message of the songs. But if chasing
that excellence is making it difficult for you to
engage with the room and more importantly
with God, then that chase will prove less than
effective, especially over time.
Sometimes the best thing you can do to make
yourself a more effective worship band member
is to remove a layer or two of complexity so you
can minister to both your team and to God more
effectively. If nailing that transition that requires
you to adjust eight different effect parameters
during a single bar of the epic slow song bridge
is going to cause you to stress out for the first
three minutes of the song then I would propose
that perhaps that transition might not be worth
nailing.
NOT STUPID, JUST SIMPLE
At the end of the day this article is not a treatise
against some complexity and it is absolutely
not an argument for the kind of ‘we’ll just throw
it together Sunday morning’ mentality that
grants far too much permission for coming
unprepared.
Rather, I hope that the next time you find
yourself in one of the above scenarios you
might be more able to identify that you’re in
them and see the opportunities to free you
and your worship band up to bring your best
in worship, whether that means simple chords
on the changes, or that killer new synth plugin
paying 16th note arpeggios!
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
July 2020
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