YOUR SIGNATURE VOICE Once you’ ve spent a fraction of your time on the sounds you’ ll use, it’ s time to get comfy with the songs themselves and decide how you’ ll voice the chords, riffs, and parts that jump out to you. Back to our initial example, if I found myself in a spot where I had two new songs to learn and a service time less than a day away I’ d devote nearly all my time to digging into those two songs, trusting my muscle memory and the team around me to help dial in the more familiar tunes once I get to soundcheck.
Whether your church uses charts or not, I’ ve found the single fastest way for me to internalize the important changes of a song is to take out paper and pencil and write out a scratch chart as I listen through a song two or three times. On first pass I write out the song map and fill in any chords that are obvious. During a second pass I’ ll fill in progressions further and note any easily distinguished dynamic changes. If I have the luxury of a third pass, I’ ll try to add notes on any important riffs or melodic beats and leave myself reminders of the chord positions I’ ll likely turn to.
If that sounds like a lot, don’ t stress. It’ s something you can practice when the stakes are low. Just pick a worship song you already know and run through it with pencil in hand, following the pattern I shared above. After you’ re satisfied with the results, turn to a song you haven’ t played in a few years, then to a song you’ ve never played before.
You’ ll find that it gets easier each time, even as your familiarity with the songs you are transcribing decreases. At the end of the exercise the goal is not to replace the chart your worship leader hopefully provided to you, but to build a stronger mental image of the song that you can’ t get by just reading a chart that already exists.
THE TEAM’ S NEEDS Once you’ ve taken some time to prep your sounds and learn those tricky new songs, the last thing I’ d recommend is taking a moment to scan the service plan and see who you’ ll be playing with. If you know the players, take just a minute or two to reflect on their strengths, tendencies, and weaknesses. What can you do to anticipate and mentally prepare for what they’ ll bring to the table? If you’ ll be working with players you’ re not familiar with, give your worship leader or music director a quick callback and ask them for the cliff notes rundown on the team so you can take their feedback into account.
I lean towards perfectionism when it comes to my music, sometimes to a fault. These contexts where I simply don’ t have time to get it‘ right’ like I’ d prefer always serve as a strong reminder of what really matters. If you’ re pinch hitting, you’ re there to serve from a slightly different posture than normal. No one’ s expecting perfection and hopefully there’ s extra grace to‘ bring what you have’. Be confident in your strengths and lean into what you’ re most comfortable with and what you know of your band. They’ ll be glad to have you and it’ s a great opportunity to realize that, just maybe, you don’ t need to stress so much on a‘ regular Sunday’ either.
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.
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