Christmas music you may find yourself hanging out close to home base in ‘ one chord , five chord , six chord , four chord ’ land or you may find yourself staring at a staff of music and asking yourself ‘ how am I supposed to pull this arrangement off live ?’
Every church is different here , but again as you work with your worship leader and worship team to figure out how to pull these songs off live there ’ s lots of room for flexibility on the specifics as long as the outcomes are similar . Focus on evoking the feeling of a Christmas song , even if that means changing up or swapping out a difficult run or chord progression for something that you can pull off more reliably and with more feeling behind it .
With that being said you may also run into parts or songs that you just can ’ t compromise too much on . Christmas songs are tough because they ’ re often so well-known and so well loved . Straying too far from the source material can be cool but you also always run the risk of making your audience say , “ I liked it the old way more ”.
BE PRESENT , GET IT ? I think I ’ ve spent more cumulative time learning , practicing and rehearsing for Christmas services than any other type of service , even including
Easter . It can be a lot of work to internalize songs with arrangements , progressions , chords , and melodic ideas that stray outside of what you ’ re used to .
As you prepare and work on wrapping your head around how best to serve the song and your worship ministry I ’ d encourage you to embrace the opportunity to fill different shoes , try new sounds , and learn different chords and theory ideas . If the whole band can embrace the challenge together the process can be really rewarding .
At the same time make sure you don ’ t stretch yourself so far out of your comfort zone that you ’ re no longer able to engage with your bandmates and the congregation . There ’ s a fine line here that ’ s really dictated by your context . I ’ ve been a part of some Christmas services where the band really did serve as a ‘ house band ’/‘ orchestra ’ hybrid that was backing up dramatic performances happening on stage so it wasn ’ t a big deal if we were all glued to our sheet music and listening to the band director intently to make sure we didn ’ t miss any cues , but if your church is going for more of a ‘ worship set with a Christmas feel ’ vibe then I ’ d say it ’ s more important that you ’ re able to stay about as focused on the room and
the congregation as you usually would .
THE LIGHT When it comes down to it , Christmastime in a normal year can be both rewarding and challenging . I ’ d imagine both the challenge and the reward may be a bit greater as we wrap up this odd year for the world .
I ’ ll leave you with a prayer of grace and peace for you , your family , and your church as you prepare to remember the Light of the World making Himself known in a manger , and acknowledge that we all could surely use more light to carry into the next year .
Now , go listen to Whitney Houston and Amy Grant on repeat .
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !
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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