KEYS
WHO’ S IN CHARGE HERE? | David Pfaltzgraff
Have you ever put a lot of work into something only for all of that effort to be wiped out in an instant? The classic example of this for worship teams is probably the guitarist who spends hours before rehearsal learning some Lincoln Brewster guitar solo only to be casually informed‘ oh, we’ ll just skip the instrumental and get right to the bridge’ on Sunday morning, all that practice and study wiped away in just a moment.
I think this kind of disappointment and wasted effort can be a common occurrence for worship keys players too, but it’ s not often as simple as the‘ learned a solo we’ re going to skip’ example. Nonetheless, I myself have lost many an hour of practice and preparation when it came to soundcheck and for a few reasons that over time have become more predictable to me.
Allow me to share a few of the most common scenarios where your return on time invested may be less than you’ d hope for with some tips to make sure you’ re focusing your effort where it’ s most impactful.
TOO PASSIVE Many modern worship keys players put more thought into their sound design choices than ever before. We spend time choosing‘ this pad or that’, researching which type of piano sound was used on the original recording of a specific song, and ensuring that lead sound is split at just the right note so we can cover the pads and lead at the same time.
These are good things and I love it whenever I hear about a church keys player who puts in the time and effort to come prepared to soundcheck. But there’ s a common reason all of that preparation can fall flat in a full mix.
You see, when you spend an hour, two, or more obsessing over your work at home a reasonable person eventually reaches a point where they‘ call it good’. They’ ve made their choices, they’ ve‘ dialed in their sounds’ and then they head to church.
The reality is that when you get to church is where the highest impact work begins. The pitfall is that you put all your creative decisionmaking energy into the choices you make before you get to church and then during practice or soundcheck you’ re less curious. This often results in you missing inconsistencies, weaknesses, or issues with your keyboard sounds that your audio engineer likely won’ t miss. But unless you craft a relationship that invites open and honest feedback in the rehearsal or soundcheck context, they’ re more likely to just turn your channel down when it’ s not working than give you an opportunity to adjust.
TOO SCULPTED Which brings me to the second scenario. This is an issue where you have to deploy a hefty dose of tact, and some may not agree with me, but here I go. You need to be comfortable asking your front of house for a flat EQ with light to no compression, other than emergency limiting, at the start of every soundcheck.
Why? Because a modern worship keys player may bring any number of different sounds to the mix over the course of a four-song setlist and it’ s unrealistic to assume that a default, set and forget EQ and compression setting will work out of the box from Sunday to Sunday.
84 February 2026 Subscribe for Free...