KEYS
THE STRENGTH IN STAYING THE SAME | David Pfaltzgraff
Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash
If you’ re anything like me, you’ ve likely built up a routine over your years playing on worship teams that governs how you get ready and prepare. For me as a keys player, this usually looks like listening through the setlist a handful of times at home, picking out parts by ear, and spending the majority of my practice time striking a balance between trying to dial in the right mix of sounds and the parts to go along with them.
It’ s a workflow that has served me pretty well. I find that I’ m able to spend no more than a few hours learning and preparing for a new song on average, and most of the time I feel good about the way that my work at home translates to soundcheck. But this approach is not without its faults. There have been times when I’ ve felt less than satisfied with the way my efforts end up contributing to the band and I’ ve also often felt that I miss important context that I’ m just guessing at until I get in the room with the team.
Over the last few months, I’ ve realized what in hindsight feels like a glaring blind spot in my approach to preparing my worship keys parts at home. Allow me to share how I’ m wrapping my head around it, and perhaps it will resonate with you.
THE CORE PROBLEMS
I used to spend way too much time obsessing over dialing in every individual sound in my keys presets before I’ d get deep into the parts themselves. Thankfully I eventually learned that it’ s nearly impossible to realistically dial in a keys patch unless you take the time in balance to bring the parts you’ ll play up to the same level.
Before learning this, I’ d often find that my parts would feel muddy or lack clarity in a full band context. Once I sorted out that this relationship was vitally important to prioritize, I started working on my sounds and parts in lockstep with each other, no longer allowing myself to spend more than a few minutes on a given preset unless I was also able to readily play the accompanying parts.
But even after this big breakthrough, I’ ve always still felt there are times where what sounded great to me at home just wouldn’ t translate when I’ d arrive at church. Maybe you relate to this and to be honest there’ s not much more disheartening for a musician than putting in a lot of effort at home only for it to be lost or not translate when you get to church.
So I started reflecting on what other possible weaknesses there might be in my practice routine at home that could impact my results at church and I identified two problems.
IN A VACUUM
The first resulted from a natural practice rhythm. I would often end up playing through songs on the keyboard alone once I’ d put in the effort to dial in sounds and parts alike. This seemed like a helpful way to practice my timing, get confident in the parts and transitions, and be able to clearly hear the way my sounds blended together.
But in the end, I’ ve realized something critical that caused me to be out of alignment when the band would come together. When practicing those songs at home from just the keyboard, I would naturally desire to bring all the various levels of dynamic energy to the song from the keyboard itself. Meaning, if the song had a lift into a chorus or an epic final bridge, I’ d automatically impart that energy into my sound design and musical part choices so that that moment of the song felt‘ normal’ and like the original. Of course, zoomed out it’ s easy to see that this may not often actually be the
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