responsibility of the keys player. Much of the time in modern worship music it’ s the rhythm section and guitars that are taking the band up and down throughout a song and the keys player’ s role is to provide a concrete foundation that glues together the band. For me this was a mindset issue, not a technical one.
Realizing that I was‘ filling the void’ when practicing at home helped me to fundamentally change the way I practice. I now purposefully force myself back into playing along to the original recording much earlier in my practice routine than I would otherwise. This allows me to be intentional about how much dynamic energy I’ m aiming to provide, versus allowing my bandmates to handle, leading to a much more consistent presence in the band where my parts and sounds feeling much closer to dialed-in when I get to soundcheck.
COMFORTABLE DISAPPEARING
The second weakness is more challenging, and to be honest it’ s something I’ m still struggling with. When practicing parts at home, and indeed when you’ re at church monitoring yourself while you play along with the band, it’ s natural to desire to hear your parts‘ on top’ of the mix. But this is often fundamentally at odds with the way your audio engineer may desire to utilize your parts in the room.
Your audio engineer’ s primary goal is to present a cohesive, tight mix to your church congregants, and often the keys sitting‘ just under’ many of your bandmates can feel just right in the room. So when I would practice at home along to an mp3, but with my keys parts far louder than everything else, I was practicing in a context that didn’ t have much at all to do with what the final outcomes would be.
This meant that oftentimes the parts I thought were‘ cutting through’ were only doing so because I had them turned up loud. In the room? Often an entirely different story. My solution to this weakness is a work in progress, but so far, it’ s looked like asking my audio engineers for feedback on a regular basis, both during soundcheck and after a service as well as purposefully turning myself down at times when practicing at home and during soundcheck alike. It’ s uncomfortable, but it’ s one of the only ways I’ m finding to actually get a handle on the ways my different parts interplay with the band’ s.
STAYING THE SAME
My goal in all of this is to internalize that staying the same, in a musical context, can be a strength. My aim is to be a predictable contributor to the band who can be counted on for something that adds and doesn’ t distract. While it’ s fun and tempting to chase all sorts of different keyboard sounds and parts, it’ s most important to be predictable and reliably present in the mix for my team. As I keep working to get more comfortable with working around these tricky limitations as I prepare at home I hope and pray you’ ll be able to do the same.
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
72 January 2026 Subscribe for Free...
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