many different well-known and loved worship leaders . How do you get to know them , learn what they are hoping for as the worship guitarist in a supporting role , and then prepare for each one ?
[ Jeffrey ] It ’ s always an honor to get to play for one of your heroes , and it has felt like that every time I ’ ve gotten the call to play on a major ‘ live ’ recording . My first approach has always been to try and get to know them as people … so spending time with them outside of the studio , going to dinner , hanging out at the hotel or a house , and trying to ‘ race ’ towards becoming friends as quickly as possible . Live recordings are all about creating trust between each other on stage , so that in the moment you can feed off of each other musically and create spontaneous moments that in turn create those powerful worship moments that we all love on our favorite worship albums .
For me , a live recording is so much more than the arrangements or ‘ plans ’ we bring into the night of the recording . My goal is always to go as far beyond those plans as possible , and push the band and the leaders to find moments to go ‘ off the roadmap ’ that we ’ ve gone into the night with . That doesn ’ t happen without relationship and trust .
It ’ s obviously very important to keep the artist ’ s vision in mind and serve that vision first before my own . That all happens in the studio weeks before the actual live recording . We all sit down over coffee with the artist and listen to demos , talk about arrangements with the producer , and talk about the artists ’ vision for the record . From there , we have a limited amount of time to become a ‘ band ’ with the artist , learn each other ’ s tendencies , and try and gel as one musical unit - not a bunch of hired musicians playing for a solo artist . If we can hit that spot where we feel like mutual trust has been created with each band member and the artist , that ’ s when the best live recordings are tee ’ d up for success .
[ WM ] Wow great answer . You have produced books and other materials for worship guitar players . Your book on Ear Training interests me as I took a class on that in college . Why do you think that is important for worship guitar players to learn ?
[ Jeffrey ] Ear training is possibly the most important thing you can learn as a worship guitarist . I often refer to my ‘ ear ’ as my secret weapon . Being able to hear a chord , progression , interval , or melody and recreate it on my guitar ‘ instantly ’ is an invaluable skill to have for a few reasons . First - it makes learning songs incredibly quick and easy . I don ’ t have to google charts , or YouTube tutorials . I can hear
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