each other. They’ re not listening to the band’ s overall sound. They may not even be listening- really listening- to their own, individual sounds. And they’ re not listening, I believe, because they’ re all too busy reading! Reading what they think they should be playing on their instruments!
As I explained in my last article LISTEN FIRST: THEN MAKE SOUND, to be musical, the skill of listening is more important- more foundational- than the skill of making sound with an instrument. You might want to check that out before continuing here. But if you do, please come back!
I see that the eyes of every band member( except the drummer’ s) are totally fixed on either a piece of paper or a tablet screen. They are entirely focused on reading a page and making the sounds that the page“ tells” them to make. They may simply have no mental bandwidth left for listening. All their cognitive powers are consumed by interpreting the information on the page. They are“ slaves to the page”. It’ s highly likely that they think this is what is required to make music. Maybe they’ ve never been taught the essential skill of listening as a prerequisite to good musicality.
To me, their approach pretty much misses the whole point of music! Yes, it is making the sounds of musical notes with instruments together, but to me it is not truly musical. It misses the joy and beauty that is possible- and, in my opinion, essential- with music.
Now, please don’ t misunderstand me here. Reading notation is a great way to make music. But it’ s got to be the right type of musical notation for the right situation.
For example: members of an orchestra will read notation. They must! But the 1st violins will be reading the notation that’ s been arranged and written expressly for them. The 2nd violins will be reading their part. The violas, cellos, oboes, various brass instruments and so on will be reading their parts.
And if any of them get it wrong, the conductor is there to correct them. But each individual part has been carefully arranged to leave space for one another. Fit together perfectly. We can expect each section of the orchestra to have extended periods when they are not playing. The whole orchestra is not playing all the notes all the time. That’ d be a mess, right?
Back to the Rehearsal / Workshop:
The two guitarists are glue-eyed to chord charts. They are both“ slabbing” every note of every chord on the page throughout the song. Their right hand never stops strumming. Intro, verse and chorus are all delivered with the same, consistent, unfeeling intensity.
The keyboardist has a printed copy of the full piano score. Multiple pages that require his full attention. He reads and plays it well, but the full piano score is intended for a situation where the pianist is the only instrument. A solo piano performance! This is not notation that is suitable for a piano- a keyboard- that is part of a full band. It’ s too much! His playing clutters the melody, overcrowds the chordal midrange and invades the sonic space of our bass guitar.
The clarinet player has a printed paper copy of the song’ s lead sheet. She’ s playing every note of the song’ s vocal melody.“ Doubling” our leading singers as best she can- verses choruses, bridges- but she’ s having to transpose the notation on the fly. The clarinet is a B flat instrument after all! Predictably, there are more than a few slip ups here and there, and the sound of the clarinet tends to“ muddy” what the vocalists are singing. The fact that the clarinet is badly out of tune( sharp in this case) isn’ t helping either. The clarinetist has not noticed this.
Like the guitarists, our bassist is staring unflinchingly at a chord chart too. Thankfully, he’ s in tune. He’ s playing all the right notes as written. But it’ s constant. No changes or gaps from start to finish of the song. And he’ s not listening to the drummer- especially the bass drum- and has missed the opportunity to create“ groove” by playing more in sync, especially with that kick.
The drummer’ s the only instrumentalist not looking at some form of written, musical score. But he, like all the other instrumentalists, appears not to be listening well. There seems to be no consideration for any rhythmic“ groove” partnership with the bassist. Drum fills often cut awkwardly across the vocal melody of the song. There’ s no significant dynamic change throughout the song from the drums. Sadly, it’ s apparent that our drummer has not listened to the original artist’ s version of the song. We do not need our drummer to copy every element from the pro drummer on Phil Wickham’ s version of“ Great Things”. Not at all. But if our drummer had listened, he could be inspired to craft his own drum part that incorporates the pro’ s main starts, stops, grooves, and dynamic changes.
Chord charts and lead sheets should not be read like musical notation for a member of an orchestra. A full piano score for a song does not give an appropriate keyboard part as one instrument in a full band.
We must learn to listen. Listen and arrange our own, musical parts that serve the song as a whole. Play the song as a higher priority than playing our instruments. We ought not be slaves to the written score- chord chart, lead sheet, or full notation.
Our choices as instrumentalists must serve each song’ s ability to facilitate“ vertical” and“ horizontal” connection.
Grant Norsworthy Grant is the founder of More Than Music Mentor- providing online & onsite training for the heart & the art of worshipping singers, instrumentalists & technicians. Grant’ a passion is to IMPROVE musicality, INCREASE participation, INSTILL unity & INSPIRE worship in The Church worldwide. An Aussie who also lived in Nashville, TN, USA for 17 years as a pro CCM muso, today Grant lives and works from his Nelson New Zealand home base.
MoreThanMusicMentor. com Facebook. com / GrantNorsworthy
June 2025 Subscribe for Free... 37