WORSHIP LEADERS
WHEN PRACTICE DOESN ’ T REALLY MATTER | Jon Nicol
One of the first areas I look at when I coach a worship leader is their team culture of preparation .
• Do team members invest time in personal practice ?
• Do they prioritize rehearsals ?
• Does the leader run effective rehearsals ?
But whenever I hear the following , either from the team members or the leader , I know personal practice isn ' t the ' bleeding neck ' issue :
" We don ' t do it like the recording . We like to create our own arrangement ."
Please hear me ; there is nothing wrong with kicking the recorded arrangement to the curb and creating something that better fits your team and culture . But most of the time , this is what that team is really saying …
“ We just sing and play whatever we want .”
So , no , practice doesn ' t really matter for this team . They literally could practice individually for 10 hours a week with a 4-hour rehearsal and never sound that great . Sure , there won ' t be mistakes . And they might even stay in time with each other . But here ' s what ' s happening on Sunday :
The acoustic guitar player is wood-chopping big fat open chords in G or D – whichever of his capo gets him to first .
The drummer is playing his " go-to " pattern he learned in high school pep band …
do-do-chi-do / do-do-chi-do / do-do-chi-do / ( fill ) da-da-da-da- da-da-da-da -da-da-da-DA! / do-do-chi-do / do-do-chi-do …
Now , does it matter that on the recording there ' s a tasty " tribal tom " groove going on ? Or that one section had no drums at all ? Nope .
The bass player is thumping the roots of whatever ' s on the chord chart . And if she ' s feeling adventurous , she might play that letter on the right side of the slash . Occasionally , she ' ll even lock up with the drummer : do-dodah-do / do-do-dah-do …
Then there ' s the " killer " lead guitar player . 15 years ago , he learned Lincoln Brewster ' s “ Everlasting God ” solo note-for-note . But for the last 8 or 9 years , he mostly just ' fills .'... Everything .
There ' s a constant , chainsaw-esque alt-melody going on the entire song . He calls it playing in the Spirit . Others call it pointless noodling – that is , they would if they didn ' t want to be accused of being unspiritual .
And now , for the keyboard player . She plays with all ten fingers all the time . Enough said .
Then there are the vocalists . Amazingly , they ' ve figured out how to have three different alto parts . And there ' s always that one who finds the right part … but in a different key . And with a finger in her ear .
While all this is happening ...
The sound tech is filling out a ministry application to be the new volunteer nursery coordinator . Screaming babies would be an upgrade .
" MORE & BETTER " IS NOT BETTER
I ' d like to say the above scenarios are all in jest , but I ' ve seen all of that in some way or another . You probably have , too .
And I ' m sure you also see how more practice or better practice habits won ' t really make much difference in a band like this . If a team doesn ' t understand essential arranging and team musicianship , they ' re practicing the wrong stuff !
They need to learn a specific part and understand how it fits into the arrangement . I call it practicing purposeful parts . Otherwise , it ' s just a lot of semi-musical pounding and hacking .
PURPOSEFUL PARTS
One of the reasons to emulate the recorded arrangement of a worship song is because some highly skilled and talented people already determined " purposeful parts " for that song . Each part is intentional and has been arranged and orchestrated to be what it is and where it is .
While we don ' t have time to dig into arranging here , the key to creating purposeful parts is for each team member to ...
1 . RESPECT THE SONIC AND RHYTHMIC SPECTRUMS … Everyone needs to know where and how their instruments or voices fit at any given moment in every song . Most teams compete for space in the " muddy middle " and are rhythmically stepping all over each other . But when they intentionally place themselves on the sonic and rhythmic spectrums , purposeful parts begin to emerge .
2 . CREATE INTENTIONAL DYNAMICS … Dynamics aren ' t just about being loud or soft . It ' s the intentional musical journey through a song , and really , through an entire worship set . Sometimes the right dynamics require not playing or singing . Other times , team members need to contribute far less than they want to . Leaving space for another instrument is more