KEYS
REPLACE YOURSELF | David Pfaltzgraff
I used to play basketball, as a kid. I was homeschooled so rather than pop into one of the local school teams my parents found a traveling team I could join up with. As a spry young lad of nine or ten a summary of my skills might have read like: can dribble ball, put head down, drive the lane and chuck up a layup.
Remember, this was a team made up of homeschool kids, so I might as well have been Larry Bird. My first two years on this team I felt like the king of the court. Thanks to countless hours banked dribbling the ball in my parent’ s backyard, I did pretty well and played starting point guard averaging four to six points per game. Don’ t judge, when your entire team was lucky to put up twenty, it was a good average.
But then, it all changed. A new kid showed up at the first practice as we prepared for my third year. He was taller, leaner, and faster. I knew I was in trouble. He worked hard and earned the starting point guard spot, relegating me to small forward. Sadly, it was downhill from there, as I got older and not nearly as tall as some of the other kids. By freshman year of high school, I was suiting junior varsity.
I do owe this rapid demise, though, for inspiring me to abandon my athletic endeavors in favor of musical ones, so it wasn’ t all bad.
In fact, sometimes being replaced can be a good thing, even something to be actively pursued.
Let’ s talk about three areas where you should allow your worship keys role on the team to be replaced and how you can be prepared for when that taller, faster kid inevitably shows up at practice.
RHYTHM AND GROOVE
If you’ ve ever taken classical piano lessons or played worship piano in a solo context, you’ re probably used to the ways that piano is not just a melodic and chordal instrument, but very much a rhythmic one as well.
In modern worship the ability to inject rhythmic interest into your piano playing is a great skill to have and as more syncopated and even gospel-derived parts find their way into popular worship they become even more useful.
But there are times where choosing to sit back and let other members in your band handle the rhythmic and syncopated energy in a song can open up the sound of your band, improving your overall sound.
Many beginning keys players may be tempted to take their cues from the acoustic guitarist’ s strumming patterns, or attempt to stay directly locked in with the kick, hi hat, or snare, but many times the mix would be better served by you simplifying or reframing your focus to let those other points of emphasis breathe.
If you’ re not sure what that looks like, a good place to start is focusing on establishing the chord changes along with the bass guitar, making sure you’ re always locked in and gluing together what everyone else can play off of or around.
88 March 2026 Subscribe for Free...