LOOP COMMUNITY
WORSHIP LEADING BEFORE TRACKS & BEING FLEXIBLE W / BRETT YOUNKER | Matt McCoy
Brett Younker from Passion joined Loop Community Founder Matt McCoy to talk about leading worship before tracks and how worship leaders can be more flexible in worship .
[ Matt ] We ’ ve both lead worship with tracks for a long time . What was it like for you leading worship before tracks ?
[ Brett ] Being a college student in the early 2000s , we didn ’ t have access to how to do stuff . It was like , “ How does the David Crowder band make those sounds ?” They were the ones for me that were on the forefront of using tracks . A lot of those guys became the Passion band like Paul Whittinghill and Brian Carl , and in those early days of playing youth groups we would use a software called Reason . I didn ’ t have a keyboard player . Brian , our guitar player , would make the sounds that would help us transition songs . Then Paul would run Reason , and our “ loops ” would literally be loops , not tracks . Something to add rhythm and motion .
[ Matt ] My worship sets before tracks could sometimes be 40 minutes . We used to just flow , repeat more , jump back to another song . Now they ’ re 17 . You can do that with tracks . But I think we ’ ve lost a little bit of the natural spontaneity . This is coming from a guy that all I do is tracks and we ’ ve made software that lets you be spontaneous with tracks ! But I do think worship has become more programmed .
[ Brett ] Yeah . I lead worship at Passion , obviously it ’ s a huge gathering . It ’ s one thing if you ’ re a band and you play together all the time , you can kind of read each other ’ s minds . But when you have a large team and you ’ re rotating people in and out that ’ s a little bit tougher . I ’ ve always found if you design your system in a way that can be flexible and a culture that does that , it helps for sure .
If you just play songs straight through on a Sunday morning you can fly by a verse that could be a great verse . It might be awesome to sing that verse again , and it may land different in the hearts of people . Sometimes when we sing it goes over people ’ s heads . Allowing
some of the lyrics and truth to settle in with people as you ’ re leading , you can see people ’ s hearts engage .
[ Matt ] Totally . At Loop Community we always say , “ You control the tracks , don ’ t let the tracks control you ”. Use a MIDI Controller or an app to help you be flexible . How do you do that at Passion ?
[ Brett ] We have an MD and it ’ s usually the keyboard player , and they ’ re also running the tracks . Before the service I ’ ll give my team a few windows in the songs , and tell them what we might do , so that we ’ re all paying attention to each other and what ’ s happening in the room during those windows .
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Matt McCoy Matt is a worship leader , songwriter and Ableton Certified Trainer from Chicago , IL . He has been using Ableton and tracks in worship since 2002 . He ’ s passionate about creating new products and teaching worship leaders and artists how to use technology in live performance . www . LoopCommunity . com 32 October 2024 Subscribe for Free ...