KEYS
KEY TRANSITION X 3 | David Pfaltzgraff
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘ Practice is something to do at home , rehearsal is what we do as a band together ’?
The idea being that practice is an individual task , where each band member does their best to prepare before everyone gets in the room , instead of waiting until then to figure out the chord progression , song map , or that one tricky lead part .
I ’ m a big fan of this axiom , but today ’ s article isn ’ t focused on practice in a general sense . Instead , I ’ d like to draw attention to an important part of any worship service that rarely gets rehearsed and even less frequently gets practiced .
What ’ s the word ? Transitions .
Those little moments that tend to get swept under the rug during practice and there ’ s rarely time to rehearse , but whose execution ( or let ’ s be honest , often lack thereof ) can break up an otherwise encouraging , inspiring set with a bunch of awkward silence or an illfated attempt to play ‘ who ’ s starting this song , anyway ’ with only sideways glances or frantic hand gesturing .
Depending on your particular church , your team may already have a pretty good handle on transitioning in some ways , but I want to draw attention to three distinct moments of transition that each require specific intentionality , practice , and rehearsal . If you find that your team is already checking one or more of these boxes , great ! But I bet there ’ s room to ‘ tighten up the ship ’ for all of us , myself included .
BUILD IT UP , NOT THAT BIG
This first moment of transition might be the most overlooked : transitions that happen within a song itself . You might be thinking this borders on obvious , but hear me out . We can spend a lot of time learning the chord progressions , parts , and riffs in a song . Focusing on the changes , the song map , and as keys players paying attention to the keyboard sounds we ’ ll use throughout a song .
All of this is good , but when you find that you ’ ve looped that chorus riff twenty times to learn it and never once practiced transitioning into it from the pre-chorus , you ’ ll see what I mean .
Adding to the potential trouble here , us keys players are often focused not just on getting from one part to the next . but also on fading that great lead or pad in to just the right mix or smoothly bringing down the filter on that Arp so it doesn ’ t take up too much space , while making sure we keep the band glued together the entire time .
See what I mean ? These moments of transition within a song can be some of the most complex we have to execute on a Sunday , not just musically , but technically and logistically as well . Nine out of ten mistakes I ’ ve made while playing keys on stage in the last five years have been the result of getting thrown off during a transition from one song part to the next .
The good news is you can address this easily and without requiring any more time . To use the 20x riff example above , just