Darcy L. Watkins – June 27, 2024
Introduction
To sustainably be effective as a worship musician, you must understand from where you come and what you bring to the table. This understanding helps you to prioritize your personal development and what you invest in, especially in terms of acquiring musical instruments, equipment, accessories, and what training and lessons you may take as part of your growth and development.
There is the most obvious first question which is, “What instrument do you play?” But in this article, I aim to dig a bit deeper past this to get more into what makes you tick as a musician. We all seek to grow, but it’s better if there is some strategy behind it, not just following the fads of the day.
This article targets musicians but applies equally even if you are a singer (vocalist). In fact, if you are a singer, please don’t underestimate the relevance of this article to you.
Equipment
Do you bring and use your own equipment? Or do you show up expecting there to be something to play? Is it a mixture of both? No answer is right or wrong. There can be a matter of fit for your team and venue, but not right or wrong in the sense of correct or incorrect. Sometimes the sense of fit depends on the instrument played. It also depends on what the church has, their budget, etc.
Here are some examples:
- Singers usually show up and use mics provided by the venue. Few bring their own mic. Many church venues use wireless mics so there is not any choice involved.
- A pianist usually can expect to show up to a piano or keyboard that has been provided by the venue. But some keyboardists bring their own equipment. Some augment the venue provided equipment with a computer (DAW software) or even a hardware synthesizer.
- A drummer usually can expect the venue to provide a useable drum set. But some drummers will bring their own snare drum and/or a few favorite cymbals. Some churches use digital drums so there is no choice involved (unless the drummer has his/her own compatible drum “brain” unit).
- Guitarists and bassists usually bring their own instruments along with any EFX devices they may use for processing the output of their instrument. Some churches provide amps, amp mics, DIs, etc. Others don’t. Some don’t use (or even allow) amps on stage.
- Many churches these days provide in ear monitor systems rather than stage wedge monitors so external amplifiers are usually not a fit. In such a case, sorry, you must leave your Marshall Stack at home. If using an in ear system, you may want to get your own earpieces since sharing them with others is not considered sanitary.
So here is a consideration, if you show up to play a provided instrument as-is, you are most likely to emphasize your development in terms of improving how you play and/or sing. You are less focused on the instrument and how it may be programmed. On the other hand, if you bring a lot of your own equipment, you will also spend time working on configurations, “patches” that make your instrument fit in better, sound more unique or better emulate a sound used by another artist on a reference recording.
There is no right answer, but the answer does affect how you work with the team and how you pursue your further development as a musician.
Role
There are a variety of roles played in music. Do you gravitate towards playing melodic, or in some cases counter-melodic lines? Or do you gravitate more towards supporting such with chordal structure? Maybe this includes rhythmic structure. We see this especially with keyboards and guitars where some take on “lead” parts and others take on “rhythm” parts. In contemporary music, there are also parts of a more ambient nature as well, such as pads and swells.
Pianist / Keyboardist
Let’s apply this to keyboard players. Do you play a keyboard much like you would a piano? Is your background primarily as a pianist? Maybe you think more like an organist. Maybe you are more experienced with synthesizers, creating unusual and striking sounds. What sort of style / genre background and influences do you have?
This affects how you will blend in as part of a team. You could be a great pianist but must learn how piano parts fit with guitars and other instruments as part of a team of musicians. It isn’t always easy to do. In some cases, the team may be guitar driven so all they want from a keyboardist is soft pads to add ambience to the mix. Or maybe they want that classic Hammond B3 organ sound. In other cases, there may be two keyboardists. It’s good to understand where each keyboardist is at so that you can figure out who does what parts. One may be better at piano parts. The other may be better at synth soft pads.
Sometimes you must be able to switch roles. For example, the pianist may also be a good organist, so the synth player would have to be able to switch to pianist role while the pianist takes on the organ part. That could be just for a song here or there or could be based on the service. That could depend in part on stage layout, equipment, etc. Sometimes there may be a pre-determination of roles, but you switch off parts with the other keyboardist because you are a team. These days, any keyboard can support any role, but if you have to physically switch keyboard positions, that could affect other things such as in-ear mixes that may need adjustment.
Acoustic, Lead and Rhythm Guitar
Like for the pianist / keyboardist, there are variety of roles for guitarists, especially electric guitar. Are you stronger at lead parts than at rhythm parts? Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe you are good at all the chunky funk riffs. On acoustic, do you do a fair amount of finger picking, or is it mainly strumming? How tight do you lock in with drums and percussion?
Maybe you like unusual gadgets like E-bow, slides, actual “finger picks”. Maybe you play one of them horizontal slide guitars we sometimes see in country music bands.
Faux Roles
A worship leader may sometimes play and lead, using the guitar mainly to provide a foundation, using a simple strumming pattern. Believe it or not, sometimes a worship leader guitarist plays a guitar to guide the band and to stay on track. Sometimes they aren’t even in the mains mix, just in musician in-ear mixes. This could be the case when there is another more accomplished guitar player on the team. Sometimes, less in the mix leads to a tighter mix. The extra guitar in such a case is a visual and a communications aid.
Similarly, I know of cases where a vocalist has been way down in the mix because they are not strong as a vocalist, but their smile, facial expressions and stage movement is conducive as an invitation to praise.
Genre / Style
Worship music, like Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is somewhat an inverse genre. In secular music, a genre implies a specific musical style, but you can sing about whatever you want. In CCM, you pick any style you like, but you sing about the Lord or other Christian topics. In worship music, this is further narrowed to fulfil the mission to lead people to praise and worship God. In this sense, we are dealing with a reverse genre. Despite this, there is still a mainstream worship sound, a mainstream worship style. It usually reflects the most published works of worship artists of the day.
These styles change as time passes on as well as from region to region, culture to culture. Each church (sometimes each worship leader) wants to fit closely to a preferred style. Can you adapt how you play to fit into the style that the worship leader seeks? Each team may have its own stylistic flavour. Some may be more country sounding. Others may sound more rock or pop. Others may be a variation of Gospel music genre. In some cases, it may vary from service to service depending on the worship leader. In some cases, it may even vary from song to song, so then you really must be flexible.
Such demands on flexibility may affect your gear as well as you. You may have to come up with a “new sound” or emulate “that sound” from a recording. These sound demands change with the times as well.
How You Play
Can you play by ear? Even so, can you get the genre bang on, including the subtle nuances? In times past, worship musicians had to be able to jump in and play by ear, but honestly, the genre diversity wasn’t that much. Some teams would always sound Gospel. Others would always sound commercial rock. In most cases, they would sound busy and not very tight. That shouldn’t come as a surprise since in those times, the worship team was more or less, treated as an afterthought, so you needed musicians who could just jump in and pull it off. Musicianship sort of took a back seat to supporting the moments.
As time moved on, we adopted lead sheets and charts more so that everyone could follow the proper chord progressions, etc. Later, it became apparent that worship teams needed to rehearse together, sometimes even be organized like bands so that they get to work together better. Today, you are usually expected to listen to a reference recording or video to pull off something like it using your charts. Rehearsals are used to pull the missing pieces together (usually one on a weeknight and one early Sunday morning before the services).
So, you most likely use charts these days. Below is a comparison for reference.
Playing by ear – You start by feeling the musical structure and chord relationships of the song. With that, based on the repetitious nature of music and your knowledge of the desired genre, you follow the leader, augmenting the leader with your part. If you are good at it, you are in the groove within a few bars, even if you don’t know the song at all. On the other hand, songs that break the rules of the genre can lead to glorious flops.
Lead sheet (aka jazz fakebook) format – This format has the melody scored, along with the lyrics and the chords to use. This provides the essential definition of the song, to which you add rhythm and other improvisations. This is what was common in times past. You filled in the blanks with the style of the team. If you were good, you could learn a song without ever having heard it played by someone else. Sometimes your version of the song is even better for the time. But less people these days even know how to read music scores.
Charts – This is essentially like a lead sheet except that the melody is not scored. It is just the lyrics and chords. In such cases, you must already be familiar with the song, sufficient to play along. Since people have more access to the same musical recordings on social media videos, charts are sufficient for today. Usually, you are instructed to become familiar not only with the song, but a specific “version” (or artist’s recording) of the song. This is the most used format today, but if you show up not having listened to the reference recording, you may tie up some of the rehearsal time “catching up”.
Playing by ear and learning a song from a lead sheet have become like lost arts these days. Perhaps you want to explore such as a matter of curiosity, especially if you like to jam, or play a lot with more experienced musicians.
Music Versus Lyrics
Which of these do you tend to lock in on first? Do you easily memorize the lyrics to hundreds of songs? Maybe you can’t remember the lyrics, but you easily remember all the musical nuances instead. It is important to understand where you are at. There isn’t such thing as a right or a wrong answer here. But this can help you determine the direction you may want to take for development and growth, especially if you are wondering whether to pursue vocals more, or instrumentation more. This is more especially important if the direction you want to pursue is counter to your natural inclination. You’ve just identified somewhere to invest in your further development (e.g. lessons, more personal practice times, etc).
Intensity
This is another matter for which there really isn’t a right or wrong answer, the matter of intensity. Some are intense as musicians, like it is their life. Others are more laid back; music is one part of their life. Sometimes this can be related to stage in the lifecycle. For example, someone as a college aged student of music would tend to be more intense at it than someone for who music involvement is as much an escape to unwind from certain parts of daily life.
A worship team will usually involve a mix of participants of varying intensities. Sometimes this can be a cause of friction. One may be perceived as being too demanding. Another may be perceived as not taking it seriously enough. It is important to understand that each person on the team is at a certain stage in their walk of worship and discipleship of the Lord. As they take their steps, certain matters come more in focus as others take the back seat. In this sense, what is important today may not be the same as what was important yesterday or what will be important tomorrow. That could affect whether, say the keyboardist nails that keyboard “lick” versus doing something that suffices. And this state of flux is happening with each person on the team, all simultaneously and in most cases independently.
Participation on a worship team is usually an activity balanced with other matters of importance such as family and other commitments.
Focus
What is your area of focus? Do you care most about nailing the melody (especially as a vocalist)? Maybe you focus on keeping the chords flavourful, avoiding an oversimplified “kindergarten” chord structure. Maybe rhythmic syncopations are your thing. Maybe reworking a song to an alternative musical genre is your thing. Maybe you focus on the sounds, the textures, the effects used.
These reflect how you think, your creative bent and how you will improvise.
Closing
I could continue with additional categories, as I think each reader could contribute a few themselves. I also have not touched on such matters as our calling and our discipleship, following the Lord in our personal walk and lifestyle of worship. I have left those as subject matter for other articles.
So, I have laid out several considerations for you to ponder on. You likely resonate with some of them and not so much with others. I suggest that you take note of the ones you resonate with so that you better understand what kind of worship musician you are. Hopefully this helps you with determining the direction you may want to further develop (or maybe it confirms or even vindicates an earlier direction you took). Maybe it helps you get back more on track (if you took a “wrong turn”).
You may also have seen a couple of considerations that got your curiosity so you may want to explore them out as well.
I pray this article has been helpful to you. Amen.