Play Skillfully (Part 2)

     In my last post, I wrote some reasons as to why I believe it is important to lead worship skillfully. I stressed that the most important thing is that worship leaders are worshiping God, but playing well should also be something they strive for. Today I want to continue talking about playing skillfully, but give some practical ways to improve your abilities. I have found that these things have helped me become a much better musician, and I still use these techniques today. I hope you are blessed through this list, and I hope you learn something.
1. Practice. This is so obvious, but it has to be said. Don’t limit the time you practice to worship team rehearsals. Practicing songs outside of team rehearsals is the best way to improve your skill as a musician, and the team will appreciate it.
2. Learn theory. I know, theory isn’t fun. No one really likes learning music theory, but I can honestly say that it has made me a much better musician. I was privileged to have a piano teacher who taught me theory, but you don’t need a teacher to learn theory. There are so many resources online that teach music theory, so I encourage you to learn from them. Music theory is not difficult, it just requires that you put some effort into learning it. I promise that you will be a better musician if you learn some theory.
3. Use a metronome. This is especially important for drummers and leaders, since these two people control the tempo (for the most part). No matter what you play though, I believe you should practice with a metronome. When you practice without a metronome, you may think that you are playing with a steady tempo, but often times, you are not. I understand that a metronome is annoying because it just makes a clicking sound, but you will develop a better sense of time by using one. There isn’t really an excuse for not using one, since there are free apps that let you have a metronome on your phone. Using a metronome will also teach you to follow a beat, which will make you better at following the rest of the worship team.
4. Practice with recorded songs. The reason for this is similar to the reason you use a metronome. By playing along to songs, you learn how to sound better in a group. Also, you are forced to follow the tempo of the song, so your sense of timing gets better. The reason I think you should practice both with songs and with a metronome is that just playing with songs can give you a false sense of security. However, it is still good to play along to recorded songs, so you can find out how to fit into a song.
5. Listen to music. This is a super easy way to improve your ear for music. Simply listen to the songs that you tend to play often as a team. When you are in the car, on the bus, waiting in line, or anywhere at all, you can listen to music. By listening to how songs are supposed to sound, you will have a much easier time playing those songs. Be an avid listener of music.
6. Ask for feedback. After a worship service, I sometimes ask people what they thought of the praise. Some people will just try to be nice, so try to find people that will be honest with you. Also, talk to people who are more experienced with music than you, and ask how you can improve. The best place to find these people is within the praise team itself. I believe that the worship team should foster an environment where the members constantly push each other to greatness.
7. Record yourself. This can be scary, especially if you are vocalist. However, this is also the only way you can evaluate yourself. Record one of your praise sessions, or even your solo practice sessions, and critically evaluate yourself. Find out where you are rushing, dragging, out of tune, or other problems that can be fixed. A word of caution: don’t get too upset if you don’t sound perfect, since a recording is very unforgiving. The smallest mistakes will be caught on a recording, but not by the congregation. Use a recording to fix larger problems, and don’t stress too much about every small detail.
8. Learn. Ask someone to teach you, or learn from people on the internet. There are a million resources that can help you learn to be better at your instrument (or vocals). Always be willing to learn.
9. Teach. By teaching others, you actually become better musician. You have to be confident in your ability in order to teach another person. While teaching, you can find out where you can improve.
10. Have fun. If you don’t have fun playing music, why are you doing it? Being part of a worship team should never feel like an obligation, and definitely not like a chore. Enjoy music, don’t make it a burden. Have jam sessions with other people, and don’t take it too seriously. Of course, there are times where you do have to be serious about your abilities, but ultimately worship shouldn’t be stressful. You are there to worship a God who loves you so much He died for you. Why would worship be depressing?
     I hope that you can put some of these tips into practice (assuming you are a musician). If you have any techniques that you use to improve your musical abilities, I would love to hear them.
-Smart

Play Skillfully (Part 1)

"Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy."
Psalm 33:3

Note: The ideas expressed in this post are simply the author’s opinions, and do not claim to have any bearing on truth.

     As promised, I will write about some of my thoughts in regards to leading worship. In particular, I want to talk about why I believe it is important to play and/or sing well, or as the Bible says, skillfully. Now, before I say anything else, I cannot stress enough that nothing I write in this post takes precedence above worshiping God from our heart. Truly worshiping God is the most important thing that a worship leader is responsible for. That being said, let me explain some reasons why I believe playing skillfully is important as a worship leader.

     First, I think a worship team should strive to play well because it benefits the worship service and the congregation. What do I mean by this? I like to think of it like this. Imagine that you went to a church service, and the pastor was giving a message, but he looked unprepared. He constantly stumbles over his words, his sermon doesn’t make sense, and he is unfocused. How are you going to feel? Of course, you can still be blessed through the service, as God can work even in the most broken times, but I believe most people will struggle to learn from the sermon. In the same way, if the worship team plays poorly, constantly making mistakes, it can detract from the congregation’s ability to worship. The worship team is there in order to make a worshipful environment for the congregation and the worship service, so they should be prepared.

     Second, worship team members should strive to play well because it benefits the worship team. I don’t want to pick on any one instrument, so I will just use myself as an example. Imagine if I come to a praise practice, and I cannot keep a steady tempo on the drums. The other musicians will be frustrated at me, since I am making practice very difficult. In fact, there was a time early in my worship experience where I was absolutely horrible at keeping tempo. This made practices much harder for the other members, so I kept practicing in order to get better. A worship leader should always try to play their best in order to support the rest of the worship team. As I alluded to in my Thanksgiving post, the less you have to worry about the music, the easier it will be to worship God from your heart. If everyone plays well together, the worship band can put more emphasis on worshiping God rather than fixing the music.

     Third and lastly, a desire to play better should naturally arise in worship leaders. I find that the better I get at playing instruments, the more I can worship God. Also, the more I worship God, the better I want to get at playing my instruments. If you found out that the President was coming over to your house for dinner, you wouldn’t treat it in the same way you treat any other dinner. You would clean your house, and prepare the best meal you can (or if you are like me, buy the best food you can). A worship team is worshiping someone greater than even the President, so we should treat it that way. We should strive to play better because we want to worship God with our best. If we really believe that God is all that we say He is, shouldn’t our worship reflect that? A worship team does exist to serve the congregation, but ultimately they are there to worship God. Why would we ever want to give God less than our best?

     As I stated at the beginning, nothing is more important than worshiping God from our heart. I think it bears repeating because it is so important to remember that. I also think that playing skillfully should be a natural desire for worship leaders. Worship leaders should always strive to play better, because of the reasons I mentioned above. Now, a natural question is, “how can I play more skillfully?” To answer this, I will write another post with some very practical things that I have found really helped me improve musically. I’m curious to know if you agree with these points, so let me know if you feel so inclined to comment.

-Smart