The (practiced) art of enjoying worship
Thought of naming this post “The worship practitioner” but for some reason did not. Anyway, in a recent chat with a friend who is in a worship team he was telling me that he struggled a lot with worshiping while drumming, because he concentrated on the drumming too much.
I am no expert but can write from my experience about the some steps I personally took to make worship more enjoyable as an instrumentalist.
A couple of years ago, maybe 7 or 8 I was in a secular band, maybe worse, a death metal band and since there were about 12 different riffs in a song and tempo changes, I was for the most part focusing on remembering my riffs and the flow of the song that after a concert I felt like I just played and everyone else had fun and really enjoyed the music but me. I played the music but did not listen to it, did not feel it, did not feed off of it, did not have the chance to enjoy it because I was too caught up in playing it. The audience had a better connection with the song than I did. I was an outsider to my own song.
I was lucky enough to begin at that stage to practice the art of enjoying the experience of playing in a band. Letting go and enjoying the music. It felt so much better to be a part of the music than to just play it out. Same thing can be applied to a worship team with a few new aspects.
After I accepted Christ and made the switch from death metal to contemporary worship music. I was learning new songs, new styles and instead of being the leader on the stage, had to follow a worship leader and his cues. I had a tough time worshiping as an instrumentalist in the band.
I had to practice and learn to enjoy worship instead of sweating bullets trying to play these new songs. I made a decision to enjoy my worship and that meant NO MORE CHORD CHARTS.
I don’t know where the church got the habit of chord charts but it is the one place that encourages musicians to not learn the song. In a professional band if you asked for a chord chart for the stage it would seem highly unprofessional. Would I think it cool to see Metallica or Delirious or Lifehouse with chord charts? NO!
I will readily admit that I am not extremely talented instrumentally, but lack of skill and talent aren’t factors that stop you from enjoying worship as an instrumentalist. If you can free your self up to worship, the person with the least skill will enjoy worshiping instrumentally with the basics as opposed to a skilled instrumentalist who is focussed on a lot of other things.
The most important thing to do is to learn the song. Make your mistakes at practice time and at home but learn the song and abandon the chord chart, It is one of the BIGGEST steps in freeing you up to worship and enjoying it. Learn it verse by verse. During practice try playing just the first verse without the chord chart, then the chorus, then both. It is usually just two sets of chords for the verse and chorus and sometimes a bridge so play it section by section and you are on your way.
I’ve made lots of mistakes even during actual worship time but have grown in confidence after consistently doing it and confidence has a way of helping you remember the songs in your setlist.
Own the song. It doesn’t matter who you are covering or how it is on the CD neither does it depend on your skill level. Own the song. At that point in time, people are listening to you, not the CD. Play it like you own it. Play it with confidence. People can sense when you are not sure about a song. They can smell the lack of ownership. This comes from not looking at a chord chart where you are constantly tracking the next chord. I used to constantly track the chord chart with a sense of doom, knowing that if I took my eyes of the chart I would not be able to find my place again and then make a total mess.
Listen to the CD if possible. It is amazing how little is played by each musician. Talk with your band members. The bassist in my first worship team continuously talked with the drummer and to establish a fixed bass line. This will help your worship leader not micro manage each section. They then showed me the groove and gave me suggestions and that alone built a tighter understanding of what they are playing.
Learn your worship leaders’ style. Pay attention to him or her and you won’t have to look at him or her to get your cues as to where the song is going. If you’ve played with them over 4 months you should be able to tell with just their vocal cues. This will allow you to not stay focussed on your worship leader and waiting for physical cues. Though sometimes you have to but if you don’t have to and can just follow their vocal cues, you are freed up from one more thing.
Pay attention to your other band mates. Your worship leader does. How many times has a musician in the band picked up on a groove and the worship leader built upon it and the song exploded into something that wasn’t practiced! Even though she was not looking at him/her.. she picked up on the vibe. Feel the song, you can only feel it if you abandon all other distractions, feel it and play from that. Be a part of the song, feed it and feed off of it.
Close your eyes and play the song. Listen to the band as a whole and your part in it. This is up to you to do initially or even after a while. But it helped me immensely during practice to close my eyes and listen to the band as a whole and my part in it. I still do it a lot.
Lastly, sing, or even sing out loud.
Take your job on the worship team seriously. Very few worship team musicians will survive in a professional band, not because of the skill level, but because of the chord chart habit and other things that only the church lets us get away with.
I’m not sure if all of these steps are THE things to do but these are the things that I spent about the last 4 years practicing and continue to do so. Learning the song and abandoning chord charts, play it like you own it, pay attention to the audio cues of your worship leader and other band mates and closing your eyes and singing. Worshiping.
You will be freed up to enjoy worship and I can tell you that you will ABSOLUTELY love it.
Practice this consistently. Worship practitioners!
September 9th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Wow. Tell me how you REALLY feel! Seriously, I enjoyed the blog and could sense your energy, excitement and passion in what you wrote. I could visualize what you were talking about. As someone who “occasionally” leads worship in a home group, I can even apply the steps above!
My cues, since I would be the worship leader, come from God and what he is doing in me and around me. But mostly the cues come from what he is doing around me…in the group. If people are staring back at me blankly, then I can take the hint. If you hear others engaging in worship, then that is one cue. If you hear silence, that is another. I often have just completely played for myself…of just for God, rather. Meaning, I just shut my eyes and sing my little heart out and hope for the best with the group. (eyes closed so I can’t pick up the cues if people really hate it or not). SNiff..sniff…I smell some insecurity there!
The chord charts you mentioned…well, I am completely guilty of depending on them and getting caught up in that. The songs that I do know by heart, I enjoy playing and can “feel” the song. Though I confess, I am afraid I will trip up. And my chord chart becomes my crutch. Often, embarrassingly enough, helping me limp along to the next worship song. I arrange my charts on the floor, sit down, and begin to “read” the songs. Sometimes not enjoying. Actually, I have often been playing my song from memory and have panicked and glanced at the chart. Often saving me. So for me, I like the charts. But maybe that is because I am not obedient enough to fully commit to the song.
Hmmmm…I guess I have some accountability now for engaging more in worship leading.