Let me translate this. If you're playing a hymn, make sure that you don't get in the way of the rhythm or create a competing rhythm.

 

If you're playing a modern song, make sure you're playing the music appropriately. If rhythm is the exoskeleton that modern music needs, burying the rhythm behind the piano and guitar (or having the piano and guitar not playing to the bass and drums) would be like a floppy crab with no skeleton (read: a dead crab!) So if you're doing modern worship music, the rhythm is paramount. If you have drums, the drums should lead. Shocking? Perhaps. But that's how this music works. It has an exoskeleton.

 

 

Hymns have everything notated for you...notes, measures, performance indicators. The music is literally all there for the piano or organ to plunk out while we sing the same notes.

 

Most worship teams play modern music from a chord chart that has...no notes, no measures, no performance indicators. Now, you can get the orchestration for many songs from services like PraiseCharts.com, but how many of your team members would be able to read them?

 

So rather than reading music, most of us have to learn a new skill: decoding recordings and taking those ideas as a starting point for how our team will actually play the song. The listening part is called "listening in tracks." For example, a drummer will listen to Your Grace Is Enough and note that the kick drum is played on every quarter note of the song (except for the "down" prechorus and chorus) and the hi-hat, which is closed for the verses, opens up for the chorus. The drummer will also notice how the drums set up each new section of the song. Then the team will need to decide if they'll play the standard recording's full-energy intro or some other way that's more fitting to your context.

 

And there's learning in this for sound techs as well. Should the piano or guitar really be louder than the drums and bass if the drums and bass are the exoskeleton? No. I should notice the crab's shell first, not it's guts! Read more here.

 

If this is frustrating to you and you're saying "I can't do this, so I guess I can't play modern worship" I feel you! Next week, I'll send you the next Fertilizer that will address this in detail.

 

It may even be helpful to have an Ad Lib Music Coach come to your rehearsal to teach this to your team! You can simply reply to this email to get more info.