How Good Does A Musician Have To Be To Play In Your Band?
How good do they have to be? Well, the musicians have to be as good as you want your worship music to be. If they’re bad, then the worship music will be bad. And everyone knows that right or wrong, the quality of worship music has a lot to do with attendance. I use a scale of 1 – 10 as far as musical aptitude goes, so lets use that in this situation. When starting your worship team, it’s best to set the bar at 5’s & 6’s (on a scale of 1 – 10). Set it and stick to it. Even if it means it’s just you up there with an acoustic or piano. This is where you need to start. It’s much better than starting with 2’s & 3’s. If you do get some 2’s & 3’s, you’re gonna have to really think about how much time you have to get your music to the next level. So, you might want to talk to them about helping in Audio/Video or Stage Production. Anyway, starting with 5’s & 6’s is great because that’s what it takes to get the 7’s & 8’s and eventually the 9’s & 10’s. It’s going to be difficult to pull in a player that is a 10 when your band is in the “5″ stage (mid level). This is where the team building begins. You have to give it time to build slowly while working with them. The 5’s & 6’s have to know that you believe that they can eventually get to the point where they’re not the weakest players in a group of 10’s. This type of encouragement and investing is priceless and usually results in members who are totally sold out to the ministry. The flip side is, you have to also love them enough to tell them when they aren’t keeping up and encourage them to honestly look at their commitment level.
I heard a lead pastor tell his worship team “no one gets by on their talent alone.” This is very true. I’ll add to that by saying that no one gets by on relationship alone either. There has to be a balance. If your guitarist (who is also your best friend) isn’t keeping up because his skill level has maxed out at a 5 and your band is a 10, then you have to ask him/her to take a different role in the ministry. Whether it be in sound, lights, coordinating, etc. You don’t want to send them packing, but they have to know that the band has graduated to the next level. They normally understand, and are willing to make the move. It’s like this, each weekend service is like the Super Bowl, you want to play your 1st string, not the 3rd right?
So, what is a 2? What’s a 5? What’s a 10? That’s totally up to you! We all have a different idea of what’s good, what’s great & what’s awesome. So, that’s where your expertise comes in.
Worship Leader Tip: Scheduling Musicians
If you’re booking your band a week at a time, you’ve probably got a headache every Monday. This is assuming of course that you’re jumping on the phone & scheduling your band early in the week. If you’re waiting ’till Friday to book them, you might want to hand off that part of your job to a responsible person. Or, step down from the position of Worship Leader and just play in the band. I know, that’s kinda harsh right? Well, God does everything with excellence and we should too.
There are several software programs on the market right now that make this task easy for a small fee. But there’s also Google Calendar. You do not need to have a gmail account (although it makes things a little easier) and its free. I schedule our musicians by quarter. The 3rd quarter is coming up soon, so what I’ll do is call, email and text all of the musicians and ask them to send me their availablility for the next quarter. I remind them to consider plans that they might have already before sending their schedule to me. Things like birthdays, trips, graduations, weddings, holidays etc. Once you have everyone’s schedule, you plan out your band every week for the next twelve weeks and put it in your google calendar. You just click on a date and start writing, ex. (D-Cheryl, B-Houston, EG-Jeremy, AcG-Brandon, Keys-Willie, Vocals-Barb, Tashsa, Willie). Once you’re done for the quarter, email/text/call everyone in the band and have them check the schedule for any conflicts. If there are some, then make the necessary changes. Otherwise, put your stamp on it and make it official.
The instructions for making the calendar visible to the public are available online and are simple to follow. You can also post a link on your band’s webpage or blog so that they can just go there to check the schedule. Something will almost always come up and you’ll have to make adjustments, but at least you have a master plan and you’re free to use that part of your brain for something else besides scheduling. As I mentioned earlier, it is easier when you have a gmail account because you can use that as your official band email address. You can import all of the contact info of your band members and set it up to where reminders are sent to those playing that weekend. You can even link a map to your rehearsal building which is great for auditions and 1st time players. Actually, this is really beneficial in the Multi Site Music Ministry because you might audition someone in your office but have them play at another campus on any given weekend.
I hope you’ve found this information helpful. If you have your own ideas about this subject, please feel free to comment. Google Calendar is free and has worked for me so check it out and let me know what you think.
Vocals, Vocals, Vocals
Wow. These guys are Awesome.
What’s Your Excuse?
We all come up against obstacles that can make us better or make us want to give up. Bill Clements is an example of perseverance, dedication and determination to get the job done. God is bigger than anything and that is truly evident in this clip. What’s holding you back? What’s making you want to give up? What’s your mountain?
Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Marcos Witt @ Nat’l Worship Leader Conference 08
If you’re involved in music at your church, this will really boost your enthusiasm for serving. This is about the time of year that church musicians start to burn out a little, so its important to find ways of staying focused on the work that God has created us to do.
Love the Process
Words of wisdom from a Guitar legend.
“If you only love the ending result of what you do and you don’t love the process, it’s always a chore”. Eric Johnson
What’s In A Name?
I’ve got a friend that recently found out that she has a tumor in her lung, so my wife and I went over to their house to pray for her. I asked another friend of mine named Chuck to come with us because he’s a really good guy & someone that I would call a “prayer warrior”. He’s helped us out a couple of times so I knew he would really help my friend too. We chatted a little bit and then Chuck asked, “so, what did the doctors say?” She said, “ he called it Hodgkin’s lymphoma or something like that, I don’t remember the name”. What he said next was so simple but very powerful. He said “yeah, it’s some name, but there’s a name above all other names” and I thought wow, that is so true. There is a name that is greater than any name. JESUS, the Son, the Redeemer, the Advocate, the Savior, the Healer, the Friend, the Light and where there is light, there is no darkness. Well, a day later I got some revelation. After God created Adam, one of the jobs God gave him was to name all of the animals. The last time I checked, we have dominion over all animals right? So, if we have dominion over the things we name, then we should name the things we are going through. Whether it’s a disease, financial burdens, emotions or anything else, we should name it and place it under the name above all other names, JESUS.
Philippians 2:10
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Guitar Tone – Cutting Through The Mix
TONE! Guitarists have been chasing after the perfect tone for years. What is the perfect tone? I don’t know. I know what isn’t the perfect tone. It’s one that is too distorted or cluttered with every effect pedal you have. You might have 9 pedals on your board but that doesn’t mean that you have to have all of them on at the same time. Of course when you’re doing cover songs, you’ll need to find the tone or patch that sounds exactly like the guitars in the song, but generally you want to create a tone that can be used for the different songs in your set list. Usually that means a setting that has a clean crunch to it with just a hint of delay or reverb. What works most times is a setting where if you have your guitar volume at about 5, it sounds clean but when you turn it to 10 it gives you a full crunch that cuts through the mix.
Be sure to put your pedals in a good order too. This really depends on your taste & the sound you’re going for. Do you want the delay to come before the compressor or after it? Or the tremolo to go before or after the preamp pedal. It’s up to you, but your goal is to have it sound good without any buzzing, hum or static (don’t forget the ground lift). Oh, and by the way, if you are using a graphic eq for some reason, don’t scoop the mids. That’s the area code for good guitar tone. Guitars cut through the mix at around 500hz to 1kz so if you cut those out, you’ll have a tough time being heard in the audience. Good guitar cables help too, although I can’t really hear the difference between a cable that costs $30 and one that costs $75.
Here’s an example of what I would say is a good guitar tone. Even though Andy’s got a ton of effects, he knows how to use them to cut through the mix.
Why Do You Want To Be In The Worship Band?
When holding auditions, I’ve often wondered why people want to be in the worship band in the first place. I’ve heard some say, “because I just want to worship”. My response would be, “you can worship from the audience, why do you really want to be in the worship band?” This is where it gets awkward. This is the point where people really have to check their motives. Do they just want to be on stage? Is it because of pride? Lust for admiration? Ego? Or, are they truly following God’s will for their lives? I have no doubt that God has called people to specific areas of ministry, whether they’re professionals in that field or not.
The reason I mention this is because after 5+ years of being in the music ministry, I’ve come to the realization that great worship bands mostly include members who were solicited. The top notch players in town don’t usually sign up for an audition. They get a call from the worship leader because he/she heard that they’re really awesome at what they do. Does this mean that we don’t hold auditions anymore? No! It means that when holding auditions, we take the time to interview the person to gain insight on their motivation. Ask them about their everyday lives, their aspirations, what God means to them, etc,. What are acceptable motives? That’s for you to decide.
About
About Me. Hmmm? Well, I am married to my beautiful wife Gloria and we have an awesome 6yr. old son named Jaden who has Down Syndrome. I’m a guitarist at heart with a passion for singing and songwriting. I’ve played guitar for almost 30 years now and I’ve been in a lot of bands in various genres. I’ve had the pleasure of opening shows for Kansas, Steppenwolf, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, The Outfield, Chris Duarte, Edgar Winter, Building 429 and others. I’ve performed with the Corpus Christi Symphony and The Platters as a session guitarist.
Presently, I am the Multi Site Worship Pastor @ Bay Area Fellowship, which is a huge blessing. It’s allowed me to use my Music Ed. degree to the fullest and has become a real calling for my life. I am currently working with the worship leaders at 6 of our campuses by helping them create and maintain great worship teams at each campus. Above all, my relationship with God is the most important thing in my life and I pray that He would use the gifts He’s given me to reach the lost through engaging worship.
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