[This post is part of a series on Tips For Taking Your Worship Team To The Next Level. Check out the rest here.]
Worship leaders don’t get much of a break. Before you know it, Sunday is here. Again.
What are we all going to do this weekend? Our songs may differ but there are a few things I can guarantee:
- “Four on the Floor” kick drum patterns
- Chimey guitars with lots of delay
- Huge intros
- 14 guitar solos
- Anything you would add?
It’s easy for us to get stuck in these patterns. We see what others are doing and we imitate. I’m not saying you need to reinvent the wheel every week, provide breakthrough musical innovation with every song, and be so cool that Mute Math wants to attend your church to learn a few things.
But the introduction of something different can really “lift” the atmosphere for your band as well as your congregation. As artists in the church, we are seeking to “paint” a bigger picture of God in people’s minds. We want people to leave our services with a true sense of God and sometimes that involves trying something “out of the box”.
While not an exhaustive list, here are 20 musical ideas that may (or may not) work for you and your team:
- Do a string section/grand piano weekend
- Have your drummer use some auxiliary percussion for an entire song, rather than the whole kit
- Create a loop with an electronic beat, synths, & strings.
- Tune your guitar differently (I love DADGAD)
- Try a song with lots of guitars, everyone playing a different part
- Try a song with NO guitars, simply piano, bass, & drums
- Encourage your bass player to try some effects pedals
- Lead guitarists: try an ebow, violin bow, or slide for different tones
- Plan a liturgical service with all hymns
- Do an “acoustic” set with cello, acoustic guitar, mandolin, ukelele, & sparse piano licks
- Use a djembe instead of drums for a song
- Bring in a guest vocalist for a weekend
- Experiment with a style that is not modern
- Try something acapella
- Add some accents with a vibraphone, xylophone, or glockenspiel
- Use a delay pedal on your acoustic guitar and smack it for as a percussive effect
- Buy Propellerhead Reason
(this is an affiliate link)
- If you play multiple instruments, lead from something different
- Lead a song or two with just one simple guitar or piano
- Process your keyboard through some FX pedals (delay, reverb, distortion, etc)
QUESTION: What are some musical ideas you’ve tried and risks you’ve taken as a worship leader? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Good call man!! We can easily get stuck rocking it out each week (which is fine and I love) but its good to give variety. We have used just an upright bass, guitar and percussion to just a grand piano and guitar and even just a grand piano and drums! Its lots of fun and it stretches us!
Upright bass, that is an awesome idea. Do you have someone in your congregation who has one? Thanks for the ideas.
That is a killer idea. Thank you so much!
Good input man. I agree that changing things up does far more than just feed our creative bellies. It can help to create (paint) an entirely new atmosphere in our services. I ALWAYS lead from my guitar, but this week I am going just vocal. This is a huge stretch for me, but I feel that it can be good for creating that momentum and excitement during worship; you can only move so much when you are glued to a microphone stand.
keep pumping out the good blogs man.
Dude, I have to confess, I have never tried just leading from the mic. Sorta scares the heck outta me. Let me know how it goes for you!
Great list! We have an organ in our congregation (however, we’re not always doing traditional music) and adding it to some contemporary songs that work with it is a pretty cool effect.
One thing I would mention is to watch out that by doing different things you aren’t distracting from the congregation’s ability to focus on worship. While an ebow or violin bow on a guitar would be cool I could imagine that someone might be so distracted by “what in the world is the guitar player doing” that they forget to focus on the purpose of the gathering! But, maybe that’s my own hangup.
Anyway, thanks for sharing!
I agree, some things could be distracting. It probably depends on certain congregations and where there “worship maturity” level is.
One tool that I am loving is the cajon. This is great for acoustic sets. If you don’t already know, a cajon is a wooden box that a percussionist sits on and slaps to simulate a snare and kick. A band that has recently been utilizing this on a radio tour is Hanson. Check them out on Youtube to see what is possible with just three instruments. http://youtu.be/Nc4R9RJcEGM
Love the cajon, Jerret. We’ve been using it a ton at my church. I’ve also seen Hillsong Unite use a cajon, kick drum, and shakers. There’s tons of cool percussion options when you think outside the box.
Our worship team switches instruments, most of us are multi-talented so we like to move around. I.e. i sing, play drums, guitar, bass, keys so i move around sometimes to fill in a part while were in this weird musician limbo.
Davion, do you do this live? That would be fun to watch 🙂
Sorry it took so long to respond. and yes i do it quite often live. We just practiced making the transitions fluid and it really adds to the dynamics of the music. and it helps free up me or the other worship leader so we don’t have to feel like we have to play.