When you hear the word “memorize”, you probably have one of two reactions.
- I can’t do that.
- Not a chance.
There’s something about memorizing that is scary to us, but I don’t think it has to be.
We all know there is something good about it, right?
- It helps us be more present in the moment.
- It serves congregational worship by having a more prepared team.
- It helps your rehearsals go smoother (if people practice).
- It helps move the music from a math equation to art.
- It’s a powerful tool for maturing your musicians.
- As worship musicians, it helps us engage in worship more.
- It also means we don’t have to kill as many trees or purchase a handful of expensive iPads.
Win win, right?
I am on a quest to obliterate the music stand from our worship teams. We’re fully there at one campus, and almost there at our second. For many worship leaders that I talk to, this is a scary transition.
You can’t just announce this and expect it right away. The musical accuracy would most definitely suffer. You might have a revolt.
That’s why you need a transition plan.
5 Steps for Transitioning Your Team to Memorize
As we approached this transition, here’s the process I took:
1. Cast Vision – Before we made this a regular thing, I cast vision for it months in advance. I said, “Here’s where we’re going,” and I gave people reasons why. I even opened the floor up for questions. My goal here was to start a conversation rather than a mandate. I wanted to feel people’s hesitation and coach them through the transition.
2. Set Your Team Up for Success – Make sure your team has what they need weeks in advance – chord charts, mp3s, and lead sheets are great. You can’t expect fully memorized music if you are a last minute planner. I do my best to stay 6 weeks ahead of the game with song lists (I’m a bit behind right now) and keep Planning Center updated with mp3s, youtube links, and chord charts.
3. Start Small – Before you require a completely memorized worship set, start with just memorizing one song one week. Then, advance to two. You see where I’m going with this. Start small and build little by little. For us, a worship set isn’t usually more than 4-5 songs, so it’s not as daunting as people think.
4. Be Patient – Some of your team members won’t have much trouble with this. Particularly those who already have perfectionist tendencies. They want to know the music inside and out. Others are busier and don’t have as much discretionary time to invest in personal practice. Be patient with them, remind them during the week, and keep encouraging them that they can do it!
5. Lead By Example – You’d think this could go without saying, but I’ve seen some leaders demand what they don’t apply. You’ve got to lead by example. Memorize your lyrics. Know your chords. Be confident with your arrangements and transitions way before rehearsal. Your team will follow you if they respect your musicality and commitment to excellence.
Let’s have a conversation. Where are you on this “memorization” bandwagon?
Does your team memorize their music?
Do you print and file paper chord charts?
Do you have iPads running OnSong or Music Stand?
Let’s talk in the comments. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
6 weeks in advance? I do good to get music ready 6 days in advance. I might need to rethink the entire structure of our worship team. What benefit does being ready that far ahead serve? I’m curiously asking. Thanks!
Hey Jeremy, I find that when I’m planned far in advance, my musicians have time to prepare. I can also lead in a more relaxed frame of mind rather than always feeling like I’m in “crunch” mode with songlists. Obviously, there are those times where the songlist changes on occasion, but as a general rule, 6 weeks it is!
We have not yet moved to memorize our music. It is a step we want to take. Thanks for the encouragement to do so.
I have often thought that teaching the Nashville number system would really help enable this.
How do you enforce something like this? Do you think it is better to just make it an inspirational vision or to set a bar and make it mandatory?
Aaron – I rolled it out like I outlined in the post. First, I simply casted vision. No mandating. Then, I would introduce it little by little, framing it as a challenge more than a “must”. People seemed to rise to the challenge!
Hi David, I like the idea that you didn’t mandate but you challenged. Have you had anyone that just outright didn’t respond to the challenge and said “I’m not doing it” or “I can’t do it”? I’d love to move towards memorization, and I need to do that myself, but I’m worried there will be weak links in the chain that won’t get on board and will encourage others to slack as well, thinking, “why should I do this if the other guy isn’t going to”.
This is a great article, thanks for the tips!
Aaron, we embrace the Nashville number system. Most of our team members use it or are learning it and it has been a great help, particularly if we change the key of a song
David,
This post is dear to my heart. We have been transitioning away from music stands for a while now. We only have 2 music stands (down from 6) these days, so we are getting there. Our biggest success in this has been using a rear wall projector that we can see from stage that has lyrics and chords on it. We use ProPresenter that has a stage display function which facilitates this. It has helped most of us break away from the security of the music stand and gets our eyes up and out. It have made a huge difference. Most members use it for cues, the others rely on it a little more fully. That said, we are still not fully memorizing music, but it does remove a lot of the barriers that stands create.
We have 7 of our team heading to Worship U at Bethel this summer and I have laid the challenge that we memorize 7 songs to have in our arsenal for the summer. It has been a great step that all of the team could get excited about and buy into. Perhaps a local equivalent of this method could be memorizing a set for a special worship night at your church. Something event based might not be as scary as the weekly Sunday routine but it becomes a bridge to memorizing for weekly services.
Agree with all the benefits. It is a win, win all around. Plus, when is the last time you saw music stands at a concert (symphony excluded)?
I agree that for the most part, chucking the stands is a good thing, as long as it does not cause a great deal of tension and anxiety. There is already enough stress involved in leading a congregation to worship each Sunday. In small churches, such as mine, the worship team members all have jobs and lives as well, and all things should be considered through thoughtful prayer and consideration. AS far as the concert goes – think about it. They play just a few of the same songs over and over, and have practiced them a 100 times prior. Not a realistic analogy
Hey Robert – I agree the analogy breaks down a little when comparing to touring bands. However, I feel that small memorization “wins” make you better at it. The more you memorize the better you get at memorizing. You develop a better ear that makes you recognize the chord changes faster. And most worship songs aren’t super complex. A lot of them have the same chord progressions. Does that make sense? Even if you have busy musicians, doing a little at a time is a great discipline to practice. Thanks for your thoughts!
Great thoughts, Daniel. I’m curious – have members of your congregation commented on the chord charts on the back wall? That just seems like a weird dynamic to me if I was in the congregation but maybe I’m overthinking it?
David,
We do white text on simple black background, so it is not super noticeable even in peripheral vision. Those who have seen it comment how cool it is we are able to do that. Removing the stands made a night and day difference in our teams ability to be more free in our worship. I agree a little bit of progress is really encouraging to the team who then are inspired to make more progress. Loosing the first stand generated a lot of momentum for us. It was my stand BTW. As leader it was the right thing to do. Others were right on my heals.
Our church only does 5-6 songs each week but we are generally rotating the same 30-40 songs through that set during a particular season. You add a new song or two and drop a couple of the older ones off the list. Using the single back wall screen as a prompter we have found it pretty easy and painless to loose the stands and start remembering the songs.
Memorization is a skill to hone and improve. I find my song memorization helping my scripture and speaking memorization tons as well. All in all, its a good thing I am glad to exercise and improve.
I had a couple BIG resistors to the idea of getting rid of the stands… some just flatly refused. It was a battle that I had to re-strategize to win. We decided that we’d use the method that Daniel Pape outlined above. Thanks to ProPresenter we were able to use the confidence monitor to add chords as well as lyrics on a screen at the back of the room. Some of the team rely on it heavily, others don’t look at it at all. But nobody has stands onstage and that was a huge win for us!
We’ve been doing it for two years now and it has changed our presentation immensely.
That’s so great, Allan! I have the same question I asked Daniel – does anyone in the congregation comment on the chords being on the back wall?
I’m not sure anyone has noticed… We’re in a gym, so the screen is pretty high up on the wall and directly behind most of them. The teaching pastors… and pretty much all presenters use the confidence screen, so everyone has either grown accustomed to it, or doesn’t even know it’s there. We’ve never had anyone comment on it at all. We did gain an increased sense of “connection” with the congregation when we moved the stands and floor monitors (went to in-ears for all but BGVs.) When our stands were gone, the people seemed to sing better and make more eye contact with us.
About half of the band have memorized the music anyway… the other half uses the chords sporadically to constantly. It varies with the individual, but we’ve had no pushback or questions from the congregation at all.
I only lead worship about once every other month but I definitely see the distraction that chord charts cause for myself while leading. In fact I’ve been told on multiple occasions that I don’t look up enough or that I look angry up there because I’m focused on whats on the stand in front of me and of course, it’s hard for the congregation, and myself, to worship if the worship leader looks upset or distracted. I’ve been finding it harder to just practice let alone memorize the lyrics and chords with a full time job during the week and various other jobs or volunteer things taking up my time.
Do you find ways other than repetition to be beneficial to memorization when you just run out of time?
Hey Matthew, I would try and find creative times to work on memorization. A big thing for me is when I’m driving. No, I don’t look at chord charts but I listen to songs and do my best to recognize what the chord progression is. Oftentimes songs only have 3-4 chords in the whole song and it’s just a matter of memorizing the different sections. Find creative moments like that work on it.
Good stuff, David. Memorization has always been a high priority for us, especially for the praise team vocalists. We have both audio and video monitors for the PT, so we don’t have music stands for the vocalists, but the monitors are all too often a crutch rather than “only there if you forget something”. We’ve tried several things, some with good results, some so-so.
The first rule for all vocalists is to not be dependent on the worship leader. Don’t freak out and start looking around like something is wrong if the WL stops singing. Perhaps there is something they need to tell the band, they need to talk to the pastor about a change in the service order, whatever. All PT vocalists know they are worship leaders as well, not just someone standing on the stage. Be leading. Always.
It is very common for the WL to have all vocalists turn around for the last run through of the songs during rehearsal. You’re standing in the same spot, so you still have the audio monitors, but when you’re facing the band/choir/back wall, you obviously can’t see the video monitors with the words. Folks know it’s coming, so they been working on memorizing the words the first 2 or 3 times we’ve sung the songs. There are usually some hiccups, but for the most part, things go really well. If it was a train wreck, we’ll do the song 2 more times – once facing forward, then again facing back.
Since we do have video monitors for the words, we take advantage of that little invention called the remote! Prior to some rehearsals, the WL will entrust someone on the praise team with the remote to the monitors (they are just flat screen TVs). Only the WL and that person know who has it, and the WL has no idea when they will make use of it. Whenever they feel like it… CLICK. The monitors turn off right in the middle of a song. This wasn’t someones brilliant idea though… it was born of an incident one Sunday morning where we partially lost power in the worship center due to a faulty breaker. It just so happened that the breaker that flipped was the one the monitors were plugged into. No words, right in the middle of Sunday AM worship. So now, we replicate that by having someone turn off the monitors with no warning. Sometimes they don’t even go off during rehearsal, so when it does happen, it really is unexpected. We’re just trying to make sure folks are ready for anything and don’t freak out when something like that happens. Granted, it’s always comical when the WL is the one that freaks out, but I’m sure we all know that rarely happens….
Damon
Ha! Love the creative ideas here Damon. Are you saying each worship team member has a video monitor and an audio monitor?
Well we used to have paper copies of the songs. Several folders, one for each member.
Now we just use 1 tablet split to feed 2 monitors using Songbook program. Its brill, we program the tablet each week with the choices of songs an just hook up to the
monitors!
We already use a projection system for the church so this enhances it.
You will still c music stands tho, these are used for the tablet and one of the monitors.
Mine is on an amp stand which has a pa monitor underneath.
Works for us!
I am a worship leader in a small church in rural western NY. The musicians I have I brought from a local mega church. We are seriously old school (no in ear monitors, back wall projectors, i anythings or laptops on the stage). We do not have the funding for it. We have a decent sound system and we still use amplifiers on the stage. However the idea of song memorization has always been on our minds. I appreciate the steps here, I now can approach this with my team. Thanks for posting.
I would love to see this a reality at our place, but given our current format, I don’t see it happening. By the time we combine a hymn set, praise set, worship set, communion set, anthem – we’re doing 10-12 songs each week. And none are repeated the following week. And I can see encouraging memorization with rhythm section and front line vocals, but the absence of “musical accuracy” with an 8 piece horn section is a recipe for disaster. Any other ideas???
A few steps: 1. Set music stands flat & as low as possible so they are not barriers. Take a photo from the congregation’s view. Use larger/bolder fonts if needed. 2. Memorize choruses, 3. Then, whole songs of some of the old favorites. You’ll find people already have more memorized than they realized & this will build confidence.
I love what you said: “you’ll find people already have more memorized than they realized.” I agree!
At 63, i’ve played most of my life. Memorization has never been possible. I had 3×5 note cards hidden all over the stage for years. That stress and anxiety were torture for the weekend i was to play on team. When our Worship Leader made this new rule, i tried. and tried, and tried. Not gonna happen, folks. I had to leave that church and am looking into other music ministries where i can use a chart. You guys do what you have to do but there are some of us that aren’t going to be able to hack it. When that’s the case, churches will lose some great and very faithful musicians – and that’s too bad. And all because of a music stand? Seriously?
Great idea in theory, actually, the only way this can truly be accomplished is to teach music theory 101 and beyond otherwise, people will be stuck in “Memorizing” mode and not know what a 1,4,5 progression means. Oh yeah, and make sure the pastor memorizes all of his points and scriptures, and don’t forget the dude on ProPresenter, he needs to know all the songs as well.
Good point David, I have to overcome some anxiety and ADHD! I will never feel bad about using charts, all the greats do it. Billy Joel is currently on tour and he uses a custom built monitor located IN his piano that only he can see. I think the ProPresenter tool is fantastic.
I feel your pain, David. Thanks for sharing. Why do you think memorization is so difficult? Because I know there are others going through exactly what you mentioned – it feels impossible. I’d be interested to know what exactly your biggest struggle is?
First, let me lie down on the couch… yes. It all started when i was a boy. Committing to memory took a long time and then the stress and anxiety of being on stage (platform) made all that work disappear. I realized if the ‘fear’ of being in front of an audience bothered me so much that’ i’d forget everything, i could not grow up to be an actor so i became an accountant. Years later as i finished my MBA, the M.O. was, you didn’t have to memorize all the information, you just had to know where to find it and look it up. I used that idea with all the bands i played in. But of course when you play a song a couple times a night , 6 nights a week, you do learn it. Sadly, not the case for church. Thanks for asking
Theory, theory, theory! If you understand theory, you understand chord progression and when you understand that, the transitions are natural and logical (for the most part). Maybe we need to teach theory to our worship teams? Has anyone tried that?
So, i sat down to write an response and then noticed i already had… 3 years ago. Still, If this discussion is still going on then perhaps it still warrants the following post…
This is a tough one. When this happened in my old church, it spelled the end of my participation. These are my opinions that have matured over the last 16 years of my music ministry. Some reasons…
1. This is not a performance, its worship. Memorization makes it a performance. If we’re honest.
2. Musicians who are hired and paid by the church, (worship leaders, instructors, music directors, etc) should be memorizing. The rest of us are volunteers. We have day jobs. Spouses. Kids. Parents. Life choices are different and time is tight. We love to play and have worked on our craft for many, many years. Memorizing simply is isn’t the hill I want to die on.
3. Some of the finest musicians of the world read their music every time they play. Think major symphonies. Broadway pit orchestras. They are pros and still read a chart. And many of them play every night.
4. Soloists are in a different tier. They should always memorize.
5. Congregations are inspired by the passion they see and hear, not by whether the guitar player in the second riser in playing a chart or not. Please understand, i’m not talking about a player burying his/her nose in the music stand but rather do they make eye contact and react to the congregations’ participation. You can be passionate in your music worship and still read a chart.
6. As a former worship leader, i would hate to lose an excellent musician because s/he just doesn’t have the time or temperament to memorize and be left with marginal players just because they can commit a tune to memory.
In summary, I’ve been on both sides of this debate. I believe WL’s who insist on memorizing aren’t really doing their job of bringing along the faithful musician who needs some one-on-one work with the music/faith professional. In short, worship leaders, we are NOT rock stars. If thats the kind of band you want, play rock & roll..
Thank you…. again. 🙂