I’ve met and played with a lot of talented worship team musicians.
But in all my interactions, there’s a foundational skill that most of them overlook.
If they would only focus their attention on developing this skill, they could be unstoppable.
No, it’s not their ability to rock the Switchfoot guitar tabs from the most random sites on the internet. They got that covered.
It’s not their ability to figure out parts from their favorite albums.
It’s not even their knowledge of tone, pedals, gear, or technical ability.
The Revealing
Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s timing.
It’s the drummer who plays to a click but never quite locks in the groove and uses it to play musically.
It’s the guitarist who can rock all the Jesus Culture leads but can’t hit the downbeats with perfect precision.
It’s the keyboard player who hears the click but cannot stay with it.
It’s the vocalist who constantly rushes ahead, blaming the drummer for his lack of timing.
I hope I’m not stepping on your toes. Matter of fact, a little toe stepping might be good for you – good for you to change your ways and lock in your timing.
A Common Myth
Want to know a common myth?
Good timing is just for drummers.
In order for your worship team to reach their potential, everyone needs to work on their timing. A tight drummer doesn’t guarantee a tight rhythm section.
Stop thinking about what gear you should buy and start working on your timing. Great tone, great gear, and great effects can only hide your lack of skill for a short period of time.
Before long, your sin will find you out.
Lessons From Amy Grant
I went to an Amy Grant concert last year.
Stop judging. Believe it or not, the experience was enlightening, to say the least.
Amy’s band was made up of veteran, Nashville studio players – guys who have won awards for how they’ve crushed it in the studio year after year.
So here’s the thing.
They all looked like dorks.
There were no click tracks.
There weren’t a barrage of effects.
But the music was mesmerizing. They played as one unit, perfectly in sync with one another. Absolutely beautiful.
We young musicians have something learn from Amy Grant.
5 Tips For Improving Your Sense Of Timing
How can you improve your timing? By applying a few simple disciplines:
1. Always Use a Metronome – If you’re a worship leader, get your team on a click track right away. Even if it’s just for rehearsal at the moment. When you sit down to play your instrument, always play with a metronome.
2. Never Stop Practicing – The tendency for most musicians is to stop when they become “good”. They are good enough to coast through worship songs and even impress people with their ability.
The problem is they don’t practice. The need for practice never stops. Reverse the trend and get back to work.
3. Get Used to Playing With In-Ears – Most worship team musicians hate in-ears when they’re not used to it. But there’s no better way to start playing together as a unit rather than a stage full of individual, self-absorbed solists.
In-ears enable you to play with a click track and listen to one another better.
4. Stop Making Excuses – The most refreshing mark of a good musician is that they own their mistakes. They don’t hide from it and make excuses.
If you want to improve your timing you need to own the fact that it’s poor and you need to improve it. This is really the first step in taking your musicianship to the next level.
5. Listen More than You Play – Whenever you’re on the worship team, resolve to listen to what is going on before you play a note. Great timing starts with locking in with what the rest of the band is doing.
You are contributing to the overall feel, not trying to stand out. Become a great listener and watch your musicianship skyrocket.
Practicing your timing isn’t as fun as purchasing new gear and learning new riffs. But focusing on your timing will cause you to go much further, much faster.
Question: Do you think timing is the most overlooked skill among worship musicians? Why or why not? How else can worship teams improve their timing? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
I have never used a click track with my worship band. I have no clue how to set it up.
We don’t have beat issues that often. For the most part, everyone is pretty good with staying on beat. I used a DD-20 delay on my board, and I tap in the tempo. The drummer watches that light sometimes when in doubt.
Hey Brandon, I would still recommend getting your team set up with a click track. You will notice a huge difference. Do you have an in ear monitor system?
Unfortunately, we do not. Just foot wedge monitors that barely work! haha. The main sanctuary has all the fancy stuff, but this is the youth building.
I agree, my church is so scared of a click track, it’s set up so everyone follows the leaders bad rhythms, it’s really hard, but they have been doing it this way for soooo long, after a while I realized my suggestion to use a click are not helping 😉
Guy, that is a tough situation. Maybe you could kindly direct your worship leader to my blog and he’ll land on this post? Just thinking out loud 😉
I used to be at a church that didn’t use clicks, and now I’m at one at does, and it’s so great. Not only is the music tighter, but it opens up so many creative opportunities. For example, if there’s a drop-out chorus that goes down to just a pad or keyboard sound and vocals, you don’t have to have the drummer tapping the hat or have the acoustic player strum a bit to keep people together. That gives you more dynamics, taking it all the way down to just keyboard, which is a huge musical value.
I recommend this app for the click tracks–you can save sets and have it where you can just tap the next song and a completely new click will start. Our drummer usually controls it. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/metronome/id304731501?mt=8
I’ve used the same app, Cameron. I love being able to create setlists from within it. Another fantastic app for personal practice (which I use all the time) is the Gibson Learn & Master: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gibson-learn-master-w-studioshare/id355744218?mt=8
When playing with click tracks, creativity and spontinaeity become formalised according to the phrase or sequence you are on. There is less flexibility in tempo (sometimes it’s good to slow down) which can be a good thing! Also if playing loops, there is a restriction to those patterns, unless you are luckily enough to have someone skilled to manipulate them, so there has to be care given to the prominence of them.
Some would regard IEM systems a luxury item, since cost compared to speaker wedges is more per worship team member, and there is other equipment required to facilitate effective use: a board with a large number of auxes, congregation mics, limiters etc. Whilst the benefit of IEMs are great for personal monitoring and controlling SPL on stage and in FoH, where musicians are volunteers it is either a lot to expect them to pay, or a significant outlay for worship budget.
Click tracks are not a substitute nor fix for poor musicianship, which is ultimately practice and playing together (and metronome practice). Amy Grant’s musicians demonstrate this.
Hey David, thanks for the comment. I can understand what you’re saying with sequenced loops, but click tracks don’t hinder creativity or spontaneity in any way, in my opinion. I think it enhances the flow as musicians can be on the same page.
And I agree, not all churches can practically afford an IEM system. Personal practice with a metronome and even facing each other and making eye contact can make such a huge difference.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes! Timing is THE most important aspect of having a “tight” sounding worship team. And why is that important as worship leaders? Because we are called to guide people to the throne room without distracting them by our music. Sloppy transitions, speeding up & slowing down, and out of synch instrumentation will distract worshipers and hinder their attempt to connect with God during worship.
Personally, we don’t use a metronome because we’re not in-ear yet. But thankfully I have a drummer who’s timing is amazing. And our bassist, while having only basic neck knowledge, has impeccable timing as well. I’m going to set the drummer up with a metronome soon and hopefully the whole team after a while.
Many times during practice, we’ll take the main progression, strip songs down to just the drums and my guitar then add instruments one at a time for several measures each. This helps each player find their “groove” and get comfortable in the rhythm. Its helps a ton.
Thanks for the article!
I do the same thing, Jamie. Adding one instrument at a time into the mix helps the band listen critically to one another. Sometimes I think we’re in such a hurry that we don’t take the time to practice techniques that really matter!
Totally agree with you man. A strong sense of time is something that is lacking, particularly in worship bands.
I use to wonder “why don’t we sound as good as the pro’s”?
Well, apart from the hundreds of hours practice and natural ability, it’s the solid timing that ALL the band members possess and value.
For us, the ‘click’ App of choice is Yamaha’s new metronome:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/yamaha-metronome/id491592312?mt=8
In terms of ‘in-ears’, we recently purchased the Aviom A16’s:
http://www.aviom.com/Aviom-Products-1/Mixers-1/A-16II-Personal-Mixer
It has been a well researched, gradual process, so that all (most) parties understand the need for improvement.
“Pursuing excellence, not perfection”
We use the Aviom system as well. For the most part, I’m happy with it.
David,
Love the article and discussion on click track. Could you give us a breakdown on what your church uses for click tracks. Mainly the following questions:
1. I know you use the Gibson itunes App. Do you have an Ipad/Iphone that plugs into your IEM system?
2. If yes, does your drummer control the switch from tempo to tempo with the ipad/iphone?
3. And if yes to that, does your drummer struggle with switching speeds and not having long periods of quiet in between songs?
As soon as I think of more questions, I’ll ask. 😀
Thanks!
We don’t typically use the app for our services, though on occasion we’ve used Frozen Ape’s Tempo app. We usually run our clicks through a laptop, using Reason or Ableton Live. We use a split cable and send to two separate channels on the mixer – loops and click. Yes, our drummer usually controls it. It doesn’t take long for him to switch between songs, though it’s definitely an acquired skill. I typically like to linger at the end of a song so it doesn’t feel so mechanical. That gives the drummer time to prepare the next click.
Click tracks for practice, maybe. I have played in bands that used them. My experience has been that a click track in performance just creates more problems, usually with the same people you used it for anyway. Besides, massaging the tempo has always been an expressive element in music. I know, drummers don’t like it because the leaders have their back to them. There can be visual cues! Drummers, “leader” means WHAT ? Can I get an amen?
Practice with a metronome, ABSOLUTELY!!! Read up on methods for using a metronome. All musicians, you are keeping time with your body. A rhythm guitar player is dancing with his arm.
You have to train your muscle memory to be consistent and flexible. Once you know a song well, practice it at slightly different tempos, so your muscle memory doesn’t get stuck in a rut. When practicing scales, and strum patterns, micro-manage the sub beat. Not keeping a solid beat, is not controlling the sub beat by muscle memory. Ex. One of the most common rhythm problems is distinguishing the difference between “square” and “swing” 8th notes. A lot of players don’t understand the difference, and live in the cracks between them. Lazy or ambiguous 8th notes is an ensemble nightmare. Practice 8th note scales with your metronome set on 16ths. If you are playing a note EXACTLY every 2 clicks, then you are playing “square” 8th notes. Then play a dotted 8th & 16th pattern. The first note gets 3 clicks, the second note gets 1 click. Then set your metronome on “triplets”. You are now in a three grouping. You are playing every click with an accent on 1.
Counting ONE two three, ONE two three etc. Kind of like a very fast waltz. Now play a scale, playing on click 1 and 3. Click 2 is a rest, or tied to click 1. You are now playing “swing” 8ths.
Now set your metronome on a quarter note slow enough to accommodate all of the above . Practice one pattern then, the next, till you can hear a distinct difference in all 4 patterns. Then practice till you can go from one pattern to the next on a single beat. Then practice randomizing the patterns at will, staying on the beat. Now you are only half done. In the long, short patterns, reverse them to short, long. If you can do all this, there is no other standard way to divide a beat. If your beat is not regular, your sub beat is off. This is all kind of wordy without notation, but trained and or experienced musicians would pick up on it in a second. I said all this, not to sound like a know it all, but to show that focus, and a work ethic in music solves a lot of problems. One mark of a good musician is, they create lots of head-room between what they can do and what they are expected to do. Drummers and click tracks are not the only keepers of the beat. It is a shared responsibility. Can I get another Amen?
Mr. Know it all is done now!
Just as I clicked “submit comment”, I looked out my window and saw a humming bird hovering over some flowers. I have not seen one in years. That was worth at least an hours worth of practice. Is God Great or what?
Great post David, and some great comments too.
Jakes here from South Africa. I’ve led worship at our church for about 11 years now.
We started using a click 2 years ago and since then, would never go without it.
Yes it’s an adjustment the drummer, and the whole band needs to get used to, but it’s a huge blessing.
I like what Paul Baloche says, “Dynamics in a song need to change, but the tempo needs to remain constant.”
Of course there are times when we do want to slow things down a bit, like at the end of a song where you want to say end off with light acoustic strumming and vocals. That’s great. But generally, the typical scenario with tempo is you tend to speed things up as you go into the chorus, the slow back down in the verses… Then you get the nasty half-time bridge thrown in and that’s often where things can go pear shaped!
We just use a Boss DB-90 that sits by our drummer.
We can’t afford Avioms or even the Hear-Back System, so have setup the following and it work pretty well:
1. Run the 4-Aux sends on our desk into a 4-channel Behringer Headphone amp
2. Run cables from the headphone amp to the 4 people needing a monitor mix (keys, drums, bass, backup vox)
3. The worship leader uses a small wedge as a monitor, and the keys, drummer and backup vocals and bassist use small in-ear headphones.
It’s not the perfect setup and we are looking at making some improvements, but for R2000.00 ($250) it works.
Our drummer controls the click (DB-90) which gets routed back to the desk and then to the 4-aux sends. So whoever needs the click (everyone actually) can have it in their mix.
This helps us loads, especially when it comes to a keyboardist starting or leading a song. Often she doesn’t know the exact tempo and may start either too slow or too fast. With the click, she’s perfectly in time with the rest of the band. This has saved us some embarrassment from the past…
The drummer can program the setlist into his DB-90 and with a click of a button move onto the next song with the tempo and time signature pre-loaded…
Using a click also opens up the opportunity for us to start using loops in worship. If these are don’t correctly and in time, it’s can go horribly wrong!
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
Jakes
Sounds like a sweet setup! Thanks for sharing.
Great article. I’ve played for years with a handful of Christian bands. I have always had the ego and yet know it is my rhythm that is wrong. Tried lots of stuff, but realize from your article I need to go back to the basics. I am not young, but will learn! Thanks for the clear, unedited message. Back to the basics!! (bass player whose drummer is constantly training)!
Warren
Hit the nail on the head! You described us exactly right down to me as the keyboard player who hears the tic but can’t stay with the click. Never known what its like to to play and not have timing issues. Fought that my whole life. You also hit it on the head in regards to the group I play in “Upon this Rock.” It seems at times the grove factor is missing and it is the timing and I own up to my weakness of timing. Thanks for writing about our little group.
Thanks Eric!
Great article! For a more affordable in-ear system, check out the Behringer Powerplay 16. We’ve been using it for several months now and it works great! Can’t tell you what a difference it makes going from wedges to IEM. The band was hesitant about the change at first, but now they LOVE it!