This is for worship leaders mostly, but for everyone mostly, too. Hmm…not much sense to begin with, but we’ll still play this out and see where it leads. I’ve found that it’s very, very important to step outside myself and remember what my musicians are thinking. And you can’t really do this without actually getting out and playing somewhere else……as a musician, all you worship leaders. Not a ‘God-told-me-to-bless-your-church-with-my-genius’ guest worship leader. We have enough people blessing churches with their self-professed ‘anointing.’ I’m talking about going as an acoustic guitarist, as a lead guitarist, as a percussionist, or even as a sound tech. (Gasp! I know…it’s crazy! No one will see you! ;) ) Going and humbly serving somewhere, and getting a perspective for what your team is thinking.
And unfortunately, we can’t do this justice by just making an effort to think about what our team is thinking. Because we’re human. We end up just thinking about how talented and spiritual they must think we are. I know, you’re saying that’s not you. But how many times have you made a mistake, and cringed inside at what your team must be thinking, but by the time you got home, you had convinced yourself no one noticed because no one said anything? Or how many times have you changed songs at the last minute, and no one could play it correctly, but you convinced yourself that they still all eventually felt the ‘Spirit’s leading’ as much as you did? We usually end up putting the best possible spin on something until we’re in the position of the person whom that spin is spinning away from. (Eh, I was trying to be cute there, and maybe come up with some crazy reverse-sounds-like-a-contradiction-but-oh!-it’s-not phrase, but there was definitely some failure involved.)
(This is what we think we look like. And yes that’s U2, and yes that’s Bono, and yes he has a mullet, and yes he’s wearing lady boots.)
(And this what we usually look like for reals. And yes that’s the Folksmen from ‘A Mighty Wind’, and yes they’re the same band as Spinal Tap.)
So the best way that I’ve found to do this is to get out, and go play elsewhere. Especially for you worship leaders and band leaders and what have you. But all of us, really. A change of scenery can really take some blinders off your eyes. For instance, the other day I was playing at another church as the lead guitarist. And the music was written in G. But the worship leader was capo’d 5. So I’ve got to transpose everything to C; because capos rock, but not so much for the signature riffs of the song, which the worship leader asked me to play. But I learned the song in the key the mp3 was recorded in, which was B. So I’ve got 3 keys floating around in my head. And then the worship leader turns around and says, ‘You know, I just don’t think this key is right for my voice. Capo 3 everybody.’ Ya. So I’m annoyed. (But props to the worship leader fo actually capo’ing down, instead of saying, ‘You know, I just don’t think this is showing off my vocal range enough. Capo 19, everybody.’) And then I remember that just that morning, I had e-mailed out the setlist for my church, and said, ‘Marvelous Light. Key of B, Bb, or C. Depending on how the set goes. Possibly key of F if we have a female vocalist lead it.’ And then I put a little winking smiley in there so that I could tell myself that everyone was laughing and saying, ‘Aw, chucks. What a character! We just love his spontaneity!’ like it’s a Leave it to Beaver episode or something. I guess that’s where the ‘chucks’ came from.
And when I remembered that, I was suddenly less annoyed with the worship leader at the church I was at, because I empathized with him. But at the same time, I knew that I would not be sending a song out with 4 possible keys ever again.
It can also work the other way. Yesterday, we did this stomp-meets-Johnny-Cash-Christmas-set. (Ya, don’t you love it how I just always compare everything I do to famous people? As if we really sounded kind of like Johnny Cash? Ya…probably not so much.) And one of our drummers brings his kick drum to set up as like this timpani floor tom for one of the songs. And I’m going, ‘Great. This is going to be terrible. It’s going to be too loud, overpower everything else, sound funky……’ And then I remember the size of the rig I bring to other churches, and the worship leaders and sound guys always go, ‘That’s going to be too loud. Can you only play half of it? What? You need two mics?’ and all that jazz, but by the time the service is over, they are usually fairly pleased with the sound I produced for them. So, remembering that, I said, ‘Sweet! Let’s see how the timpani sounds.’ And it ended up sounding spectacular! It completely made the song! (It does help that that drummer is also a professional musician, but that part kind of hurts my point a bit. ;) )
So if you have the opportunity, go out and play elsewhere. Not only will it freshen your perspectives, but it will let you know what the musicians around you are thinking, by having yourself become one of those musicians for a little bit. And for those of you who are worship leaders, or band directors, or vocal leaders, or do anything pretty intense on your worship team, getting out and just worshiping with your instrument as a small part of a team can be the most worshipful time you’ve had in months. That’s another plus; it doesn’t really go with the topic of this article, but I wanted to mention it anyway.
Get out and play. (In a much more cordial way than that sentence comes out.) And if you feel like you have nowhere to play, I’ve been in that same place. But I ended up learning that there’s a always a place to serve the Lord through music……it’s just not always a prestigious place to play. There’s a lot of small but awesome churches in need of musicians. And if you’re not a worship musician, you’re of course welcome here, too. There’s a lot of bars and clubs in need of musicians, if you can make yourself okay with not playing arenas.
And just in case, you didn’t believe me that the Folksmen from A Mighty Wind, are really Spinal Tap, this is for your comparing pleasure:
Splendid.
Karl.
Guitar for Worship 