The Song is Not Ready and Neither Are We!
Sep 1st, 2008 | By Matt | Category: Drum Articles
Has it ever happened that your worship leader has introduced a new song at your practice session (which I hope your team has!) and then expected you to play it that very next Sunday? As eager and zealous as your worship leader may be to run in the “bleeding edge” of worship, he/she may be doing more harm than good to the song and perhaps, even, the worship.
Here is an excerpt from an email I received from a subscriber expressing his view on this topic (which prompted me to write this article):
“I love the expectation of all too often doing a song for the first time in practice then doing it ‘live’ the next Sunday!! I find that a real struggle as, I am not looking to be ‘most excellent’ (thank you Bill & Ted!) but have a chance to be competent!! Am I having a rant or do you think this is a common expectation for all/some worship musicians?”
What is the reason a new song is introduced to the church?
- A prophetic song to encourage the church, to reinforce the vision
- A new song to bring something fresh:
“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God…” - Psalm 40:3 - A particular song may have a powerful anointing for a particular purpose
- A song that enforces Scripture and edifies/encourages the church
- A song that just brings a fresh revelation of God to the congregation
So, it is a good thing to bring new songs into your church, it keeps things alive and fresh, dynamic and real and, hopefully, a focus on the awesomeness of God!
So, let’s look at the practicality of bringing the new song into the church!
It might go something like this:
Worship leader : “Hey guys! I have this cool cutting edge song I heard on this groovy new album called ‘Super Coolio Worshipping Songs for Anointed Worship Times in your Church and Stuff Vol 2′. I think it has 2 or 3 chords and goes… D (on the guitar)…A…B or E I think, not sure…”
Band : “Hey worship leader, thanks for bringing a new song, teach it to us and we’ll learn how to play it well and then the congregation can enjoy it too”
Worship leader : “I just showed you.. D…A..something.. Here, listen to me sing and play it…”
Worship leader plays through song. Band tries to follow.
Band : “Do you have the original version we can listen to? We’re not sure of a couple things and I don’t think the drummer got the hang (or swing) of it!”
As eager and zealous as your worship leader may be to run in the “bleeding edge” of worship, he/she may be doing more harm than good to the song
Worship leader : “Nah, don’t worry, it’s all in my head! Sounds great, I’ll put it up on the list for this Sunday morning. We need to be bringing new songs to the church every single Sunday…”
Yikes! Has that ever happened to you? In a, albeit misguided, desire to bring new songs (dare I say ‘cutting edge’ as much as I think it’s incredibly clichéd now in church) to the church, the worship leader has bypassed the first step of any song - learning and practicing it.
Dangers of rushing a new song
- Meaning can get lost
- Poor musicianship due to inadequate practice
- Team more intent on focusing on playing it right than enjoying the song for what it is
- Song becomes a ‘new song’ for a new song’s sake (try say that really fast!)
The bottom line
Yup, it’s all go-go-go-praise-the-Lord-hallelujah-amen-slap-bang-new-song-in-your-face-we’re-so-cutting-edge-it-hurts!
The bottom line : learn and practice the song. Give it time to sink into the team before introducing it to the church. I say this for a few reasons:
- Appreciate the song musically and lyrically
- Understand the intent/message of the song
- Prayerfully consider if the song is right/meant to be played in your church
- Play it the way it was meant to be played before putting your own style on it
- Think about your church singing this song, does it fit?
Learning a song takes time, especially if you are arranging instruments to play specific pieces to do justice to the songwriter. I don’t think it wise to rush through a song just to get it out on Sunday as soon as possible because of some of the dangers listed above. As a drummer, I want to be able to take time to hear the original version of the song to hear what the drummer plays. I want to be able to learn from the song and then see what I can perhaps add to it. I need time to practice it and get it right so I am confident when playing the song. One practice is not enough for me. Sometimes the song is easy enough but still, do we need to rush? I don’t think so.
Be honest and open enough to communicate with your worship leader if you feel the song is not appropriate, Biblical, theologically correct or just one of those soppy teenage love songs that actually have no Spiritual value whatsoever - don’t get me started on those!
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AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! WOW! I never knew that this happend in any other worship team! Thank you so much for being open to what God has to say to His bride (the church). …and the drummers of the church. This website has always been right on target for what I needed to hear. May God RICHLY bless your obedience and ministry!
Jeremiah 33:3
Good points there
As a worship leader, I’m learning to be mindful that I am not alone in leading and that the team plays a role in leading as much as I do. Therefore, my musos would need to be familiar with the “route planned” and “contingencies”.
One of the ways I find useful in introducing new songs is at a small group setting with the team - sing through a few times to familiarise, and then worship with the new song
If I’m going to lead it for a Sunday service, I will make sure that I send out an email way earlier with attached audio track/youtube link for them to familiarise and learn the song (as well as lead sheets)
For practice, there are times where the song just clicked as well as otherwise.
In situations like the latter, I would simply take out that song from the set and try it out some other time
And if in a situation that I felt led “strongly” to lead the song, I’d definitely make it a point to find extra time on top of the above mentioned measures to prepare the team
The key here is to communicate with God, communicate with the team
Leaders as well as musicians with clear directions will definitely lead better and be more prepared for the move of the Holy Spirit
Hi,
I am a drummer but also a worship leader so I do understand both sides. Sometimes the preasure of a new song comes from the pastor and sometimes it can be done and sometimes you have to say: \\\”sorry but NO\\\”.
Because I am a drummer I try to make sure the band has everything they need before we do a new song - we have a group on yahoo where I tell them the idea, send them the words, the chords and the song and that really helps.
We had a easter 35 minute rock opera this year and I had the idea last summer (2007) - we started last september to think about it, prepare it and in january we started the practice on it… it took time but everybody was happy to have \\\”the time\\\” to get into the feeling of everything… in my mind I have a lot of things (thank GOD) but the band might need time to understand everything
So, again, a very good article
bless u Matt
Matt, exellent piece !!! This is Exactly why I quit my worship team. Every week we had 3 or 4 new songs to learn and I could not pull them off !!!!!!!!! I went into the group feeling confident I could handle the songs but it was way to much. Maybe I was tooo confident ? HMMM, but I would get the songs on Monday afternoon and work every evening on them listening to MP3’s and playing along then practice on Thursdays. I think it went back to when I talked about being to old and not tuned in to all the new songs. My leader was very young fresh out of college and super cool dude but me being 45 well family and job I could not get er done !! But he did say he thought I practiced the most for those songs but I never looked comfy well I had to to try to keep up with those youngsters !!!
Hello, nice article. our praise band at my church only practices on Wednesday and we play that next Sunday!
We would play fine but going into the song we kinda started out bumpy, and then eventually leveled off. I’m a newer drummer, I’ve only been playing for about maybe 4 to 5 months, but I really love it and I absolutely love playing in Church. Now, we are going to have an extra practice each week so we can get things down, and start off stong and end stong! I really enjoy worshipping in music and praise, when you let go and let the holy spirit take over it’s one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever felt. But anyways really good article, the band and I saw this article and automaticly thought this was wrote about us, Haha! Well Thanks for the article and may the Lord be with all the drummers and praise teams!
We had sort of the same situation at a church I used to attend. The worship leader was an accomplished pianist, a humble person, willing and eager to serve. I loved this guy . . .and, yet . . .he often would do those things described above. He would listen to new songs over and over again, until he knew them well, then, we’d get the charts and practice them for a week or two, and play the piece(s) on a Sunday morning. After that, he’d be tired of hearing the song, and move on to the next new one. Later on, I called it a “garage band mentality”. Like the fellow above said, I wasn’t looking for perfection, but competency! Having played in a few garage bands, I remembered how the leaders of the bands would rehearse a tune once or twice, then have us play it in performance. When I contrasted that with my more formal music education, I could see which way we, as a worship band, were heading. I wasn’t pleased; but, submitted to his direction and leadership, anyway. We did discuss the issue; and, he heard me out. In the end, I think he was trying to appeal to a “younger audience”, as was our pastor. At the same time, he did begin to allow us to enjoy our “virtuosity” (at whatever level we were), which was good. When we began to enjoy the fruit of our labor, the congregation did, too. Here’s some food for thought: The congregation will not learn new songs nearly as fast as the worship team. If one new song is introduced every month, that’s probably too many. One new song every four to six months is probably about right. We want people to be singing these songs during the week, too! If they don’t know the songs, they won’t be singing them later.
Hello all drumming musicians,
A really fine article Matt and, obviously pointed judging from the responses so far. Seems to me that there is a very fine line between new songs ‘mastered’ from a worship team point of view,new songs l’earnt’ from a congregational point of view and ‘potential perfection pressure’ from a worship leader and pastor!
From a personal point, our pastor is wanting us to do loads of the latest Hillsong coz it’s current and therefore by default, drop older songs as a consequence. I confess that I have struggled with this as these older songs (being like 2 years!!) should not go completely as they are as inspired, as are the very latest tunes.
I am grateful that I have an electronic kit so that I can rip CD’s to mp3 and play and play until the new ones now are old ones to me!! :o). But I would guess that most of readers here use acoustic?
So yes I agree that worship song change is good and is often appropriate,if not inspired by the Holy Spirit’s move Himself! I think that new stuff stretches us (especially for me as I am out of the drumming comfort zone with new blood!) as drummers and, makes us play better. But I also think that new songs need to take root and grow in all the above cases so, that God can speak to us and us to Him when we know the words and tune and beat for that matter-isn’t that when we truly worship through self abandoment? (I am of course fully mindful of control and one eye on the leader for direction!)
I guess that every church is different which is a very good thing as folk worship differently but, I must end my own view with this: no matter the age of the musicians involved, respect should be there all of the time and, if members cannot play as they have heard, let’s simplify it relative to the instrument or setting!
After all, it’s about entering his courts with praise so, we need the ‘entering’ part to be a constant and more importantly…there and happening!
Brendan