This blog and website is a resource for church musicians. It is my hope that it provides useful insight into the practical matters of music ministry, a “how-to” site, if you will. I encourage you to share your thoughts and comments, and if you find the information here useful, that you share it with your teams, twitter tweeple, and facebook friends…
Growing up, we all spent time in front of the family television watching the great Peanuts holiday comics come to life. Classics like “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, or, who could forget the loveable Linus van Pelt in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. He confidently walks out onto the stage, requests “light’s please”, and then delivers my one of my favorite passages of scripture detailing the birth of Jesus. Go ahead and take a minute to relive this great moment…
Last weekend I was serving my parish on their yearly confirmation retreat. We brought a large lighting and audio rig to get the job done in a room of 125 people. There I was, guitar in hand, amps on, with an extremely bright intelligent light in my face. This very cool light completely blinded me and rendered my security blanket absolutely useless. My security blanket? A MUSIC STAND!
How many of us operate with a music stand? Let’s look at what this security blanket does to us as music ministers…
- It is a mini wall between you and the people you are serving
- It beckons the attention of our eye, thus taking our eyes off the people we are serving, the ministry team, and the room
- It causes us to look down while we are singing/playing
- It creates a distraction of page turning, and interrupts the flow of spontaneous worship
- It looks unprofessional, and…
- It’s one more thing to pack and carry (boo!)
In reality, by the time I am ready to lead a group of people with a particular song, I’ve already played the tune a few dozen times. Memorizing modern worship songs isn’t rocket science (I have a friend who is a rocket scientist, and we have discussed such matters). This morning I took a look at the CCLI Top 100 list and wasn’t a bit surprised to see that the first 10 songs are all 4 chord songs that repeat the same pattern over and over again. I wasn’t surprised because repetition is the intended delivery of this style of music. These are songs of prayer, so by repeating a chord structure or lyrical passage you are more easily engaging a group into deep worship. So let’s pick a song and dive in… (we will go right to number 1 – Chris Tomlin’s “How Great Is Our God”)…
The original key is C, but that key is a bit of a stretch for my vocal range! The key that works well for my parish is Bb. If I am leading a small group in adoration etc, I will lower further down to A to make it more welcoming for a small group. That being said, if I am leading the song in Bb the chord progression is [Bb-Gm7-Eb-F] or Capo 3 on the guitar and play [G-Em7-C-D] – over and over again. Repeat!
I can easily remember chord progressions. I just hear them and my hands follow where they need to be, kind of like rain man. Lyrics are tougher for me to remember, so I have developed a method of getting them memorized. I try to embed the first line of every pass into my mind instead of memorizing the entire verse. In other words, when my mind can recall the first line of a verse or chorus, my memory fills in the remainder of the verse as I sing. So, with this song I would commit to memory..
- “The splendor of the King……”
- “How great is our God…..”
- “And age to age He stands……”
- “Name above all names…..”
Now, all that being said, those of us that work in liturgy do not have the benefit of a working band that plays the same set of music, every single night, the exact same way. I recognize that if we work in liturgy, the songs on the plan this week are different than the songs from last week. However, your ministry team probably (hopefully) has a seasonal or common group of songs that the entire group knows well, and that your parishioners sing well. In reality, you probably have these songs memorized already. With these types of songs, make a strong effort to not use the chart on the stand, but instead be focused on leading the song and being plugged into what is happening in the liturgical action and engage the room with your eyes and prayer.
So, back to Linus. He walked out on that stage and boldly proclaimed the nativity story. He didn’t need his security blanket, but it was on stage with him. My challenge to you (and to myself), is to ditch the security blanket this year and get rid of the music stand. If your working situation requires you to have one, make a strong effort to spend more time looking over the top of it and less time staring into it. After all, we’re not worshiping the music stand, are we?
