Last week we looked at the conundrum of sorting out rhythmic structures in a song. If you want the team to sound like one cohesive group, then this is essential. Hopefully, as you put this into practice, your team will listen more intently to each other, and begin to find their place and play as one. …
One of the great challenges of music directing is sorting through and designing the rhythm framework of a song. Every instrument creates rhythm – whether simple or complex – in each song… yes… even the singers. So, it’s not just the drums or percussionist or the rhythm guitarist that makes the rhythm “work”. To ensure rhythm works, the MD needs …
It’s now a couple of blogs ago that I began this series on music directing. Before, I called it an “Art”, and that’s true, but like many other aspects of worship, there is a “science” to it as well. And what I mean by that is that there some practical things that we can put in place that …
Hi everyone Sorry about last week – I was getting ready to go to our first Song Writers Retreat for 2017. We had an amazing time – we always do – and set us up well for our second retreat in September this year. While we were there, one of our key writers who has …
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Over the past 3 decades of working with church music teams, I almost always ask this question: “Who’s the music director in your team?” Often, I have to ask it because no one person sticks out. Sometimes there’s a hint of one, because people defer to who they hope might have the answers to a …
So you’re prayed up and have spent the week thinking about the service. You know the service shape & sense where it’s heading – sort of. You’ve selected the songs, or at least a final group of songs, but there’s one song that needs to be picked that’s arguably more important than all the others. That’s …
Ok. So you have been asked to create a song set to lead people in worship this week. Where do you start? Each week, the job of selecting songs falls to one person or a team. It’s a significant responsibility that no one should take lightly, and yet, if we are leading worship, we can be …
A couple of years ago, I was asked the question “Is worship participatory or immersive?”. I wasn’t sure if it was a question asked out of observation or frustration; or whether it was particular to our current culture and our interaction with music, or whether it’s always been there. Whatever the case, I sense it may be …
Is corporate worship participatory or immersive? Read More »
I don’t know if your church is anything like mine… like me… when it comes to worshipping together. Let me paint a brief picture. You get up to lead worship, full of enthusiasm and expectancy; the band have been rehearsed, you’re all prayed up and you hope that today, the people you serve and lead …
