Last week I suggested the need for every serving musician, to spend a little time each day during the week, on their instrument, honing their craft. The problem is, most don’t! So, here’s the issue…

You can’t maintain what you don’t maintain.

In other words, you can’t expect to stay at a level of competence without maintenance. You have to constantly work at it…  and there has to be some intentionality about maintaining your edge. You also need to understand the difference between practice and rehearsal.

• Practice is what you do almost exclusively at home. You learn the song, the words, the leads, the form etc. before you join other musicians.
• Rehearsal assumes that you already know the song, and you are going through it with others. Everyone brings what they have learnt to the rehearsal. If you don’t know the song, you will hold the entire team up, and maybe even cause the song to be postponed from the arranged date of introduction.

So I want to give you some very simple tips on how to maintain what you’ve attained and even improve on your abilities.

To improve and maintain your own playing… 

• Play a song a day. Use a song that is current for your own personal worship.
• Do some scales or exercises. These increase your familiarity with your instrument (guitar, keys, drums) as well as promote finger individuality.
• Learn a new song and practice till it becomes second nature.
• Learn a new chord (drum pattern) every week. That may mean a different position of a chord on the guitar, or a different voicing of a keyboard (ie same chord played in different ways.)
• Memorise charts. For singers – that’s words. For musos, that’s chords and lead lines. The more you do this, the better you’ll get at it, and the more flexible you will be in worship.

To get ready for Sunday…

• Play through the selected songs more than once or twice.  If you know the order, play in that order as you may need to segue one to the next.
• Play with a click track. Your chart should tell you how fast you play it. Practice it at that speed. This is very important because the speed that you play it at will determine the nature of the rhythm you play, and that impacts the feel of the song.
• Practice any lead lines that you are responsible for. Know these inside out because these lines are the hook for each song and need to be clear.
• If you can rehearse with one other band member or singer during the week, go through a song or two with them. Accompanying a singer will cause you to learn a lot more about how you play, as will playing with another person

Of course, there’s other things you can do to make sure your stay practiced up and in good condition for playing, but if you do these simple things almost every day – even for 5-10 minutes, it will make a huge difference in your playing and hence your impact in worship.

The truth is, when it comes to music and worship, nothing is ever static – you are either getting better or stagnating every day. So make sure you’re getting better for the glory of God, and the benefit of your team and church.

If you have a way that has helped you stay on edge and improving, let everyone know and share your thoughts below.

[And don’t forget Song Writing Retreat

September 24th – 28th – Click here]

 

 

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