Posts Tagged Acoustic
Conquer The Fear Of Leading Worship With Just An Acoustic
Despite what music videos and worship DVDs may suggest, there will not always be a full band behind the worship leader. This can be a scary thought. It puts us out there, alone with nothing to hide behind.
Whether it is a living room setting or a small retreat, worship with an acoustic guitar is inevitable. As a guitar player who is known for playing worship music, there is a good chance you will be asked to lead it.
Don’t shy away from it. Embrace it. There is something special and precious about leading worship with one instrument and a group of passionate and unprofessional believers. When you get the opportunity, take it. Here are some helpful tips to make you more at ease about leading worship with just an acoustic guitar.
1. Dynamics Are Everything. The acoustic guitar is an incredibly dynamic instrument. Without drums or other instruments helping you out, you need to use every ounce of the dynamic capabilities of your acoustic guitar. The key to making dynamics work in worship is not so much by making the louder parts louder, but by making the quieter parts quieter. When you make the quiet parts quieter, the loud parts will have more emotional impact for you and the people worshiping.
(a) Strum with the wrist, not the forearm. This will improve the contrast of quiet and loud.
(b) Remember your voice. People connect with voices even more than they connect with guitar. I know, it’s weird. People will respond to the dynamics of your voice just as much if not more so than to the dynamics of your guitar. Don’t over do it, but don’t ignore it either.
2. Change your strings.
3. Carefully design transitions. Transitions are some of the most crucial moments in worship. To keep momentum, transitions must be smooth and seamless. Use keys that are related to each other. I like to travel down the road of keys by playing a song in the fifth of the key I’m going to be playing in. So if I’m in B I’ll go to E (B is the 5th of E), A going to D, G going to C and so on.
Don’t be afraid to stay in the same key during the whole set. You may get tired of playing the same chords but there is a good chance that the majority of people you are leading worship for may not even know what a key is. They do, however, know what a good transition feels like. Don’t be afraid to stay in the same key for the sake of transitions.
4. Analog Delay. I have recently been experimenting with the MXR Carbon Copy on an acoustic. It a simple analog delay that you can buy just about anywhere. I got mine at Best Buy. This warm delay is as a pad-like layer underneath your acoustic. If you’re playing through a PA, it will give your tone an added depth, yet it is subtle enough that many people will hardly notice it.
5. Mind your pick. The material of your pick plays a huge role in the sound of your acoustic. Pick carefully (no pun intended). Experiment with different textures and materials and how they react with your strings. Then once you have found a magic pick, be picky about your pick (that pun was completely intended).
Keep sharp,
-Jed
Why Your Worship Ministry Matters to Your Church
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on April 21st, 2009
I remember when I first started serving my church’s worship ministry. I had been playing guitar for almost two years and had just gotten my hands on a brand new Carvin SC-90. Church needed an electric guitarist and I had a knack for putting in nice little touches in songs.
I also had a knack for putting huge horrible waste baskets in songs, but that’s another post.
Serving in the worship ministry brought me a lot of fulfillment. When Sunday morning came, I wouldn’t be hitting snooze button, like I did the rest of the week. I would often think of a famous John Piper quote: “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him.”
That’s the way I felt. I felt most satisfied in God when I was helping leading people in worshiping Him.
I would occasionally have the opportunity to play at other churches or other worship events outside of the Sunday morning service at my church. Every once in a while I would witness something I didn’t possess myself: a higher sense of urgency. This baffled me at first. I would see people operating as if there were more at stake.
All I knew was glorifying God and enjoying Him. What more was at stake?
You may have noticed this yourself. Now and then you come across a worship band, ministry or team that seems to be operating at a different level than you are. And it demands the question: WHY?
The key is motivation. When we answer the question of what is motivating that person we can answer why they are operating at another level than we are. When we have deeper motivation it can lead to deeper service and a greater sense of urgency.
There is a famous story in Acts that serves as a great illustration.
Acts 16:16 starts the story of Paul and Silas minding their own business on their way to a place of prayer. On the way they get heckled in the street by a demon-possessed woman shouting at them and mocking them.
Paul is at the end of his rope and casts the demon from her. He then realizes that this is not the best way to make friends. A mob forms and drags Paul and Silas to the local authorities. The authorities have them beaten and thrown in a damp prison cell.
And there they are–cold from the prison cell, humiliated from the public mocking, and probably still bleeding from their wounds. And around midnight they do what many of us do when we are up against a wall, alone, with nowhere to go.
They worship.
The two of them start singing hymns to God and will I bet you $10 right now that they were a little flat and a little pitchy. If Simon Cowell heard them he would not be impressed, but the other prisoners didn’t mind, they just listened.
An astounding thing happens. An earthquake rumbles through the place shaking the foundations of the prison, breaking the chains and opening the doors that held them captive.
I propose that where there is worship there is rescue.
We have all experienced it. We have been stretched too thin throughout the week and when we come to worship God we find divine comfort. We have experience renewed hope when we thought all hope was lost. We get convicted of sin and it becomes evident to us that we need to get rid of something in our lives.
This is all forms of God’s rescue during worship.
The reason we need a high sense of urgency when it comes to worship ministry is because there are people who will be walking through you church doors this Sunday who desperately need that rescue.
Serving a worship ministry is much deeper than just our own enjoyment, even though that needs to be there. It is about providing people an atmosphere where they can meet God, the One who rescues.
-Jed