Talent vs. Taste

 Listen first, know your role, play less

It is very important to listen to what the other band members are playing BEFORE you play your part.  Obviously someone must play something or it would be a very boring and awkward practice of people waiting for one another to play.  What I mean is, play very simply at first with the intent to listen to other band members and then play to complement them instead of playing what you think sounds “cool”.  Understand what your role is in a certain band makeup.  There is enough for a totally separate blog entry on this topic alone, but generally there should be a couple instruments driving the rhythm, a couple driving the melodic structure of the song, and a couple complementing the harmonic structure of the vocals.  While one instrument can fill one or many of these roles we must work as a team to assure that we are complementing each other.  Know what role your band expects you to fill and what tonal space your instrument should be in (again there is enough here for a separate blog post).  Lastly, play less.  It sounds simple on the surface but yet hard for many instrumentalists to accomplish.  When you are playing in a multi-piece band, there generally is not enough room for you to play a part that might sound good by itself.  Play NOTHING more than is needed.

(Listen to Brian Thiessen talk about his role in the band)

Play Deeper, not Wider………..huh?

When you simplify your playing style a beautiful thing happens.  It becomes possible to pay very detailed attention to the parts you are playing in context with others.  It’s hard to analyze the complementary effects of how your guitar part with the vocals and drums when you are shredding.  We have to be willing to play the subtle (often times, unnoticeable) parts that add to the song.  I have been told “who cares, it’s not like anyone will notice that small part.”  While this is a true statement, I am sure that most, will not consciously notice every spice and ingredient in a gourmet dish. We just know it tastes good.  The same is true with music.  God designed the ear and mind to notice a lot more than the individual can be conscious of at one time.  As a worship band, you can use this to draw the congregation into worship. 

Listen to the piano part on the verse on Your Love Never Fails (TIP: it’s coming through the left speaker @ around :55)

He is playing a very simple three note hook that adds so much to the dynamics of the song.  Using subtle supportive dynamics can create energy and help achieve that goal. Don’t just listen to music.  Analyze music carefully and clearly define why successful worship music sounds the way it does.  In the show Hell’s Kitchen, Chef Ramsey requires his chefs to be masters of taste before they can create his signature dishes.  Likewise we should listen to music, read musicians blogs, watch videos, and learn fundamentals of many different instruments. We must get out of the home cook mentality.  More salt will not make it taste better.  Refine the ingredients you have before adding more.  Those who classify worship music as “simple” are not taking the time to analyze it properly.  There are many worship songs that sound simple on the surface, but require a lot of subtle musicianship to perform successfully.

Purposeful Orchestration and Consistency

The main key to achieving true musician ship is consistency and orchestration.  This is also one of the hardest to accomplish for the worship musician with a day job.  In order to achieve “deeper” music you need to have a road map of what the band intends to do.  You can play back yard football without a play book, but saying “just get open, and I will throw it to you” can only get you so far.  Everyone just playing the right notes only goes so far in worship to.  It is important for a worship leader to detail what each musician’s role should be during a song.  Otherwise it is chaos.  As a worship leader it is your job to provide this courtesy for your band.  As a musician it is your job to demand….err….request this from your worship leader.

A great example of this is the song This is Our God, from Hillsong

The three guitar parts, violin, drums, and piano arpeggio have been carefully crafted beforehand to create an intimate worship space for the church.  Just as Hillsong obviously labored over these parts before the recording, we must be purposeful in what parts we play.  Equal in importance to orchestration, is being consistent in what we play.  It does no good for a worship leader to carefully construct a bass grove for a song, when the drummer doesn’t play consistently with the kick drum.  This does not mean you should be a robot either.  Consistent playing can actually give a band more flexibility.  A consistent, listening band can anticipate unplanned changes by the cues a worship leader will give, because they understand how the song should sound.  Playing simply, purposefully, and consistently leaves room for the Lord’s direction in a worship set.

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