We have all had those band members who think that the worship set is their time to shred! The drummer who plays a fill every two bars. The electric guitar player who solos over the vocal. The bassist who won’t stop noodling! No more! Put an end to musical busyness with this month’s episode. This month, I give you seven principles to help your band beat busyness and embrace musical simplicity. God deserves excellence, but excellence does not equate to unceasing shredding. Help your band members embrace tasteful musicianship once and for all! This is definitely an episode you’ll want to share with your worship team members. So go ahead, take a listen, and pass it on!
Also See: Playing In Parts – How To Sound Like A Professional Band
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Serve the Church by serving the song! – Tweet That!
Don’t cram sound into every crevice; you’ll suffocate the song. – Tweet That!
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Stop thinking like a musician and start thinking like a producer. – Tweet That!
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Transcript
Alex Enfiedjian 00:11 Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the worship ministry training podcast. My name is Alex Enfiedjian, your host. Today’s episode is called helping your band beat buisiness and embrace simplicity. I love the sound of that, because it’s such an important topic to help our team members understand embracing simplicity. You know, we’ve all had those guitar players on our team who think that the band is just the backing track to their epic five minute guitar shredding solo, or drummers who are doing fills every two bars or bass players who are noodling through all the sections of our song, even the quiet parts. Now, that’s not tasteful musicianship, the best musicians in the world. Listen more than they play, they exercise musical restraint. They play only when it serves the song. And like I’ve said many times on this podcast, just because you have the ability to play something complicated, doesn’t mean that you should. So today we’re going to be talking about simplicity in our playing, why it helps your church worship, what it means to play simply, and how to convince your team members to see the value of embracing simplicity over continually shredding for the entire song. And this episode contains similar themes to an episode I did way way back in the early days of the podcast called playing in parts how to sound like a professional band, which I just listened to the other day. And I still put a hearty stamp of approval on that episode. And I’ll put a link in the show notes for you to check that episode out and send it to your team members as well. There’s some really, really solid episodes from way back in the early days of this podcast that I still listen to and I go Yeah, I agree with everything I said even three years ago, so be sure to dig through the episode list and find some topics that you think will be helpful to you. Before we get into the episode today. This episode is sponsored by core sound pads, one of our recommended products, we love core sound pads. And speaking of simplicity, core sound pads really, really help your band embrace simplicity. Because core sound pads are a backing pad sound that is in the key of the song that you’re playing. And it’s just this nice warm, ethereal sound that fills out the space of your song so you don’t feel like you have to play all the time. So when there’s a down course, the band doesn’t feel like oh my gosh, it’s complete dead silence we have to noodle or fill in the gaps. Core sound pads takes care of that for you. So your band can just relax and let the song breathe a little bit. So definitely check out core sound pads, you can hear the sound of them behind my voice speaking right now. Really great product, great prices. Great guy Mike is an awesome guy and he’s been on the podcast before as well. So check it out core sound pads calm the links in the show notes and our listeners get 20% off if you enter w MT podcast at checkout w mt podcast will get you 20% off. And you can try them for free. absolutely free. You can get multiple keys and multiple sounds for free. So check it out. All the links are in the show notes. Alright, let’s dive into our topic now about helping your band beat buisiness.
Alex Enfiedjian 03:18 So many musicians have a tendency to overplay. I’ve been in worship ministry for 16 years, and I’d say the majority of musicians have a tendency to overplay, they play more than they listen, they cram sound into every crevice, and they suffocate the song. But the best musicians in the world, the guys who are playing on records who are touring with artists who are in Nashville, they listen more than they play, and they only play what needs to be played. And for them, success means serving the song serving the song is huge. And they sacrifice their preferences in order to help the song succeed. I’m actually going to right now play a clip from another podcast that I found recently called the tip jar, which is a great worship podcast, you should check it out. Props to a guy over there doing that I don’t know his name, I’m sorry. But here’s a little clip from Chris tomlins guitar player who’s been playing for Chris Tomlin for 16 years or maybe 18 years. And the guy interviewing asks, What would you tell yourself as an 18 year old that you’ve learned after playing for all these years, and this is what the guy says.
Unknown Speaker 04:28 I think the thing that I’ve learned, as I’ve moved on that I did didn’t do when I was younger, is that I’ve just learned time and time again, the hard lesson of you know, simple as better. And it doesn’t mean that it has to be stupid. It can be a very intellectual decision that you’re making our guitar. But what seems to always win as a guitar part or in the studio, or if you’re writing it’s always the simple things That seemed to be the most effective. And so as a young player, I’m trying to throw everything I’ve got at each song, you know, like, I’m going to hit it with my most distorted lead tone, I’m going to play as many notes as I can, I’m going to, you know, and I think, you know, the, you know, the older that you get, or maybe it’s not even an age thing, but just the longer that you play, the more joy I find and playing, you know, the right thing, as opposed to playing the most impressive thing. And so like, kind of just, maybe the maturity to know like, Hey, does this song need all this stuff? Or am I just playing it because I can or because I’m trying to be, you know, get some use out of this new pedal I bought, or a lot of times, it’s the simple things that are the most effective, right?
Alex Enfiedjian 05:54 The best part is often the simplest part. So let’s talk a little bit about why we should embrace simplicity in our playing, why should we embrace simplicity in our playing, and it’s not just you, obviously, you’re the worship leader. So you’re directing the band? Why should your band embrace simplicity in their playing? here’s, here’s what I have. Why simplicity, simple playing makes you sound better. It sounds like you’re a thoughtful, intentional musician, you’re not just adding random notes at random times. It’s a thoughtful, intentional thing. Simplicity also cleans up the mix, because there’s less band members stepping into each other’s frequencies. So when the electric guitar player chooses a part higher up on the neck, and sticks to it, and he’s not noodling all over the neck, and the piano player plays down on the lower parts of the piano, that helps those frequencies separate so the mix gets cleaner. Simple playing also lets the song breathe, it creates space, and very important, it leaves room in the arrangement for the congregation’s voices. That’s huge. Because if you’re shredding and everyone’s stuffing all the sound that they possibly can into every little frequency spectrum, and you’re all just like, rocking out and jamming the whole time. Well, it doesn’t really leave space for the congregation’s voice. And most importantly, why simplicity, I would say this simple playing helps people worship the goal of a worship song. And the goal of a worship band is to give the congregation a platform upon which to stand and sing. And I have found that the more solid and firm that that foundation is, the better the church responds in worship, when things are solid and stable. When the congregation can feel the groove when they can Bob their head, when the patterns are predictable. When things stay in that solid, steady, stable groove for long enough to no longer think about the music. That’s when the people feel relaxed. That’s when they feel immersed. And that’s when they feel confident the foundation is strong. And when they can stand on that strong foundation, they will sing out confidently. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. On the contrary, if the playing is busy, bombastic, sporadic, unpredictable, crazy all over the place. Well guess what, they can’t get lost in the music, because their subconscious mind isn’t exactly sure what’s going on with the music, it kind of suffocates the mood. They’re more focused on the music, then on the Lord because subconsciously, it’s just erratic and they they’re not settled in their hearts. So simplicity really helps the people worship our goal is to disappear. We don’t want the music to draw attention to itself. We want the music to point people that Jesus, you know, Jesus was onto something when he said that unless a kernel of wheat dies, it can’t bear fruit. So I want to say it’s our job to die to our selfish playing desires, so that the song can come alive. If we in our musicianship seek to draw attention to ourselves by playing what feels good, or what highlights our talent, then the song dies and the congregation suffers. However, if we die to our preferences, or our ego to show off and play what will help the song, then the song thrives and comes alive and the congregation benefits. So our goal, as worship team members and worship musicians should be to serve the church by serving the song in most songs. As Chris Tomlin his guitar player stated, The simplest part is often the best part. So that’s a bit about why we should embrace simplicity in our teams. And now I’m going to share seven principles that will help you expand upon the meaning of simplicity. In our arrangements, and then at the very end of the episode, I’ll give you six tactics to help your team really embrace this new way of playing. So here’s the seven principles about simplicity that I think will help clarify and magnify maybe the concepts that I stated earlier. Principle number one is this a little bit, adds a lot, a little bit adds a lot. So I’ve had the opportunity over the years to record eight or so albums. And many of those albums, I played every instrument, you know, drums, bass, guitar keys, and when you get to build a song from the ground up, you really come to a deeper understanding of how little each instrument has to contribute. For the overall song to sound full and huge. Sometimes, the chorus is lifted just by a single chord down strum on the electric guitar, like that’s all the course needs to feel. Big is the electric guitar player just to strum down strums on each chord change. Or sometimes the chorus is lifted when a tambourine comes in, or just a shaker just on the verse really adds a groove to the sense of the song, or something that I learned from a producer friend, like a single note, really high up on a synth keyboard that gets held through the length of the chorus. These are really simple parts when you break them apart by themselves. There’s nothing complicated going on. And it’s very minimal. If you were just to sit there by yourself and play it, it’s not exactly fun to play those parts. But when you put it all together, and listen, it makes the song sound huge. One Note truly can make all the difference. If it’s the right note at the right time, you don’t have to play a lot for it to add a lot. And I want to go back to something that I just said. Sometimes it’s boring to play the right part. But that’s okay, because your goal should be for the overall song to feel good. So just embrace this idea, this principle that a little bit adds a lot. If you listen to pop radio, you’ll hear this in action. Oftentimes in the production the drum groove literally doesn’t change between the verse and the chorus, but they just add a tambourine on top of it. It feels way different. It’s like wow, that’s the chorus. But the drums if you listen closely, he’s still holding a closed hi hat down and his groove hasn’t changed at all. Or a guitar player on one note on the fourth beat will hit like a snare hit if you’re like talking about like Bebop or whatever that music is, it’s like
Alex Enfiedjian 12:40 right on the snare hit the guitar, you know, hitting down with the snare. That’s not exactly difficult to play, but it adds to the feeling. Speaking of radio, as I was driving to work today to edit this episode, I turned on the radio to see if I could find some examples of simplicity. And you know, these are really popular stations really popular songs, why are things popular? Well, because they resonate with the masses, people feel them. And so this is what I found when I turn on the radio show against one of the you have to catch on to baby ducks. Little baby girl is a comma comma 266.
Alex Enfiedjian 14:25 So you’ve got three very different genres of music, really exemplifying this principle of a little bit adds a lot. So the first song you know, going into the bridge instead of a drum roll or anything, they just have a sample. Hey, on the four count and it goes into the bridge, the electric guitar player start strumming whole notes, letting it ring out for each chord change. The kick drum is literally just doing four on the floor. They build up into the final chorus. And guess what they don’t even do a fill. No one does a fill. The only thing that happens is the bass player does a really short slide down into the note For going back into the chorus, or the second song, the snare is going the whole time in the verse, the bass pattern doesn’t change at all between the verse and the chorus. But what they do is they add the kick drum in on the chorus. And then a trumpet just goes bump. And then hey, on the snare, like really minimal parts when you break them down by themselves, but it adds so much to make that section of the song feel different from the rest of the song. And then you got the last song, which was a country song, and you got this nice little simple guitar line, you know, Danna, rest, and then the drums coach. Now, could the drummer have played something way more complicated? Yes, absolutely. But that little church becomes the hook, it becomes this thing that pleases your ear. So if he did something really complicated, or tried to do this crazy busy, Phil, that was different each time, it wouldn’t actually add to the song, it would probably take away from the song. So that little simple part actually becomes really key and instrumental in making the song feel good to our ears. So, so as Chris tomlins, guitar player said, simple is often better, and a little bit, adds a lot. And when the parts are simple, they lock in together better as well. So hopefully, that helps clarify this first principle, which is a little bit adds a lot, a little bit adds a lot. That’s the first principle. The second principle is this, stop thinking like musicians stop thinking like musicians. Instead, start thinking like a producer, stop thinking about just your instrument, and start thinking about how your instrument fits in with what everyone else is playing. I remember hearing actually on that same podcast at the tip jar podcast, check it out, it’s really cool. He was interviewing one of bethells guitar players about his in ear monitors. And the guy said this, he said, Hey, I actually started doing something recently where I used to turn myself up a little bit more than the rest of the band. But now I turned myself down in my ears a little bit lower than the rest of the band, because it forces me to listen to what the rest of the band is playing. And then I’m better able to see what is missing in the overall song. Man, that is huge. He is no longer thinking like a guitar player. He’s thinking like a producer. Because you as a musician, you’re part of a team. So you have to think less about how your part sounds by itself, and more about how it’s contributing to the whole. That’s how a producer thinks layer by layer, track by track how each piece contributes to the whole. So think like your producer and ask yourself, What part do you need to play to contribute to the whole of the song, oftentimes, you don’t need to play as much as you think. So Principle number one, a little adds a lot. Principle number two, stop thinking like a musician start thinking like a producer. Principle number three, is to play in patterns play in patterns. One major aspect of simplicity is defining key patterns of instrumentation. This might be a drum groove, what’s the core pattern of the drum groove, it might be a guitar pattern, or riff that gets repeated underneath the vocals in the chorus, or might be keyboard pattern, a hook. So when you come to a song, don’t just come at it, looking at the chords, and thinking, am I going to play the right chords, Instead, focus on creating a core pattern, because it’s actually like clinically proven that people’s ears and brains are pleased by repeating patterns. Because it’s predictable, and it makes your brain happy, like, Oh, I knew that was gonna come right there. In the production world, you know what it’s called? It’s called a hook. Oh, I love that hook. You know, like, for you are good. The guitar solo, Dan, nnn, nnn, nnn, nnn, nnn nnn. And you know, that’s going to come after every course and it feels good. That’s a hook. Okay, instead of just randomly ripping a solo. Another example would be Hill songs from the inside out, that alerted the
Alex Enfiedjian 19:13 right, that’s a pattern that the electric guitar player picked. And he sticks to that pattern throughout the song. And even when the song gets huge, you retain that pattern. And maybe you jump it up an octave so it adds more intensity and energy. As you build the song, you can increase the intensity and the complexity of the pattern, but you still need to retain the core of the pattern, because it feels good to people. It kind of keeps the character of the song. So I would personally this is just me, because I know there are people who would disagree with me on this, but I would personally take a really catchy repeating guitar riff over a shredding solo any day, and I think Hillsong does this really well. I think Coldplay does this really well. I think Jesus culture does this really well. I think most popular bands today. They’re moving Moving away from the kind of sporadic soloing and they’re picking a really catchy hook that gets played through the instrumentals. I also think that the repeating pattern is more pleasing to the ear because the brain doesn’t have to wonder what’s coming next, it doesn’t have to concentrate on the music, the mind is just freed up to worship and feel the emotion of the moment. Plus, like I said, patterns are easier to interlock and create a rich textured rhythmic soundscape. And that’s something else that I want to say is a lot of what it means to play simply is to play rhythmically, you’re creating this texture, you’re creating this thing that doesn’t stand out so much on its own, but it locks in with the high hats or it locks in with the groove of the song. That’s what I mean by playing in patterns. And again, you can listen to some modern albums, and you’ll get what I’m trying to say I hope unless I’m just being very unclear which, if that’s the case, I’m sorry. One warning about patterns, though, is patterns need to stay out of the way of the vocal, always make sure you’re supporting the vocal. So don’t play something that’s competing for or stepping on the melody line. So I found one of the things that is really cool at emphasizing vocal timing is kick drum patterns. So I’m gonna give you an example from like, You are good. So like, I’m gonna just hit on the desk. I don’t know how this is gonna sound with the microphone, but and seeing because you look good. And I dance because you could shout, because you, you good knee, yay. Right? So it’s like, dude. So he, if he did a different pattern, that was like out of sync with the melody, that’s going to step on the melody line, it’s not going to support the melody line. So that’s just an example of a pattern. But you can do the same thing with your electric guitar, or your keyboard, don’t step on the melody. Alright, next principle. Principle number four is to save your fills, save your fills, you don’t need to always do a fill, and you want to keep your fills also out of the way the vocals, a good rule for fills is to only play a fill when the vocal part has arrest. Okay, or when it helps lead the congregation into the next section of a song. So this is true, not just for drums, but all instruments. But here’s a little example of drums, here’s how to keep your fill out of the way of the vocals. So because your love amazes me, and I sing because so that little fill fit into the vocal rest, okay, so keep your fills out of the way of the vocals and do them where there are vocal rests. With drums. I’ve found personally that simpler and slower drum fills are less distracting than really rapid, fast, crazy drum fills like I’d rather have a drummer go to to to boom, then
Alex Enfiedjian 23:03 boom, for me that really draws attention to itself, the fast one, and I’d rather have like a slow one that kind of helps lead the moment into the next section of the song. Also, when it comes to fills, this is kind of silly to say but take turns with your fills like don’t everyone play a fill at the same time. If the drums bass keys and electric guitar player all tried to squeeze a fill into a little section of a song. When the vocals are singing, it’s going to clash it’s going to sound bad, they’re not going to be locked in, they’re usually going to be playing like different melodies, different rhythms to that fill. So take your turns really listen to each other. And like be like, Hmm, I wonder who’s gonna play the fill for the next section. And you know what, if no one plays a fill, it probably won’t sound bad either. I would say this, I would say in general, we should be saving the fills for important transitional moments of songs. And we should be saving the bigger Phil’s or the bigger bass runs for the later parts of the songs. Because songs should grow in intensity and complexity. Which means that as the song progresses, it’s climaxing towards the end, which means that’s where you’re going to bring out those bigger, more complicated fills. So save your fills. Don’t throw everything at the song in the first two bars. Okay? And I would say this, here’s a little trick, just try this and experiment. The next time you’re tempted to do a fill, do nothing instead, and see if that moment of the song suffered, because you didn’t stick your fill in there. I think you’ll be surprised. In fact, again, if you listen to pop radio, a lot of times the fill going into the chorus is just another snare sample that has a bigger, fatter sound underneath the normal snare, but there is no fill or it’s like a backward cymbal swell into the chorus but there isn’t a fill. So just try it. Try to not do a fill when you think you want to And see how it feels. It’s just an experiment. It’s no one’s gonna die if you don’t do it, and just see, wow, that really didn’t hurt anything. So that’s Principle number four savior Phil’s Principle number five is to think in textures not in riffs. So, I don’t know how to say this, really. But like, ever since YouTube came out, the sound of modern music has moved away from shredding solos and such to being more about a texture or a layer. So like the edges guitar is like DDT, really,
Alex Enfiedjian 25:36 you know, and it’s just this, it’s an energy, it’s a high end energy, that is a layer. It’s not pointing out and trying to grab attention for itself. But it’s just this energy. Instead of like, I know, you can’t see my hands. But I’m like waving my hands back and forth. Like, look at me look at me, it’s not doing that it’s a texture. So think in terms of textures, not in riffs. Number six, Principle number six, stop playing, stop playing, sometimes the best thing you can do, the best part you can play is to not play anything at all. Because if you play all the time, it becomes worthless, like basis should drop out on a down chorus, or they should not be in for the intro of a song. Or they should cut out for the first half of verse two, so that they come in, and then all of a sudden, wow, that bass just filled in that moment. And it actually adds to the moment because you took it away for a while. Keys. If you aren’t adding anything universe, sit it out, you don’t need to play. And then when you come in on the chorus, the energies back there, drum, same thing, maybe sit out for like two bars of reverse, come in with a fill. And then you’re there. Because if you’re playing for the entirety of the song, for every single song of your set, you’re likely not adding very much. So try to not play for certain sections of a song be intentional about where you’re not playing. But then it’ll make the times that you do come in and play even more impactful and full. So Principle number six, stop playing Principle number seven. And this is kind of the capstone of everything I’m trying to say today, let each note be an act of service. Let each note be an act of service. So be super highly selective about what you play. And when you play it. And then, because you’ve been selective about it, because you’re thinking about serving people and serving the church better. When you play it, play it with all your heart, play it like you mean it, don’t let it be a haphazard thing, let it be an intentional thing, like I’m going to add to this moment, because it needs me right here. And I’m going to do with the most feeling that I can with the most passion that I can, and with the most love that I can, and I’m going to play this note, like I mean it. So make sure it’s adding to the moment, make sure that whatever you’re doing is helping the church feel the weight of the lyric, that’s really important. Make sure what you’re playing is helping the church feel the weight of any given lyric, ask yourself a few questions. am I playing for the people? Or am I playing for myself because it feels good for me. So let every note be an act of service die to your desire to play the part that you want to play and play the part that serves the people and serves the song. So those are the seven principles of simplicity, I’ll go through real quick number one, a little bit adds a lot. Number two, stop thinking like a musician. Start thinking like a producer. Number three, play in patterns. Number four, save your Phil’s number five thinking textures, not in riffs. Number six, stop playing sometimes. Number seven, let each note be an act of service. Okay, real quick before I give six ways for worship leaders to help their bands, grasp these ideas. And to train your bands in these ways I want to speak actually to the band members themselves. So for each instrument, I’m just going to give a real short little tip about simplicity. So for the drummers, man, if I could just encourage you just keep it simple. Make sure that the kick and snare pattern are the foundation, the center, you don’t need to deviate too much from it. You don’t need to do too many fills. Just make sure that the kick and the snare are solid, and that that snare is landing really crisp and clear every time you hit it, and that it’s keeping the heartbeat of the song alive, just keep the church bobbing their heads, and you are the backbone of the song. So that’s first thing for the drummers, bass players, man, I love bass players who can move around the neck but I just want to say 90% of the time you should actually be playing the root note of the chord. You know, movement is nice, but you don’t need to be moving all the time. Like just keep it on the chord note. Okay, you know you can do your passing tones 10% of the time but 90% of the time, play the actual note that is on chord chart, because the base is the foundation of the song, so the drums are the heartbeat of the song. But the base is the foundation of the song, you want that bass note to resonate and fill the whole room so that the other layers can add on top of it. So make sure bass players that you are sticking to the route notes, and you’re only doing passing chords or fills or sliding up to the octave 10% of the time. Okay, that doesn’t mean don’t play a groove. I’m not saying anything about your rhythm I’m saying specifically on the notes themselves. It’s funny because I was playing bass last Thursday for our Thursday night service. And we had a company doing an install and one of the guys who works at the company is filled with comes bass player. And I was playing bass and he was like, listening. And I said, Man, you should be playing bass tonight. I shouted across the room. And he was like, Yeah, right, I heard you warming up, you sound great. And I said, Man, that’s my only one cool bass riff that I know he said riff. It’s a bass, you only need eight notes. And I just laughed because I was like, Man, that is so true. Like, you don’t need to be super busy. As a bass player, the bass and drums need to hold down the foundation, keep things simple and clear. And this allows the electric and the keys to add ear candy quickly for the keyboard players, you know, on the verses, don’t be afraid to play block chord whole notes just with each chord change on your left hand block the chords out. And you don’t need to move your fingers all the time in between there because the high hats and everything else is doing subdivision, your job is just to outline the chord changes in those simpler parts. And then in you know, the chorus is like try to pick a melodic hook that you play over and over. So like for example, if you pick four notes, and it’s like, dude, it eerie and the chord changes are changing underneath that pattern. You’re just kind of creating this top and energy, your candy. And then for electric guitars, I don’t really know what to tell you just don’t interrupt the vocal melody, the melody of the song is really important and make sure that what you’re playing is not playing an alternate melody on top of that. So those are the key instruments I wanted to address. Now I want to talk to worship leaders real quickly. I want to just give you six ideas if you’re the worship leader, how can you train your band in these concepts? Here’s six quick ideas ready? Number one, easy, send them this episode, send it to them. Say Hey guys, I want you to listen to this really interesting thing about simplicity check it out, see what you think. Let me know your thoughts. Number one, send them this episode number two, sign up for a video tutorial service like worship artistry or worship online. And plan a meeting for your team and gather them all together and watch several different videos and pick apart what each player is playing to these very popular worship songs because these videos show you how to play the drum parts, the bass parts, the piano parts, everything. It’s all there. And you can watch what these professional players play individually like just the guitar, just the drums. Okay, so number two is to show them a video from worship artistry or worship on line. Number three thing you can do is you can break apart a multitrack. So there is an app that’s free. It’s called prime. I think it’s by Luke community, you can download it on your iPad or your iPhone. And then you can download a song A popular worship song. It’s like 20 bucks for the song. So yeah, it’s gonna cost you something. But then gather your band and show them this multitrack and start soloing the different instruments say, Okay, let’s just listen to the bass for this verse and see what he’s doing. Okay, let’s just listen to the keys now. Okay, let’s just listen to the drums and bass now and you can solo them and solo each instrument and dissect what each instrument is playing with your team members listening number four thing you can do is you can do a live workshop where you pick a four chord progression or maybe a chorus of a song. And you get your band up there and you say, Okay, guys, I want you to play whatever you want for this course just go crazy. go nuts. And then say, All right, now we’re gonna play the exact same four chords. But I’m going to tell you exactly what I want each one of you to play. Don’t do any fills. Don’t do anything like this. I’m just going to tell you play it exactly like this. And let them play it very simply, you tell them what the parts are. And just let them see how much better it sounds when they’re not all just jamming out whatever they want. Number five thing you can do is to send them my old episode about playing in parts which I will link in the show notes. That’s also very good complimentary episode for this one. And then number six is reiterate this often reiterate simplicity often. Like I feel like I’m constantly telling my team Hey, guys listen to each other. Let’s play last 5% less if everybody plays 5% less, that’ll be 25% less madness in the mix. So I’m always saying it before each rehearsal and before each show is hey, let’s listen to each other. Hey, let’s play less. So that’s that’s kind of it for this episode. We really want our bands to embrace simplicity because it all Almost always better serves the song and it better serves the congregation. So that’s it for this episode. I hope this episode was helpful to you challenging to you. Maybe you have some things that you need to go do with your team. If you want to email me You can Alex at worship ministry training comm if you want to leave us a review, that’s always super appreciated. You can find out how to do that by going to worship ministry training, comm slash review. Or if you’re smart enough to just go into your podcast app on your iPhone, then you can leave us a review on the podcast app right there. Very easy five stars we would love it helps more people hear about us. Be sure again to check out core sound pads and enter w mt podcast at checkout. And finally, be sure to visit worship ministry training.com for all the articles and resources and other things we mentioned in this podcast. God bless you guys I will see you next month for another helpful episode. See you next month.
I love this podcast on embracing simplicity in worship. Everything Alex said was spot on. I’m sharing this podcast with my entire worship team at Harvest Community Church of Irvine.
Thanks Anthony! Glad it was a help!