3 Things Incorporating Pads Into Your Worship Leading Will Do

Aug 18

Written By Leading Worship Well | Spencer Cormany

A few days ago we took a look at what incorporating pads into your worship leading WON'T do.

While pads won't help with certain things, they are a valuable tool in worship leading. They have the ability to instantly improve subtle qualities of your bands sound. Keep in mind, they will only support what's already there. But if what's already there is good, they have the ability to improve it.

Here are 3 things incorporating pads into your worship leading will do:

1 | Make transitions easier

First, if your songs are in the same key, they give you the ability to stop playing for a moment and still carry that key without any dead air. Once the song ends, you'll have a moment to catch your breathe while the pads continue to drone on in the background.

Second, if your songs aren't in the same key, pads provide a gentle transition that tunes your congregations ears to the new key before the main instruments come in. Say you want to transition from F to A. Once the song in the key of F ends, fade the pad in the key of F out and slowly bring in the pad in the key of A. This transition is more gentle than strumming a loud chord in the new key.

2 | Make your band sound fuller

Pads sit in the cracks of your mix and provide the sonic glue for the sound of your band. They fill in the frequencies that your band's typical instruments don't hit. This provides a fuller sound for the ear. In addition, they constantly reinforce the key of the song by droning that single note in the background.

3 | Free you up to play less and lead more

Pads, by nature, fill the empty space. They continue on and on. That means that they give you the ability to not have to play to fill the space. If you've ever led worship with just an acoustic guitar you know the feeling when you have to change capos and there are those 5 seconds of awkward silence. Pads eliminate those moments by keeping a sound constantly playing in the background.

To learn how to set up pads for your team, check out How to Run Pads at Your Church - a Simple Set-up.