Believe it or not: you don't have to play worship songs exactly like they sound on the radio. You can adapt them to the specific context you're leading in. In fact, adapting them to your church's unique voice often helps your congregation connect more with them.
Here are 3 ways to adapt worship songs for your church:
1 | Key
This is something worship leaders do all the time - change the key of the song. As you know by now, it's really hard to sing a song in the same key that the artist originally recorded it in. That's because their professional voice is better suited for a higher range than the average church goer.
Therefore, it's necessary to change the key. Ideally, the melody would fall consistently between a low Bb (1st fret on the A string of a guitar) and a high Eb (8th fret on the G string of a guitar). This is the average range of the people in your church.
2 | Instrumental parts
Sometimes, it's just plain impossible to play songs exactly like the recording. Maybe you don't have the same instrumentation as the original artist's band. So what can you do?
You have two options: either give the part to another instrument or cut it completely if it's unnecessary. If there's a synth lead, try having a guitar play it. If there's an electric lead line, try having your keyboardist play it.
3 | Style
When you originally play a song, you typically put your own style into it whether you realize it or not. Sometimes it takes the extreme of completely changing parts or it could be as simple as your phrasing in the chorus.
For better or worse, your style has infiltrated how you lead worship. You could shy away from it and try to learn everything note for note from the original recording. Or you can lean into the style your church is used to.
Chances are your church is already familiar with your person style of leading and will respond better to that than you trying to be something you're not - just be you!
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