Charts are great tools to help us learn music, but after you know the song it can become a crutch in worship rather than a launching board.

In most situations, contemporary worship music is very repetitive and the music can be memorized after a few weeks of playing a song.

One thing you can do to help you focus on the Lord rather than on what your hands are doing is break down songs and memorize them in 3 or 4 parts.

What are the chords in the verse? What chords are in the chorus? What chords are in the bridge? Are there any variations or special things to take note of?

When you can remember 3 or 4 parts rather than an entire 5:00 minutes of music, you're able to recall songs faster and even follow the worship leader better if anything spontaneous happens.

Memorizing music isn’t necessary and charts are still great, but try implementing this for a few weeks to see if it can unlock something new for you in your personal worship on stage.