How to Breathe Life Into an Old Worship Song
Do you ever get bored leading the same song over and over again? There's that one song in your set list that just seems stale. And the thing is, you know it's not a bad song - people are still connecting with it. But maybe there's a way you can breathe some new life into it.
One of the ways you can do that is by using alternative arrangements. Changing things up slightly can make an old song feel new.
Here are three things you can do to create a different song arrangement:
1 | Change the order
Something as simple as starting with the chorus can make a song feel completely different. This is especially powerful when you reconnect the dots for people - pointing them back to the truth of the song that they may have taken for granted.
One way to find a different order for a song is to hop on Youtube and listen to someone else lead it. Not everyone leads in the same way. Follow someone else's arrangement and see how it feels.
2 | Let someone else lead it
What if you let someone else lead the song? Male vocals feel musically different than female vocals - and vice versa. It involves changing the key which changes the feel of the song (sometimes for the better; sometimes for the worse so be careful).
Not to mention, different people lead songs in different ways. You might have the same exact order but somebody just phrases things slightly different that adds something new to the song. Or the timbre of their voice brings something that wasn't previously there.
3 | Different instrumentation
This can take many forms. Try just an acoustic version of a song - this works best with intimate songs the everyone knows well. Have a guitarist play the lead line instead of a keyboardist. Add a new harmony in verse 2. Don't have the drummer come in until the bridge. There are a ton of different ways to do it - experiment and see what you can come up with!
What song in your repertoire needs a breathe of fresh air? Let us know in the comments!