When people first get into worship leading, they expect it to involve playing music and leading the congregation spiritually. One thing they often forget about is that they become the band leader as well.
Leading a band musically is completely different than playing your instrument and leading the congregation. It takes a vocabulary that most people haven't developed yet when they become the band leader.
This is most obvious when you try to communicate a drum part to a drummer: "Leading into the bridge can you put a fill in there that's like bum-bum-bigidy-bum-bum-boom!" And the drummer stares blankly at you because you made absolutely no sense.
Here are a few tips for musically leading your worship team:
1 | Have a plan
Good communication starts with a plan. In order to clearly tell people what you want them to do, you have to actually know what you want them to do. Sit down with a song and plot out the structure: intro, verse 1, chorus, verse 2, etc. In each part, plan out how you want your musicians to play. Think about dynamics, rhythm, and technique. Put words around it as best as you can.
Then, at practice, spend time working through your arrangement of the song.
2 | Give examples
When you can't put what you want a team member to do into words, it's best to provide an example. Send them a text before practice and tell them to listen to a specific part of the song. Music is often easier to listen to than talk about.
3 | Practice it!
So many of us don't think we know how to talk about song parts so we end up not doing it at all. We expect our team to know exactly what we want them to do even though we haven't communicated it to them. Then we get frustrated when they don't play the part we expected.
Like anything else, it takes practice to improve your communication. So just start.
Create a musical language with your team!
5 tips to instantly improve your worship leading
FREE AUDIO TRAINING: Discover 5 simple tips that will instantly improve your worship leading.