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145 Posts
Hi Bradshawm!
Theres a lot of opinions here, which has made interesting reading.
Comming from my point of view, I lead worship once a month and play sax for the rest of the Sundays, so I see both sides.
1) Songs - when its my turn to pick, I take suggestions if they are offered, but generally, its up to me. We have a large 200+ list of songs, but not each worship leader would be completely familiar with all off them, and indeed may not be too "keen" on some of them anyhow and some are generally not done. I generally pick a few well known (including some nice old hyms, as we are a Cathedral) songs and a couple of more modern or new ones. I pick the songs not according to any rules, other than prayer and what fits where I feel the service is going and what fits the theme I have been given to work with. Sometimes, especially a new song, we would do a particular song perhaps twice or three times a month (new songs each week for at least 3 weeks to help it become familiar). Working with the theme provided, I choose songs by tempo, sometimes a lot more of quiet meditive songs, sometimes more loud quick songs, but it really does depend on the service, and indeed where the service moves/changes away from what you expected!
What worries me is that if the "12 week rule" means the musicians are not familiar with a song, how can the congregation become familiar, relaxed and comfortable with it? I find in our church the congregation generally takes twice as long to learn a song as our "musicians" ie singers and instrumentalists, so this needs to be taken into account.
On a personal note, I tend to praise and worship God with songs which I know well, understand the lyrics and know where the melody is. 12 weeks is a long time between repeating a song!
2) Playing. My advice to you is to work on your improvising. I did this and it means that each time you do a song, its different, because you are playing what is in your heart or head at that time, meaning what you play is part of you, really really adding to the song. If you want to play written parts or melody, try just playing over the chorus or bridges or intro/outros. I found written parts frustrating and very time consuming, and unless you have backing tracks in the same key at home, very hard to practice! I'm sure you have heard the phrase "less is more", and it really is. We only get about 7 songs a service, and there are times when for one reason or another, I dont play one or two of them (perhaps I am not comfortable with the song or feel it is nice with just keyboards etc), so dont be afraid to do this. Perhaps you could walk over and join the choir for just a number or two?
Hope this has been off some help, and by the way, none of us get paid too!
Jason
Theres a lot of opinions here, which has made interesting reading.
Comming from my point of view, I lead worship once a month and play sax for the rest of the Sundays, so I see both sides.
1) Songs - when its my turn to pick, I take suggestions if they are offered, but generally, its up to me. We have a large 200+ list of songs, but not each worship leader would be completely familiar with all off them, and indeed may not be too "keen" on some of them anyhow and some are generally not done. I generally pick a few well known (including some nice old hyms, as we are a Cathedral) songs and a couple of more modern or new ones. I pick the songs not according to any rules, other than prayer and what fits where I feel the service is going and what fits the theme I have been given to work with. Sometimes, especially a new song, we would do a particular song perhaps twice or three times a month (new songs each week for at least 3 weeks to help it become familiar). Working with the theme provided, I choose songs by tempo, sometimes a lot more of quiet meditive songs, sometimes more loud quick songs, but it really does depend on the service, and indeed where the service moves/changes away from what you expected!
What worries me is that if the "12 week rule" means the musicians are not familiar with a song, how can the congregation become familiar, relaxed and comfortable with it? I find in our church the congregation generally takes twice as long to learn a song as our "musicians" ie singers and instrumentalists, so this needs to be taken into account.
On a personal note, I tend to praise and worship God with songs which I know well, understand the lyrics and know where the melody is. 12 weeks is a long time between repeating a song!
2) Playing. My advice to you is to work on your improvising. I did this and it means that each time you do a song, its different, because you are playing what is in your heart or head at that time, meaning what you play is part of you, really really adding to the song. If you want to play written parts or melody, try just playing over the chorus or bridges or intro/outros. I found written parts frustrating and very time consuming, and unless you have backing tracks in the same key at home, very hard to practice! I'm sure you have heard the phrase "less is more", and it really is. We only get about 7 songs a service, and there are times when for one reason or another, I dont play one or two of them (perhaps I am not comfortable with the song or feel it is nice with just keyboards etc), so dont be afraid to do this. Perhaps you could walk over and join the choir for just a number or two?
Hope this has been off some help, and by the way, none of us get paid too!
Jason
