Some Worship Tips - Part Three

Here's Part 3 in the series of some easy-going thoughts:


1. Words

One tip with words is to check before that the words that will be projected are the same as those you are singing as a worship leader. I was recently at a worship event where the worship leader was merrily singing away a Verse 4 while the guy on the words (behind me) was asking, 'what is this, where are they, we don't have them...') Clearly the worship leader was singing lyrics that either he had made up or were ones that his church sings. But no communication with the guy on words left the projectionist as confused as the rest of us!

Another tip is simply just to confirm (if you can) that the words that come up on screen are spelt correctly. One common mistake is the word 'angle' instead of 'angels'. So instead of singing 'we worship you with the angels', we were once singing 'we worship you with the angles'... This was brilliant for the mathematicians present but left me chuckling away!


2. Music

Make sure that each member of the band has the same music. I have played with various worship leaders and if you're not careful, you can acquire a number of different sets of music! These are from the worst online source of music in the world (guitar tabs); from the worship leader's own 'pen' or from reliable online sources (SongSelect, whose worst mistake is to say things are in one key when they're in another key!) But even SongSelect will vary from OnSong's own version of music. So just check.

I played with one worship leader and he had his own version of some songs. They were not only wrong but completely different from what I was playing. I kept scratching my head thinking, 'what chord is that?' So much better if you're clear from the off that the off - and 'on the same page' (boom, boom...)


3. Tuning - your own instrument and others.

There is not much worse musically than people playing the wrong notes or playing clashing musical notes or chords! But close behind is poor tuning.

On the guitar, I find that the note most prone to detuning itself is the G (third string, in standard tuning). Keep a close eye on this and the essential pedal for any worship leader on guitar is a tuner. Buy one, get a very good one and always bring it !!

You can lose tuning due to the atmosphere in a room - especially when it's hot and / or humid. You will lose tuning regularly.

You can also lose tuning when putting a capo on (temporarily), so choose a good capo that works with your guitar. I actually bought 4 capos when finding out which one worked best for me. In my case it's the Kyser Capo on my acoustic and the G7 capo for my electric. Have a play with your capo on various frets. The higher the fret, the more likely a capo is to de-tune the strings temporarily. So have a play with the actual position of the capo - i.e. do you need to place it close to the fret bar, in the middle of the fret etc.


Happy worshipping and strumming :)