One thing I've learnt is that practice is personal & rehearsal is relational. Practice is what we do at home. Learning the keys, rhythms and parts that make up the song. Rehearsel is what happens when we all come together.
We have rehearsals on Thursdays for around an hour. I give them their music in planning center prior to rehearsals so they show up to rehearsals knowing their parts. Sunday mornings we run through everything before the service.
How long prior? Just curios since you didn’t say a week prior, or two weeks prior. I love to be prepared but have a job and a family and when the songs are posted two days before I feel that is not fair to the team
Can you talk more about valuing people over perfection, especially considering different skill levels of musicians and vocalists (that is novice, highly skilled, intermediate etc)?
I've been recently watching a bunch of these videos because I needed help and new ideas to improve my worship team. I'm not even the worship leader but I can see how much improvement we need. So, slowly I'm just suggesting some of your guys' tips to my leader and just waiting for him to make the move if he wants to. Anyways, these are great!
Wednesdays we rehearse from 5:30-7:00PM before Wednesday night service. Saturdays - 2:30-4:30PM and sometimes Sunday mornings 8:30-10:00 before service
We meet on Thursday rehearse for about 2 hours. Then we meet again Sunday morning 2 hours before the service to wrap everything up and do a full run through. When I lead I aim for everyone to have their music on planning center as early as possible, the previous main leader often gave it to us Thursday evening. However, our worship leader just left, possibly for a short period of time, possibly forever, so that may be changing. Previously, many on the team have felt like a lot of their time was wasted for the sake of perfection so things like that may need to change.
We get the Song Set via Planning Center Website/App on Monday afternoon that includes mp3's in the correct key, chord charts in the correct key, separate lyric sheets, and a separate instruction sheet. We practice from 6p-8p Thursday night with everyone knowing the music before practice. We have 3 services on the weekend and we run through the music before Saturday evening show and telecast, and once again Sunday morning before the 2 services. We record everything to sound cloud after each practice.
Our worship leader left about a year ago, and the band has been “running itself” since. Recently my wife and I have been thrust, lol, into the leadership roll, and it’s been quite a challenge...Amazing, but a challenge. We are completely volunteer, and practice Sunday morning before the service. I send the setlist out about a week ahead via planning center, but the biggest challenge has been that people come every week unprepared. We spend 1/2 the practice figuring things out, and never get solid rehearsal time. We do try and put people above perfection, but we also want the Lord glorified by doing our best. I appreciate this video, and what you guys do to try and be a resource for worship leaders...especially ones at smaller churches that are trying to doing our best with limited volunteers and budgets :). I know it’s been helpful to me!
Jason, great job stepping into the challenge bro! God will honor your heart and your passion to serve Him and others! He will provide and equip you as you seek Him!!
I'm on a team in a church where we're at the point that we rehearse new songs, and songs we've not done for a good while, every other Wednesday evening. The team members scheduled for Sundays though, come ready for downbeat at 8:45 and we go through the entire set (normally 4 songs) before 9:30, service is a 10, we have a meetup with the Pastor, sound person, display person, anyone doing announcements or prayers before offering, and the worship team, to go through the order and then pray, and that's it.
We have mid week rehearsals...sometimes. Definitely for Christmas and Easter, but other than that it depends on schedules. But our team is generally good enough that we can send out the set the week 5-7 days in advance and our folks communicate amongst each other as is necessary (eg Guitar players discuss who's taking what hooks, etc). And all of our services are 90% the same every week. Song 1& 2 3 minutes of announcements (band plays behind Service Host) SH transitions to baptism Baptism + Testimony (band plays behind this as well) Song 3 Song 3.5 (Usually the chorus of a hymn or old song) Song 4 Service transition (Band plays behind host) Meet & Greet (Band jams a song instrumentally during this time. Friends theme song, 24k Magic, whatever) Sermon (usually 32-34 minutes. Keys player comes up at 4 minutes left on countdown.) Ministry time (band plays during this time, and eventually transitions to playlist) Done 3 services per weekend. Each service is about an hour and 15 minutes on average.
We have rehearsal every other Saturday morning for two hours. And then, we have a run through before service every Sunday morning. It's not the easiest schedule to maintain, but it's something that works for our volunteers, who really have been a blessing to work with. Thank you for the reinforcement, however. I do need to ensure that I am not taking their time for granted, and do what I can before practice starts to ensure that I am not taking up people's time figuring things out. For anyone who may be curious, our devotion is just a reading of a Psalm, an open discussion of sorts that points out one verse or section, and then prayer in one voice for specific topics concerning our church.
Being organized is half of the battle. To all of my brothers and sisters part of the worship team I would like to share what has really worked out well for me to be prepared for Sunday morning worship. The church I attend has app and one of its features is a Calendar that gives the scriptures passage for each sermon at least one month in advance. At the beginning of the week our worship leader will then read the passage and pick out 5 songs that best matches. The list of songs with corresponding key next to each are then sent Tuesday or Wednesday night in a group email to all the band member in the exact order for Sunday morning. Below the songs are individual attachments with a music sheet for each one. I will print it adding specific notes for parts of songs such as bass; out, lightly, on chord changes only, accenting bass drum, locked in with drummer, 8th notes, quarter notes etc.. Then put it in a page protectors in my music book, Look up each song on TH-cam, Put wireless headphones and play with the track for a couple of days. On Friday at 6pm worship team meets for Practice. Tuning instruments, sound check and prayer from 6-6:15, 6:15-7:30 practice going over each song at least 2x. Out of the 5 songs that we work on only 4 are played on Sunday. The one that the group struggles with the most gets eliminated and sometimes added to the following week. On Saturday night and Sunday morning before heading out for practice i’ll work on the songs and really focus on some of the hiccups from Friday’s rehearsal. Then Sunday morning 9-9:15 sound check and setup, 9:15- 10 group rehearsal and service starts at 10-11:30. Some times I will stay a few minutes after service ended to work on a particular part of a specific song that the drummer and I (bassist) weren’t totally in sinc
Thanks for the great insight. I know that we definitely don't have time to have mid-week rehearsals because of everyone's busy schedules. But we do get about 30 minutes before each service, and this video really gave great advice on how to maximize the limited time. Thanks, again!!
South Florida with a difficult economy and volunteers only. So our rehearsal is Sunday morning … and maybe a couple hours during the week every 2-3 months
8:43, that's exactly what i look for in a worship team. Organized, respectful of time, minimal wasted time during rehearsal, team members showing up prepared, encouraging everybody to be their best, keeping positive, never go over the planned time (unless absolutely necessary, and everybody agrees), pushing people to be better and grow as the worship team becomes more and more defined and refined in their role in the church. I hate when people say it's about our hearts and Jesus, not the music or worship team. That sounds like an excuse to not make the worship the best we can. It's all about Jesus in the end, that's why we all need to do the best we can. Our job as musicians playing in front of other people, is to make it about the music, the sound, the parts, the look (we should look like we want to be there and are happy to be part of it) etc, so we can create an amazing musical atmosphere for ourselves and other believers to worship. Why play music at all if it's not about how well we play it? Don't get me wrong, the main goal is to glorify Jesus and help others to enter in as well. However, if your'e on the worship team, it's about you learning/knowing the music, and if your'e not prepared to do that regularly, you probably shouldn't be involved in the worship team until you are ready to make that commitment.
Matt Mason You have a no idea how much I agree with you. For a long time, we were all doing it with a thought: as long as Jesus likes it and my heart is right, we are ok. Coming to practices unprepared, wasting a lot of other peoples times etc. I was trying to make a point that we have to do our best in music, Not just have a good heart and be content with that. We still have guitar players in the band that play like a kid that just graduated a first year of musical school. And they played for 10 years or more. All they can play is strumming, in block chords. Not willing to grow musically at all, making excuses that they don’t have time to practice. But they are very spiritual. Go figure... What do you do about that?
We have Rehearsals on Thursdays. We have 3 morning services on Sundays. We have 2 contemporary services with a separate team playing on both. Each team practices for about 1 hour and half each Thursday evening. Our 8 am traditional service team meets 1 hour before service each Sunday to practice and then has an hour and a half evening rehearsal once a month.
We have a rehearsal every Tuesday night - we start at 6:30 and roll until about 8pm (max). We then show up an hour before every serve and do a full run through.
We practice on Mondays usually and typically for two hours. We run through the songs one more time on Sunday morning before the services. We have two services.
Thanks guys, some great practical advice, our team practices for 2hrs Sat night (we bump into borrowed facilities Fri night) and do a lot of what you suggest but has taken years for our team to figure these things out. Hope it saves other teams the hard parts of the journey so they can focus on worship. One other thing we do (being Australia with long summer days) is over summer we move practice to very early (6:40am) Sunday (which only works when we know teams come prepared) before our 9am service to allow family time on Saturday’s and give the families of our team as well as our members a bit of a break. We avoid any complex new songs in this time and it just lets the whole team hit the new year refreshed.
For Sunday’s we have practice Wednesday after our Wednesday night church and on Sunday morning. On Wednesday when I play drums we just get a song Monday, learn it and rehearse before the main thing
At our church we practice on Sunday afternoon for the next Sunday. We use Google drive to share access to the MP3s and chord charts. We try to get the song list out for practice by mid-week. Our band practices first for one hour followed by a one hour practice with our singers. During the second hour we play/sing with the whole band for songs we know or fill confident with. We gather around the keyboard when we want to work on our parts, timing, or blend.
Sunday morning rehearsal from 7-8am then full production meeting to get everyone on the same page. then Full production run through(dress rehearsal) First service at 9, with debriefings between each service to discuss what went well and where we can be better. We’ve got music way ahead of time in planning center, along with tutorials and the stems or loops for that week to practice with
Love the insight, attitude and experience brought to the table. I would love to know what your policies are for the volunteers serving on the team; trying to gauge what are fair and unfair expectations for the team! Thank you!
1 x 45 min rehearsal on Sunday morning. It's not enough!! But what I have learnt as a worship leader is to ensure the practise is properly organised. That means i chose my intros, intros, interludes before the practise. I email my band midweek and explain how each song will be played (drums to come in on v2, piano start, bass and drum solo on bridge etc). With such little time, every minute counts.
On Monday morning, I submit a list of worship songs to our pastor for approval. He usually approves them by noon. I send the list to members of the Praise Team when I get approval, and will attach sheet music for the piano player and chord sheets with lyrics for the other team members if we have a new song. We meet at 7 pm on Wednesday to rehearse. We do not have a set time to end; I will try to set and enforce a closing time after watching this video. We have a run-through on Sunday morning, usually playing each song twice. I find that by Sunday, we have forgotten much of what we practiced on Wednesday. That is not good. As the worship leader, I practice the songs at home almost every day.
We only have pre-service rehearsal on Sundays. Typically for 30 to 40 minutes ending around 15 to 10 minutes before service starts. It's worked out as we don't introduce new songs often at all. I've recently taken on the role of worship leader and we've started talking about mid-week rehearsals, in part, to start expanding our repertoire. The team was concerned about what they could commit to so we are thinking over a bi-weekly rehearsal concept. I think the people over perfection is spot on. That's a policy of my previous worship leader and if it weren't for that mindset, i'd still be just sitting in a pew.
Ronnie, we typically do 4 songs. So an hour is usually plenty of time to do a full run through. If there are new, or more difficult songs, we sometimes bypass the full run through and spend more time tightening the music. But if everyone comes prepared, it’s usually still plenty of time! Great question
In my current church, we haven't a worship team yet, but in the church before, it was so, that they made a rehearsal, but the musicians has to practice the part at home. So rehearsal was to bring the band members together, to correct some wrong ideas, when the guitar player did too much or so.
There are several components to how to play christian guitar. One resource I discovered that succeeds in merging these is the Worship fixer formula (google it if you're interested) it's the most useful guide that I have ever seen. Check out the super information .
For my church we just do practices on Saturdays. This is where we iron out problems with songs and learn new songs. This usually takes around an hour to an hour and a half. Then on Sunday morning we show up an hour before church and run through the lineup for the day before the congregation show up.
Great tips guys..i,do worship by myself..some Sun i'll get help from my son playing drums and i'm praying that the Lord bless his heart and do it full time..so it's not really a big deal for me, because i practiced 2-3 times before Sun..that being said, i always prepared myself as far as music ready and guitar chords and so forth..coz preparation is very important on anything..thanks for sharing..God is good.
At 1 church, we get the music Tuesday night and rehearse Sunday morning before service. At the other church, we get the music at least 1 week in advance, rehearse/fellowship Thursday and Saturday before the Saturday service and run through 1 song just for a soundcheck prior to the 3 Sunday services.
Would you guys do a video on specific instructions we can give to each musician? I am a new worship leader that does not play an instrument well. I want to be able to lead from a musical standpoint better and give more specific instructions on what I am looking for.
Our church service is actually on Friday cause Sunday is a work day here in the middle east. So... we rehearse on Wednesday night and Friday morning before the service. it helps having a day between practice and service to go through the stuff we felt like needed to work.
Great video! Wonder if you could maybe live stream or record one of your rehearsals to see what it looks like when these points are put into practice. :)
We have 3 different worship teams that rotate, each lead by a different leader. Practice is on Thursday evenings for about 2 hours then a run through 90 minutes on Sunday mornings before service. A 60 minute rehearsal before Sunday evening services... Rinse and repeat.
I’d consider removing the need for people’s billing information for a free PDF. I think it should just be a link that downloads, that way the information gets to as many people as possible as easily as possible. Love the channel! Thanks guys!
meet on Thursdays. Pick out line up together. Rehearse 1.5-2 hrs. Any new songs we want to introduce we using rehearse as a team for a few week before hand. Run through hour before church on Sunday
We currently rehearse on Thursday nights for two hours but as we are going mobile in a month we will be moving to a Saturday afternoon rehearsal for two hours after the event local is set up.
What about the team members who aren’t exactly replaceable at the moment (small church) and begin to take advantage of their positions. Aka not caring, being late, skipping rehearsal for other events etc
I'd ask them why there just doing it half heartedly. If they aren't going to fully give themselves to showing up on time and practicing hold them accountable for their action.
We have worship services every Wednesday and Sunday. We have practice every Monday for both services and then we have a shorter practice before those services.
Hi guys I really find value in your sessions... can you tell me how far in advance do you release the song set for your Sunday service, 2 weeks , a week, Friday for that sunday ,the day before etc.
Do you have any tips for valuing people and their time, but balancing the management of having 4 services a week (3 on Sunday, 1 on Wednesday)? I feel like I am burdening people by asking them to do 2 or 3 services in one day. How do you help people catch the vision and gain that servant's heart... but not burn them out?
Thank you i like the plan. Here in a starting church called harvest bible chapel we want to start this high impact worship for the people of Belize...somtng new. Are we (the worship team) the ones who plans the order and activities of the sunday service?
we have rehersals on saturday eve... but the youth does not takes it seriously and only 2 to 3 people come... others think that if they don't come the worship team cant do any thing without them so we will have to take them on sunday
We rehearse on Wednesday after prayer service and on Sunday mornings we run through the songs and do a sound check. Our leader has a list of songs for the month so we know what to expect.
What do you do when someone on the team doesn't practice because they are talented and are to good for the team and never on time and become a problem, you don't want to lose them, we only have one team wow hard work
Hey guys. Love your channel. Could you make a video about how to use two electric guitars in one set? What guitar types, effects, playing-techniques and inversions best complement each other and how do you communicate that between the two guitarists?
Hello Brian/ Fuller So my question is, how do we handle a situation where a vocalist constantly comes unprepared to rehearsal and even after rehearsing the songs multiple times, the individual still manages to mess up the song he’s leading on Sunday service. Now I now the normal thing to do is have conversations and if needed give him/her a “break” The only problem is that this individual is the Pastor of the church’s son, and both him and the head Pastor are part of the worship ministry. Please help!
We currently do not have a mid week rehearsal. We show up an hour and a half before service. I would like to start having rehearsals but my day job has me working most evenings.
We rehearse on Wed evenings after service. Since we are all there already its the most convenient. We have 2 services a week. Our band is all youth except for me. Im the old guy. our practices are pretty unstructured. I come with charts and a plan but when it comes to execution, it all falls apart. I try doing a blended service because we have a dear piano player who wants to be involved but cant contribute to the contemporary part. so she sits on her hands for half the service. I was schooled by the Paul Baloche "Lead worship" dvd set. I watch keys and transitions very closely, So I really try to make the music service flow like a river. What usually happens though is the white water rapids!
Yea ,I kinda think if they don,t love the plan ,then maybe they are not part of the team as much as they should be. Hope that doesn.t sound judgemental .It is just from sports and military being a team player if so important .
I will grind this point: Your sound tech is a member of the team and needs to be aware of songs and playlists as much as anyone. They have to "play" the most complicated instrument--bar none--of anyone. They have to know the nuances about vocals, guitars, pianos, drums, choirs, orchestras AND blend all those sounds on the palette of your ears and heart. When audio equipment is upgraded, they have to transfer their fundamental skills to a completely new methodology of use. No instrumentalist (perhaps an electronic keyboard player) has to do that. IT IS A TOUGH JOB and an absolute blessing when done well. End of rant. Thanks. ;)
Henry Van Weeren agree 100%, a successful worship team has to have a sound tech who puts in the hard work learning his or her craft, and they need to know the songs, which means they are one of the hardest working members of the team
Henry Van Weeren Exactely and unfortunately such sound techs are not easy to find. We will upgrade our tech system (in ear, digital soundboard) and it will definitely be a challenge for them.
One thing I've learnt is that practice is personal & rehearsal is relational.
Practice is what we do at home. Learning the keys, rhythms and parts that make up the song.
Rehearsel is what happens when we all come together.
Two great sticky notes in this video. 1. Be intentional and prepared for rehearsal 2. People over perfection
"I care way more about you, than what you can do for me." That pretty much sums it up.
I am a praise and worship leader, and we have rehearsals for 2 days. Wednesday evenings, and Sundays. For usually about an hour.
Guys, you consistently challenge me in helpful ways. Thanks!
We have rehearsals on Thursdays for around an hour. I give them their music in planning center prior to rehearsals so they show up to rehearsals knowing their parts. Sunday mornings we run through everything before the service.
How long prior? Just curios since you didn’t say a week prior, or two weeks prior. I love to be prepared but have a job and a family and when the songs are posted two days before I feel that is not fair to the team
Yes we do. Thursday’s or Saturdays for 3-5 hours. Practice 2 hours before Sunday morning 9am when service starts
Can you talk more about valuing people over perfection, especially considering different skill levels of musicians and vocalists (that is novice, highly skilled, intermediate etc)?
Also, thanks for this video. Good, practical and loving. I love the last tip especially
Your media and sound Ministry being a practice is so key and clutch! Makes a world of difference!!
Yes. We do rehearsals every Tuesday night. We practise and learn new songs. And also to rehearse for the Sunday service.
I've been recently watching a bunch of these videos because I needed help and new ideas to improve my worship team. I'm not even the worship leader but I can see how much improvement we need. So, slowly I'm just suggesting some of your guys' tips to my leader and just waiting for him to make the move if he wants to. Anyways, these are great!
Wednesdays we rehearse from 5:30-7:00PM before Wednesday night service.
Saturdays - 2:30-4:30PM
and sometimes Sunday mornings 8:30-10:00 before service
We meet on Thursday rehearse for about 2 hours. Then we meet again Sunday morning 2 hours before the service to wrap everything up and do a full run through. When I lead I aim for everyone to have their music on planning center as early as possible, the previous main leader often gave it to us Thursday evening. However, our worship leader just left, possibly for a short period of time, possibly forever, so that may be changing. Previously, many on the team have felt like a lot of their time was wasted for the sake of perfection so things like that may need to change.
We get the Song Set via Planning Center Website/App on Monday afternoon that includes mp3's in the correct key, chord charts in the correct key, separate lyric sheets, and a separate instruction sheet. We practice from 6p-8p Thursday night with everyone knowing the music before practice. We have 3 services on the weekend and we run through the music before Saturday evening show and telecast, and once again Sunday morning before the 2 services. We record everything to sound cloud after each practice.
Our worship leader left about a year ago, and the band has been “running itself” since. Recently my wife and I have been thrust, lol, into the leadership roll, and it’s been quite a challenge...Amazing, but a challenge. We are completely volunteer, and practice Sunday morning before the service. I send the setlist out about a week ahead via planning center, but the biggest challenge has been that people come every week unprepared. We spend 1/2 the practice figuring things out, and never get solid rehearsal time. We do try and put people above perfection, but we also want the Lord glorified by doing our best. I appreciate this video, and what you guys do to try and be a resource for worship leaders...especially ones at smaller churches that are trying to doing our best with limited volunteers and budgets :). I know it’s been helpful to me!
Jason, great job stepping into the challenge bro! God will honor your heart and your passion to serve Him and others! He will provide and equip you as you seek Him!!
I'm on a team in a church where we're at the point that we rehearse new songs, and songs we've not done for a good while, every other Wednesday evening. The team members scheduled for Sundays though, come ready for downbeat at 8:45 and we go through the entire set (normally 4 songs) before 9:30, service is a 10, we have a meetup with the Pastor, sound person, display person, anyone doing announcements or prayers before offering, and the worship team, to go through the order and then pray, and that's it.
We have mid week rehearsals...sometimes. Definitely for Christmas and Easter, but other than that it depends on schedules. But our team is generally good enough that we can send out the set the week 5-7 days in advance and our folks communicate amongst each other as is necessary (eg Guitar players discuss who's taking what hooks, etc). And all of our services are 90% the same every week.
Song 1& 2
3 minutes of announcements (band plays behind Service Host) SH transitions to baptism
Baptism + Testimony (band plays behind this as well)
Song 3
Song 3.5 (Usually the chorus of a hymn or old song)
Song 4
Service transition (Band plays behind host)
Meet & Greet (Band jams a song instrumentally during this time. Friends theme song, 24k Magic, whatever)
Sermon (usually 32-34 minutes. Keys player comes up at 4 minutes left on countdown.)
Ministry time (band plays during this time, and eventually transitions to playlist)
Done
3 services per weekend. Each service is about an hour and 15 minutes on average.
God bless you guys for the value to you continue to add to the worship community!
We have rehearsal every other Saturday morning for two hours. And then, we have a run through before service every Sunday morning. It's not the easiest schedule to maintain, but it's something that works for our volunteers, who really have been a blessing to work with. Thank you for the reinforcement, however. I do need to ensure that I am not taking their time for granted, and do what I can before practice starts to ensure that I am not taking up people's time figuring things out. For anyone who may be curious, our devotion is just a reading of a Psalm, an open discussion of sorts that points out one verse or section, and then prayer in one voice for specific topics concerning our church.
Being organized is half of the battle. To all of my brothers and sisters part of the worship team I would like to share what has really worked out well for me to be prepared for Sunday morning worship. The church I attend has app and one of its features is a Calendar that gives the scriptures passage for each sermon at least one month in advance. At the beginning of the week our worship leader will then read the passage and pick out 5 songs that best matches. The list of songs with corresponding key next to each are then sent Tuesday or Wednesday night in a group email to all the band member in the exact order for Sunday morning. Below the songs are individual attachments with a music sheet for each one. I will print it adding specific notes for parts of songs such as bass; out, lightly, on chord changes only, accenting bass drum, locked in with drummer, 8th notes, quarter notes etc.. Then put it in a page protectors in my music book, Look up each song on TH-cam, Put wireless headphones and play with the track for a couple of days. On Friday at 6pm worship team meets for Practice. Tuning instruments, sound check and prayer from 6-6:15, 6:15-7:30 practice going over each song at least 2x. Out of the 5 songs that we work on only 4 are played on Sunday. The one that the group struggles with the most gets eliminated and sometimes added to the following week. On Saturday night and Sunday morning before heading out for practice i’ll work on the songs and really focus on some of the hiccups from Friday’s rehearsal. Then Sunday morning 9-9:15 sound check and setup, 9:15- 10 group rehearsal and service starts at 10-11:30. Some times I will stay a few minutes after service ended to work on a particular part of a specific song that the drummer and I (bassist) weren’t totally in sinc
Thanks for the great insight. I know that we definitely don't have time to have mid-week rehearsals because of everyone's busy schedules. But we do get about 30 minutes before each service, and this video really gave great advice on how to maximize the limited time. Thanks, again!!
One of my favorite worship leader wednesday's yet! So much good practical advice in this one!
Thanks Spencer! So glad to hear that.
South Florida with a difficult economy and volunteers only. So our rehearsal is Sunday morning … and maybe a couple hours during the week every 2-3 months
We rehearse for 60-90 mins Tuesdays, 1-3 hrs Saturday ams, and 1 hr Sundays before church (we're all new to this, trying to get our act together!)
8:43, that's exactly what i look for in a worship team. Organized, respectful of time, minimal wasted time during rehearsal, team members showing up prepared, encouraging everybody to be their best, keeping positive, never go over the planned time (unless absolutely necessary, and everybody agrees), pushing people to be better and grow as the worship team becomes more and more defined and refined in their role in the church.
I hate when people say it's about our hearts and Jesus, not the music or worship team. That sounds like an excuse to not make the worship the best we can. It's all about Jesus in the end, that's why we all need to do the best we can. Our job as musicians playing in front of other people, is to make it about the music, the sound, the parts, the look (we should look like we want to be there and are happy to be part of it) etc, so we can create an amazing musical atmosphere for ourselves and other believers to worship. Why play music at all if it's not about how well we play it? Don't get me wrong, the main goal is to glorify Jesus and help others to enter in as well. However, if your'e on the worship team, it's about you learning/knowing the music, and if your'e not prepared to do that regularly, you probably shouldn't be involved in the worship team until you are ready to make that commitment.
Matt Mason You have a no idea how much I agree with you. For a long time, we were all doing it with a thought: as long as Jesus likes it and my heart is right, we are ok. Coming to practices unprepared, wasting a lot of other peoples times etc. I was trying to make a point that we have to do our best in music, Not just have a good heart and be content with that. We still have guitar players in the band that play like a kid that just graduated a first year of musical school. And they played for 10 years or more. All they can play is strumming, in block chords. Not willing to grow musically at all, making excuses that they don’t have time to practice. But they are very spiritual. Go figure... What do you do about that?
We have Rehearsals on Thursdays. We have 3 morning services on Sundays. We have 2 contemporary services with a separate team playing on both. Each team practices for about 1 hour and half each Thursday evening. Our 8 am traditional service team meets 1 hour before service each Sunday to practice and then has an hour and a half evening rehearsal once a month.
We have a rehearsal every Tuesday night - we start at 6:30 and roll until about 8pm (max). We then show up an hour before every serve and do a full run through.
We practice on Mondays usually and typically for two hours. We run through the songs one more time on Sunday morning before the services. We have two services.
Guys I love y’alls vision and I appreciate all the effort y’all put in to the videos
We just started a worship team last Sunday and for now we are going to practice once a week
Thanks guys, some great practical advice, our team practices for 2hrs Sat night (we bump into borrowed facilities Fri night) and do a lot of what you suggest but has taken years for our team to figure these things out. Hope it saves other teams the hard parts of the journey so they can focus on worship. One other thing we do (being Australia with long summer days) is over summer we move practice to very early (6:40am) Sunday (which only works when we know teams come prepared) before our 9am service to allow family time on Saturday’s and give the families of our team as well as our members a bit of a break. We avoid any complex new songs in this time and it just lets the whole team hit the new year refreshed.
For Sunday’s we have practice Wednesday after our Wednesday night church and on Sunday morning. On Wednesday when I play drums we just get a song Monday, learn it and rehearse before the main thing
At our church we practice on Sunday afternoon for the next Sunday. We use Google drive to share access to the MP3s and chord charts. We try to get the song list out for practice by mid-week. Our band practices first for one hour followed by a one hour practice with our singers. During the second hour we play/sing with the whole band for songs we know or fill confident with. We gather around the keyboard when we want to work on our parts, timing, or blend.
Sunday morning rehearsal from 7-8am then full production meeting to get everyone on the same page. then Full production run through(dress rehearsal) First service at 9, with debriefings between each service to discuss what went well and where we can be better. We’ve got music way ahead of time in planning center, along with tutorials and the stems or loops for that week to practice with
Love the insight, attitude and experience brought to the table. I would love to know what your policies are for the volunteers serving on the team; trying to gauge what are fair and unfair expectations for the team! Thank you!
good video, I really gained a lot from watching this. How do you deal with ;lateness and folks who don't practice before coming to rehearsals. Thanks
1 x 45 min rehearsal on Sunday morning. It's not enough!! But what I have learnt as a worship leader is to ensure the practise is properly organised. That means i chose my intros, intros, interludes before the practise. I email my band midweek and explain how each song will be played (drums to come in on v2, piano start, bass and drum solo on bridge etc). With such little time, every minute counts.
On Monday morning, I submit a list of worship songs to our pastor for approval. He usually approves them by noon. I send the list to members of the Praise Team when I get approval, and will attach sheet music for the piano player and chord sheets with lyrics for the other team members if we have a new song. We meet at 7 pm on Wednesday to rehearse. We do not have a set time to end; I will try to set and enforce a closing time after watching this video. We have a run-through on Sunday morning, usually playing each song twice. I find that by Sunday, we have forgotten much of what we practiced on Wednesday. That is not good. As the worship leader, I practice the songs at home almost every day.
We only have pre-service rehearsal on Sundays. Typically for 30 to 40 minutes ending around 15 to 10 minutes before service starts. It's worked out as we don't introduce new songs often at all. I've recently taken on the role of worship leader and we've started talking about mid-week rehearsals, in part, to start expanding our repertoire. The team was concerned about what they could commit to so we are thinking over a bi-weekly rehearsal concept. I think the people over perfection is spot on. That's a policy of my previous worship leader and if it weren't for that mindset, i'd still be just sitting in a pew.
This is a such a good practical video. I had a question though. How many songs do you practice / rehearse in 30min between 7.30pm to 8.00pm?
Ronnie, we typically do 4 songs. So an hour is usually plenty of time to do a full run through. If there are new, or more difficult songs, we sometimes bypass the full run through and spend more time tightening the music. But if everyone comes prepared, it’s usually still plenty of time! Great question
In my current church, we haven't a worship team yet, but in the church before, it was so, that they made a rehearsal, but the musicians has to practice the part at home. So rehearsal was to bring the band members together, to correct some wrong ideas, when the guitar player did too much or so.
Not more than 2 hours and usually most time is for fresh up older songs and some time for few new songs
We rehearse every Thursday night for 2-3 hours. And have one run through before the Church service.
We rehearse for about 90 mins on Thursday night, followed by a full run through. Then we do a run through on Sunday before services.
This an awesome plan!! Thank you!
There are several components to how to play christian guitar. One resource I discovered that succeeds in merging these is the Worship fixer formula (google it if you're interested) it's the most useful guide that I have ever seen. Check out the super information .
For my church we just do practices on Saturdays. This is where we iron out problems with songs and learn new songs. This usually takes around an hour to an hour and a half. Then on Sunday morning we show up an hour before church and run through the lineup for the day before the congregation show up.
Great tips guys..i,do worship by myself..some Sun i'll get help from my son playing drums and i'm praying that the Lord bless his heart and do it full time..so it's not really a big deal for me, because i practiced 2-3 times before Sun..that being said, i always prepared myself as far as music ready and guitar chords and so forth..coz preparation is very important on anything..thanks for sharing..God is good.
It’s super special to worship with your family!!
Yes we do they used to be minimal which was unhelpful, now we do around 2-3 hours solid rehearsals.
At 1 church, we get the music Tuesday night and rehearse Sunday morning before service. At the other church, we get the music at least 1 week in advance, rehearse/fellowship Thursday and Saturday before the Saturday service and run through 1 song just for a soundcheck prior to the 3 Sunday services.
Rehearsal on Thursday usually 2 1/2 hrs and quick run through Sunday morning. Mostly intros, turns and outs
Would you guys do a video on specific instructions we can give to each musician? I am a new worship leader that does not play an instrument well. I want to be able to lead from a musical standpoint better and give more specific instructions on what I am looking for.
We have rehearsals on Saturday for about 2-3 hours and meet early on Sunday morning for last minute firm-ups and a run through!
Our church service is actually on Friday cause Sunday is a work day here in the middle east. So... we rehearse on Wednesday night and Friday morning before the service. it helps having a day between practice and service to go through the stuff we felt like needed to work.
It's very much worth my time watching this video. Thanks.
Thanks!
Great video! Wonder if you could maybe live stream or record one of your rehearsals to see what it looks like when these points are put into practice. :)
Great idea! I've been wanting to do a rehearsal vlog for a while now - definitely something to keep on the list to do.
Great idea!!! Count on it
We have 3 different worship teams that rotate, each lead by a different leader. Practice is on Thursday evenings for about 2 hours then a run through 90 minutes on Sunday mornings before service. A 60 minute rehearsal before Sunday evening services... Rinse and repeat.
I’d consider removing the need for people’s billing information for a free PDF. I think it should just be a link that downloads, that way the information gets to as many people as possible as easily as possible. Love the channel! Thanks guys!
We have rehearsal on Tuesday, run over it again before service on Wednesday evening. Then on Sunday, we go over everything again before service.
We rehearse every Thursday for 2 hours. We work on the upcoming set and then work on new music.
meet on Thursdays. Pick out line up together. Rehearse 1.5-2 hrs. Any new songs we want to introduce we using rehearse as a team for a few week before hand. Run through hour before church on Sunday
We currently rehearse on Thursday nights for two hours but as we are going mobile in a month we will be moving to a Saturday afternoon rehearsal for two hours after the event local is set up.
What about the team members who aren’t exactly replaceable at the moment (small church) and begin to take advantage of their positions. Aka not caring, being late, skipping rehearsal for other events etc
other people would have to adjust for them
I'd ask them why there just doing it half heartedly. If they aren't going to fully give themselves to showing up on time and practicing hold them accountable for their action.
I'd love to know how you guys handle people that constantly show up late for rehearsal . Great videos thank you.
I think they talked about this in a previous video but i forgot what it is called
I use to create a review meetin on every half year. There we discuss anout all problems.
Yes we had practice before on stage
We have worship services every Wednesday and Sunday. We have practice every Monday for both services and then we have a shorter practice before those services.
Hi guys I really find value in your sessions... can you tell me how far in advance do you release the song set for your Sunday service, 2 weeks , a week, Friday for that sunday ,the day before etc.
Do you have any tips for valuing people and their time, but balancing the management of having 4 services a week (3 on Sunday, 1 on Wednesday)?
I feel like I am burdening people by asking them to do 2 or 3 services in one day.
How do you help people catch the vision and gain that servant's heart... but not burn them out?
You guys nailed it! Great video!
Thank you i like the plan. Here in a starting church called harvest bible chapel we want to start this high impact worship for the people of Belize...somtng new. Are we (the worship team) the ones who plans the order and activities of the sunday service?
we have rehersals on saturday eve... but the youth does not takes it seriously and only 2 to 3 people come... others think that if they don't come the worship team cant do any thing without them so we will have to take them on sunday
At our youth group band, we have practice for an hour on Sunday mornings.
We rehearse on Wednesday after prayer service and on Sunday mornings we run through the songs and do a sound check. Our leader has a list of songs for the month so we know what to expect.
That’s awesome leadership!!! Way to go!!!
What do you do when someone on the team doesn't practice because they are talented and are to good for the team and never on time and become a problem, you don't want to lose them, we only have one team wow hard work
So good
Thank you.
We always have rehearsal during Saturdays. For like 4 hours.
Hey guys. Love your channel. Could you make a video about how to use two electric guitars in one set? What guitar types, effects, playing-techniques and inversions best complement each other and how do you communicate that between the two guitarists?
That is a great idea!!! We will work on this. A great problem to have for sure!!!
Thank you guys! 🕶
We have a couple videos that cover a good amount of all that! Check out some of those on the channel!
Hello Brian/ Fuller
So my question is, how do we handle a situation where a vocalist constantly comes unprepared to rehearsal and even after rehearsing the songs multiple times, the individual still manages to mess up the song he’s leading on Sunday service.
Now I now the normal thing to do is have conversations and if needed give him/her a “break”
The only problem is that this individual is the Pastor of the church’s son, and both him and the head Pastor are part of the worship ministry.
Please help!
Jhojan Benavides have him lead out on the chorus and have the verse led by someone else. Implement shared leading across the board.
We currently do not have a mid week rehearsal. We show up an hour and a half before service. I would like to start having rehearsals but my day job has me working most evenings.
We have rehearsals every Wednesday for like 1 1/2 hours and on Sunday’s like 1 hour before the service starts.
Mid week, we rehearse, Sunday morning, sometimes it's effective sometimes not, preparation is key, we have alot of wingers
Friday practice Sunday morning rehearsal
We rehearse on Wed evenings after service. Since we are all there already its the most convenient. We have 2 services a week. Our band is all youth except for me. Im the old guy. our practices are pretty unstructured. I come with charts and a plan but when it comes to execution, it all falls apart. I try doing a blended service because we have a dear piano player who wants to be involved but cant contribute to the contemporary part. so she sits on her hands for half the service. I was schooled by the Paul Baloche "Lead worship" dvd set. I watch keys and transitions very closely, So I really try to make the music service flow like a river. What usually happens though is the white water rapids!
We have 2 rehearsals and we spend about 2 hours we run through the set and then on the second part we polish up what we had trouble on
We have a pre service rehearsals and are trying to set up Thursday practices. We practice up until the church starts to fil up.
We only play one song though so we dont need as much time
Our band rehearsals are Thursday evening (19:30 - 21:30) and before Sunday service.
Every Thursday. 1 to 1.5 Hours.
Do you except musicians and singers to know their part for a song before practice? Do teach parts for vocals during practice?
buffy williams
Both Buffy..
We do! Typically everyone knows their specific role on the team but if there are any additional specifics we discuss them each week beforehand.
We have rehearsals on wed, and before we play on Sunday
Do you have a direct messaging? I'd like to ask advice on a sensitive matter.
We have rehearsals every Thrusday from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
Do you share the plan with your whole team before rehearsal so they know whats going to happen and at what time ? Or is it just for you as leader ?
Everyone can see our PCO! So yes, they can see it all!
sunday morning
I have rehearsals on Saturday from 4 to 6:30 and i have service at 7:15
Yea ,I kinda think if they don,t love the plan ,then maybe they are not part of the team as much as they should be. Hope that doesn.t sound judgemental .It is just from sports and military being a team player if so important .
Pls do build my life by passion
We rehearse on Tuesdays 6:30-8:30.
We have a mid week and a Sunday morning
I will grind this point:
Your sound tech is a member of the team and needs to be aware of songs and playlists as much as anyone. They have to "play" the most complicated instrument--bar none--of anyone. They have to know the nuances about vocals, guitars, pianos, drums, choirs, orchestras AND blend all those sounds on the palette of your ears and heart.
When audio equipment is upgraded, they have to transfer their fundamental skills to a completely new methodology of use. No instrumentalist (perhaps an electronic keyboard player) has to do that. IT IS A TOUGH JOB and an absolute blessing when done well.
End of rant. Thanks. ;)
Henry Van Weeren agree 100%, a successful worship team has to have a sound tech who puts in the hard work learning his or her craft, and they need to know the songs, which means they are one of the hardest working members of the team
Henry Van Weeren Exactely and unfortunately such sound techs are not easy to find. We will upgrade our tech system (in ear, digital soundboard) and it will definitely be a challenge for them.
👍
How many songs do yall play on a Sunday?
Typically 4.
Typically, 3. Sometimes, we may play a song at the end, if there is something special going on, like a long prayer