Is There a Difference Between Performance and Worship?

This weekend, our youth worship band led worship for our church. They played as well as I've heard them play and it did not feel like a "show off the youth day" and more of a normal worship service with younger musicians. But later on I was visiting with the band members and one of my youth said that after the service he asked one of the ladies in the congregation, "Did you enjoy the show?"

This reminded me of a concept that has been around a long time. That is, the difference between performance and worship. Music and song have been elements of worship for thousands of years. And as with any performance, music performed in worship should be played skillfully (Psalm 33). But the context of the performance must be considered. In a regular concert, the performer is playing for the pleasure and approval of the audience. In worship, though, the performer is playing for the pleasure and approval of God. The music should be excellent and inspiring to the audience, but the approval of the audience should not be a driving force.

In the book of I Corinthians, Paul tells the church at Corinth to do all things to the glory of God. So whether our performance is under the umbrella of "worship" or not, it should be excellent. But when we are leading worship, we are playing for an audience of one.

New E-Book on Working with Youth Worship Bands

I've been working with teenagers and youth bands for the better part of fifteen years, teaching them about the musical aspects of worship and how to play as a group. I've really tried to find resources that would help me in this venture. I've been to worship music forums, discussion groups, looked for books and searched websites, and never found any resources I felt were adequate for working with younger musicians. I ran across a couple of e-books, but I really didn't feel they were specific enough. Several colleagues in youth ministry were asking me "how do you get started with a youth worship band" and so I decided to share my experiences, not as an expert, but as someone who had tried and failed many times. The result was my e-book "Starting a Youth Worship Band from the Ground Up." Teenagers have less musical experience and sometimes more enthusiasm than their adult worship counterparts. They also are typically not as far along in their spiritual journeys. So that makes working with youth bands a sort of horse of a different color. Things must be approached in a different way or they will get frustrated and lose interest.

The book discusses where to find musicians, what setups to use (since teenage musicians are sometimes hard to find, and what to do with those kids who play the trumpet in the marching band but have never picked up a guitar), where to find instruments, where to find music, scheduling rehearsals, and how to make it all work. It also shares some of my successes and failures in working with teenagers including an all-out mutiny we had at one church that nearly split the youth group in half. My only hope is that these experiences will help any youth worker who wants to get his kids more interested in music. Another thing about the book is that I tried to write it in layman's terms with the non-musician in mind. So if you're a youth worker who doesn't sing or play an instrument, I hope it will still be relevant to you. Besides...it's free. It's not like you're out any money!

I want to thank my friend Russell Martin for hosting it on his site Fork In The Road Music. This is Russell's personal blog site and is also a hub of great worship-related articles including conversations about worship and worship leading, graphics and photos that can be used in worship backgrounds, and some of Russell's "instrumental reflections" which are musical compositions he writes that are inspired by various seasons and events in Russell's life and the life of the church.

In his "Worship Leading Conversations" Russell does an online call-in talk show (using telephone calls and a chat room interface) on Sunday nights, then he reposts portions of the conversation on his blog. I was honored and delighted to be his first guest and discuss working with youth bands.

Why does so much modern worship music sound like U2?

I'm not alone. One of my all-time favorite pop/rock bands is U2. I love their style and sound and the way the Edge is not really a lead player or a rhythm player, but both at the same time. I love the way the bass and drums fit together in each groove. They've made some records I haven't been crazy about, but on the whole, most of their stuff is just great, in my opinion.

I'm sure I am not the only Christian musician out there who loves U2's music. But my question is this. Why do so many modern Christian artists, particularly those who write worship music, sound like U2? If you listen to Matt Redman, Delirious, and Hillsong United, you will find undeniable traces of U2.

So to redirect my previous question...do these artists intentionally sound like U2 because they love U2's sound? Or is U2's influence on modern music so heavy that it is difficult for them to separate from that style and sound? Another possibility is that maybe U2's style and sound is very suitable for worship music, therefore lots of bands try to mimic that sound.

Whether you are a musician who plays in a band at church or if you just like listening to worship music, I would be curious to hear your thoughts.

Working With Youth Bands: Adding Horns

I've been working with youth worship bands almost as long as I've been doing youth ministry. There's just something really amazing and fulfilling about seeing young students use their passion for music not only to glorify the Lord, but also to improve their skills and get better as a group and to learn to play for the Lord rather than for the approval of others. One problem always haunted me, though in working with teenagers: what to do with wind instruments. With so many students playing in jr. high and high school bands at school, it stands to reason that an average youth group would have at least a couple of horn players. But the typical worship band format calls for a drum set, bass guitar, and a guitar or keyboard. Horns are not usually figured in.

One reason for this is that horns are tuned to different keys, so when a guitar player is playing in G or C, a horn player will actually be playing in A or D respectively. Also, full orchestration parts are available for popular praise choruses but they don't work well without a "full orchestra". Another problem with the horns is that students who play in school band only know how to read music whereas many guitar players are self-taught and only know how to play by ear, chord charts, or TABS--not real music.

So this year, I had a young trumpet player approach me about playing in the youth band. Since I considered myself to have an average knowledge of music and very little experience writing out music, I explained to him the situation I was in, but assured him that if we committed to learn how to do it together, we could make it work. Well, here is what I found that works and may work for you and your youth band.

For about $50, you can purchase a program called Finale: Songwriter Edition at finalemusic.com. With this program and a little basic knowledge of single-note melody lines, you can chart out a basic melody, counter-melody, or harmony part for your horn player. Just tell the program what key your band is playing in and what type of horn part you are writing, and it will automatically transpose to the horn key. Once you start writing out the notes, the program will play it back so you know exactly what you are writing (my sight-reading skills are pretty bad). You can also hook a keyboard or other midi device up to your computer and play the part on the keyboard and it will write it out as you play. If you are not sure if your horn player can play in that key, you can easily transpose to the keys that are close to it in range (up a step or half step, or down a step or half step) to come up with a key that will work for both your horn player and your guitar/bass/keybaord players. You can also do multiple parts for multiple horns. If you're really not sure what to write, try writing a simple melody, or just try having the horn play the root note of each chord. So if the band is playing a song in G that plays four counts each on the chords G, C, Em, and D, then your Bb trumpet player will be playing in A and you can write whole notes on A, D, F#, and E. You can also simplify the charts by just having the horn play on certain parts of the song like the chorus or the bridge. This will automatically add depth and texture to your song because certain parts of the song will be quieter and have fewer instruments.

While not all horns are condusive to worship music (i.e. trumpets, saxes, flutes, probably fit better than tubas, French horns, and euphoniums), you may have to be selective as to how you implement certain horns into the group. Also, while it may take some time to work up a few horn parts for your popular songs, you don't want your horn player getting bored at rehearsal. See if she can play some percussion stuff (shaker, tambourine, or even COWBELL) on the songs where she's not playing her horn. Getting kids involved in your band will be a plus for the player and for the band.

Youth Bands: Taking Summer Off

I've always had a fear of cancelling certain activities and events for extended periods of time out of fear that when it came time to start them up again that we would be building from the ground up. This came especially true when it came to working with youth bands. Since building a worship band required more time and energy than other youth activities, I felt that it was a more delicate program and if cancelled would run the risk of never starting back.

But this summer, we did some things differently in our youth program. Since many kids go out of town during the summer, we scaled down our Bible study times to more of a hanging out/small group format. We didn't use Power Point or very many video clips, and we met in one of the smaller rooms of the youth building rather than the big room where we normally met. And, reluctantly, we cancelled youth band at the end of last school year, and didn't pick it up until the schools had started back up at the end of August. Last weekend we had our first practice in over two months. I found that students who had fallen away from the band came back and some who had interest before now were excited about joining. I also found that our players had been practicing over the summer because they were not having regular rehearsals...so practicing was a sort of boredom buster for them. This also created less stress on families because they didn't have to worry about working band rehearsals into their summer schedule. My friend Russell Martin reminded me that everything has a season and I think that is certainly true with youth-led worship bands.

Simplifying and Improvising in Youth Group Meetings

This summer, we tried something new in our youth program. After giving it some serious thought and after listening to what some other youth workers, pastors, and leaders were doing with their groups for the summer, we decided to go low-key and informal. What that means is this. Our regular meetings during the school year consisted of us meeting upstairs in our "big room" (not really big, but it's bigger than the other rooms, so that's what we call it), where our full band (bass, drums, elec. guitar) would lead us in worship and our Bible studies would be enhanced with Power Point, video clips, or other multi-media teaching tools. Well, this summer, we gave the band the summer off to spend time with family, do their summer activities, and not feel the pressure to be at practice every week. We also didn't do as much with PowerPoint and media stuff and just embraced the intimacy of a lazy summer.

Since our summer crowd was smaller because of people travelling and going to band camps, sports camps, etc., we decided not to meet upstairs in the big room and just meet downstairs in the "hang out" area of the youth building. Most weeks we didn't even have music. We just got to sit around and talk about the Bible study topic and let the kids teach themselves as they worked out the scriptures together.

This week, though, one of our musicians called me Wednesday afternoon to see if she could bring her guitar and do a few songs. Of course, I told her "absolutely". Well, we only had a very small portion of our kids show up due to some school activities that were going on. So we scratched our Bible study and just sang with a couple of guitars for about 30 minutes. No band, no power point, no sound system, and our kids were singing their hearts out. Had we been locked into our normal routine we would have missed a very powerful time of worship.

A Fun New Toy for Worship

Okay, so I didn't set this blog up to be a forum for product reviews, but I wanted to share some experiences I had this weekend with incorporating

some new media technology into our youth worship experience. Several weeks ago, our adult praise team members informed me that they were going to be out much of the summer. Our piano player use the digital rhythm section on our keyboard to be kind of a "one man band" that we supplement with acoustic rhythm guitar. When he's not there we don't have any kind of rhythm section. Although, I play drums, we don't have anyone else in our church who plays bass. So when the piano player is out, it's just been me on bass and our guitar player on acoustic--until now. As a remedy to our situation, I purchased the Alesis SR-18. It has 100 different drum sets (pre-grouped drum sounds placed together), 100 preset rhythm patterns (that can not be edited), 100 user patterns (preset patterns that the user can edit), and additional storage space for more patterns the user wants to create. My sales rep at Sweetwater Music recommended, as an accessory, the Boss FS6 dual footswitch. Each pattern on the drum machine has an A sub-pattern and a B sub-pattern. Using the footswitch, the user can tap out his tempo, start the pattern, then can play fills on either the A or B sub-pattern or have a fill that transitions from A to B or vice versa. (This footswitch can also be used with any TRS (tip ring sleeve) cable to select channels on a guitar amp or control a keyboard. The pedal can be set for latching or non-latching where the pedal will stay on after pressed or it will only be activated when pressed. This could allow a keyboard player to use it for a permanent sustain function for organ sounds)

The drum machine has two mono outs for true stereo output, plus a third auxillary out as well as a headphone jack. It also has a midi in and midi out/thru. The display is backlit and easy to see. It has plenty of acoustic drum sounds that will be great for using in our church praise services, but one thing I wanted was a set of patterns that I could use with an acoustic drum set in the youth worship times. So this is what we did in our youth service, yesterday. We used an "industrial" patch (similar to a Nine Inch Nails sound) for the intro to "My Glorious" then cut the machine off and rocked in with acoustic drums and full band. Then we used the machine to play a "beat box" pattern (almost like 80's rap with vocal "drums") as an underlying groove for the song "Your Love, Oh Lord" by Third Day. While it took some rehearsing, this was a fun addition to our worship band. The unit was pretty easy to use and with about 5 or 10 minutes in the manual I was rockin' out. I have not begun to nearly tap into everything this unit will do, but considering the amount of time I've spent with it, it's already been a huge addition to our youth worship set-up.

It also comes with bass sounds on every rhythm patch (kind of cheesy, but functional) so if you just want to jam over a groove, you can do it. Or you can program your bass sounds to fit a particular song using the drum/bass pads on the unit. If you just want to use the drum sounds, you can mute the bass sounds on each pattern. Another cool feature is it has an instrument input where you can plug your guitar or keyboard straight into the unit with a 1/4 inch instrument cable. This would be a handy feature if you were in a situation where you were short on channels in the sound board.

If you are frequently in a drummerless situation or you are just wanting to add another dimension to your band's sound, this drum machine is available for around $260 from many retailers. It's predecessor, the SR-16 began production in the early 1990s and had about a 15-year run. Hopefully this one will do the same.

So, what products have changed the way you do worship? What would you recommend? What would you stay away from?

A Different Kind of Maturity

This weekend we did a new activity in our youth program called 30-Hour Famine. This is a program developed by World Vision encouraging students to get sponsored by friends and family to do a 30-hour period of fasting and prayer for world hunger. It's a great opportunity to teach your students about some of the deeper disciplines of the Christian life. World Vision makes it a pretty easy event to pull off because their website is a wellspring of programming ideas.

I went into the Famine weekend with high expectations. Due to some recent graduations, my youth program is pretty thin on senior high leadership. So, my hope was that this weekend would be a time when my students would come out of the shells a bit and actually pray out loud for various causes. We had a prayer vigil service for all the children around the world who were dying of preventable causes and we did a prayer walk through the streets of downtown Palestine. At each of these times, students were given opportunities to pray for different things.

I was very disappointed to finish the weekend feeling like my voice was the only voice that was heard. I was honestly tired of leading prayers and frustrated that my students were still embarassed, unsure, apprehensive, and reluctant to be vocal about their concerns for the world around them. I even began to wonder what they were thinking. Were they even affected by the information we discussed? Seeing the kids cut up and be rowdy at times that should have been reverent, provocative, and even a bit disturbing made my frustration go even further. Honestly, I left the event tired and disappointed with $1 worth of Kroger brand macaroni and cheese in my belly (World Vision feeds people for $1 a day, so we broke our fast with $1 worth of food).

Somewhere that night, though, it hit me. Throughout the whole 24 hour experience, not once did the kids whine about their lack of food. We had juice and things to keep us going. There were also jokes about sneaking a bite here and there. But when it was all said and done, these students who had become tired, irritable, and in many ways very uncomfortable from a lack of food, did not complain about their situation. This morning one of our church members came and told me she had asked one of our 8th grade boys about his fasting experience and she said he talked about it with a lot of maturity and understanding. This truly blessed me!

You see, I had in my mind a particular outcome for my students. I wanted them to show spiritual growth in a particular area. But what had happened was that they grew in another area--an area that is probably more important. So, as I seek ways to get my kids involved in the spiritual acts of leadership in the group, I can do so knowing that they are growing to maturity in Christ in their own ways!

Working With Youth Bands: Tragedy into Triumph

Last Sunday, our power trio youth band was rehearsing--having a normal practice, getting ready to do some new songs we'd passed out the week before. We had just finished a song and as our bass player was flipping through her song book, the strap came off her bass and it fell to the floor. I didn't hear any pop, thud, or unpleasant noise coming from the amp, so I assumed it was a false alarm. She picked it back up and we had no sound. As I pulled the backplate off the guitar, I noticed a solder joint had come loose, as I suspected. But then as I examined the input jack, we realized that it had landed right on the instrument cable and had completely shattered the shell of the instrument right around the input jack. So even with a good solder job, we'd still have to find a way to keep the cable in the guitar.

Anyway, I went to my supply closet and got out a set of congas that haven't been used in at least 3 years. Our guitar player (I play drums) is very reluctant to play without a bass player, so he opted out for our Sunday night worship time. What happened was just an amazing, acoustic, unplugged type feel with me on acoustic and our bassist doing a pretty good job considering she'd never played a pair of congas before. Then by Wednesday night, our guitar player decided he wanted to join in the fun and he was playing a tambourine and a rainstick.

The change was nice, even though we didn't have a chance to rehearse the new format. I hope we can do it more in the future except under different circumstances. How has adversity, or unexpected change, forced you to be more flexible as a worship leader/band and what were the results?

Working With Youth Bands: Will the Audience Really Know the Difference?

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of playing bass with my friend Russell Martin as we led worship for a 6-th Grade mini-camp weekend. As Russell and I talked with our percussionist, Brooks, we began analyzing the ins and outs of playing technique, whether on guitar, bass, or percussion. Brooks played out a drum beat and noted how many drummers would play it "one way" (badoom boom crack ka-doom, etc.) but he would play it "this" (insert onomotopeia here) way. As we began to discuss this idea, we realized how we all have a tendency to overanalyze our playing, regardless of which instrument we are playing. Given, the Lord wants us to play to his glory, using the best of our ability and skill (Psalm 33:3). However, we can get caught up in the flashiness of our playing and then it's not about worship about all, but about showing off our chops.

The great thing about leading worship is that 9 times out of 10, the audience won't know the difference if we don't get our part exactly like some recording. Unless they are musicians who play as well or better than the members of your team, they will not care if you pick instead of strum, if you play 16th notes instead of 8th notes on the hi-hat, or if you slap a funky bass line instead of merely playing the root note of each chord. Now, subconsciously, they will be able to determine what sounds good or what doesn't, but as far as HOW you get to that point, very few people in the audience will be able to pinpoint that. Leading worship often is about taking a great song and making it fit the playing ability of your worship team, making it easy for the congregation to sing along, and still be true to the original song.

This concept came up in our praise team practice Sunday afternoon. Our bass player, who has been playing guitar actually longer than our guitar player, knew how to play a particular guitar riff on a new song. She wanted to play guitar on that song and then switch back to bass. However, I pointed out that most people (probably everyone in our youth group) wouldn't even know the riff was missing and switching instruments would only be a time-consuming distraction. Also, it was robbing our guitar player of a learning opportunity. Why should she switch instruments and play the riff when he could learn it from her and probably have it nailed in a week or two. It is good to be skillful, but if our best is just being able to play the basics well enough to get by, God is still honored in that. So, let us all keep building our chops, play to the best of our ability, but let us not get so caught up in flashy playing that we forget who and what we are playing for. In the words of Neil Young, "Keep on rockin' in the free world!"

The Way It Ought to Be

I remember my first Christian concert. It was 1987 at Reunion Arena in Dallas. We saw Twila Paris, and a couple of other people, but the headliner was Petra. We were on the floor...13th row if memory serves correctly right in front of a towering wall of speakers and I had no idea what to expect. They all came out in silver jumpsuits and big hair (it was the 80s, remember?) and blew our ears out much like Marty McFly at the beginning of Back to the Future. Ever since, I've been to dozens of Christian concerts both for my own enjoyment and as attempts to get my youth group plugged into music that wasn't mired down with messages of sensuality, physical perfection, and the "do whatever you want" mentality of our culture.


But somewhere in all the loud guitars, lights and sold out arenas there runs a danger of something getting lost. With all the T-shirts and shameless plugs for the upcoming album Christian music begins to look a lot like non-Christian music which in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But I've been to many shows where the artists didn't speak much or talk about what their relationship to God meant to them. At these shows, the band came out, sang and played for 2 hours, and we all went back to buy shirts and CDs on the way out. But last Saturday, Oct. 11, I experienced a breath of fresh air amidst all the tyranny of contemporary Christian music. I went to Christ United Methodist Church in College Station, TX to see Building 429 with opening acts After Edmund and Addison Road. The experience was as spiritually enlightening as it was pleasing to the ears.


We paid a modest price of $10 for our tickets and were in a church that seated about 1500 that was maybe 2/3 full. So there was plenty of room to get up by the stage and get very close to the performers. After Edmund had done a show the previous spring here in Palestine and our kids were so crazy about them...they are a great band and put on a great show. But when the guys in the band realized that our kids had been at the Palestine, their memories were jogged and they remembered them. It was so nice to see this band who was touring across the country to remember a bunch of jr. high kids from Palestine. Jason Roy, the lead singer of Building 429 served as emcee for the whole show. Many times the headliners stay tucked away until the big finale, but he wanted us to experience God's love and worship him at that concert. So the concert was about Christ, not about them. They also did a few worship songs that were not orignally written or performed by them to lead the congregation in worship. I wasn't really surprised, but yet, I wasn't expecting it either. I mean nobody is going to be able to go to the back table and find the Building 429 CD with the Matt Redman song on it--it doesn't exist. But their heart was for worship and community and I felt that superceded any agenda for record sales.


I realize that record sales are a small portion of what funds these cross-country behemoths as they go from town to town with huge trucks filled with lights and sound equipment and in order for them to do what God has called them to do, they have to make money. However, it's good to know that amidst all the bright lights, record sales, touring, merchandise, and everything else that bands are still doing the Lord's work by lifting people's spirits and leading them to the throne of God.
(Below, my youth group kids with members of After Edmund)

Youth Band: Leading Worship from a Drum Set

Recently, our youth worship band in our fairly small youth group suffered a tremendous loss when our drummer's family moved away. I played drums in a worship band in college so the natural transition was for me to move to drums. Although, I considered myself to be a better drummer than guitar player, it has been a difficult transition. I would like to share with you some of the obstacles and frustrations I've experienced. If anyone out there has any advice, please post a comment. I'm thinking of getting a drum machine, so if you've worked with those, maybe you can make a recommendation.

A drummer doesn't have a commanding presence over the rest of the band. Unless the band members are intent on watching you for cues it's difficult to have that nonverbal communication you have when standing up and playing guitar. With a guitar you can move around, bob your head, and even turn and show them your fingers on the fretboard. From a drumset, you are limited to really only being able to control the tempo and texture of the song.

It is difficult to interact with the audience/congregation from behind a drumset. In worship circles, we talk about the invisible wall between the stage and the audience. As a worship leader, that wall really gets bigger when the "leader" is at the back and tied to a chair.

Having a band leader on drums puts more pressure on the singers because there is no one standing up beside them singing with them. Although you may be singing from the drumset, they still feel isolated from you and can make younger singers more nervous.

Leading singing and playing drums can be challenging in itself. This may just depend on the person doing it, but certain instruments, like rhythm guitar, really lend themselves to accompanying singers. I find it easier, in fact, to sing from behind my guitar than without it (if it's a song I know). Drumming and singing don't always blend, especially if the drum rhythms are not right in sync with the vocal lines.

As I said earlier, I'm considereing getting a drum machine for our worship band and going back to guitar. What have your experiences been with drum machines? Is it a good thing, or is it too "canned" where the kids don't really connect? Also, would I be better served having another student learn to play djembe or cajon? My guitar player doesn't have an acoustic, so I don't think that would blend very well. What do you think?