Okay, I apologize. The “Perfect Praise Team Practice” title might be a little exaggerated - I’m not sure what I’m going to discuss in this and the next post will help your practice be perfect, but it should help it get much closer.

Goals

So what makes one practice better than another? I would suggest three elements: quality, efficiency and quantity. Let’s look at those in reverse order.

• Quantity – you want to cover everything that needs to be covered
• Efficiency – you want to use your time wisely so that in covering all your material your practices do not run much past the 2 hour mark
• Quality – in the time spent on what you need to go over you want to get the material to be as excellent as possible

Of course, there may be other things which are also important to accomplish in a practice, but these stick out to me as the most important. I am going to spend an entire post on streamlining your time management in practice, so I won’t really cover that in this post. But before we get to that point, there are some more general points of planning that need to be addressed.

Material to be covered

As I have experienced there are two types of practices. I would venture to call them “long-term” and “short-term”. As opposed to other types of musical practicing, in the Praise and Worship arena, both types are almost equally relevant and effective. Both also have their pros and cons. Which type you choose depends on the way you have your team(s) organized and how talented your people are.

Long-Term oriented practices

These practices spend at least the first 45-60 minutes on new material. The general concept treats your praise team members as a single band. This works if you have a very consistent team (you use the same people almost every week). With this type of practice session, team members are expected to be at every practice because this is where they will learn new material. The primary drawback to this type of practice is that it leaves a little over 10 minutes for each song that needs to be gone over for the upcoming service (figuring roughly 5-7 songs in that service).

But the positive of this type of practice (which I did for several years at my last church) is that less skilled musicians are given more time to learn and practice new material (I would start introducing them to new material a month before we played it, sometimes more).

Short-Term oriented practices

For these practices the entire time is spent on material for the upcoming service. The positive point is that you have more time to spend on each individual song. Another positive is that this type of practice is great for large teams where there are many different musicians (I consider vocalists musicians as well) rotating or multiple teams. If the Worship Leader/Pastor can plan several weeks ahead as far as his music is concerned he can get a songlist and even listening material to his teams a week or so before a particular service’s practice so they have plenty of time to prepare. With disciplined musicians and a bit of planning on the Worship Leader/Pastor’s part this is an excellent way to structure practices because you can introduce and do much more new material.

The primary drawback is that the musicians need to have a decent level of personal motivation (to prepare at least some on their own). And it seems to work much more smoothly if there is a higher level of musicianship on the team (talent+training+discipline). Though there is time for a bit of tweaking, this scenario does not give you a chance to teach each musician their part individually – they have to prepare it beforehand (to some extent, or be able to generate it on the spot!).

So, while it is called “short-term” it takes a bit of long-term planning on the part of the Worship Leader/Pastor so he can get the materials in the hands of his people a decent amount of time beforehand. I would suggest using a blog or even (if your budget can afford it) a subscription-based service such as The Planning Center Online to help with this.

Preparing the Material for Practice

Once you have figured out how the general structure of your practice is going to be, you need to prepare all your materials and get your brain in gear so you know what’s going on in each song. For new songs, I’ve blogged about how to go about learning them and then teaching them to your team (Learning a New Song Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). For other material which the team should know already, make sure the day of the practice you go over the entire service, planning how each song fits into it and the transitions between each. The more you figure out ahead of time the less you have to make up on the spot (and admit it – you do it, I do it, we all fly by the seat of our pants when we don’t plan well…). If you can, check over your chord charts to make sure the chords and keys are. The best way to do this is play through the songs according to the chord charts on guitar or piano.

Coming up next!

Next time I’ll go over these points as well as a few others:

• Time Management – how to get through those songs effectively in 90-120 minutes…hopefully…
• Why 90-120 minutes is the perfect practice length (at least in my mind)
• The simplest trick/technique to keeping your team’s spirits up while you work them hard

“How He Loves” is probably one of my newest favorite songs. It is written by John Mark McMillan, but I think it is being made much more popular by the David Crowder Band, in both their “Church Music” album as well as Passion’s latest, “Awakening.” In checking on Grooveshark.com, I found even more people who had covered the song. I put a few in a playlist if you haven’t heard the song before, and here’s a copy of the lyrics (pdf).

The song has a pretty interesting story behind it, and if you heard John’s recording off his “The Song Inside the Sounds of Breaking Down” album, then you may have gotten a glimpse of it by what he finishes the song with. I think Integrity Music snagged this incredible musician up, and they’ve released a single of the song on iTunes, and while the song costs $.99, if you’re willing to fork over another $.30 they’ll graciously include a five minute video about the song. Personally, I thought it was worth the extra cash. The arrangement in the single is pretty cool, and the video was very insightful. John wrote the song as he was working through the grief of losing a very close friend. I like where he talks about how the song is not about pretty love, but how God loves us when we are at our messiest. It sounded as though the song had come out of his realization of the anger and plain old sin in his heart which were coming out in his grief (anger, frustration, etc.) at losing his friend. And then he realized that God loved him in spite of that.

What I love about the song is how it never justifies sin, or excuses it, but the emphasis in the song is upon losing one’s self in the love of God, a love that is glorious and gracious, and in beholding it we lose sight of (and our grip upon) our regrets and afflictions. The song really does focus upon God and his love.

The Structure

The song is pretty simple, structure-wise. There are a few variations between different recordings. In his “The Song Inside…” album, John does a Verse 1 -> Pre-Chorus twice before going into the full-blown chorus, as does the David Crowder Band in “Church Music”. But in the single he recently released through Integrity, John only does his Verse 1 and Pre-Chorus once before hitting the Chorus. I’m not so sure I like the latter option – it builds too quickly. In the single he starts dynamically much stronger, and I think it sounds so much nicer to start with just acoustic (as in “The Sound Inside…”) or even as Jared Anderson does in his version (of course I love starting on the piano…I’m a pianist!). But, then again, on the single John also throws in a pretty fun “Who-o-o-ah!” section at the end of his arrangement for the single.

The Dynamics

This is a song which is closely tied to its dynamics – if you can not get the contrast of quiet, build, and all-out working, the song is almost not worth it. However you structure it, the climax of the build is the chorus, you want it to explode dynamically on the first words of the chorus. If you are going to do the first verse and pre-chorus twice before going into the chorus, then you definitely need to start on a single instrument (be it guitar or piano).

A neat example of the way dynamics can shape the song differently is to compare how the David Crowder Band handles the second verse versus how John handles it. DCB makes it into a bridge of sorts, actually dynamically making that the climax of the song (which could have some pretty neat theological emphasis as well), while John always treats the second verse as the first until the last two lines, starting with “I don’t have time…” where the band begins pounding on the eighth-note – which is so much fun to play!

Instrumentation

This is an excellent song for a minimal band as well as a full-blown one. You can pretty much pull it off on acoustic guitar by itself (and probably piano, though I haven’t played around with creating an arrangement yet). But if you can at least have a guitar, bass and drums you can really draw out the dynamics. Of course, having an electric guitar on rhythm to fill out the arrangement wouldn’t hurt, and another to nail that lead line would be gravy, right?

Speaking of the lead line, we’ve done it at our church with a violin taking it. Beautiful, simply beautiful. It’s one of those lines which you could give to just about any instrument, especially woodwinds or strings. A Cello would probably give the line a little darker tone than the violin had. A clarinet would be different, and probably also add a dark tone with a touch of wistfulness. A Saxophone would probably contrast the tone of the elctric guitars nicely. But I’m not sure how a brass instrument (trumpet, French horn, trombone) would work with the line – though if you have one, I’d say give a whirl and let me know how it works!

As far as piano/keys, this song really lends itself to a deep, strong pad. I will admit, though, whenever I play the song I always switch over to our B3 organ for the build in the second verse and just jam out there until the end of the song. That adds a nice change in dynamic as well, if you have a good b3 sound in your keys (or are fortunate enough, as we are, to have someone who lets us use his B3!).

Special Issue: Lyric adaptation

This came as a little surprise to me. One of my favorite lines is “And Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss.” DCB changed the lyrics to “And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,” which is close, but not the same. Our [very wise] Worship Pastor chose to use DCB’s version. His decision was guided on the difference between performance and worship. As a special or offertory, he pointed out, the phrase would be perfectly fine. But during worship the language is a little crass, to be honest. And while the congregation would probably get used to it very quickly, any visitor would be distracted by the words. This logic seems to line up very strongly with Paul’s discussion on order in worship in 1 Cor 14. Something to consider as you teach your team and congregation the song.

So you’ve found a group of really talented musicians for your praise team. Or maybe they are just solid and dependable. Or, as is often the case, you have a few really talented individuals, a few that are barely holding their own, and then a few others who you really have to work with so they keep up. Whatever the case may be, in many churches there is a pressure to present a “professional” front to the congregation on Sunday morning. Is this necessary? Is it Biblical?

Well, first, Biblically speaking, in the Old Testament the priests had many, many regulations concerning their dress and appearance in offering sacrifices. Fortunately for us, under the new covenant we are no longer under the Law. Our acceptance before God is conditioned on Christ’s sacrifice – our dress or appearance has nothing to do with the acceptability of our worship. Even in Revelation, while there is description of the beings worshiping around the throne, the description of them is a vehicle for the Apostle John to describe the worthiness of God for worship, the emphasis being that even creatures this magnificent worship God with all their being.

Paul talks about church services being conducted “decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40, NASB). And when Paul speaks about appearance, the driving force behind his arguments about specific types of dress is that those in the church should not dress in ways that identify them with people (or types of people) who are rebelling against God (idolaters and prostitutes, specifically).

But where does that leave you and your team? Should they be required to wear a solid colored shirt, black slacks, and (for the guys) a solid colored tie? Or should they just dress as they please? But won’t that look sloppy?

First, let me ask you where the pressure to look very professional is coming from. Is your pastor displeased with the way the team is looking on Sunday mornings? Or are there individuals in the congregation who are continually griping about the way things look on the stage? Or, rather, is it just that you wished the praise team looked more like a band and less like a bunch of “joes” off the street?

Regarding the first two pressures (Pastor or congregation), or even some variation thereof, I would challenge you to consider two things. First, make sure you and your Pastor are on the same page when it comes to the dress code for the team. Your Pastor is the primary safeguard for the mission and vision of your church, and if the two of you are not together on this issue, then it will always be a point of conflict (hint: even if you don’t agree with him, pray about it and I’m sure God will lead you in the direction of submitting to your Pastor’s direction).

Second, there will always be gripers in the congregation. Especially if you’re moving from a more traditional type of setup to a more contemporary, band-style worship service. That doesn’t mean you ignore them, it just means that you take their complaints critiques with a grain of salt. If it is just a few people who are complaining, but who also complain about a lot of other things, the issue might be more than just the appearance of the team, and I would highly doubt that you color coordinating the team would all of a sudden make them perfectly happy.

If you are just wishing the team looked better on stage, let me ask you why. Why does the praise team need to look like a professional group of musicians (whether they are or not)? Personally, I think God, within the revelation of scripture, has given us a lot of “wiggle room” in regards to this issue. Here is how I approach this issue:

My team members are first and foremost brothers (and sisters) in Christ. They are gifted individuals who serve the church through leading worship instrumentally and vocally. But the strength of their leadership in worship lies less in their individual talents and/or abilities musically and primarily in their personal relationship with Christ. In the end, there is nothing “special” about them that sets them apart from any other individual of the congregation – we are all sinners saved by grace. Our function on stage is to enable the congregation to worship God (and not really to notice us).

So, my first reaction to this clothing issue is to teach and encourage the praise team in their role as “distraction eliminators”. They should minimize distractions musically – that is why we practice. But we should also minimize distractions visually as well. Women should attempt to avoid clothes that would overly distract men (so I would encourage against short skirts, low-cut blouses – basically any overly revealing clothes), and men should be as conscious of their dress as well (I would avoid clothing with distracting slogans or artwork, wife-beaters, etc.).

But if my drummer wants to wear a t-shirt and my electric guitarist likes sandals, that’s cool with me. Maybe one of my female vocalists prefers to wear jeans while another always wears a dress to church – that’s fine as well. I like the thought of not being able to tell who’s a musician in the congregation until they pick up their instrument (or mike to sing into).

However you decide to play it (loose or tightly regimented) I would suggest talking it over with your Pastor and make sure you both are on the same page. And at least work through the motivations I touched on above – at least engaging with them will challenge you to think through why you are doing what you’re doing in regards to dress for your praise team.

I had a wonderful time today on Mother’s Day worshiping with my parents at their church. After the opening song by the band, a man stepped up on stage and said he wanted to share with us Colossians 3. Which he proceeded to do – from memory! My mom remarked to me that this gentleman has the rather admirable practice of memorizing large portions of scripture, which he shares with the congregation every month or so.

As a side note, I want to note that the way the man presented himself and the literal Word that he was bringing was not in the attitude of a superior, “Look what I’ve done” attitude. You could tell that he was sharing the Word of God with the Body to bless it.

The more I learn about the New Testament, specifically the many epistles, the more I appreciate the oratorical element to how many of them were written. The authors were aware that their letters were going to be read out loud, at least to a specific congregation, if not to many. So the way this gentleman was bringing the Word to the congregation was very much in line with how it was brought to the local bodies nearly 2,000 years ago.

It seems to me that our people all too often are fed bits and pieces of the Word. Yet the Bible was never meant to be digested one sentence at a time, each separated from all the others. I think it is essential for our people to be regularly presented with (i.e. read aloud) larger portions of scripture. Multiple paragraphs and even entire chapter(s).

If you have people (specifically those talented in the dramatic arts) who can memorize, or at least dramatically read, these larger portions of scriptures it can be a wonderful way of helping bring these words which date back nearly two thousand years alive once more. Your people need to be continually brought face to face with the Word itself, and utilizing the talents and/or abilities which lay in your people is a way in which you can do this and at the same time encourage and empower the members of your congregation to serve and minister to the Body.