After getting the basics down and then adding some instructions for the musicians, now you’re ready to do a little “advanced” chord charting (at least that’s what I consider it!). Why call it “advanced”? Well, anyone can do a chart as I did in my basic setup, but you actually have to understand time signatures and measures to do this. You do not need a degree in music theory, but you do need to understand a few basics of it.

I tried my hand at mapping out an entire chord chart with measure/beat indicators. Here’s how it came out. It looks a little overwhelming, doesn’t it? Yeh, and I’m not too happy with how the rest of the chart came out. Overall, though, any player could take this chord chart and just about play along with the song, even if they had never heard it before. All they would need is the rhythm pattern. Oh, and note at the bottom where there was actually a more syncopated chord progression going. I had to go over that part separately with the band, because to try and notate it within the chart would have made things much more complicated than they already were and more confusing than they really needed to be.

Also note how in the chart shared above how I’ve marked each individual (quater) beat of the measure as with a backslash, like this:

|G  /  /  /  |D  /  /  /  |C  /  /  /  |

But if the changes are just on the first of each measure, then an instrumental section might be better marked this way:

|G         |D       |C      |

That looks much cleaner and is just as easily understood: the chord change obviously happens on the first beat of each measure.

While it might be effective to map/chart out an entire chord chart with these measure markers, I’ve since drifted more towards a minimalist approach to indicating measures in chord charts. Here are my basic guidelines:

1. Instrumental sections should always have measure markings.
2. If the chord changes (for singing sections) are simple and straightforward and can be easily understood without measure markings, then I do not use them.
3. However, if there is any measure(s) which has an atypical chord change for the song which would best be clarified through indicating measures

You could sum up my thoughts thusly: “If you don’t need ‘em, don’t use ‘em!” (or “less is more”)

Okay, we’re almost to the end of this series on chord charting. To finish up, I’m going to go over a few pointers on making chord charts as effective as possible.

So you’ve got a basic chord chart down, with all the chords on it. But a song chords do not make. There must be dynamics! Instruments must enter and exit, they must lead and paint the background of the song. And the vocalists sometimes must sing in unison, sometimes in parts, and sometimes only one or two should sing. (hint, if you’re not doing these things with your team then you really should start!). But how do they know when to do these things?

In short: you tell them!

Actually, you can do better than that. You can notate it in your chord chart. Of course, note that if you begin including notes for the musicians (singers and instrumentalists) in your chord charts, they will more often than not run into the two page range of length. Which is fine, at least in most scenarios (and in my experience).

Here’s an example to check out. As a side note, did you catch the what was not on that chord sheet that was supposed to be? Copyright/License information. Yep, this was a chord sheet emailed to me (I won’t say from who… . Suffice it to say they have since changed their ways – but do not make the same mistake. including that information covers the legality (through your church’s CCLI license) to distribute copies of the music of a song.

Okay, back to the task at hand. Did you note how there were, in blue, notes on when certain instruments entered? This is a song that builds, but you can also include a note such as “no piano”, or “no electric/acoustic guitar” as well. You will have to draw attention to these specific notes on entrances and exits for your band, but as they get used to having the notes they will begin looking for where you have them in and out.

Here’s a short list of “commands” you can use  - you don’t have to use these or just these. As long as your team understands what you intend is the key.

• Full Band – this means all band members in, playing their respective parts at the strongest dynamic
• Break – an instrumental break where all instrumentalists mute their instruments
• Piano only – piano is the only instrument playing
• add Bass – a common phrase to indicate the entrance of the Bass into the song
• Vocals melody – all vocalists on the melody line
• Vocals parts – all vocalists on their respective parts (however they have been divided up for the song)

The key to understand is that you can notate within your chord chart when you want specific instruments and singers. This serves two purposes: first, to help you remember how you decided you wanted the song to be arranged; second, to cut down on questions in practice on entrances and exits. Always be open to suggestions and input from your team, but having a plan already in place for a song cuts down on you having to make a call on the spot about something you should have already figured out.

Next up, indicating measures and providing more specific information on chord changes to your team in the chord chart: Part 3!

So you need to create a chord chart, huh? Well, lets dive in and see what that involves. The first thing to do is to check and see if you can find the chords online. And no, I do not mean to hit guitar tab sites (those should definitely be a last resort). Check the artist or group’s website first to see if they have copies of the tab or chord charts for their music. Here are a few I’ve found:

• Sovereign Grace Music – in their online store they have a section for the sheet music where you can download lyric and lead sheets for all the albums (at least the ones I looked at) and even guitar charts for a few. Note that Lead sheets use a music staff with chords on top to show the lead melody line with chord changes.
• Shane and Shane – Shane Barnard (of Shane & Shane) has a site where he has tabs and lyrics of most of their songs.
• Red Mountain Music – they offer lead and guitar sheets for all their music.

So, last resort, if you can’t find music on the particular group/artist’s site for the specific song you need to create a chart for, you can hit the guitar tab sites. Always – ALWAYS! – check the chords yourself. Make sure they are right and you understand how they work in the song. You are responsible for the chord chart you give your team, so make sure you make it as simple and clear as possible. Some charts list moving or transitional chords along with the primary chords of the song – figure out if/how you want to differentiate these, and if your team will even need them. If you’re not going to use them, then don’t put them on the chord sheet you give your team.

And if you haven’t noticed yet, I definitely believe in creating a specific chart for your team, whether or not you can find an official one or not. A little extra work up front yields a chart created specifically with your team in mind. This is a very good thing.

Alrighty, check out this example of a basic chord chart. Consider this your baseline model – it has been stripped of all extraneous items and is just a chord chart.

So here are the basic elements of a chord chart, top to bottom:

• Song title
• song lyrics and chords
• copyright and CCLI info for legal purposes

Yep, pretty simple. If your church has a CCLI license (and they should, no argument), then you can get all the copyright and license info you need from them – in fact, they have a huge database of song lyrics as well. You can download the lyrics and the copyright/license info (specific for your church) from their site and just paste it in a document file – it saves a lot of work! Then all you have to do is format it.

Note in the main portion of the chart, where the lyrics and chords are, how the chords are written (approximately) over top of the words where the changes happen. This is the most simple way of conveying to the band where the changes are – it syncs them up with the singers. There are fancier ways of conveying chord changes which better indicate meter and timing, but that’s another post.

As far as format goes, the sky is the limit, but simplicity is key. This chart is one I created about five or six years ago. The church I minister in now uses a different format. The song title is still at the top, but the copyright/license info is right under the title. Actually, both the Title and copyright/license info is in the page header, so it shows up on multiple pages if the chart extends past the first page. I would suggest including a “page X of Y” section on any header/footer with information so that players can differentiate easily between first and second pages.

This type of chart means that you either have to teach the team the chord changes and rhythms or have them listen and pick it up themselves – which is perfectly acceptable. The sheet serves more as a reminder of how the song goes than a music sheet which tells them how to play.

Okay, after understanding this very basic format of the chord chart you can begin to add other elements, like vocal direction, instrumental entrances and exits, repetition instruction, chord changes, etc. That’ll be coming in my next post!

The Catalyst Music Project is an awesome little album, at least in my mind. The songs are very solid. I think after listening to it I could think of very valid scenarios in which the songs would be relevant and useful, at least as offertory/specials, if not as a song to teach the entire congregation for corporate worship.

In reading the info on their website (and I would suggest that!) they reference this as the “2009 Catalyst Music Project,” which, in my mind, indicates that they will most likely release more albums along the same line. I certainly hope so, because this was a very solid worship album. If their next few albums are as strong as this one the Catalyst Music Projects will begin to line up with Hillsong and Passion CDs on worship leaders shelves all over the the world (okay, my personal opinion…)

Overall the theology seems very solid and the lyrics are very biblical. You need to be sensitive to the specific congregation you serve in to make sure any particular song is relevant to that body and will benefit/bless/challenge them. That said, I’m going to just quickly note a few of the songs and why I liked them (links are to grooveshark.come where you can listen to the individual songs):

Love is the Answer – This is a great opener for an album, and in hearing it I thought about how great it would be to open a service with it. And if it hits it off with your congregation, lyrically, it is also a very solid congregational song. It’s definitely a rockier song (read: electric guitar!) so be mindful of how well your body will respond to a song so wide open (Youth Groups? Absolutely! Contemporary services? Probably… Traditional Service? Not very likely…).

One Who Overcomes – I just love Phil Wickham, and he did an awesome job on this song. It definitely is going on my short list of potential openers and specials. And it would also be great for congregational singing as well. I personally would love to introduce it as part of a series to emphasize a theme of Christ’s overcoming power. Good, good song.

Hallelujah (All I Need) - This is just a great song. I love the lyrics, the line “Christ has come to win” is just awesome. I’m actually going to use this as the opener for a service I’ll be leading next month. And I could see this being used in congregational worship as well.

God of All - This song is another one I really love the lyrics to as well. But, as much as I like the song, I think there are a few things, dynamically, I would change. I’m thinking of using this song as well that service I’ll be leading next month and if I do, then I’m going to do two primary things: first, I’m going to do the first chorus with just acoustic (or maybe electric guitar, I haven’t decided yet…gonna have to test it out with the band), and second, I want to repeat the bridge, building on the quarter notes the second time through. Those lyrics are so awesome I hate to sing them just once…

Won’t You Be My Love – This song was the little jewel hidden in the album. I’m keeping my finger on this song for any service with a missional (or even serving) emphasis. It would not be appropriate for congregational worship (at least in my mind due to the fact that it is sung from the perspective of Christ to the church up until the end). But, wow, what an awesome way to set the tone for a service on serving one’s neighbors or the need to carry the Gospel to the unsaved.

I had an excellent discussion after my last post with a good friend of mine at work. He very wisely perceived one of the implications of what I was arguing for in the post. If a service is to have a focus, which is known far enough beforehand so that everyone involved in the service can plan their portions appropriately, then that plan must be arrived at much earlier than the week of the service. The question arose about whether or not you can be Spirit-led and plan out services weeks and months in advance.

My friend quickly agreed with me that the Spirit could undoubtedly inspire and lead planning, no matter how long in advance it was done. But his reaction evidenced a primary difference I have seen many times between Charismatic/Pentecostal churches and their preparation process and that of other more reserved worship practices, say the Baptists for example. It’s not that Charismatic or Pentecostals do not believe the Spirit can lead them in planning out three months of sermons ahead of time, but rather that they (commonly) conceive of the Spirit’s leading to be more immediate, more “in the moment”.

I would never disparage that perception, but I would challenge it’s scope. I grew up in and lead worship for years within that atmosphere. But it has its limits. You might have noted in my brief list of Chris Tomlin quotes how he stated, “Those who are most prepared are the most led by the Spirit of God.” This is key, in my mind. Planning out a service does not limit the Spirit, at least if it is done with much prayer and true desire for God to be worshiped and encountered as well as the Body to be ministered to.

I have actually found that in services which have been planned rather thoroughly (albeit with much prayer!) that I actually feel very, very free. Why? Since my preparation has been so thorough I am able to focus more on worshiping and leading in worship than I am on what is going on and what might happen next. But even in that the Spirit leads the service, not me (or the Worship Leader). I must still be sensitive to the Spirit and mindful of the congregation. Sometimes a chorus needs to be repeated an extra time, or the congregation needs a little extra exhortation, or there just needs to be a moment of silence between songs, to all the Spirit time to work on the hearts of the people.

My main point in this post is to encourage you not to fear planning ahead. I’m not talking a week in advance, I’m talking weeks and even months in advance. It frees a pastor to be able to dedicate an entire week to developing a message to minister to the Body instead of the last few days of the week. And it offers the Worship Leader the opportunity to have more time to find those songs which will “perfectly” serve and minister to the Body.

When you seek the Lord and truthfully desire and seek his guidance you can proceed with the confidence that he will lead and guide you, whether or not there is writing on the wall or a voice coming from the air. His desire is to use you, and in being willing and available you will surely walk the path he has set for you.

When a church decides it’s service is going to be traditional or contemporary, they unnecessarily box themselves in stylistically. I’ve already commented on the dangers of churches creating separate traditional and contemporary services, so what’s my perspective on this very pressing issue in the church? My answer is simple, really: focus.

That’s it. Focus.

But what does that mean? Well, I’d liken it to some level of purpose-driven worship, but that would be a misnomer in the end, because its less an emphasis upon the purpose of the service and more a focus upon God and what he wants to accomplish in the hearts of the people.

Consider this over-generalization of the elements of a traditional service:

• A choir with a leader (who doesn’t necessarily sing)
• Simple instrumentation – usually organ or piano, rarely a mix thereof
• traditionally led from hymn book, though could be done with lyric display now
• large majority of songs would have been found in a hymn book from 30-40 years ago
• Songs generally have minimal dynamics, with the emphasis being upon singing a specific set of words (verses 1, 2 and 4 – for example)
• high emphasis upon respect and honor (very low on emotionalism and experience)

Yeh, I know that’s a very stereo-typed list. Check out my version of the stereotyped elements of a contemporary service:

• Band-driven – i.e. drums, guitar(s), 1-8 vocalists, and other instruments, sometimes including piano/keys
• most songs sung are less than 15 years old
• songs (if played correctly) have a strong dynamic elements
• emphasis in service upon experience and an encouragement to engage emotions
• more informal atmosphere

There is also the Emergent worship movement, but I consider that a mutated variation of the contemporary service. It’s primary emphasis is upon the experience, and it merges very modern concepts of art with a blending of more liturgical styles with contemporary practices.

In the end, most modern-day takes on the worship service tend towards a purpose-driven model. But the fault here is that the purpose-driven model seeks to bring something about – it has something to accomplish. What I am proposing here is less trying to do something more trying to perceive something. Trying to perceive what, though? To perceive Christ, to perceive the Gospel.

The question to ask when preparing a service is not “What do we want to accomplish in this service?” but rather, “What does God want to say to us – to show us through his Word – in this service?” That is your FOCUS.

Once you know what the Focus of the service is, then you choose songs, as well as styles which complement and reinforce it, which help the congregation contemplate upon it. There are always solid hymns which explore these themes, but the use of them should always be equally evaluated alongside many modern songs/hymns which will also complement and/or reinforce the Focus of the service.

If the Focus is best served by a Gospel song, then use it. If the Focus would best be served by a quieter, simpler set, consider just using an acoustic guitar or two with a djembe (or two!). Maybe you really just need two singers for that set as well.

But maybe the Focus calls for something bigger, and you need to pull out all the stops. Call in that violinist you keep on speed-dial for special occasions. Round up a few extra singers. Make sure you have at least two electric guitarists as well as the acoustic. And challenge the keyboardist with songs that’ll have him/her stretching between two keyboards!

Just realize that hymns are songs just as praise choruses are. Some are more theologically correct than others – but each of them says something and explores something about God and his Gospel. Do not choose a song because it is a hymn or because the congregation likes it. Choose it because the congregation will best be served by singing that song on that day, when the preacher is going to be teaching about that specific topic/passage.

This way, when the service begins, it’s not about ‘doing’ church, it’s about knowing Christ – knowing him within the context of the local body worshiping together. And it’s about focusing on him and what he wants to speak within that body on that day.

I’ve been reading Chris Tomlin’s “Way I Was Made” and he had an excellent chapter on worship leading. You can check out my review of his book, if you so desire. But today I thought I would unashamedly offer up some great quotes which are definitely not my own:

“Being a worship leader means I deeply desire to use the gifts God has given me to lead others in a meaningful response to Him.” (p. 108)

“The worship leader God is after is the one whose heart is captured by Him.” (p. 116)

“Those who are most prepared are the most led by the Spirit of God.” (p. 121) – on why it’s good to plan out services as opposed to playing it by ear.

“New songs breathe life into your ministry.” (p. 126)

The beautiful and wonderful part about teaching exegetically through the Bible is that it forces teachers/pastors to work through and engage more difficult passages. To me, at least, there is almost an exciting challenge to it (when I’m teaching) – how can I open this passage to the body so they really understand and see what the writer and the Spirit are saying through it?

But as a worship leader, in designing services, themes work much, much more easily for us. And if it’s going to be a passage, ones like 1 Corinthians 13 or Ephesians 1:3-14 are near perfect – very straightforward with strong themes to draw upon when making song choices.

But what do you do when the passage is, well, just not so straightforward or thematic?

I was handed a service recently with Galatians 4:12-20 as the passage which the pastor would be teaching from. Verse 20 ends with “…for I am perplexed by you.” (ESV) What does a worship leader do with a passage like this?

Well, I’m going to let you stew over it for a week or so (as ::cough:: I am as well…). Here’s a couple of clues, though:

• context is very important (context of the book, the passage in relation to the rest of the book, the book and passage in relation to the New Testament as well as the rest of the Bible)
• The thematic movement you use for the service you develop will not directly mimic the theme or direction of the passage – remember, you are setting the stage for the exploration of this passage.

That’s all I’m going to give you for now – I’ll break down how I am addressing and working with this passage next week!

“I don’t see why the praise team needs to practice during the week. Before you came they only practiced before the Sunday Morning service and it was okay. Do they really need to practice during the week?” It was my pastor (at the time) asking me this (well, an approximation thereof). My response? Well, to tell the truth, I was speechless. Flabergasted. This was an issue I had never even considered coming up. And when the question was asked, I sadly fumbled through an answer which should not have been hard at all.

So, should a praise team practice during the week? Absolutely. Point blank, end of story.

But why? Ah, there’s the rub, isn’t it? If your musicians are good enough to wing it, why can’t you just skip the mid-week practice and just have everyone show up early on Sunday morning? (note, in this latter argument, I find less fault in the argument and more in the motivation behind it)

First, though, let me delineate the difference between a small, growing church wherein the praise team is less a “team” and more a single leader with one or two (or even three) followers. Having a single leader who is accompanied by one person on drums and maybe a single vocalist is much different than a full team consisting of 4+ instrumentalists as well as vocalists. When you are a single leader who has a few “helpers” in the wings, all you have to do is make sure you have all your ducks in a row beforehand and you can usually “get away” without a midweek practice. Yet still, note that there is practice happening – it’s just you doing it by yourself, because you consist of a majority of the band (and also realize that when you do things this way you are relegating anyone who helps you to a secondary role which emphasizes unimportance and very minor involvement/ownership).

So practice happens in virtually every situation because wherever there is any level of preparation that preparation (at least in my mind, no matter how inconsequential) is practice. If you do not want your team to develop much beyond a single or dual instrument setup you can probably “get by” with this type of preparation. But if your motivation is to find some level of preparation you can “get by” with, then my response is that you shouldn’t be in the worship ministry in the first place, specifically in its leadership.

Here is why a mid-week practice is – in my mind, at least – an unarguable fact of reality: preparation to minister effectively, excellently and without distraction is an integral part of serving the local body. In a more commonsense approach, a musician must practice. Without practice there is stagnation. The same applies to a band or a team of players. They need time playing together to learn to play together.

(Warning: rabbit trail and soapbox to follow:)

Now, if you have the same team you’ve had for the last 10 years, and are playing the same 100 or so songs you’ve always played, then you might feel like you could cut that mid-week practice out and not lose much at all. Well, I would say you’ve already lost so much it probably wouldn’t matter. Why? If there has been no change in your team, then there has been no development of new talent and there has been no integration of new members and talent to the local body. Your team is closed. Is Christ closed? Is the Church closed?

And if you are using the same songs you’ve used for for the last five or ten years, then there is theological stagnation at work as well. Why do worship leaders seek out new songs? To find a new way to manipulate the congregations emotions? Well, there may be some who do so – which is sad as well as disastrous for the body. But the real motivation is to find/discover new ways of articulating the Gospel in theologically sound ways, so the local body is challenged to contemplate, consider and apply the Gospel continually, sometimes in differing ways.

And to introduce new material, there must be practice.

Finally, for your team to effectively eliminate distractions during the service there must be practice.

In short, the mid-week practice is an integral part of the worship team’s service of the local church body.

The last post on perfecting your praise team practice focused more on general organization and planning. Basically how you approach the practices and what you hope to accomplish. Now we’re going to focus more on getting (almost) everything accomplished in the time you have available for practice.

2 Hour Perfection

So how long should a practice be? I have noticed that while experienced musicians are fine for a full two hours of practice, less experienced ones tend to start to drift and lose momentum around the 90 minute mark. Personally, I like to aim for the two hour mark, planning things out so that I have a chance (however slight) that I will finish early, but realistically aiming for no more than 120 minutes. The team I am on right now actually has practices which err on the other side of 120 minutes, usually hitting the 130-40 mark. But our team only plays every other week and and practices once for that service, so one 2.5 hour practice every other week is more tolerable in our situation.

I would argue that in a team that practices every week, the leader should strive to never exceed the two hour mark. You must guard your people against burnout!

Simple Trick for High Spirits

One of the hardest things to do is manage your practice so that it doesn’t feel ‘grinding’. Like you’re just plowing through material and doing the best you can (though, in effect, that is sometimes what you are doing…). A very simple way to help with keeping the attitude up and the ‘grinding’-mindset down is to use familiar songs to offset more difficult ones.

This can be done very easily, the only drawback is that to do this the team will have to practice stuff out of the order it will be done in the service (usually). Clear communication usually keeps that from being a major obstacle. Look over the list of material to be covered in practice and pick out the song the team should know the best, the one you should really spend the least amount of time on. Start with this song! This will give you the opportunity to set a positive attitude for the rest of the practice and encourage your team about how great they are.

A related trick is to save songs which use only one or two instruments (usually guitar or piano) or less vocalists until the end, so some of the team gets to go home ‘early’. If your time management is on task, then the people who are involved in the song should still be leaving about the time they expected, while everyone else gets a nice little surprise of being able to leave early.

Time Management – Figure out how much time you have for each song!

This is key to finishing within the time frame you want to. Unless your instrumentalists are disciplined  in getting to practice early, you need to set aside at least 15-20 minutes at the beginning of practice just for instrument setup, sound check, and prayer. As a side note, I would suggest leaving the prayer until you are ready to start (right before the sound check).

So if you are aiming for a 120 minute practice, and you have 7 songs to go over (in 105 minutes!) that leaves you roughly 15 minutes for each song. Keep an eye on the clock as you practice. Assuming practice starts at 7pm, then around 8pm you should be finishing your third song or starting your fourth one. If you’re still on your second song then you need to stop and move on. Period. If the song needs more work tell your team that they are going to have to work on the trouble spots on their own. If the song is still exceptionally horrible you can start with that song in the pre-service practice the day of the service to iron out any lingering problems.

What must be understood is that you cannot make every song perfect. You need to fix problems, but if its something someone can work out on their own, it is okay to tell them they need to do so for the sake of practice time management.

Bits and pieces do not a quick practice make

This sounds a little counter-intuitive to many musicians but you should run the songs all the way through unless something catastrophic happens. This was a hard lesson for me to swallow, because – being a classically trained pianist – I have spent 30 minutes working on a four or five measure phrase. But you can’t do that with your team (though you can suggest they do so on their own). Any decent musician realizes when they are doing things wrong. Going completely through the song once gives them a chance to figure out what they are doing wrong on their own. Give them a chance to ask questions. If the questions do not address all the issues you noted in the run-through, then quickly and efficiently go over what needs to happen in the trouble spots. Then play the song through again.

Most songs will take at least two or three runs to get right – which is fine. Most songs you can run through three times in about 15 minutes, if you don’t dally around in between runs. Sometimes there are specific spots which should be focused on separately (like the primary crescendo of a song, or the transition into the instrumental and then the instrumental section itself), and this is fine, just be very efficient.

This is how starting with an easier song can help some as well. If you only spend 10 minutes on the first song, then you have 5 extra minutes for the second song or another song later on. Some songs need 20-25 minutes worth of work done on them – just pace yourself well with your other songs so the practice doesn’t ‘accidentally’ slip past the 2.5 hour mark (a definite ‘no-no’).

Realistic Standards and Expectations

In the end, it boils down to understanding that things will not be perfect. With time and experience every leader develops his own rhythm for practicing and “getting things done.” Some teams require different methods – these are just ones I have found to work in most every environment I’ve lead in.

That said, always remember the old adage, “Less is more”. In the end, if something is not working to the point that it most likely will be distracting in the service, consider cutting it out or simplifying it. You are not required to perfectly replicate a song, you are required to enable and empower your congregation to worship God.

Know that most songs will never be perfect, and some will be done much better than others. Just make sure that you push the team to an acceptable point in practice and then direct them on the portions to work out on their own before the service (if it’s exceptionally rough around the edges).

You can have an effective practice within the 120 minute time limit, you just have to be practical and disciplined.