where can I start with worship service?

[Jake520520]

Hello all, I need some insight on where to start my churches worship service. But first I'll give you a background on me and our church.

I grew up in different churches but recently found my church home. My wife and I have been going to this church for about a year. ( I work with my pastor ) its a very small church that used to be an old school house. When everyone is there we have about 20 people and the worship service could be improved. I think with the power of God I could help.

Currently nobody plays any instruments and we just sing out of old hymnals and we usually sing about 3 songs every Sunday. Im not complaining about the church but I think an instrument would help and make things more fun for everyone.

I am 21 years old and I have played guitar since I was about 14. I know basic stuff like chords and scales but minimal lead guitar work. As far as reading music it takes me a while. I mostly play off of tabs and don't know very many gospel songs. I would consider myself a pretty good guitarist when it came down to chords and rhythm.

I would just like to know from some other worship leaders where I could get started? Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks in advance fellow desciples

 

[Dave-W]

A few questions:

How tied to traditional hymns is the congregation? The pastor?
Have you talked to the pastor about changing the service?
Is there a board that needs to approve changes?

As to your skill as a guitarist - if you are looking to improve, here is a resource that I have found very useful. It is a brit company but they have a warehouse in TX somewhere. Their DVDs and CDs are very good and geared for worship leaders.

Here is some of their guitar stuff but I encourage you to explore the whole website.

http://www.musicademy.com/info/wors...926e2e0d9bd4c99c7760437c7f59c763102b0f3df42d7

 

[Jake520520]

A few questions:

How tied to traditional hymns is the congregation? The pastor?
Have you talked to the pastor about changing the service?
Is there a board that needs to approve changes?

As to your skill as a guitarist - if you are looking to improve, here is a resource that I have found very useful. It is a brit company but they have a warehouse in TX somewhere. Their DVDs and CDs are very good and geared for worship leaders.

Here is some of their guitar stuff but I encourage you to explore the whole website.

http://www.musicademy.com/info/wors...926e2e0d9bd4c99c7760437c7f59c763102b0f3df42d7

Well there are only 20 people max in the church. One pastor, one elder, one kind of worship leader, (she just leads the singing and I've talked to her and she is more than happy to share with me) and the rest of us. There is no board that has to approve anything. I wouldn't say that we are tied to traditional hymns but if we sang anything but hymns Sue our worship leader would have to learn the lyrics and melody.
As far as my guitar skills I feel pretty good in my ability to get things started but I'm always looking to improve! I kind of have the attitude of continual improvement. So I will definitely check them out!

 

[Bass4Jesus]

Go to Youtube and check out some of the older material by the following bands. It's all pretty mild if you go back far enough. Sometimes you can find videos with chord progressions. Much of this material can be played on just an acoustic guitar to begin with.

Brenton Brown
Casting Crowns
Chris Tomlin
Crowder
Hillsong
Jeremy Camp
Matt Redman
Michael W. Smith
Paul Baloche

 

[Jake520520]

Go to Youtube and check out some of the older material by the following bands. It's all pretty mild if you go back far enough. Sometimes you can find videos with chord progressions. Much of this material can be played on just an acoustic guitar to begin with.

Brenton Brown
Casting Crowns
Chris Tomlin
Crowder
Hillsong
Jeremy Camp
Matt Redman
Michael W. Smith
Paul Baloche

Awesome! Thank you I'll definitely look into some of those!

 

[Mea_kākau]

I play the flute. My music background is classical; play every note correctly, read the music as is, if you miss a note start over, etc. What helped me become part of a praise and worship team was listening to praise and worship music of all types, hymns too, and playing along with them without any music. I'd turn on the radio and join in on songs. This taught me how to improvise and not stay with the exact notes. I eventually learned to use guitar chords as well. That was fun when there was a new song that the worship leader introduced and there were only guitar chords. All of these methods took several months to get to a point where I felt confident enough to play either the chorus or harmony or switching back and forth between them.

 

[HouseCat71]

You sound like you have a passion to serve the Lord with your music and that is awesome. Since I started playing piano for my church...about 10 months now, I make a point to learn at least ONE new song every week. (I lost 20 years of song learning in the military so I'm making up for it.). I learn either an old hymn, a new song, something in between...doesn't matter. I ask my worship leader for songs she wants me to learn as well. That will help increase your song knowledge/database immensely.

Both me and our guitarist play by ear. She plays tabs too, and that's all you need. Just a good chord rhythm. You don't need to play lead, of course. Just chords that the congregation can sing to.

We also practice on Wednesday nights and an hour before church. You probably don't need that much time, but get with Sue and plan what you're going to sing & play for Sunday. Have her transcribe the chords from her music....or just listen to it on google or yahoo. That's saved my hide when my WL gave me 3 days to learn a new song! Lol.

My worship leader gives the musicians a list of songs we're going to sing for the month. Then, every week, the guitarist and I plan our chord changes, keys, etc.... You don't have to do all that, but planning is the key. If you know what she planned to sing, you can get the chords, timing and a little training on how the song goes. If you've been playing for 7 years, I have no doubt that you'll have them learned in a week.

God bless you!

 

[tdidymas]

Hello all, I need some insight on where to start my churches worship service. But first I'll give you a background on me and our church.

I grew up in different churches but recently found my church home. My wife and I have been going to this church for about a year. ( I work with my pastor ) its a very small church that used to be an old school house. When everyone is there we have about 20 people and the worship service could be improved. I think with the power of God I could help.

Currently nobody plays any instruments and we just sing out of old hymnals and we usually sing about 3 songs every Sunday. Im not complaining about the church but I think an instrument would help and make things more fun for everyone.

I am 21 years old and I have played guitar since I was about 14. I know basic stuff like chords and scales but minimal lead guitar work. As far as reading music it takes me a while. I mostly play off of tabs and don't know very many gospel songs. I would consider myself a pretty good guitarist when it came down to chords and rhythm.

I would just like to know from some other worship leaders where I could get started? Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks in advance fellow desciples

Practice daily. Ask the pastor. Submit to his authority, and speak your mind. If you can't do it there, start a small group in your home. Assuming of course, that you are called by God.
TD

 

[Dave-W]

I play the flute. My music background is classical; play every note correctly, read the music as is, if you miss a note start over, etc. What helped me become part of a praise and worship team was listening to praise and worship music of all types, hymns too, and playing along with them without any music. I'd turn on the radio and join in on songs. This taught me how to improvise and not stay with the exact notes. I eventually learned to use guitar chords as well. That was fun when there was a new song that the worship leader introduced and there were only guitar chords. All of these methods took several months to get to a point where I felt confident enough to play either the chorus or harmony or switching back and forth between them.

Congrats on making that switch. It is not an easy one. Most classical musicians cannot make that improv jump. Since I was classically trained on Sax and Organ but self taught on guitar, I made the transition fairly well. (especially on organ/synth)

Worship Academy (out of England) has a video course doing just that. I bought the course and gave it to a violinist and a flutist and they both benefited greatly from it.

http://www.musicademy.com/info/orchestral-instruments-in-worship/

 

[Mea_kākau]

Congrats on making that switch. It is not an easy one. Most classical musicians cannot make that improv jump. Since I was classically trained on Sax and Organ but self taught on guitar, I made the transition fairly well. (especially on organ/synth)

Worship Academy (out of England) has a video course doing just that. I bought the course and gave it to a violinist and a flutist and they both benefited greatly from it.

http://www.musicademy.com/info/orchestral-instruments-in-worship/

I taught my granddaughter to play flute the same way until she went to school for more training. I showed her how to play along with music rather than only read the notes. Now she's trained in improv and classical. She memorizes entire songs by just hearing them. She plays French Horn, Synth, and flute so far and she's only 13 years old. She's got one more ability I never had, perfect pitch. She's learning to sing too.

 

[Dave-W]

She's got one more ability I never had, perfect pitch.

That "gift" can be a mixed blessing. Unless the instrumentation is perfectly tuned, it will throw a person with perfect pitch off. My college roommate saw a concert with Gordon Lightfoot (who has PP) where he tried to sing a song playing a house piano which was tuned about a quarter tone low, and he could not get past the first line.