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Creative Chaos this week is actually in the form of a question:

As a musician on your worship team, what kind of input do you give to the worship leader and/or rest of the worship team on a regular basis?

Or, if you’re a worship leader:

What kind of input do you need/request from the musicians on your worship team?

We have three different leaders at our church, and I’ve found that each leader wants or needs different levels of input at different times for different reasons.  For example, tonight at rehearsal we were having a tough time getting through the introductions of a couple of songs, so the bass player and I threw out some ideas.  We played around with it a bit on both songs, and came up with something that worked.  That approach wouldn’t work with one of our other leaders, depending on the song.  However, this other leader might need some input at different times that the other two wouldn’t need. 

My goal as a worship musician is to fill in when and where I can, utilize my strengths, and know how to help the team for the overall worship experience.

How does your worship team handle input from individual members?

Creative Chaos:  Week 10 @ Ragamuffinsoul.com

Creative Chaos // 9 @ Ragamuffin Soul

As a worship team member, sometimes I’m just not in a ‘worshipful’ mood. Today’s Creative Chaos post deals with being musically creative in the midst of, well, life’s chaos. Let’s face it: Those platitudes we get at church sometimes just don’t cut it.

And that’s ok. Those platitudes are ideas and one-liners that people in the church have put forth. They’re not necessarily biblical. Listen to k-love some time, and you get the idea that Christianity is just a slap-happy, feel good place to be all of the time. Some churches I’ve been to even consider it wrong to show up on Sunday morning with anything but this attitude.

But read the Psalms some time. Basically, this book of the bible is a collection of music where the writers run the emotional gamut of the human experience. You name it, it’s in there: Joy, peace, contempt, hatred, despair, and a lot of other things in between. I don’t need to be emotionally “up” all the time in order to be in a worshipful place in my own heart. They have meds for that. What I do need to be is mindful of my own state of being, and be sure that I don’t negatively affect somebody with anything I might say or do. Show up, pray, play, let it just happen. In the end, I believe that God honors us working through whatever is hanging up in our lives, even if that means we don’t “feel” ready to get musically creative. And somewhere in there, I think we find the reality of what it means to be a Christian. That’s the place where healing and wholeness come together.

How much do you modify songs that your congregation is already familiar with on Sunday morning?  I’m diving into the world of dabbling in song writing and arranging, and I’m starting by modifying the chords on some songs we already do.  Then I got to thinking:  Is this what people expect?  Are the changes too much of a change and will get in the way of their worship experience?  Granted, most people won’t know what’s different, they just know that it “sounds” different.  The musician in me wants to mangle up these songs, but the worshipper in me would like to not let it interfere with the body of Christ doing what they need to do on Sunday morning.  I’m just not sure.

How much is too much?

Get your own Creative Chaos on at Ragamuffinsoul.com

Carlos Whittaker put a little different twist to his Creative Chaos series this week:

I want us to post on where it is that we go to find our personal creativity.
And it HAS to be outside the office.
And Tell Us Why…

For me, collaboration with others, regardless of the setting, is the key to creativity.  And that collaboration can take place in many forms as well.  Maybe it’s having the drummer over for dinner, or hanging out with the team leader.  Getting to know them a little bit in a social setting so that you can get a sense of what makes them tick in the worship setting on Sunday morning.  Sometimes, in the middle of talking about kids and the day jobs we find something that works for us in worship team.  How about if we did this intro this way?  Or what if we put these two songs together that way?  Just getting away from the rehearsal setting can give me some perspective, but it needs to be with other musicians. 

And for my own personal creativity with how I play, I just listen while I’m doing other things and let those musical ideas work their way into my subconscious.  Can’t explain it any other way than that.

Where do you go to get creative?

And be sure to get your own Creative Chaos at:

Ragamuffin Soul »  Creative Chaos @ Ragamuffin Soul Guidelines

Tags: CreativeChaos, Christianity, worship, music

I’m thinking about using some loops from popular songs to intro worship songs that we do in church.  I know that looping isn’t new, but I wonder how many churches have tried this approach.  I was driving down the Columbia River Gorge the other day, and listening to some random tunes on my iPod.  “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” came on just after Third Day’s “My Hope Is You”.  What if we looped 8-12 bars of the intro to the U2 song to sign the opening verse of the Third Day song, then have the band segue into the chorus?   The only problem I see with this is that it puts the worship song up a step or so higher than I’m comfortable with.  I’d like to open up Audacity and play around with looping this, though.

Thoughts?

With school conferences this week, and Easter this weekend and spring break next week, I won’t be at worship team rehearsal this week. That said, I’m anticipating the week after Easter when I resume my role as pianist/keyboardist in my church worship team.

So how to be creative in this role? I sum it down to a few basic ideas: Listen to everybody around you. Play off of them and respond to what they’re doing musically. Take the lead when you have to, give it up when you have to. Don’t play over everybody else, especially when they’re doing something important. Good taste over musical verbage any day of the week. And most of all, remember the reason you’re up there in the first place. Just play.

That’s all I’ve got.

Technorati Tags: Carlos Whittaker, Ragamuffin Soul, music, church, worship, piano, keyboards, Christianity

Here’s Week 2 from Carlos Whittaker’s Creative Chaos challenge.

I still won’t be playing in worship team for a couple more weeks, so for now I’m continuing as my role as…whatever it is you want to call it.  I played acoustic bass guitar for a while and helped with some of the arranging with some newer songs that this group is learning.  This group is doing “In Christ Alone” for Easter, and it was fun to work with the piano player on the intro, as well as the rest of the group with the direction of the song.  It will be interesting to see how I continue this role when I assume piano/keyboard duties the week after Easter.  Still, though this is a cool way to get involved, get to know other musicians, and offer some musical guidance and direction along the way.  Maybe this is what collaboration is all about.

For a variety of reasons–both spiritual and logistical–I haven’t played in church for over a year, and it’s good to start getting back in the saddle again. I grew up playing music in the church, and have spent most of my adult life in worship teams wherever I’m at church.  This time off has been important for me, but I do believe that I was created, in part, to utilize these skills in a worship setting. 

I’m ready to rock now.