Worship leaders, if you have two electric guitar players on a weekend, make sure that each of them have clarity on what they are supposed to do. If you wait for them to get to rehearsal and “work it out,” you have undercut your rehearsal before it even begins. Team members should come to rehearsal with their parts prepared, and it’s up to you to provide clarity so that they can make it happen. In some cases, it needs to go beyond simply assigning “lead” and “Rhythm,” or “Guitar One” and “Guitar Two.” Some recordings have more than two electric parts, and you need to be specific [especially if playing with tracks].
If the song is simple, and really only has one part, try dividing it into two parts. You don’t have to use full chords, one guitar can play the bottom three strings, the other the top three – or you can double an octave apart to thicken things up, etc…. Just make sure not to overwhelm – more isn’t always better. This is especially true if you have two electrics and an acoustic [or two acoustics]. When you add in keys, and any additional sweetener from tracks, the sonic spectrum can fill up very quickly…
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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