Worship Leaders, this one’s for you. If you already dumped some resolutions, time to add a new one in – MEMORIZE! I am a firm believer that a lack of music stands on the church platform is a good thing. It looks cleaner and less cluttered. However, that’s not the main reason by a long shot. The fact is that you really don’t know a song until you’ve internalized it. It’s easy – especially for trained musicians – to put in just enough effort to do a passable job, perhaps even to the point that the average person would not know the difference. But a passable job is not what God asks of us…
The team looks to you for their direction, and – to give it – you have to know where you’re going. To start, know what key you’re in. Then build the memorization process into how you practice. I suggest that you chart out the structure of the song – for example, “intro verse chorus verse chorus chorus bridge chorus.” Once you have that in place, work on memorizing the key riffs and chord progressions, section by section, eventually building until you have the whole song.
Notice that this is a process. That means that you will have to practice more than once. Set aside some time daily, even if it’s just a few minutes – the repetition is much more effective than trying to jam it all in your brain in one marathon sitting. A bit each day will help it to stick- get busy.
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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