Keys players are automatically in the running to be voted as MVP each week’s worship practice due to the fact that so many intros, flow moments and transitions can be delegated into their capable hands.
But how do you practice so you can serve your team with such a high degree of excellence? It’s not always just about natural skill level, often it has much more to do with the preparation put into rehearsal each week. What you practice, how you practice, how much you practice and how you behave during team rehearsals can play a much higher role in the way you serve your team than your natural talent.
Here are 10 tips to help make you the absolute best team member and keys player you can be! Aim high guys, your teams need you!
At-Home Worship Practice
- Learn your parts
- Sounds obvious, but you MUST actually learn your parts and have them memorized. Even if you rely on charts while you play, try to have things down so solidly that you don’t NEED the charts.
- Use Multi-track stems or use YouTube or online piano tutorials to learn specific intros, voicings and lead lines you hear on recordings. The argument that learning a part exactly as written stifles creativity is a cop-out. Being able to cover a part exactly as written takes a higher level of skill that just plowing through the chords, putting your own touch on them. There is a reason why producers arranged a song a specific way with specific parts and voicings. Learn those first. Then take some creative license if appropriate. You will grow as a musician and in respect for the people who wrote/arranged/played the songs you’re learning.
- Practice until you can’t get it wrong
- Simply learning something so you get it right “most of the time” simply doesn’t cut it. Don’t just practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong.
- A good rule of thumb is to keep running a song until you can play it flawlessly 5x in a row, at least 2-3 days in advance. Then run it 5x a day for the next 2-3 days. You want to be able to worship while you’re playing and if you’re in your head thinking through your parts, you can’t be an effective worship leader. And if you’re on that stage, you’re a worship leader, whether you’re singing into a microphone or not.
- Think through transitions + flow
- If you’re playing pads and alternate sound patches, practice transitioning to your next song. Figure out how much time you’re going to need from the MD to change your patch and get into the new key. Usually the pads play a big role in transitions between songs so get into that mode when practicing and get prepared to lead those transitions.
- Run through anticipated flow moments. MD will often have direction here but spend some time worshiping through those moments at home and go to rehearsal with some options/ideas. If you don’t have an MD or if your MD is more hands-off, plan out exactly how you’ll take the team from one song to the next. Even if the plan changes at rehearsal, this is where lots of musical “jolts” happen, where the bottom drops out of the musicality and it becomes awkward and distracting for the congregation. Spend some good prep time here. Worship too. God will start to reveal His plans for the set as you worship Him through it.
The Actual Worship Practice
- Come prepared. If you’ve been faithful to complete steps 1-3, you’ll be prepared. Resist the urge to dial it in because you’ve had a busy week or think your Worship Leader or MD didn’t communicate well that week. You are there serving God, not people, so come remembering who you are preparing for.
- No noodling – nothing much to say here. If you’re not actively playing a part of a song/transition, take those hands OFF the keyboard. 😉 It’s about respect for your leader, your time schedule, your team members and being present. You need to know what’s going on and noodling is the opposite of that.
- Take notes – write down subtle changes. You think you’ll remember everything in the moment, but you may not. It’s also another way to honor the rehearsal, your leader and your team by placing priority on what they say. Instructions shouldn’t have to be repeated or forgotten if you can avoid it.
- Say please and thank you. Seems like this shouldn’t need to be a thing, but instead of barking needs to your sound/production team and worship leader, a simple “can we please run that again” and “thank you for turning that up” will go a long way.
- Listen. Pay attention to what’s happening around you. Try to think about how what you’re doing meshes with what others are doing, especially during arrangement shifts, song changes, etc. Stay present.
- Smile!! Have fun!! Ask for prayer if your heart needs it and get into a positive space. We’ve all been in rehearsals where Negative Nelly had a bad day at work and is trying to spread her grumpiness to everyone within eyeshot. Don’t be that person. Spread joy!
- Most importantly, tune into what the Lord is doing. As a worship team member we are serving the Lord and the congregation. It’s our job to connect people to the heart of the Father and to facilitate encounters between God and His Bride. We want to let everything that happens during a rehearsal/sound check/service be seen through that filter. This is how true ministry happens and how we steward our role as priests and worshippers.
Weekly Challenge 💪🏻
Challenge yourself to memorize and play 5 scales flawlessly this week. Before you play, identify the scale, how many sharps/flats, look at your hands and visually make note of where the sharps/flats are sitting, THEN play.
Aim to play them each 5x in a row without mistakes.
Be intentional!
Practice that this week and then post a video of your success in Tuesday’s Brag Box.
Drill of the Week! 🎶
This week we’re going to do a dexterity skill drill exercise! This one is very simple but is aimed to target the weak muscles of the right hand. So after doing this one you should feel a little muscle fatigue if you’re doing it right. 🙂
CLICK HERE to view the demonstration
Be sure to play slowly and steadily in the beginning. Don’t pick up the speed until you can play the whole thing without mistakes!
Practice this exercise 1x daily, going down and back up the keyboard.
RESOURCES
I’m getting ready to open enrollment for a new round of Coaching! If you’re interested in hearing more, check it out!
And don’t forget to join our Worship Community group!
