If you would like to read more chapters from Dean's book please go to the following:
Chapter 5 - Money and Quality
Chapter 6 - The PA
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WORSHIP TEAM BOOK
Excerpts from the book "If ya wanna catch a fish, ya gotta have a hook". © 1998 by Dean Krippaehne Edited by Debbie Trafton O'Neal
CHAPTERS 3 and 4
MUSIC DIRECTOR
What is a contemporary music director? As I have previously stated the contemporary music director is the leader of your music worship team. He or she is the one who will conduct the auditions and interviews of prospective worship team members, set rehearsal schedules, find songs and arrangements, manage the equipment and lead in the spiritual life of the group.
A contemporary music director should also be competent in contemporary styles of music such as Rock, Pop, Hip-hop, New Country, and Rap, to name a few.
He or she does not need to be educated in Baroque stylings, Dorian modes or classical masterpieces. Real life performing experience in a variety of contemporary settings such as stage, club, and recording studio work are far more valuable than the more traditional avenues of training. A contemporary music director needs to know the music styles of the here and now , not the there and then.
Some additional professional experience in arranging, production, working with rhythm sections, working with vocalists and working with current musical technology is also a plus - if not a must. Other necessary skills include people skills, leadership skills, organizational skills and the ability to play a musical instrument at a professional level.
The music director is the person who will put it all together for your church working many hours every week. It is a demanding job and burnout is easy. If your music director is good you will not want to lose them. This is one person that you will want to pay.
THE MUSICIANS
DRUMS
I believe that all instruments and instrumentalists are vital. However, I also believe that some instruments are more noticeable than others especially when they are played poorly. For example, few people will really notice when the bass player hits a wrong note but when a trumpet player cracks on a high note, everyone notices.
In my opinion, the drums, when played poorly, are quite noticeable. The mistakes of the drummer may not be as obvious as the trumpet players but when they are played poorly you will sense that something is wrong because the drummer usually plays his notes or beats throughout the entire song. It is not just a one second mistake that will be noticed but an entire three minute song of shaky playing that will be “felt.” Sometimes three minutes of a poor performance can be a long, painful time.
I am also of the opinion that if the drums are played correctly the other instruments can make some mistakes and the song and performance will still survive. However, no matter how good the other musicians are, if the drums are played poorly you cannot save the song.
It is essential for an evangelical group to have a drummer who either plays like a pro or is a pro. If you do not know the difference between a professional sounding drummer and an amateur one, by all means, find someone who does to assist you in your auditions.
If you cannot find or afford a good drummer there is another option. You may choose to purchase a drum machine. The new drum machines are actually computer/sequencers with digitally sampled drum sounds stored in their memory. A good used drum machine can be purchased for under $500. A drum machine will enable you to write (or compose) the drum patterns for all of your praise and worship songs.
If you purchase a drum machine you will need to find someone (possibly the music director) who can effectively write and program drum patterns. A word of caution: I have heard many fine pro-musicians program drum machines that sound terrible. Programming drum machines is a craft. Although it is teachable and learnable it is an acquired skill and it does require a certain amount of expertise. A very good rule of thumb when just starting out as a drum machine programmer is to keep it simple. Simple parts and beats can be quite effective while extravagant parts can sound very amateurish.
The instrumentalists and vocalists that will be auditioning for your worship team will need to be competent musicians although not necessarily professionals. Simply put, they will need to be able to learn a song fairly quickly, perform with confidence and make few mistakes.
A church that is starting to put together a quality contemporary music worship team needs to get the word out. Whether through ads in a local newspaper or simply by word of mouth, the community needs to be aware that a church is actively looking for contemporary musicians. There are many fine musicians who would like to volunteer their time and talent but cannot find a church with a good contemporary music program. Remember to always strive for quality. A great music program will attract great musicians to your church.
I do not believe that it is important for a singer or an instrumentalist to have the ability to read music but it helps if they can at least follow chord charts. Chord charts are music manuscript without notes. Instead, there are letter symbols usually written above the staff of the manuscript. The symbols often look something like this: “Am” which stands for the chord A minor.
Having a good “ear” is a great asset in contemporary music. I continually run into musicians who can’t read music very well but if you play or sing their part to them, they will pick it up right away. They have what I call “good ears.”
Hopefully your musicians will have some performance experience behind them, at least some high school band or college choir if not some professional experience. The more experience the better.
While it has been said that it is helpful for a musician to have enough of an ego so that he or she feels uninhibited while performing, it is my strong belief that a music ministry needs to be God centered and God driven as opposed to being self-centered and self driven.
THE KEY ELEMENTS
As I have previously stated, choosing one particular style of contemporary music can be a tricky business. Each and everyone of us has our own distinctive tastes. Each and everyone of us has our own likes and dislikes. If you choose just one particular style of music for your contemporary worship group you are bound to offend someone. That is to say if you are exclusive to just one style of music such as Rock, Country, or Pop, then you may be excluding many people from your worship service who may not happen to like that particular kind of music.
For example, if you choose all country music, it is doubtful that any Rock or Rap listeners will join your congregation. Just as if you do only Rap or Hip-Hop styles of music, then it is doubtful that very many country music listeners will join your church.
If you happen to be lucky enough to live in an area where all the people listen to only one kind of music, then your task is simple. Perform that style of music. (I am not convinced that such a place exists.) If on the other hand you happen to live in an area where musical tastes are as diverse as human personalities, it gets a little more challenging to create a musically inclusive contemporary worship service.
The trick then is to somehow incorporate the key elements - common to all styles of contemporary music - into one inclusive style.
This, however, presents a bit of a dilemma. How does one incorporate the key elements of the various styles of popular music into one sound without watering down or homogenizing the music’s character, thereby decreasing its quality and effect? Is there a way to make contemporary music inclusive instead of exclusive? Yes, there is a way.
The answer lies in finding which elements most all of the contemporary music styles have in common and using them as the foundation upon which to build your own unique sound. Let me explain.
SIX COMMON ELEMENTS
I have found that there are six elements common to almost all styles of contemporary music. These elements are interchangeable within the multiple styles of contemporary music. The next few pages examine each of the six common elements and explain how they can be applied to various songs and arrangements.
1. UPTEMPO
The first element that is common to most styles of popular music is what I call the uptempo element. The majority of the songs that are played on popular radio today are uptempo. Ballads, unless they are unusually great songs, don’t get played as often. The main reason for this is that slow songs in general tend to bore the listener and put them to sleep.
In this fast paced world most radio listeners want something that will energize them not put them to sleep. With our short attention span today the last thing that a radio station will want to program is a song that will lose a listener by boring them. Radio stations make money by keeping listeners. Although money in and of itself is not the goal of the church it could be said that money, or the people who give it, sure help to keep the church operating. The point is that our churches, like popular radio, do not want to bore people or put them to sleep.
This is not to say that we should never perform ballads in church. A couple of well chosen and well placed ballads can be quite effective in the worship service. I believe slow songs to be quite necessary for the more contemplative times in the service, however, the great majority of popular music is fast. The reason for this is
simple. Faster songs work better at grabbing a person’s attention and keeping it. (Note too that when fast songs are played over and over, again and again, week after week, they can easily become boring to the contemporary listener. It is therefore nessesary to have enough fast songs to be able to rotate them from week to week in your worship service.)
In the Sunday morning contemporary worship service at my church, our philosophy has been that the first song needs to be fast to wake people up, clear any distractions in their minds and to state our intention that this is a service of celebration. The celebration of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We think that this is an exciting thing and want to reflect our excitement for the Lord by performing an uptempo song.
The second song is also an uptempo, uplifting and joyful song continuing in the mood of celebration. We begin to bring the tempo down a bit for our third song. The idea is to keep the third song mid-to-uptempo enough to hold the congregations attention while at the same time providing a bridge to the fourth, slower and more contemplative song.
The fourth song is a mid-to-slow tempo song. The reason for this is to create a mood that is more prayerful in nature and to help prepare all of our hearts to more fully receive the Lord.
We may use another slow song later in the service for special music or for a song of thanksgiving, but the final few songs of the service are always upbeat and uplifting. When the congregation leaves the worship service we want them departing in an upbeat and joyful way, humming, singing and inspired to love and serve the Lord all week long.
2. SHORT SONGS
There are two main reasons for keeping the songs on the radio short. One of the reasons is money. Radio stations make a good deal of their money from advertisers. Advertisers are the people who promote or sell various businesses and products on the radio. The more time that a radio station has available for advertising, the more money it can make. So most radio stations will keep the songs that they play short enough in length to make plenty of room for more advertising dollars.
However, since the amount of money that a radio station can charge per minute to an advertiser depends upon the amount of people listening to that station, and since most people don’t enjoy listening to commercials, the stations cannot play too many of them. They have to squeeze as many songs as they can into each fifteen minute time slot, to satisfy their listeners. Hence, shorter songs.
But,the main reason for playing short songs is that people in general have short attention spans. A radio station will want their songs to be fairly short so that if a listener doesn’t like a particular song, he or she knows that the song will be over soon. This in turn will make them less likely to change the channel and tune in to another radio station. If a radio stations listeners do not change channels, then the radio station can charge more money for its advertising time.
So what does all this have to do with contemporary worship?
Just remember this: Short songs work better for today’s short attention spans.
I have found that a song length of somewhere between two and three minutes is quite effective for contemporary worship. Let me add however that many churches have found success using longer songs. Sometimes lengthy songs serve well as an emotional experience builder. But if you are performing a ten minute song it had better be great. Ten minutes can be a long, long, time if a song is boring.
3. DRUMS AND BASS
Another element that most all of the contemporary music styles have in common is the presence of drums and bass. If you listen to almost any contemporary radio station, whatever style, you will continuously hear the drums and the bass guitar. The drums and bass are truly a staple of contemporary music. In fact they are the most distinguishing characteristic of contemporary music. It is important to note that contrary to what some people think, the drums are not the devil’s instrument. (The bagpipes are!...Just kidding.)
4. A STRONG CHORUS OR “HOOK”
Probably the most attention grabbing element in any music is the chorus. (The chorus is that catchy part of the song.) This may also be called the theme or the motif in other kinds of music. However, in secular music the chorus of a song is called the
“hook.” The reason is quite simple. When you go fishing you need to put a hook on the end of your line to catch anything. (To me, it is a natural to call the chorus in Christian music a hook. After all aren’t we supposed to be fishers of men?) If we want to be successful fishers of any kind we must use a hook. The hook in a song does the same thing as a fish hook. It is intended to grab the listener and hook them so that the rest of the song can reel them in.
I have gone so far as to find two different choruses or hooks from two separate songs and fit them together to make one incredibly strong song.
5. VERNACULAR
Another key element in popular music is the vernacular in which a lyric is written. Popular songs, whether written in the 1590’s or the 1990’s contain lyrics in the language of the people of the day. We need to be able to understand the lyrics to be touched by them. Imagine the Bible never having been translated into the English, or any other language. Whenever you wanted to read the Word of God you would either need a translator or you would need to spend years learning the subtleties of Greek and Hebrew.
It is my belief that lyrics of praise and worship songs, in addition to being the inspired Word of God, should also use current vernacular. As an experiment, try the following: Without singing, read through the lyrics of some old hymns. What you will soon find is that many words and phrases, as beautiful as they may be, are never used in speech today. The same thing happens when you read Shakespeare. Beautiful and poetic as it may be, most of us do not fully understand the language without first studying it.
Using current vernacular is extremely important for the unchurched person walking into a church for the first time. This person may have never even seen a Bible before let alone have read one. The best way to “speak” to them is in their own language.
6. SONG CHOICE
Another reason for careful song selection is that most churches use volunteers in their music programs. It has been my experience that a very good song can carry non-professional musicians but even great musicians cannot carry of poorly written song. And there are numerous poorly written songs in contemporary Christian music.
It is important then to try to define just what is a “very good” song. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to do that. Let me say however, that when searching for songs, one should be wary of the well-meaning person who insists that their cassette contains the best Gospel song ever written! While it may be true that this particular person has been genuinely touched by God through his or her song, it is doubtful that their song is the best one ever written. (Nevertheless, you will want to at least listen because you never know....)
What you are looking for in praise and worship music is not one song that touches one person in one particular way, but rather songs that are universal in their use of Biblical themes. Songs that can touch a wide variety of people who have a wide variety of challenges in their lives and who are probably at very different stages in their spiritual growth.
In general, try to find “hits” as opposed to “album cuts”. That is to say, look for songs that have great hooks and great choruses. Do the same thing with chord progressions and melodies. Look for songs with easily singable melodies and familiar chord progressions as opposed to avant guard melodies and progressions. (Note to musicians: The standard blues chord progression is common to Country, Rock, Pop, R&B, and most all other styles of music. In addition, I recently read that 75% of all popular music is comprised of the standard two-five-one chord progression.) A good rule of thumb is to try to always “keep it simple”.
There is a balance to try to maintain. Sometimes melodies that are too easy to sing or chord progressions that are too simplistic in structure, hold too few surprises and may soon become boring. Sometimes..., the only thing to do is to try out a song on the congregation and see how it works.
You will find that when applying these six common elements to your music you can lean toward any musical style, (ie: Rock, Pop, Country, etc...), remain contemporary, and stay inclusive of most all peoples musical tastes while maintaining the quality and integrity of your performance.
THE BLUEPRINT
Several other factors go into the construction of successful contemporary music. Among them are:
ARRANGEMENTS AND SONGS
As I have previously stated, when choosing songs and arrangements a good rule of thumb is to keep it simple. Some of the most moving and powerful music ever written is quite simplistic. There needs to be nothing elaborate about any song or arrangement to make it both good and effective.
It is also important to keep in mind that the musically unschooled and untrained congregation will be singing along with your praise and worship songs. Keep it simple for their sake. A good guideline to follow is to make the songs and arrangements easy enough for the congregation to be singing along with within three or four times of hearing. People tend to become frustrated when they cannot sing along with the choruses and the verses and unsingable songs may end up distracting a person away from the Spirit instead of drawing them closer.
“Where your mind wanders, there too, your heart will follow.”
Remember to keep it simple. Doing this will also benefit your instrumentalists and vocalists helping them to sound better and giving the whole worship experience a greater impact. Try to find the balance between simple and interesting and when in doubt lean toward simple and accessible.
FINDING MUSIC
ASSEMBLING A TEAM
* How many singers should we have?
* One, two, three, six, twenty?
* What kinds of instruments do we need in our band?
* Drums, Bass, Tuba, Ukulele?
A truly contemporary sounding worship team will require at least one vocalist and a rhythm section.
For those new to this kind of musical language let me define each instrument. The drums (including cymbals) are large percussive instruments usually played or hit with two sticks. The bass is actually an electric bass guitar and plays the low or bottom notes. The keyboard can be a piano or an organ, but in popular music is often a synthesizer that imitates various sounds (from pianos to orchestras) or a sampling instrument. (A sampling instrument is a keyboard that digitally samples or records real musical instrument sounds that can be played back at your discretion. The sounds are usually very authentic.) The guitar in contemporary music usually refers to an electric, six-string guitar.
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