After years of working with band players in various churches, participating in numerous worhsip services in various churches, hearing worship bands at conferences, and evaluating worship leaders and worship bands, I have begun to assemble a list that aspiring worship bands may find useful in order to be successful. There are some thoughts in this list for most members of the band, though I'm sure I could have given more thought to the Dobro player.
- Pick keys that are too high for guys to sing, and too low for women to belt out.
- Show off your chops by jumping the octave at a repeated phrase. Make sure no one else can possibly match you.
- Shout out "Christianese" phrases between songs. They don't have to fit the context, they just have to sound good, amen?
- Work hard at crafting all of your vowels so that you sound British or Australian.
- Never sing any melody the same way twice, especially when teaching a new song to the church.
- The only dynamic build you can ever use is repetitive eighth notes.
- Make sure you rush those eighth notes.
- Dynamics only exist in layers. "Quiet" is achieved mainly because only the acoustic guitar is finger picking at the moment.
- If you're a keyboard player, try to duplicate the exact rhythms the guitar players are playing, in the exact same register.
- If you're an electric guitar player, be sure to use all of your pedals at least once in a set, so as to disguise as much as possible the actual sound of your instrument.
- Be sure that your stage volume is so hot that you cannot be effectively mixed in the house.
- The form is ALWAYS V, V [add band], C, V, C, C, B, C, C, C, C [drums only], C, Tag.
- Never change keys in the middle of a song.
Alright, I've got us off to a good start, there's more, let's add to this list!
