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Creating a Learning System for Your Worship Team

Last week, we discussed the mindset shift needed to help a worship team transcend "jam band" mentality and move up into a polished, creative, and exciting unit. 

This shift is necessary for your team members, individually, but if they lack a solid structure to exercise within, then their growth can only go so far. 

Let's talk about how YOU, as the team leader, can create a learning system that enables your team for the highest rate of success.

The Four Tiers

The key to an effective learning system for your team is having the right balance of personal responsibility for each member along with necessary input from YOU to guide them in their preparation and execution. We'll go through the most common sequence of events, or "four tiers," of preparing for worship gatherings and what your role should look like within them.

Personal Practice

It should go without saying that personal practice is paramount for each team member to faithfully pull off each week. Sometimes though, the degree of effectiveness varies between individuals, and it often comes down to how a team member learns differently from others. 

A way that you can help a struggling team member is highlighting the essential elements of a song and then rank them in order of importance. These are things like:

• Riffs

• Hooks

• Groove/Feel

• Stops

• Changes to form

Even within those topics, there is room for further tweaking, where you might have them replicate simplified versions of riffs, hooks, and grooves. All of this should come in some form of written or recorded instruction. This can include:

• Written notation for specific parts

• Audio play-throughs/multitrack parts

• Video tutorials

• A list of changes to form and dynamics (these should also be notated in the chart, ideally)
  

It's not always enough to simply give them a reference recording (which is often in a different key). The components listed above eliminate a lot of guess work on the front end prior to rehearsal, and it allows you to more precisely identify, target, and fix errors. 

Guided Coaching

For some musicians, all they need are the materials needed for personal practice and they're mostly good to go. But other team members may yet need further input from you, personally. This is where you most likely need to schedule periodic check-ins or lessons to show them EXACTLY what you need from them.

Practically speaking, I find this to be most needed with junior vocalists who struggle to find harmonies, or with melodic players who find it difficult to synthesize several parts into one. (There can be plenty of work done with other rhythm section players, like drummers and bass players, but I usually find that they can adapt a bit more easily, without extra input.)

In your guided coaching, make sure you are using the simplest terms in the most succinct way. Complicated terms and phrases will only confuse the team member who likely has not been through the same kind of training through which you've gone. Here are some examples:

• "Resolve to the tonic chord at the end of the phrase," becomes: "Land on the 1 chord here, at the end of this line."

• "Can you play faster subdivisions in this section?" becomes: "Can you play 8th notes instead of quarter notes here? It'll help this section 'drive' a bit more."

• "Instead of singing the next note up a half step, can you sing the previous pitch again? The other note doesn't fit, harmonically speaking," becomes: "When you get to this word, can you stay on the same note as before? It sounds better with the chords that rest of the band is playing."

These are just a few examples, but I think you get my meaning.

Team Rehearsal

This is the part where all the personal preparation and guided coaching comes together. Although it's not the time to learn parts, inevitably, there's always one or two people who still have quite a bit of ground to cover. 

If this happens (actually—WHEN this happens), graciously demonstrate what they need to do, and encourage them to follow suit as best they can. Save the accountability conversation post-rehearsal. 

It's important to keep your instruction simple and succinct during this time, just as you did in your guided coaching. You also need to take the time to run through a tune, and then immediately address places to fix, in this order of importance:

• Harmony (wrong chord changes, stacked vocals, etc.)

• Melody (main phrases, hooks, etc.)

• Rhythm (groove, changes in time-feel across sections, etc.)

• Form (stops, repeats, etc.)

After that, it may be necessary to do another run-through, but in the interest of time, this should remain optional only as an absolute necessity.

Soundcheck

Oftentimes, soundcheck gets treated as personal practice and team rehearsal all wrapped into one stressful, chaotic experience that leaves the team more tense than relaxed leading into the service. 

Ideally, if you've covered the three previous tiers sufficiently, soundcheck should be a time to brush up on starts/stops, any special transitions, or revisit particularly challenging sections that came up in the previous rehearsal. This is NOT the time to attempt learning a complex arrangement. If you're limited on how much time you can spend each week with your team, and soundcheck ends up being the only place for it all to come together, then your arrangements should be simplified. This allows for acceptable execution throughout the whole group.

Looking Ahead

In the coming weeks, we'll dive in a bit more into each of these tiers to give you insight and tools to maximize your effectiveness as a leader for your team. In the meantime, feel free to send a message and we can discuss strategies for your team more directly. 

Another Resource You Should Check Out

Here at Worship Strategies, we’re all about connecting you with exactly the right resource to best improve your church’s worship experiences.

We cover a lot with team management, musicianship, and theological practice, but when it comes to audio/visual materials…

…well, we don’t have much to say in that area.

BUT thankfully, we’ve got the hookup to a pretty sweet project called Collaborate Worship, led by pastor Kade Young.

Collaborate Worship helps churches improve their sound, and they have a TON of free resources available on their website, including cheat sheets, video tutorials, and more.

Click the button below if you want to learn how to step up your game in A/V production at your church.

Be blessed 👊✌️