Worship Music. Harder Than You Think.

Hi, A Zombie here,

I am just going to do a quick blog post here. I know that The Zombies post quite a bit, but I think its time we had some more of a thoughtful blog post once and awhile (not saying kittens aren’t thoughtful or anything).

The subject is worship music. I am in the worship band at church, and I do listen to the occasional worship song. Some might think that worship band is just like any other band that plays. We play our set, then we are done. But worship music is much more complex, in ways that you might now have thought before.

One is that worship music is supposed to connect you with God. Especially after a moving sermon or in a hard time in your life, worship music is very powerful in connecting you to God in ways that you might not be able to do at home. But when the band plays, you still notice the quality of the band, and you still expect them to be good. No worries, I expect them to be good as well. There is one hard line about worship music: the line of your audience thinking about you or thinking about God.

Here is an example: Lets say we are playing an average worship song, and there comes a part where I don’t sing and just the guitar plays. In any other type of music, this is an open time for a solo. Even in worship music the solo is present, but you don’t see the guitarist playing with his teeth or playing some loud obnoxious notes.  Then you would be focusing on the guitarist, not worship. If there is a drum fill that could go into the piece, I tell the drummer not to play it. Its all about balancing the line between a good song to worship to, and not a good song to worship to.

Another way that worship music is a bit more complex is through actually getting the notes right. Worship music is nationwide, even worldwide. There are songs on our set list that have been played in many countries all over the globe. That means that if we mess up, we mess up big.

People memorize worship songs because they are soundtracks to their lives. These songs speak to them when words or family or friends can’t. That means if we screw up their favorite verse, there won’t be happy campers in the audience. Even the pitch of my voice to the original recording gets compared, and the overall sound of the band is put up against the sound people in the audience in their heads when they think of the song. Its like a video-game, like Rock Band. Imagine worship music as Rock Band on normal mode, except the audience was super critical. Thats a pretty accurate representation of what we have to go through in playing in a worship band. And don’t feel as if I am offended by it, when I go and see worship bands, I expect the exact same out of them.

The final thing that is difficult about worship music is choosing the right set list. It can be hard choosing what songs to play. What will the mood of the sermon be? What is the mood of the audience like? Do we need more slow songs or more fast songs? These things come into my head when I am choosing music 15 minutes before church starts. Usually the worship band does 2 fast songs and 1 slow song. I would argue that this format isn’t always appropriate. When there is a hard-hitting sermon, I usually don’t want to “Shout it Out” just yet. So, the worship band plays melancholy sounds. As a worship band leader, it can sometimes be difficult to choose the songs that match the mood of the sermon, while at other times it is very easy to choose. Its usually good to have a slow song right after a sermon, then a bit of a faster tune, then a hit song being played to finish. But I even go through lyrics to find which song connects the most to what side of God we are seeing, and what we are learning about God in that time.

I hope you enjoyed this bit of a more blog-related post on this site. Leave a comment telling me what you think, and continue reading about The Zombies and our adventures.

Sincerely,

A ZOMBIE

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