Remember to always pray. Pray that God would provide, and pray that you would have the wisdom to rest in Him when He might not.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an occasion of a church with no piano player, but I’m sure it has happened. Here are some ideas:
- Find great songs that work accapella. Sometimes there is nothing more glorious than listening to God’s people sing without anything else accompanying them. A great many hymns work extremely well for this. There are also several newer songs that work well.
- If you have a guitarist, teach them to play melodically. Most guitarists are rhythm guitarists, not lead guitarists, so we (myself included) have a hard time playing melodically. Teach them to finger pick, teach them to be able to play a solo line as an intro or outro.
- Help the bass player be confident. The piano covers all the octaves, so when there is no piano and perhaps you have a guitar and bass, if the bass isn’t confident on the low end it will stand out and be distracting. Even if it’s being able to play whole notes with confidence, teach them to play confidently.
- Help your singers be able to hear. The singers will have to tune themselves to the guitar, since there is no piano, so help them get used to that. Spend time in practice without the bass and drums. Make sure that the bass and drums are not overpowering the guitar, so the singers can hear it.
- Enjoy your organ! Perhaps you don’t have a piano because the church isn’t ready for that transition yet. Pray that God would give you patience and that He would give you great joy in worshiping in a traditional style. If we rely on style to be able to worship God, our foundations of what worship is have not been laid properly, and will crack and crumble when styles change.
Continuing with our thoughts on what to do when you’re missing certain instruments, what happens when you have no drummer? Here are some ideas:
- As I mentioned yesterday, the drums and bass carry the groove of the music. If you have a bass player, teach that person to play very rhthmically and to be able to create a groove without a drummer. If you have no bass player, teach the instruments you do have to create a groove and play tightly together. Teach people how to play with steady tempos and practice it all the time!
- Use drum loops. You can purchase a loop generator at a music store. While these will not give the personality and creativity as a real drummer (as they are a set pattern that repeats over and over) they can still be very effective in creating a bit of extra rhythm to drive the music. Be careful, though because in order to play with drum loops your steady tempos have to be very good.
- Use percussion. Tambourines, shakers, congas, and bongos and djembe can add a lot of color and rhythm and aren’t too difficult to play. Make sure you do some research on how to play them correctly so you can teach people how to play them and be sure you know how to care for these instruments as well. Sometimes there can be nothing worse than someone playing the tambourine or congas who doesn’t know how.
- Use percussion. Yes I just repeated myself. Perhaps you have a drummer in your congregation, but either your church doesn’t want you to use a full kit or the drummer can’t haul the kit back and forth all the time. Good drummers are good percussionists as well and will know how to play the more easily-transportable instruments. Pastor Wade said yesterday, “The djembe is the most important percussion instrument in God’s kingdom.” He was half-joking, but I think he’s got a great point. The djembe is probably one of the most versatile, least expensive percussion instruments you can find. Invest in one. Don’t just invest money though, invest time in learning how to play it and how to teach it.
- Teach your guitarists to play very rhythmically and drive the rhythm.
- Be okay with not having a drummer. Use it as an opportunity to use piano-driven, intimate songs and teach people to worship intimately.
At the FLY Convention, I was privileged to teach an elective on leading worship. Many people who attended were from churches with no established “contemporary” services (I’m not a huge fan of that word, more on that another time.)
We all want to build up our worship teams to full bands someday, but most of the time that tends to be difficult, especially if you are in a small church or city with limited resources. I want to spend the rest of the week talking about what to do if you’re missing an instrument that can help you fill in the hole without worrying about finding someone to play that instrument right away. So let’s start with the bass, or rather, the lack of bass.
- Almost everyone has another piano player in the congregation. Find a keyboard that can simulate a bass sound and have another pianist playing the bass part on the keyboard.
- If you only have one piano player, and/or no budget to get a keyboard, teach the piano player how to play the bass notes in the chords. Often times you will see something like D/F# on a chord or lead sheet. This simply means that you play a D chord with your right hand (D-F#-A) and play an F# on the bottom with your left hand. These subtle changes in the chord will make the music sound much more interesting.
- Perhaps you have an overabundance of guitar players. Teach one of them how to play the bass. It usually doesn’t take them too long.
- The bass (and drums) usually carry the groove, or rhythm, of the song. Teach the instruments you have to know how to work together to create groove and tight rhythm before the bass player gets there.
- To think completely outside the box…perhaps you have a great bass singer - he could sing the bass part. Think “Tonic Sol Fa” or “Go Fish.” in the early days. (By the way, the original bass singer of Go Fish is in Tonic Sol Fa now)
- See if there are any other bass players in your area that hold similar beliefs and principles as you do and ask if they would be willing to fill in while you keep looking for your own.
Hopefully these suggestions can help you as you continue to search.
