K Quinn

A church musician should be well prepared. With all of the duties required of you careful planning and organization can do a lot in preventing chaos on Sunday morning.

In addition to your musical practice you should spend a few minutes, hours, whatever, weekly to prepare for the next Sunday.

Regarding worship leading:

• Meet with the pastor or worship leader.
  • The pastor or worship leader and the church musician should be on the same page about the style of music.
  • The pastor or worship leader and the church musician should meet at least monthly to make sure expectations are being met on the part of the church musician and the communcation happening between both parties.
  • The worship leader needs tobe able to give the church musician, in advance the songs, hymn, anthems, that are to be played in the coming Sundays. Several weeks in advance is very nice.

• Have a choir practice.
  • If the church musician is in charge of or accompanying the church choir then regular practice sessions need to be scheduled and adhered to.
  • If this is one of the duties of your position put together or purchase a church choir manual that gives the requirements and guidelines for people to be members.
  • If you need to put one together there are several on line that allow you to modify them for your own use.

• Have a personal practice session where you put together (if this is required of you) and play the worship service.
  • If you are playing with a worship team then this is something that will need to work with everyone’s schedule.
  • If you are playing with a worship team and you are the leader it would be a good idea that members that do not make the weekly practice do not play that coming Sunday.
  • If you are the only musician or you play only as a soloist then practice your songs as you would play them on Sunday. Include the introductions and the endings. Of course this means you get your own personal worship session

• Be reliable.
  • A church musician you attend all services and meetings where music is part of the agenda unless of course you are sick.
  • If you are playing be prepared.
  • If you are often called onto play music on the fly or without sheet music maybe now is the time to look into playing by ear.

• Be organized.
  • As a church musician you should have a master list of the songs regularly played in and sung at your services. Either on a spreadsheet you can write on or a database that you can add to. It should include things like
    1. Song Title
    2. Author
    3. Tempo
    4. Key
    5. Scripture
    6. Theme
  • This will make it easier to work up a worship service.
  • To aid in putting together this master list use the back of your hymnals and songbooks which normally list much of this information. Of course you are probably using several resources and that is why a master list will help.

Regarding music:

For church music today there are many choices. From the hymns to choruses. From Contemporary Praise and Worship to Southern Gospel. Many churches use a variety of styles to please the many tastes. If this is the case in your church don’t be afraid to blend styles. For example playing a hymn and then moving to a Praise Chorus. This can be a very nice blend. Having a full repertoire of hymns and worship songs is important when trying to work up a medley, especially of different styles.

If you are the worship planner, as I’ve said before it’s very handy to have an index that lists songs by scripture, by topic, and the key it is in your hymnal. If you play from several hymnals and songbooks as I do this may be something you have to create for yourself yourself. Visit the links section and the databases for some ideas about programs that can help automate this.

If you find that your congregation is unfamiliar with some songs you would like to use a nice way of introducing them is to have a soloist sing/play or the worship team play the piece during a special time such as during offertory or prayer. That way the congregation can hear how the songs sound and many times they enjoy it so much they want to know when they will be singing that song during Worship service.

Play (two or more) pieces that are along the same theme, i.e.- Blood of Jesus, Praise, God’s Grace etc. Look in the back of your hymnal or songbook for song suggestions here. Many are already set up with a nice topical index. A nice medley for communion time is O The Blood of Jesus/Nothing but the Blood.

If you are really talented and play pieces along the same theme but indifferent keys, insert a modulation. There are books with modulations already written out that you can insert into your songs. Or you can purchase books that have the arrangements with modulations to some other fitting song already done for you. Church musicians should also have a list of wedding songs and funeral songs they can play, just in case. For weddings songs like Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Bind Us Together, Be Thou My Vision are good choices. For funerals songs like Blessed Assurance, Fairest Lord Jesus, and Amazing Grace a good choices. In your master list make a note of where the version you are most comfortable playing is located. At times like these emotions can make you more nervous than usual.

Find your warm-up song. The song that get’s you comfortable at your instrument. At the beginning of each service I play Amazing Grace. I’m constantly adding to how I play it but I consider it my warm up song as it inspires me greatly. With this song I become comfortable at the piano and not pay so much attention to the congregation. Then I move into my other songs used to prepare for Worship.

Hopefully this information will be of service to you.