Worship Musician June 2018 | Page 63

YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM KNOWING AND FLOWING | Vance & Michelle Shepherd Whether your student band is providing worship for your home church or as a guest team in another church, it's great to instill in them the importance of knowing the order and theme of the service, as well as the pastor’s vision, style, and flow. We have found it very effective to ​incorporate this into their actual run-through and rehearsal, just as if it were service time. It can be a very effective way to getting the team polished for the Sunday service. One particular church that our student band leads worship at has more of a charismatic style. In this church, the order of service is that the worship team plays one song at the top of the service, then the pastor comes up and greets everyone with a short, inspiring musical bed in the key of the next song in space between the pastor leaving the stage word​. Nearly every time towards the end of his the worship set, having the drummer doing and the band starting the song. greeting, he gets excited and starts raising his cymbal swells and kicks, the keyboardists and voice, getting an energetic response from his guitarists holding sustained chords, etc. congregation. His regular house worship team TIP # 3 We have also found it helpful to contact the usually waits until he is done with his greeting, TIP # 2 church a week or two ahead of time and ask and then (after a bit of awkward dead time,) We make it a practice of videoing our students what the topic of the message will be, striving continues on to play 3 more worship songs leading worship, and it has provided a great to design the worship set, or at least a song, after he leaves the stage. Not a crime by any tool for them to learn from. After videoing their to fit in with the theme or to accompany the sense, but it could flow better and be more Sunday worship set at this particular church, we message. seamless. We have a unique opportunity as the then gave them classes based on what we saw worship band to really set the tone for what’s to on the video, giving them tips for improvement, This can get the worship leader (or leaders) ​ come in the service. Here are some helpful tips and praise for things done well. As the students thinking ahead about how to tie the worship that we use to train our youth worship bands in watched the video, they all agreed where their songs to the whole flow of service, setting up service flow: music fell short. As the pastor was giving his the next song thematically, or introducing the inspirational greeting, the band’s underscore pastor, announcements, or offering time.  TIP # 1 and his dynamic was really high. You could feel We like to paint the picture to our students that the energy through the video. But at the end Whatever type of church your youth worship they can also think of their band as providing of his greeting, when he turned it back over team is leading at, it’s great to practice, plan, the church service music soundtrack, like a to the worship team and walked off stage, he and rehearse the dynamics. It adds so much movie score, or similar to a TV talk show band. said excitedly, “Come on, let's worship!” And to the service, and makes everything feel We encourage and train them to listen to and then… there was a 5 second pause of dead seamless and cohesive. Like anything, the engage with what is going on, to what is being time as the drummer stopped cymbal swelling more they do it, the better they will be at it! said, and to build musical dynamics with the and the musicians stopped sustaining their pastor. A helpful thing to do is to make sure chords, while the drummer fumbled to start the May you be blessed as you pour into the next that every band member has the pastor’s click track to the next song. We explained to generation of worship leaders! voice in their monitor so they can feel and flow them how they should have kept holding the dynamically with him. During their rehearsal, chord and the cymbal swell until the count-in to we have them plan ahead by rehearsing the the next song came in, eliminating all the dead June 2018 Vance & Michelle Shepherd Founders of The Shepherd School Of Music in Las Vegas, NV, where they work with youth to raise up the next generation of worship leaders and musicians. www.ShepherdStudiosLV.com WorshipMusician.com 63