Guitar for Worship

And then on Sunday, it happens, and you perform the heck out of your
solo (or….you know), and you wait for the applause, or the tears, or the
voices, or the hands raised to the Lord, or the people falling on their faces
in worship (not of you, of course)…………………………………
…………………………………..and then you open your tear-filled eyes,
and through the watery mist see blank faces staring back at you?

Oh, ya. Gets lonely quick.
 
I was at a nameless church gathering the other day…..lots of churches,
lots of church leadership, lots of people feeling important, lots of ‘cutting
edge culture’ videos that gave me an odd nostalgic feeling from when I
was 5, and just generally a lot of good, old-fashioned Christian
awkwardness.

(A prime example of ‘Christian awkwardness.’ Swing that Gospel axe.
And the frightening thing is that one of them really does have an axe.)

And I’m sure I’m one of the biggest offenders of Christian
awkwardness….but I can’t see myself, so I just assume that I am
generally perfect. hehe

So, there’s this nameless musician (and she did have a name, it was
all over everything being sold there) gets up to do some songs. And I
won’t describe what ensued….because I don’t want to give away where
I was. But suffice it to say I was a sinner and shot some
‘Jim-from-The-Office’ looks over at a friend of mine across the table
when the singer had told us to close our eyes so the power of her song
could drench us in worship. *Gasp!*

But at the end of her songs is where this story really ties in to what I
am saying, and it’s not just an excuse to tell a story (which I really
enjoy doing).

The last song is a chorus. And a very well-known chorus. I mean, you
can’t be alive in America today and not know this song. Not just
Christians alive in America. (Really hope I’m not giving this away here.)
And so she invites us to sing with her. And the whole room starts singing.
And people are worshiping. And hands are being raised. And it’s not a
worship song. And more hands go up. And we sing more lyrics not about
God. Which I’m okay with. I like U2 just as much as the next guy (no,
that’s a lie…I like them more). It’s not a U2 song, but it’s less Christian
than a lot of their songs. And it’s a good song. And good lyrics. And I like
the song. But I am not raising my hands while singing it. Sorry. Little rant
right there.

But anyway, this singer starts to put more and more….shall we say,
‘flare’, into every line of the song. And she’s showing off her amazing
skills. And more trills come flying out, and arpeggios, and notes that I
don’t even think are there in a blues scale, and then some Chinese
quarter tone scale notes on a part of the song that the rest of us are
just trying to hold out just one note………and what do you
know…….by the end of the song, she’s all flustered because no one is
singing with her. And she says in the last chorus, ‘Sing with me to the
Lord!’ But tragically we can’t. She is not singing the melody of the
song……ya, not even a little.

And I wonder……if we as worship musicians, held back just a bit, and
played with the song…..or sang a melody that people were comfortable
with, or played a bass line that went with the chords, or a drum beat that
helped the beat, or a keyboard part that anchored……….
…………………………………………………………………………
…………………………then maybe people would sing more, and
worship more, and we might feel a little less lonely out on our solo.

See, it’s like, we always want to perform…….and then we’re shocked
when the congregation can’t follow. If you want to sing a crazy melody
with lots of gospel arpeggios and such, that’s fine. Maybe you can
even worship better when you do that. But you can’t be surprised when
people suddenly can’t sing with you, and end up watching the performance.
And maybe as guitarists, we could make just one solo a month be the
melody of the song….or something crazy like that. So it might help the
people worship with the song a bit. Not all the time. Just a few times. See
people singing the lyrics to the Lord in accompaniment with your solo,
instead of blank stares.

(So sorry. Really. But I couldn’t resist.)

I am fine with performances. They can have an incredibly powerful place
in a worship service. And not just performance-based songs…..I’m all
about the huge guitar solo or the secular song or the decibel level being
huge. But if we’re asking people to worship by engaging themselves
actively in the song with us (which is what we most often do), let’s not 
(again) be surprised that no one is singing, when in reality we just really
wanted to perform. And the we go off-stage after full-on ‘performing’
the set (and you know when you were showing off your skills as opposed
to when you were using your skills to further the song and the worship)
and shake our heads like, ‘Wow. People’s hearts just are not where
they’re supposed to be. You know what? Maybe a solo during the offering
song will help! I’ll try that!’

Just a thought. Please feel free to disagree! And much thanks to
everyone who reads these random musings looking for a pedal review
and then ends up just laughing at my rants. Your patience is
appreciated. I think it’s important to think about worship mindsets, and
tone. So, here’s the worship mindest post. I’ve got a Zendrive, a Keeley
modded Blues Driver, and a Subdecay phaser all coming in, so the tone
posts are coming!

There’s a new discussion board that Joe from gearpage started, and it’s
for worship musicians. And it’s called ‘Worship Musicians.’ And it’s at www.worshipmusicians.com . Imagine that. So, there’s no excuse on not
remembering the name or something. Really, really imformative discussions
over there, and they center around playing in venues where the focus is
worshiping the Lord.

It’s got a ton of gear discussion, and some thelogical dicussion, too,
which is cool. So, I loved the site, and thought I’d show it some love.