a double dip of crowder instructional videos

happy christmas eve!!  in celebration of the day, i’m coming to you with a fantastically wonderful christmas present.  a two for one deal!! i tell you it gets no better than this.  in this post you will get two instructional videos, both of which are david crowder band songs. 

one is “the glory of it all” and the other is “everything glorious.”  both of these are pretty stinking awesome songs that are a lot of fun to play.  they have neat riffs and fun things to play around with.  i have described the parts down to the most minute (not as in a unit of measure but as in small …pronounced “my-noot”) detail in order to be sure that you can accurately play what you need to play.

enjoy!

here is “the glory of it all”:

here is “everything glorious”:

have a very merry christmas.  enjoy these videos, i figure learning some new songs will give you a nice break from the family and the craze of christmas day.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, don’t spill your candle wax on anyone tonight at your friendly neighborhood christmas eve service.

o holy night instructional video

well it’s just two…count them…two days before christmas (i somewhat deplore that whole “xmas” thing so i shant use it…although i guess i just did).  so in light of the impending day when we celebrate jesus’s birth (or some day close to it), here is a nice little christmas song for you.  although it feels like it’s been over played in recent years, o holy night is still my favorite christmas song.

so here’s the instructional video for it.  in this video i teach how to play the song in “C” or several other keys.  enjoy!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, take some time in the coming days to play a game or work a puzzle with family and friends.

nobody’s singing (pt. 4) – the leader needs to lead

here we find ourselves less than a week away from christmas.  are things crazy in your world? i hope not and that your shopping is behind you.  i’m enjoying some time home in georgia with parents and soon the rest of my family.  the sad part is that that does not include my fiance maggie. 

today we explore the fourth (and final) installment of a series of investigating a problem plaguing many churches across the country.  i have personally seen and experienced this as well as heard about it from many other people.  the problem is that people plain and simple are not singing.  why is this?  well here are the first three installments:

part 1: bad keys
part 2: unknown songs
part 3: stick to the melody

today we explore the idea that the leader needs to lead in order for others to follow and sing.  here are some of the problems i have noticed.

1. lead worshipers (and bands) not worshiping themselves.  don’t hear me wrong.  i’m not saying that the worship leader should worship him or herself.  i’m rather saying that this person themself should be worshiping.  why would anyone in a congregation worship if the people they see on stage are not doing the same?  this scenario would feel…

2. …more like a concert.  worship leaders should not just be standing on stage singing.  this puts more emphasis on everything else around.  the lights and other things take center stage.  god is the one who should be taking center stage. 

3. i personally believe that a worship leader should be leading with eyes open.  it is fine and beautiful for a person to worship with their eyes closed.  however, i think a worship leader should be making eye contact with the people they are leading.  this opens yourself up to people and invites rather than the closed off feeling you receive from an eyes closed worship leader.

i don’t care if you are the best singer or the worst singer.  i don’t care if you can make a guitar paint a picture or don’t even know what one looks like.  these things make no difference.  at the end of the day, if you can find ways to get people to sing along and worship then you can be a worship leader.

i hope these investigations into why people aren’t singing have been helpful and insightful for you.  what things are happening at your churches to help people sing? if you are a worship leader, what is your experience with having people sing?  is it like pulling teeth or do people dive right in? 

what other issues would you like me to investigate?

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, invite an old friend to coffee and spend some time catching up.  encourage them in their life’s pursuits.

nobody’s singing (pt. 3) – stick to the melody

 all righty…here we find ourselves on a crazy sunday afternoon.  i traveled to lubbock, texas with my finace’s family to see her brother at his home.  it was 70 degrees.  by the time we got back to amarillo it was 30.  literally a 40 degree drop in a matter of 120 miles.  nuts.

anyway, this is the third part in a series of discussing ideas about why people don’t sing at church or other such settings.  if you would like to check out the first two parts you can read them here:
part 1 – bad keys
part 2 – people don\’t know the songs 

so here’s today’s installment.  the reason we will explore today is that people will often not sing because the worship leader is not staying with the melody well enough for the congregation to sing along. 

in my estimation there are a few reasons to this.

1. worship leaders think that since they have a really nice voice (or at least think they do) they need to showcase it and show it off. not true

2. worship leaders think it looks more worshipful to throw random new melodies in as though they are singing more spiritually or something. 

3. people are put off and think that the worship leader feels like the whole thing is a concert.

4. often times, worship leaders are merely trying to copy what they have heard on a recording where an artist has done some embellishment the second time through the verse or chorus or something.  this is a for a recording, and in no way needs to be mimicked in a corporate setting. 

okay here are my thoughts.  what people need from the worship or song leader is someone who can simply stay with the main melody of the song.  stick to the basic notes. sing what is intended to be sung so that the people trying to follow you can actually follow you.  that is what being a leader means: allowing the followers to follow.  the position is not called “worship soloist” so that’s what we don’t need.

that’s why you have other singers on stage with you.  they can sing beautiful harmonies.  they can embellish on the melody.  they can show off their pipes.  you as the worship leader need to be content to not be in the spotlight (even though you already are).  people already think you can sing well or you would not be on stage doing it.

again, you are called a “worship leader” not a “worship soloist.”  please i beg you, act like it.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, take someone you don’t know very well out for coffee and get the skinny on their life.

beautiful jesus instructional video

what’s up all you little merry people.  it’s that wonderful time again where i bring to you an instructional video for a worship song.  today’s is kristian stanfill’s “beautiful jesus.”  this is from passion’s live version of the song on the “god of this city” album.  kristian is actually currently in the studio recording so i imagine that record will include a new version of the song.  but for now, this is the version we are working with. enjoy!

as always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc. 

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, take a break from your day and watch frosty, or the grinch, or some other type of fun christmas show.

nobody’s singing (pt. 2) – unknown songs

the is the second installment of a series of trying to figure out why people aren’t singing in our congregations.  in the first post we discussed that songs need to be sung in a good key in order to help everyone sing comfortably. 

today we will discuss the possiblity that people aren’t singing because they don’t know the songs very well.  some of the blame for this falls on both parties.  often times, people in the congregation don’t put in the effort to learn songs.  but the bigger onus is on us as worship leaders to do a better job teaching new songs. 

here are some contributing factors:

1. in the days of hymn books, you didn’t really have to know a song.  all you had to do was use the book and it took you through the melody and the words.  even if you weren’t good at singing off of sheet music you could at least tell if the next note was higher or lower than the one you just sang.  you even knew which syllables went where.  today most hymn books are collecting dust in a dark corner of the choir room.  the only help we typically have is the projected words. 

2. lack of intentionality.  it often seems like many worship leaders do not have a solid plan for introducing new material.  it is simply said, “here’s a new song for you” and the band is into it (and sometimes you don’t even get that short heads up).  later in this post we will examine some ways to improve our intentionality with introducing new songs. 

3. too many new songs.  another problem is that worship ministers might just be trying to pull in too many new songs too quickly.  you don’t want to be singing the same songs every week; but by the same token you don’t want to be teaching a new song every week.  you don’t want so many songs coming at the congregation that even the best musical memories can’t keep up. 

so how can we overcome some of these problems? here are some helpful thoughts:

-have a plan when you introduce a new song.  maybe sing it two weeks in a row, take a week off from it, and then do it again the fourth week.  by then, it should be ingrained enough to be put into the regular rotation.
-be creative with how you introduce new songs.  maybe have someone sing it as special music.  put it in your playlist for pre- and post-service music.  have someone play it instrumentally during communion.
-attack the senses.  human brains attach memory to sensory things.  maybe play a video with the new song as the background music.  be creative with this.
-if you are not a worship leader, but someone in the congregation: i encourage you to give new songs a chance.  don’t immediately tune something out because you don’t like the intro or the first couple lines.  it might take hearing a song 2 or 3 times all the way through before you realize its greatness.  as part of the congregation, help the worship leader out and make an effort.
-perhaps the first time or two you sing a new song you could include sheet music in the bulletin so people will be able to follow along with the melody….
-and on that note…are hymn books so bad? why is no one coming out with hymn books of all the newer songs being done?  maybe the name “hymn book” has a bad connotation.  what if we retitled it “song book” or “worship song book” and filled it with new songs?  maybe you could make a “song book” for your congregation.  this would go a long way!

these are just a few thoughts and suggestions on how to try to cure them. 

what are you doing in your church to address these problems? what are some other reasons that no one is singing that i can discuss in the coming posts?

thanks for checkin in.

until next time, go find a quiet place with no one around. turn on your favorite song, and belt it out at the top of your lungs.

the highest and the greatest instructional video

happy december 10th everyone! it’s the day in between my fiance and my grandpa’s birthday.  big day for me.  knocked out an awesome birthday with maggie.  i think she was pleased.

anyway here is a new instructional video for you.  this is tim hughes’ song “the highest and the greatest.”  it’s a great song, lyrically and musically. 

enjoy!

as always let me know any comments questions or concerns you have.  if there are any songs you would like me to do, please let me know!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, take a fun holiday hay ride. dress warm.

nobody’s singing (pt. 1) – bad keys

one of the biggest complaints i hear from worship ministers is this: “it looked like nobody was singing today.”

my usual response is, “well that’s probably because they weren’t.”

this astounding phenomenon happens for many reasons.  for a few blogs we will examine some of these.

today’s heinous reason for noticing the “no-singers”:  the song leader has pitched the song in a terrible key.  this is a problem taking our churches and conventions and retreats and whatever else by storm (or more accurately, taking them by ”quiet”). 

i was fortunate enough to have a lady at the church i worked at in tennessee (the one and only becky swain), who came to me early in my ministry and said, “isaac, i couldn’t sing a single song today. they were all too low or too high.”  and so from then on, every week becky would tell me if the songs were pitched okay that week, and it greatly benefitted the singing of our church.

some of the problems:

#1. we have men blindly picking songs for groups mostly made up of women singers.  it’s just a fact of life, women are much more likely to sing than men.  yet most of our song leaders are men, who don’t have much of a clue what’s a comfortable range for a woman to sing in.  if you are a male and a song/worship leader; i encourage you to find a woman to bounce ideas off of.  this woman should NOT be an amazing singer.  you just want your average, run of the mill, i-sing-at-church woman.  play something for her and ask if it’s comfortable to sing along with. 

#2. many of these men worship leaders (and women as well) have this notion that they need to show off their pipes.  again, we know you are a good singer from that solo you did during offering last week.  however, this time is about congregational singing and everyone doing it together.  don’t sing at the top of your range just to prove you can do it.  sing in a range that johnny q. churchgoer feels comfortable vocalizing. 

#3. there aren’t enough women song leaders.  what a revelation this could be.  let’s just eliminate the middle (wo)man from problem #1 and have women be the song leaders.  they sure do know what key they can sing in and don’t have to ask anyone.  however if you are a woman worship leader, i encourage you to find a man to bounce ideas off of about where to pitch a song. 

#4. we have too many chris tomlin wannabees.  chris tomlin can get up. plain and simple.  the dude can sing high.  we’re talking bono range.  there is absolutely no point in singing songs congregationally in the same key they are recorded in, unless it’s already manageable.  chris tomlin and all these other guys do that on their albums because they can and that’s what they get paid to travel around the world and do.  so if you want people to sing along, i suggest you don’t try and do “indescribable” in the key of “B” as it’s recorded.  you probably want to bring it down to “G”.

#5. we always have full band music.  have an acoustic week.  people have to sing then.  during a full-out blaring music set no one knows if the voices are missing.  turn the music down and listen.  then people will sing.  no more wondering what happened to the voices. 

all right! we are on are way to no more singless sundays or wednesdays or whenever it is that you gather.  i know you want people to sing along.  so think through what key you will play and sing your songs in the next time you lead a worship service.  or better yet encourage your church’s music leader to think about it (or read this post).

thanks for checkin’ in.

until next time, go learn 5 spanish words.

relieving advent stress at church

this time of advent is a very exciting season of the year for the church!  it’s also a very tiring one for those who are on church staffs.  check out your church’s christmas/advent calendar tomorrow when you are at church.  there seem to be several events happening every week.  you’ve got the hanging of the greens, the kids choir concert, the youth concert, the adult concert, the christmas dinner theater, the christmas eve service, the angel breakfast, angel tree happenings, the sunday school class white elephant gift exchange, and on and on and on.

church staff members are going to be stretched thin staffing events and planning and being there for every one of them. 

i encourage you:

1. if you are a church staff member, find ways to spend extra time with your family.  use the time to be a good leader and practice your delegation skills.  find the people who are your super volunteers and rely on them to play a major role in some of the advent activities.  share the load.  you don’t need to shoulder the whole load.

2. if you are not a church staff member, look for ways to help out this season.  don’t just wait around to be asked.  be active.  if you are worried about losing out on time with your family, think about all the time staff members who are missing out on time with their family.  or better yet, how about your whole family helping out together?

this is a great and beautiful time of the year for the church.  it can also be a very stressful one for many reasons.  your church needs you.  be a part of what’s happening!

lead me to the cross instructional video

howdy friends! welcome to the most recent video.  sorry it’s been a few days in between.  youtube, the internet, and i have been at odds.  but here we are, back in the game.  i believe i have successfully conquered my two foes (which is quite a feat because youtube and the internet are big monsters).

anyway, this video is for hillsong united’s “lead me to the cross.”  it is recorded in “D” and led by a female vocalist.  if you are a guy (and your voice has dropped due to the wonder that is puberty) then you will want to bump it to F, F#, or G.

enjoy!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, find yourself a nice fun way to work off the thanksgiving fat.  have a pillow fight!