How Worship Leaders can THINK like a Pro Music Director | Will Johnson at Churchfront Conference
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
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Musicbed SyncID:
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"Sounding like Bethel is good but sounding like YOU is better"
THANK YOU for saying that!!!
..but WHY would anyone want to sound like Bethel? They're historically blasphemous
Amen, but only if you can sound decent lol
Because a lot of new learners will take this to make a mess.
One of the vocalists at rehearsal spun around, pointed her finger at me and loudly proclaimed: "He's not playing it like the mp3!", to which the worship leader replied, "The mp3 is merely a suggestion."
Bethel is satanic, it’s good to sound opposite
@@elleondejuda4681 may not work with new learners, if that is what God gives you then structure may be the way to go. God bless you.
"We don't prepare so we can worship, our preparation is worship."
Been playing in worship bands for 25 years. Only in the last few have we had a music director. And interestingly enough, I’ve noticed nothing different. We just need people who can play and someone who can get it all organized. That’s all we need. No need for fancy production and lights. Just authenticity.
If yall were already pretty good when the MD joined then there might’ve been less room for improvement. If yall were not good and the MD hasn’t changed that then he’s probably not wanting to hurt any feelings
Not talking about fancy lights, the external trappings and all but having an MD helps with overall organisation and clarity. During the worship set, it also keeps the band tog so that mistakes (which distract congregation) are minimised. That’s been my experience
amen! we need to stop the lights and smoke stuff. Quality is important but actual dedicated worship is more.
We need to have JOY and know that we're doing this for The Lord, first and foremost. Then some rehearsal ( alone and together ) does help 😂 A music director should be there to help focus everyone, guide, make suggestions, and rally the family.
......awww, why did he put that first band on blast 😑 He could have at least played the audio, not the video.
@@user-qj2cq4dv3k never had a music director. That was the worship pastors job. And he did it. And we were amazing.
Been a musician and playing in bands since 1964......got saved and joined chruch bands.... the first thing I noticed was the piano player had no idea how to play as a keyboard player, and stepped all over everyone else's parts, the other members , for the most part, never played in a " real band " to know how to stay in their lanes. Or that lanes even existed .
When the band leader is a piano player with no band
experience, its so hard to put into practice what this amazing brother, Will Johnson is trying to explain,. For decades I have wanted to hear what he is finally teaching. Thank you.... on a side
note, if I were a leader, I would not have the camera man zoom in on someone taking a lead.... what is that about.... our focus should be on Jesus, not the guitar player.. as radical as this may
sound, I'd put the entire band behind a curtain, they don't need to be seen and draw attention to themselves..... they need to be heard. What Will is teaching is so right on. But a real challenge
to accomplish when the majority of the members are inexperienced in real band playing and end up playing as a group of individual players , not a member of a band. I know, I know, the
Holy Spirit can over come this, but that is too often used aa an excuse for the individual members to avoid the part of Will"s presentation about excellence. Too often , members are allowed
into bands who are not ready to be in one, and are told not to worry, the Holy Spirit will cover you lack of practice......my response would be, " practice to show yourself approved ". Any one who has had praise and worship band experience for any amount of them, know how the members are attacked by the enemy, and how keeping the interactions with other band mates in line with a love walk... can be difficult.... this is why its so important for each member to be in the word, constantly.....and , in my experience, that has not been the case... a great praise and worship leader named Phillip Renner, makes this point so clearly. that if you are not spiritually prepared ( daily time spent with Him in his Word ) you will not be able to give the congregation something you
don't have..... His anointing is in your preparation, which then translated to sunday mourning.....Thank you Will. you were truly led by the Holy Spirit to go this presentation.... I prayer would be
for every band leader to watch, and re-watch this, and take it to prayer on how to incorporate it in their situation... dd
Everything he says is RIGHT ON! I already do all this, but didn't know how to articulate all of it to my young worship leaders that are still learning. This is perfect and about 10 years of experience in 30 minutes.
why is most church's worship music so loud? we're trying to worship God and their sound levels are like we're in a night club instead
@@waynev439 I would say that typically it provides dynamic energy and allows the congregation to rare back and sing out without worrying about their voice being judged.
@@waynev439 It's usually a mix of a couple of issues. Gain structure at the output stage (too much headroom), not using highpass filtering to clean up the lower end and remove harmonics from the upper end, and lack of subtractive EQ to prevent harsh frequency buildup.
@@waynev439that’s when the sound man needs to be approached by the Pastor or worship leader to turn the sound down if to many people complain. If it’s just a couple of people think it’s to loud then get ear protection..
lol, it's music not getting into heaven now? you're a joke you really are.
Loved this live! Can’t wait to listen back to the whole thing again.
This is awesome. There is so much gold in here to unpack. I love the pastor first, musician second approach. I’ve used a similar approach like this for 20 years. Over the years, team members have come to me almost apologizing for needing time off to deal with a life issue. They feel like they’re letting me or the team down. I assure them that they’re not letting anyone down, that they can take whatever time they need and I ask how I can help. And usually send a gift with them. I always follow up within a couple of days or possibly a call from another staff pastor. I remind them that we’re a church first and we’re here to serve them, not the other way around.
❤
So good! I'm going to adopt this!
This is great! As much as it seems a certain musician seems ‘indispensable’, the person’s spiritual health matters first.
This was one of my most memorable talks from this years conference! Also one I plan to take notes on and adjust my ministry around it. Thank you for sharing!
This is one of the best talks on this topic I’ve ever seen. Simple. Practical. Great examples. Amazing job
This is SO helpful... many good points and tips I will start implementing in our church's worship ministry. Thank you Will Johnson and thank you Churchfront!
Been saying lots of this stuff for years. So good to hear someone saying it at a conference.
Whoever reading this, God never sends you into a situation alone, God goes before you, He stands beside you, He walks behind you. Whatever situation you have right now be confident. God is with you. Amen 🙏🏾
Bro!
Will Johnson totally cleared up some notions for me! 😊
He’s ligit!
This is a great topic :) thanks Will for bringing these points out in the wild :)
as a young and new worship leader, i found this incredibly helpful
Imagine going to the comment section looking for a stage or platform … let your fruit be what is seen not your thoughts or beliefs . It’s not about you. Great Job Church Front , keep giving resources to churches looking to learn .
So much wisdom here. ❤
❤this kind of teaching is so helpful to all Churches Thanks A lot Will Johnsons
I am a new worship pastor and I loved this talk thx for sharing!
This is so God! Solid teaching.
Very useful information here! A lot of this should be common sense, but when dealing with newer musicians, they can be very clueless about what may seem obvious to more experienced musicians. Great explanations on how to approach these situations!
I can't believe how good this is.
That was really great information, given with love and wisdom! Thank you!
All things I do but even better. Gold bro. Sharing this with my team. Thank you.
Great content! Good heart for worship with practical steps to get there.
This was great, thank you!
Really good information! Thank you for putting this out.
The leaders in our church thing they know everything about sound, NONE of them have any formal education or training in audio systems but they claim to be the experts !!!
Same with ours lol. To be honest I am probably the only one who actually is taking a course on audio, and know a lot more than the current musicians (since I am one) and sound guys.
But I learned most by myself, books and trying and experimenting. So I know, how to set a mixing console, that it sounds good.
I have no formal music education. I have architectural engineering education. However I have been an onsite recording artist my whole adult life, and own a recording studio as of summer of this year. I volunteer for our church's worship team as A1 A2 A3, fill in Technical Director, Video broadcast controller, and lighting. I taught myself all of it, and have a better grasp on it that a lot of college educated degree holders. Experience done right is self learning and training. I trust the road dogs more than the university attendees. However I have respect for degree holders because they know the names of the connectors, gear and loads (usually)
Have faith in your crew, give them space to grow and help them get that experience.
And some tech guys think they know how certain instruments should sound like 😂
Bro, everyone I know in the music industry is self taught. Chill!
Thanks Will Johnson, Im loaded with valuable information that i will certainly relay to our church here in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Region...Thanks
I had the pleasure of Playing with and being led by Will when he was in Australia. It was an incredible night of worship and Will was a heck of a leader.
It was certainly a beautiful night of worship! Praying you are well, friend!
Funny seeing you guys here
Hey friends. Praying you’re both well.
Best video I've watched on worship band rehearsal! Thank you for these practical and wise tips.
I’m the bass player at my church, and man this video was very informative.
Muchas Gracias! God Bless you brother, keep it up!
Will Johnson is BY FAR my favourite music director giving this talk at this conference at this time.
... but for real, this dude is my fave.
Wow, this is an awesome presentation! So much knowledge packed into 34 minutes! Thank you!
Bro, such a great video. Simple and clear.
Great teaching!!
This is gold brother!
Loved the part about the bass player and drummer being together. When I play bass I'm fortunate to be next to the drummer. I watch the drummers kick foot (usually the right) so I can match my playing and be in sync with him. Of course I had to tell them--we have several drummers--I DO NOT have a foot fetish!!
It’s awesome! So helpful, Thank you! Tomorrow I will be speaking to my worship band, and I’m going to use your advices ( and the chart😇)
I think what's funny is that people think that we need to be in the right frame of mind to usher in the presence of God. when in reality, God is always present. It's not about bringing God's presence to us, it's about bringing us into God's presence.
That is true, and yet does God move more at some times than others? And if so, what about the posture of his priests provokes such a manifest movement?
You have to have lights, worship PADS, no lights in the audience. and if you say one word about any of that you will get blasted for not being excellent and for not knowing how church should be.
No matter your Theological background, this is full of golden nuggets.
IT WAS E X C E L L E N T!!! THANK YOU ❤🌟
Amazing content! I will share ideas from this to my worship team :)
AMAZING INFORMATION!!
Reading thru the comments I can see that everyone is focusing on different aspects of music/worship to what I’d say each one of you are correct.
We should be sympathetic to MATURITY be it spiritual, biblical, musically technical, etc.. not everyone is matured in each area equally. Some musicians are highly skilled with a basic of biblical knowledge and basic spirituality awareness…others are way spiritual and basic at musical abilities. I believe most of the issues is the clash of this. Some think that spirituality is greater than music, musicians think that music drives spirituality, others think word awareness is greater than spirituality and or music.
All 3 are equally important and it takes maturity to reach a balance.
Some houses of prayer have their teams worship in an empty room for an extended time to focus and mature them.
Hoo boy you have no idea what goes on man
Love it. Great points
This is great! Thanks!
Best TED talk ever!
The important thing is that churches use what they have. You don't have to be Hillsong, Bethel, or professional to lead people to the throne. You just need some organization, humble leadership, and humble people that want to be a part of something great. In saying great, that is the moving of the Spirit and blessing of God in what you do, and that is leading open hearts to places that the Father wants to meet with them.
I have lead and been a part of worship teams over the years. The only thing I will say, is the old adage is true, the devil sneaks in through the choir door. People start wanting to be this or that, and we have to check our egos at the door...which can be hard, but the falls if allowed can be harder.
Very good! Thanks for the tips!
Good thoughts. Interestingly enough, I find that we, worship leaders including production/musicians/vocalists, act like Martha even though we are in the middle of supposedly a Mary moment. Preparation definitely helps, technically and spiritually. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this!!!
There is some gold in this! Great advice
Is there a link for the roadmap templates? If so which one is it. I couldn’t find it
CHOOSING THE RIGHT KEY IS REALLY IMPORTANT. Worship leaders need to make sure that any given worship song is pitched in a key which most of the congregation can sing to without straining their voices. All too often the keys which various well-known worship groups choose only suits tenor and soprano voices - but the majority of people CANNOT SING THAT HIGH.
If in doubt, ask a guy with a baritone range voice or a lady with a mezzo-soprano voice. If THEY are comfortable then most of the congretation will be to.
As a guide, don't go above C-5 on the piano (the C above Middle C) and don't go below F-3 on the piano (the F below Middle C) and just o long as the melody doesn't go above or below those notes it should be OK.
I usually don't go above Bb-5 (the Bb above Middle C) - because anything much higher won't suit most of the congegation.
One of the problems with choosing to use pre-recorded and professionally produced songs is that great though they mostly are, they really don't consider the vocal ranges of ordinary people.
Equally, merely slavishly using the same key as you might find on You Tube - whether that's Elevation Music or Bethel, or whatever - is that all too often the lead singers are tenors and sopranos, and they simply don't realise that other people CANNOT sing the high notes which are for them, easy to reach.
It all has to do with being kind and considerate to other people. When you do this, it honours The Lord.
Great information!
Only in the American church do these problems exist, "The father is seeking those who worship in Spirit and Truth".
Thank you. for sharing This.
Hey guys? Where can we get the roadmap templates? I don’t think they are linked below. 17:52
this is on point. thank you
This is SO good!
Some of this is a stylistic choice as well. Example; a choir coming in during a quiet part can be powerful. Know your team and know your congregation, as Will said. Above all... minister to the Lord. Great information in here, thank you!
As a veteran worship leader I have to remind myself that I have to keep listening and learning. This talk was quite valuable.
Appreciate the clarification in how to.
Great. I was really impressed by amount of good accents.
Awesome!!
As a production guy, I still appreciated the low-quality JPEGs. Great talk, Will. Thanks brother!
Great Talk
Sounds good!
Good solid principles 👍🏼
Thanks for the video
Just an answer to my requests
I was playing in a church band . The leader of the band thought they knew more fired me for? The band was blown away. Sways on time no problems except just a little discussion. She had no idea what to do or sound knew what to do.
Your post is confusing. I read your post and not sure what you’re trying to say. Seems to me that this leader fired you? Why were you fired?
As a bass player, I am feeling personally attacked at 33:00 LOL! Great video.
😂😂
Very professional
Thinking so many different thoughts... i think that one of the most important things is 'good musicians know when not to play'. Not understanding that is where most issues will arise. Remember that we are not there just to play music , we are there to lead the congregation in their worship. Music is our tool to do that. Keep focused on the Lord, let the Holy Spirit lead you and not your own musical brain, and certainly not your ego. Play less, be prayerful about everything you are playing as ypu are playing it. As a leader, let the Spirit change the plan, but have a plan that is simple and clear. When leading, lead the team, the team will then lead the congregation. Just my thoughts. (Im not a highly experienced worship leader, but an experienced live musician). Just like wanting to hear a pithy sermon that is not overy long and wordy, we want simple and uncomplicated music being played by a team, not a group of individual musicians. Another idea is get off the stage. Save the stage for performances. The team are not performers, being off the stage is a good reminder of that. Space availability can be an issue, but it helps to get the minds of the worshippers off the musicians so they can worship the Lord and be in His presence. Just my two bits worth. Overall a good presentation I thought.
Oh, and have people who know what they are doing on the sound for goodness sake. It all starts with the monitors and the drums. If those two things are bad everything else will be also.
14:10 As a keys player that's played that part (in Make Room), it does take some concentration to play that arp the entire song. We actually stop that pattern in some of the choruses and bridge not because we can't play it but because in our live setting that pattern tends to start sounding a little old/stale after the second chorus or so.
We have no choice but to use Multitracks on some songs because it is just me and a drummer with an occasional bass player. We don't have a click track because we like the sound of a stereo mix. If I'd have a full worship band, then I would not use backing tracks at all. Since there is usually 14 or less in our congregation, we don't have the musicianship to choose from. So using tracks has been a blessing for me and frees me up to worship more and be cerebral less.
Don’t feel like you are less of a worship team just because you use tracks. They are there to enhance and I’m your case makes a good resource for your team!
it’s so aggravating. I’m not the greatest engineer but I did a couple years of schooling. Anything I don’t know I refer back to my teachers. I come in and try to implement it and as soon as I get everything set nice our gentle hearted media guy decks the volume a ton. It’s all vocals and itty bitty instrument sound. I’ve tried to explain over again but it’s never implemented. I want to drop it all
Wow this was really good. Yes I was that guitar player a few times!!!! LOL
Lots of good nuggets for CCM worship. This helps me understand now why all worship songs in predominately white churches sound the same. There is little space for creativity or expression in the moment. It also helps me understand why their services are shorter too...lol. everything is packaged in a nice neat little box of predictability. So much of the musical instruction around dynamics is cultural and I'm glad he did at least clarify and say this is how we do it HERE.
This. Is. GREAT! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Thanks for this video. There’s a place where I can see the points of “rehearsal parts” 1 and 3? (relational & spiritual). Anyway, THANKS A LOT for this. Greetings from México 🇲🇽
There is NO substitute for experience
Will Johnson! 😍
worship bands I've played in, witnessed, and have had conversations with seem to discourage good players from joining. ever times I see a "wow" player show up he only lasts a couple weeks and then he's gone. I know of no drummer (my self 60years) who wants to be put in the plastic prison. I've inquired several places why only worship bands have this set up, they all say the same thing,"the drummer can't keep a beat so we can now turn his sound down so we don't hear him" Hmmmm that makes me want to join, sure! I know of no guitar player who isn't constantly adjusting he's amp (weather, humidity, is the chapel empty or are there many people in the room dulling certain frequencies ) . but now his amp is off in the abyss somewhere. "that makes me want to join" (been player guitar for 45 years) well now you have someone running the sound system many who have gone to training classes but they aren't musicians. They can barely at times keep the sound equal for all players to be heard let alone adjust the EQ on drums to make them sound like..........drums. Or I can't hear the guitarist, he's playing his heart out but can't hear him and he (example) needs a whole lot more hi EQ. we must not be expressing this in teaching sound engineers.
Is there a part 2 of this? I appreciate your effort in creating this content.
Thank you this video it really helps a lot!.
Are there books available that deals with similar topics, but is quite broad especially in a topic that focuses on musicians, sounds and worship leaders?. Thanks
Jimmy Swaggert's band. So good. Give me that old time religion not bland U2. God bless ya'll.
Worship groups should be at the back of the church projecting forwards over fellow worshipers, not at the front getting any attention but assisting the focus forwards and up to the only One who matters, Jesus. It shouldn't be a show but a fellowship of Spirit lifting high. Not entertainment but pure praise, directed to the One True God.
2:40 "Make better decisions." - Will Johnson
We just need to have rhythm and good on stage monitors for each musician. And have a great sound engineer. Who knows what they are doing and knows how to equalise the instruments to balance perfectly for their respective rooms and/or altars.
Monitors on stages are a terrible idea for churches. In-ears preferably, or headphones is what is needed. If you can't control the sound on stage you can't mix FOH without having issues.
Sound (&Light) Artists are not appreciated well enough. You don’t see them, you don’t ‚hear‘ them. Though they catch me when I fall and make the best excellence out of my mishandling of microphones and instruments.
🙏❤️🙏
@@TheOriginalCoda My experience is that IEMs preclude real time relationship among the musicians, because everyone is in their own little world. I realize that it is the standard in the modern large high tech church, which makes me appreciate the years of service in the low tech church world.
This is a great talk. I'm so depressed by some of the comments though. Those who keep quoting Matthew 18:20 are naive to this topic. They seriously miss the message of this talk. This is not about creating a more entertaining worship experience, it's about musically worshipping God with excellence, like we're told to over and over in the largest book of the bible. Music is hugely important to God, so worship teams should take that very soberly and do it with excellence and cooperatively work to enhance and not distract from the purpose of gathering. To artfully create music is absolutely within the heart of God, as evidenced in the Psalms, which again is the largest book of our sacred text.
Is there a downloadable pdf for the song arrangement chart you did?
When did worship become a performance? When did the platform become the stage? When the world comes into the church.
Love the Mary and Martha analysis that it's about TIMING. Which, you could easily have included a musical pun there.
Great ❤
well the scripture says:
Matt 18:
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
and he is in us, so he his there no matter what our worship sounds like
Totally agree with you.
But what about the newer Christians and new visitors that aren't at that level yet and are distracted by some of these things discussed?
Of course every band has hiccups and mishaps from time to time, even if your full blown tought and practice 10 hours a day. So if it happens from time to time for those guys, I would think not being somewhat prepared it would happen quite a bit more. Music is sweater too the ear when properly prepared. You can't lead worship to the new folks if you kinda know what your doing. There's a whole lot more details to, they would stay vs. they wouldn't.
As a drummer that counts us in after having a song for 3 weeks and nobody knows what to do including the leader... I usually pull up the song and then we spend more time learning at rehearsal, every week. As the drummer my job becomes less worshipful and more difficult and more of like trying to hang on, if that makes any sense.
This is a good lesson to gage off of. Do what works for God, Pastor, the worship team and last but not least by all means the congratulation.
Stay blessed 😁
can we please have a link to the roadmap templates?
I would love a link to get the Template if possible.
Less is more.. know when NOT to play! Amen!
At 26:39 you showed us a sheet with how you're playing battle belongs!! I NEED SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!!!
Not for that particular song, but so that I can systemize how we communicate the vision of the song better than we do right now!