How can I prepare for unplanned moments in worship?
I grew up in wildly Pentecostal and Charismatic environments. “Flowing” in and out of songs was normal for me – any moment anything could happen. But I’ve learned that wasn’t – and definitely isn’t – the case for most people. Many worship leaders are hungry to engage in dynamic worship, but they’re unsure how to go about it.
Recently I gave a teaching at a conference about “Spontaneous and Dynamic Worship” and the turnout was far greater than I anticipated. Most of them engaged with something like: “We WANT to do this, but we don’t know where to begin.”
There is a spiritual dynamic that requires discernment to know what to do when you come to those moments, but there are also practical skills that will either make or break the execution of those moments. Some people seem to be gifted to “go with the flow,” but even still there is a technical know-how that those who are best at facilitating these kinds of moments have acquired.
I’ll break this topic up into two blogs: how to prepare yourself and how to prepare your team. First, let’s focus on you. So you want to prepare for spontaneous moments in worship? Where do you start?
Pour Into Your Musical Foundation
Whatever your instrument, learn the basics and don’t skip steps. I’m talking scales, inversions, diminished and augmented triads, circle of fourths, circle of fifths, the Nashville number system, etc. Approach learning your instrument as holistically as possible to build your confidence.
For vocalists – learn your range. Where are you most comfortable? Where do you tend to switch in and out of your head voice or falsetto? Beyond learning finger patterns on guitar or piano, basic theory and knowing your instrument will teach you what those patterns actually are and how they can be utilized.
This is the difference between an electrical engineer and someone who’s YouTubed “how to install a ceiling fan.” One knows how to do a singular skill. The other knows when to employ that skill and when to alter it in the moment upon discovering new information. The engineer’s training empowers them to be “spontaneous” based on the situation because no two buildings are exactly alike.
Let’s bring it back home: knowing basic music theory will arm you with the knowledge to be spontaneous when the opportunity is presented. Music theory 101 is like Electrical Engineering 101.
I’m not suggesting that you begin preparation for a doctorate in music composition, but in order to freely sing or play according to what you hear you will need a measure of proficiency in basic music theory.
This is a great place to start: Music Theory 101 and Advanced Music Theory.
You might be just fine without it, but I promise that when you learn the basics and strengthen your musical foundation a whole new world of playing and singing will be opened up to you.
Train Your Ear
The most important tool for learning to play or sing spontaneously – whether in worship or jazz – is a good ear. For some this comes naturally as a God-given gift, while others have to work at it. Either way it can be learned!
The aim of aural theory is to learn to recognize and identify musical intervals and patterns by listening.
Playing sheet music is about executing with your hands what your eyes see on the sheet. Playing spontaneously is about expressing what your ears hear or your mind imagines.
Very practically you can teach yourself by listening to music and analyzing the chord changes: was it a fourth or a fifth? Was that move from a major chord to a minor chord or major to major?
Analyze the melody: how far was that jump? Was it a full octave or was it a seventh or perhaps only a sixth?
If that’s daunting, start at a piano or a guitar and practice going from the tonic (one) to the two, then to the third, then the fourth. Learn to associate popular songs with the intervals (“Here comes the bride” = fourth; “twinkle, twinkle little star” = fifth; “my Bonnie lies over the ocean” = sixth; etc.).
If you feel pretty good with intervals and chord identification, the next level would be to play and sing a spontaneous melody at the same time. Like “scatting” but sing it on “lah” or “dah” or a simple consistent syllable. This is like “hand eye coordination” but for music.
Once you’ve got the melody (played and sung), add chords! Challenge yourself by adding secondary dominants or have the melody incorporate a note not in the key.
Do It As Much As Possible
The first day I played from a chord chart was exhilarating, but… it sounded terrible!
Like any other skill it had to be developed, and on the stage in a live performance wasn’t the place for that to happen.
As a pastor’s kid I spent plenty of time at the church building waiting on dad while he was in meetings. I would find a piano and play songs into the ground. First in the key of C then in F and G then in Eb and Bb. Before I knew it I could play a dozen songs in all twelve keys. Then I would create medleys – practice putting songs together, flowing in and out.
Then in college I played countless hours in prayer rooms with zero to five people in attendance. I would set arbitrary goals for myself like: spend the entire prayer hour playing only in the keys of B and F# (my two weakest keys at the time). Other times I would reverse and see how many keys I could flow in and out of in a five minute span without being too distracting (not sure if I recommend this, but I did it nonetheless!).
Another time I recorded an entire spontaneous album with the book of Ezekiel being read in my headphones trying to channel the various emotions within the text.
If you’re a singer then practice singing out phrases and melodies as well. Take a theme and see how many lines you can sing without repeating the same phrase.
None of us like to do things we don’t think sound good, but that’s the only way you gain skill.
The point is, there is no shortcut to doing it. Challenge yourself!
If you’re a guitarist, force yourself to play in keys that you would normally use a capo for. Your hands will learn new shapes, which might unleash some creativity deep down that you didn’t know was there.
If you’re a pianist, stay away from the transpose button and move songs up or down a half step from your typical comfort keys to train your hands.
If you’re a vocalist, spend some time writing out phrases based on a theme to open up your imagination. For instance, plan a session to riff on “the goodness of God.” In preparation, write out 20 phrases of various lengths that describe or elaborate on the goodness of God without using “goodness” over and over again.
Each of these are ways to challenge your mind, your hands, and your voice in preparation of moments that are already opportunities in the future.
The goal here is not to just be an amazing musician, but to be free to release the worship in your heart and mind through music.
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