Knowing The Appropriate Use Of Instruments For Your Setting - Part 1

August 22, 2025•6 min read

"...it's also important to remember that instruments don't make worship happen - it's the heart behind it that matters."

How do you know which instruments are appropriate to use in a church service? Does it really even matter?

Well, over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be looking at 5 pointers on knowing which instruments could be used and how.

Much of this has to do with the dynamics of your church. In particular, the number of musicians or singers you have available and willing to help out, their skill level, and also determining how many musicians are too many for the size of your church, are all important things to factor in. And then after that’s sorted, you need to consider a few other things concerning the appropriate use and blending of certain instruments. These things will be the focus of the next couple of blog posts.

You may be in a situation where you’re the piano player, and you have some other musicians in your church who are willing to join in with you as you lead the congregation in worship.

What things should you be thinking about as you move in this direction?

Well, here's the first pointer...

The size of your church

This is an important consideration for a few different reasons. Firstly, if you have a very small church, you don’t really want to have more than a couple of musicians, as the sound may be too overbearing. However, that does depend upon what instruments you’re using. For example, a piano and an acoustic guitar will produce a very different sound from a piano and a bass guitar, which really wouldn’t be a good combination.

Also, the size of your church, though not always, will most likely relate to the size of the space you meet in. It’s a lot harder to keep the music at an appropriate level in a smaller room with only a few people, and therefore, it’s a lot harder to hear the congregation sing. It’s essential to consider the acoustics of your building and the degree to which the music echoes around, like in a school gym, or if it’s a flat sound because there’s lots of carpet and curtains.

So our aim here is to set things up musically, in such a way that you can maximize the level of congregational singing that is heard, and avoid, if possible, a situation where you only hear the instruments and lead vocalists.

This doesn’t always have to be the case though, as you may already know the singer or musician and be quite comfortable playing together. It really just depends on your situation, the approach you take to the songs, and how you communicate about who does what.

The most efficient way to manage this is if you can communicate well about what songs you’re doing, including the keys and any other pertinent info, and then you try to arrange a rehearsal at church on the morning of the Sunday service. This allows you to make the most of the time as you’d be there anyway; you just might need to go a little earlier.

So that’s a few things to consider related to the size of your church.

Acoustic vs Electronic Sound

What I’m referring to hear, is whether in your church all the instruments are likely to be played acoustically; this would include ones like piano, acoustic guitars, violins and cello. Or, if they are to be played electronically, such as when you have an electronic keyboard, a plug in guitar (which you can still have as an acoustic guitar), and microphones.

What you want to avoid is having a mixture of the two; for example, a grand piano played acoustically with the lid open, but a guitar and vocals coming through a sound system. I actually experienced this recently when visiting a church, and it certainly creates a very unbalanced and distracting sound. This particular setup consisted of an electronic piano playing solely through its own speakers, and then, in addition, there were three or four singers plus an acoustic guitar, which were going through a sound system. The problem here was that the church was long and narrow, and so for those sitting at the back, it was mainly the guitar and singers that could be heard, with some quiet piano in the background, which was there enough to be more distracting than complimentary. That may have been the best they could do, and we did our best to focus on worshipping the Lord, but it still was a distraction nonetheless.

Having said this, if it’s done well and sounds balanced, you can have a mixture of electronic and non-electronic sound. An example of this might be if you have a small room with an upright piano, but you need microphones for the singers and acoustic guitar. In that situation, you would do well to mic up the piano and use that system to send more piano to the other side of the room, to help balance out the natural sound that is coming from the piano itself. Essentially, it all comes down to creating a sound that does not hinder people from focusing on worship.

When it comes to acoustic vs electronic instruments, just make sure you have a think about which ones are available, and how they can be balanced. It may be that you create two teams of musicians, balancing the instruments that work best together.

That being said, it's also important to remember that instruments don't make worship happen - it's the heart behind it that matters. The priority shouldn't be placed upon making sure multiple instruments are included, if it results in more stress and distraction, and ends up taking the focus off of the goal, which of course, is worshipping God, and bringing Him glory through it.

And next week, we'll be looking at the last three pointers in this subject of knowing the appropriate use of instruments for your setting.

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.