The Unique Challenges And Blessings Of Playing With Other Musicians - Part 1
"Serving the Lord together as a team of musicians is a beautiful way of showing the unity we have in Christ, as we bring together our individual giftings, and lay aside our personal preferences, for the ultimate goal of bringing glory to God."
What are some of the challenges and blessings of playing with other musicians?
Recently, the underlying theme of our posts has been focused on collaboration with other musicians, which includes singers as well. We've looked at things like how to determine which instruments are appropriate for your specific setting and how to effectively lead a team of musicians.
But now, we're going to be focusing on some other factors that play a part in this. In the next couple of posts, we’ll be looking at some of these challenges and blessings that are more unique to our roles as musicians in the church.
This week, we'll be looking at 3 unique challenges of playing with other musicians. The first one is...
The extra time required for rehearsing
This is important to consider, particularly if you are a church piano player who is really stretched for time and already struggling to fit everything in. Whilst it might be nice to add another instrument or vocal, once you have to fit in a rehearsal or two in the mix, it’s going to take up a lot more time.
There might be some situations where you are already comfortable playing with the singer or musician, and therefore don't need the same amount of time to practice. 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 do this is by communicating all of the important information (such as song choice, keys, etc..) to your team ahead of time, and then organize, if possible, a rehearsal at church on Sunday morning before the service.
The additional prep time for selecting and organizing your music
This relates to time again, which, if you have plenty of it, won’t be an issue. However, once you add another musician or musicians into the mix, there’s more time required for selecting appropriate music, making sure it’s a key that suits everyone, especially the singer, and also that it’s at a skill level everyone can read and play. It's also important that the other musicians get the music in good time to practice, which is even harder if the songs are chosen for you and you don’t get them until late in the week.
It’s an effort worth putting in, but you just need to make allowance for the extra time it will take.
The interpersonal dynamics of musicians who can be “sensitive”
I don’t want to sound overly pessimistic with this point, but it does need to be acknowledged and at least considered.
The simple fact is, Satan loves nothing more than to ruin relationships. If he can do that through worship team members, he will, especially with musicians who can be a little “sensitive” at times, perhaps taking things too personally. And then, once someone gets in the flesh and gets offended or holds a grudge, there’s nothing worse than that kind of tension when you are all supposed to turn up on Sunday and play together, as you lead God’s people in worship.
It’s really important to avoid having a situation in which your music is all in unison, but your team doesn’t have Christian unity. Remember to bear this in mind and do your part to be easy to work with.
Serving the Lord together as a team of musicians is a beautiful way of showing the unity we have in Christ, as we bring together our individual giftings, and lay aside our personal preferences for the ultimate goal of bringing glory to God.
These three challenges are certainly not reasons to not work with other musicians; they are simply things you should know in advance so you’re not taken by surprise.
And next week, we'll looking at three unique blessings of playing with other musicians.
[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.
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