There are so many different ways to play a worship song on keys! While that sentence may seem overwhelming, it's actually an opportunity to express your creativity, to bring something of yourself to your team and to your worship.
For example:
- You get to make choices about how you play
- What sounds to use
- What chords to play
- Which melodies and rhythms to replicate
- Where to simplify, or where to add more complexity
And, if you have a strong piano background, you might find even more ways to play because you have more tools at your disposal- knowledge of scales, chords, modes, arpeggios, and so on.
But, before you go and attempt to change everything,
A word of caution.
The greater your skill, the more restraint you need to develop, these actually go hand in hand. If your goal is to thoughtfully make melodic choices that enhance the song’s overall sound alongside the other people in your band- you're headed in the right direction.
Check out this new video resource below to help you learn how to do this and help spark some creative ideas about what kinds of things to play using several different worship songs as a springboard.
I love this and is really inspirational. I could listen and listen and listen.
Nice Video! This is a great concept, well-implemented. The idea of a hybrid approach between a direct copy of the recordings and more classical approaches is very often the sweet spot. Nice job of offering multiple options on a variety of songs that churches are utilizing.
One consideration, however: if there’s ONE main thing about contemporary playing in a band context it is rhythmic precision! Might have been better to illustrate these options to a click, so that we are hearing the rhythmic integrity. Anyway, I can imagine this will be a very helpful video for developing worship keyboardists.