This is a must for every worship leader, musician, and singer! With no improvisation, we might as well just play a cd and sing along to it. Sometimes I get asked the question, as a drummer, ‘How do you know which drum to hit and when?’ The answer is very simple. I don’t. I make it up as I go!
To me, improvisation is the spice of life. The cherry on top. The pep in your step. It is the point at which you finish playing someone else’s music, and play straight from your heart. Improvisation requires no agenda. No plan.
Honestly, improvisation is my all-time-favorite part of any church service. When the entire worship team is together and lifting up their own song and their own worship. It’s raw. It’s unpolished. And it is beautiful.However, it does require a great deal of practice and communication. Imagine if everyone closed their eyes, didn’t listen to one another, and played their own song. Terrible. On our worship team, usually when we finish our last song in practice we move into a time of improv and personal worship. And immediately after that we move into our pre-service prayer time.
Pre-service prayer time is one of the best times (in my opinion) for some real raw improv worship. It is just an amazing time to sit down with a simple chord progression and worship together with an awesome atmosphere. If you don’t have a pre-service prayer time, I encourage you to get one started in your church ASAP! It has changed our worship time dramatically!
Improvisation does not have to be incredibly difficult or complex. In fact, I think it’s best when it is super simple! Simplicity does not take away from the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit. It allows him to move. If things are overly complex, musicians make mistakes, people get distracted from their worship, things get frustrating, etc, etc.
So PLEASE get away from the norm and from the everyday! Put some spice in your worship and worship from the heart. God loves our creativity.
The Art of Worship Leading – Part One