Is it possible to effectively “minister” through music without any distractions?

A friend of mine recently encouraged church musicians to avoid as many distractions as possible; to “get out of the way” and let the message (of Christ) go out uninhibited and unencumbered by whatever novelties or dressings an artist might be tempted to add to their song. Noble advice. But is it really possible?

I’ll admit it: I’m a very distracted observer of worship music. Sometimes I can get so involved in the harmonies of the song, or the chord progressions of a song, or the part writing of a song, or the instrumentation of a song, or the vocal quality (or lack thereof) of the musician, that I completely forget what the song is all about. Some of that has to do with my training, some of it involves my preferences (likes and dislikes), and some of it (admittedly) involves my mood! That combined with all the other potential distractions during a song (babies crying, people coughing, lights humming, and on and on), it’s real easy to become inattentive to the actual message being conveyed.

Here’s my theory: If I (as the observer/worshiper) am distracted, it may very well be my own fault. I’m responsible to discipline my mind so that I am mainly focused on the message, not the vehicle for that message, or any other distractions.

But not all distractions are the fault of the listener. There are unavoidable things that will preoccupy people’s thoughts during the ministering of music (like if the sheet music falls off the piano, or if the soloist trips over the microphone cord, or if a bird flies through the sanctuary). The goal of a musician, however, should be to diminish as many distractions as possible.

I came up with a list of a few general things that are likely to “distract” your ministry of music. This isn’t a rant; it’s a ramble. It’s all in good humor, too. Maybe you can add to the list.

So here goes…

Ways to distract me so that I forget all about your message:

1. Impress me with your skill and technique. If people walk away raving about your ability, they weren’t ministered to. They were impressed. Is that ever the goal of music ministry?
2. Scare me with your lack of preparation. If you haven’t done enough practicing, please know that I will be on pins and needles the entire time you have the floor. I’d rather listen to a repeat than be troubled with anxiety attacks because you’re not quite ready.
3. Turn me off with your attitude. The world is full of people who are full of themselves. I don’t need to come to church to see and hear that. No show-offs in ministry. Ever. The message of Christ is gracious and pure; you need to be, too.
4. Disturb me with your hypocrisy. If your life doesn’t align with your message, I’m going to have difficulty staying focused. You have to walk the walk. It’s like the parent who said, “Do as I say, not as I do.” (Did a parent ever really say that?) Conversely, and amazingly, people willingly overlook a distraction-filled ministry when the one who’s ministering has a right heart. Funny how we can tell.

Let’s commit to ministering without distraction, and when we partake in worship by observation, let’s commit to not allow anything distract us!

So here’s a question for you: When performing a song, is it necessary to stick to the score exactly as written?

I recently read this excellent article in the Wall Street Journal by Byron Janis, a renowned concert pianist. Janis asserts that a performer doesn’t necessarily have to play the music precisely as the composer may have initially intended, and that in many cases the composers themselves actually performed their own pieces in various ways at different times.

I suppose those of us who have taken piano lessons (or any instrument, for that matter) have had it constantly drilled into us that we need to play accurately. Years of instructors peering over our shoulders and judges evaluating and critiquing have no doubt contributed to that.

And that’s not all that bad, is it? Does not poetry have to be mastered, so that the poet can—in good conscious—violate the various rules of poetry (and thereby create good poetry)?

Of course, the larger assumption is that you’re actually good at what you do. Have you ever seen someones failed attempt to “improve” the music? We all have. You can’t write good poetry if you don’t know what good poetry is. It just won’t work.

I never perform my choir music or piano arrangements quite the same way when I revisit them. In fact, I occasionally will come across something that was published five or ten years ago, and think, What was I thinking?! I would never write or play it like that today. I guess that’s part of growing as a musician.

And with more experience, and the more I learn, the less I feel the necessity of playing exactly what is written. I’m more interested in connecting with my audience, getting the point across, and ministering effectively. Those things are more important to the people I serve than any misguided notion of the “sacredness of the manuscript” that I might hold to. And I think the majority of the composers of the music I use would probably agree with and appreciate that position.

Disclaimer: The extent of my knowledge of poetry is from the Dr. Seuss books I read to my children.

Here’s a list of ten things you probably shouldn’t say to your church pianist, whether or not they’re true.

1. That song was one of my favorites. What was the name of it, again?
2. You play like a man.
3. Thanks for your offertory. It gave me just enough time to read the church bulletin from cover to cover.
4. You did a great job. Did you ever take piano lessons?
5. I would give my left arm to be able to play like you.
6. That was the best you’ve ever played. I only heard a few mistakes.
7. Did you sneak a Paul McCartney tune in your prelude?
8. How exactly did your song selection fit with the rest of the worship service?
9. I’m dizzy after hearing you play all those notes!
10. You sounded much better when I turned off my hearing aids.

Can you add to this list? What else should be left unsaid regarding church pianists?

Over this past weekend I attended a wedding at our church. It was a simple wedding, but I can honestly say it was done right. The music was great. It was uplifting and upbeat (in other words, I didn’t feel like I was attending a funeral!), and it was excellently performed.

Every bride and groom knows that preparing for “the big day” is no small task, and selecting music is just one of the many items on every wedding coordinator’s to-do list. So here’s my best advice for those seeking to choose music for their wedding ceremony. (Buckle up; this is amazingly profound.)

Your wedding ceremony is… well, a ceremony. (Insightful, huh?) I like to view it as a service. In fact, I might assert that it’s a type of worship service. After all, as believers in Christ, it’s a great opportunity for you as a couple to openly acknowledge your relationship with God before all your friends and family. You’re identifying yourselves with Christ, and saying, We want Christ to be the center of our marriage.

I’m not saying that you should view the primary purpose of your wedding as an opportunity to evangelize every lost soul who walks in the door (though I can’t think of a better occasion to accept Christ as Savior), sing congregational hymns (though I’ve seen that done effectively), or take an offering (that would be a first).

What I am saying is that viewing your wedding as a worship service will help your decision making process. For instance, just because you like a particular song, or a song means a lot to you as a couple for whatever reason, doesn’t mean that it’s the right song for your wedding ceremony. Similarly, just because a song is a new chart-topper, or it’s traditionally used at weddings, doesn’t necessarily make it the right fit for your wedding.

Here’s what I’m getting at: Your wedding music is an opportunity to share a message. It’s a message that will be associated with you as a couple. Ask yourselves, What do we want our message to be?

Looking back at my wedding, we had so many messages. We wanted people to know of God’s love (How Deep the Father’s Love), a love which is admittedly so much greater than our frail love, by comparison, for each other. We wanted people to see our strong desire as a couple to be like Christ (O To Be Like Thee). And we also wanted to simply thank God for His goodness (For the Lord Is Good).

I trust our marriage continues to speak those messages.

Being an effective leader involves personal improvement. This is a lesson I have been learning. Sometimes it is necessary for those who oversee you to provide direction. Other times it’s helpful to receive encouragement from your peers. But what about receiving feedback from those who serve under your leadership?

Being a relatively young choir director, I’m constantly seeking ideas that will improve my ministry (though, admittedly, not nearly as much as I should). I recently read an article in which a choir director gave a questionnaire to his choir asking for feedback. That sounded like a good idea, so I came up with my own. Here are the questions I included:

• What letter grade (A, B, C, D, or F) would you give to the overall choir experience?
  I received mostly A’s and some B’s for this question. Generally, people enjoy our choir ministry, and that’s the way it should be for any ministry. So that was an easy question.
  

• What letter grade (A, B, C, D or F) would you give to the choir director?
  Again, another easy question. Even though this was an anonymous survey, the majority were A’s for this question; a little better than the previous question. I’m not sure how valuable this question is (it might be helpful to be more specific), but it is nice to know how your leadership rates in people’s minds.
  

• What Can I do to improve?
  Here was a very open ended question which could go in numerous directions. And it did. I received comments from “your doing a great job” and “you can’t improve anything,” to advise on directing patterns and vocal technique. Some comments reflected opinion (“take the songs slower”), some represented humor (“send us on a choir cruise”), and some made me think and evaluate aspects of our ministry (“help us focus on worship”). Good feedback for this one.
  

• Do you like the format of rehearsals? (If not, what would you do differently?)
  I was opening myself up for this one. The truth is, I love the format of our rehearsals. But I wanted to see what everyone else thought. If there was a general consensus that things needed to be changed, I wanted to know. The results? Overall, this was the most positive response. The majority of our folks enjoy how the rehearsal is run.
  

• How would you rate the songs we sing (please choose one)?
  (1) While there may be some that aren’t my favorites, I generally love the songs we sing.
  (2) You’ve chosen a few “clunkers,” but I usually like our song selections.
  (3) Truthfully, I only like about half of the songs we sing.
  The majority of the folks in our choir chose #1, while a significant number chose #2. In my mind, the correct answer is #2. More than anything, the responses to this question are going to indicate personal opinion. It’s good to know if your group is supportive of your decisions regarding song choice.
  
  I told the choir that there was a fourth option: “I don’t care for most of the songs we sing.” I explained that I left that off because I figured, if that’s the case, they probably wouldn’t be in the choir!
  

• What is your favorite song we sing?
  Here I just wanted to learn favorites. I will consider these when I sit down to plan our next music schedule. I received a lot of good ideas.
  

• Do you have any new song suggestions?
  I actually received a few good ideas from this question. Again, questions like these will merely reflect personal opinions. I gave no guarantee that we will sing the suggestions; but I will consider some of them.
  

• What one thing should we do to improve the overall choir experience?
  This question was worth the entire project. I received such valuable feedback. I like the idea of narrowing it down to “one thing” (although, humorously, some had difficulty sticking to just one thing). I hope to learn the heartbeat of our choir members, and learn what’s important to them.

I have already allowed the results of this survey to affect our choir rehearsal. I’m thankful for the candid feedback, and I anticipate it will lead to some changes toward improvement in the near future.

What questions would you ask your choir members?

I have been privileged to participated in numerous choirs throughout my life, and my most memorable choir experiences were enjoyable choir experiences. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed great fellowship, and I even walked away thinking, Wow! I actually learned something, too! How is it that my most enjoyable choir rehearsals involved lots of fun and musical growth?

I’m sure I don’t have all the answers, but I think it has a lot to do with the approach the choir director takes. On one hand, the director has clear objectives in mind that he would like his choir to achieve. On the other hand (and this is particularly true in church settings), the director must remember that his choir is made up of volunteers, many of whom—at the end of the day—just want to feel like they enjoyed the process.

As I’ve had opportunity to observe choir directors, and be a choir director myself, I’ve discovered a few things that have helped to keep choir rehearsals running smoothly and enjoyably:

Plan ahead and set realistic goals.
The level of confidence your musicians exhibit is directly related to your level of preparation. Know what you need to accomplish, and come up with a long-term plan of implementation.

Our choir’s music is planned months in advance. We rehearse the songs 4-6 weeks ahead of time, depending on the difficulty of the song. Having this advanced planning helps you set realistic goals. It also sets you and your musicians at ease.

Even with all that planning, sometimes you just got to be flexible.
As your rehearsal unfolds, you might need to make adjustments. Maybe you need to rehearse a section longer than you thought. Or (and this rarely happens), maybe you scheduled too much time to focus on a part. Perhaps a choir member is burdened with a prayer request they just have to share.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been meticulously focused on our rehearsal agenda, only to be interrupted by something seemingly trivial. The temptation is to respond or react negatively, even if only internally. But remember, God could be using your “interruptions” for His purposes (in your life, and the lives of your choir members).

It’s okay to laugh… you’re human!
You want to kill the spirit of a rehearsal? Just maintain a serious demeanor for the entire rehearsal.

Humor is a great tool for reaching people’s hearts (Prov. 15:13), and the best humor comes from laughing at your own mistakes. (My choir knows I’m terrible at telling a joke, but we laugh a lot because I’m human, and I’m apt to prove it often!)

I’ve observed that the end-product in our Sunday services is often a by-product of our rehearsals. I’m not saying it’s always the case, but if people walk away loving the rehearsal, chances are that spirit will transfer to Sunday services.

It’s not about personality. It’s about planning, staying flexible, and being willing to laugh at yourself. That’s the kind of choir director I’d like to have.

I hear this sentiment expressed often: “Our rehearsals are so enjoyable! We have a lot of fun, and yet you get so much out of us.” That makes me feel like I’m doing my job. We’re accomplishing our goals, and we’re enjoying the process.

What makes a good choir rehearsal experience? (Note to my choir members: Please don’t be brutal!)

An instrumental prelude serves to set the tone for a worship service. I’ve experienced various types of preludes, and it’s interesting to see just how effective these instrumentals can be. Sometimes, instead of setting the mood, if done properly, a prelude can actually be a reflection of the spiritual mood of the worshipers. It really is interesting to observe.

Each church has its own unique culture which contributes to the decision making process regarding preludes. Some more traditional and liturgical churches enjoy organ music. More contemporary services might just play an instrumental CD or mp3s. The services at my church tend to be more evangelistic in style, and so we enjoy hearing an acoustic piano prior to the service. There’s a sense of excitement and anticipation prior to our services, and our pianists are instrumental in that process (please forgive the pun).

Follow these simple steps to develop a piano prelude:

1. Choose five or six songs from your hymnbook that follow a theme (i.e. the blood of Christ, joy, or grace). Be sure to choose songs that vary in key and meter to provide variety.
2. Photocopy the songs and place them in a notebook. You can use plastic sheet covers so that you can easily change the order of the songs.
3. Once you’re happy with the song order, rehearse the songs and be able to improvise two stanzas. (I realize I’m leaving a big gaping hole in the process by not explaining exactly how to improvise a song. That’s where private lessons or websites like this one would come in handy.)
4. Once you feel comfortable with the improvisation process, develop transitions that segue each song to the next. (Again, you’ll need advanced learning for this.) These transitions will need the necessary modulations and meter changes to facilitate a smooth sound during the prelude.

There you have it. Now you know how to develop a piano prelude. Here are some tips and advice about the process:

Choose familiar songs your congregation will know.
In my experience, the most effective songs are the ones that communicate a message. What greater opportunity for communicating than choosing a song that the majority of the congregation will know? You might have a song that is beautiful and really speaks to you, but if the majority of the congregation doesn’t know it, there’s less of a chance that it will really speak to someone.

I’m not saying that music by itself can’t be an encouragement to people. (In fact, there are times when I think playing unfamiliar music in a worship service is appropriate and effective.) I’m just saying that you’re restricting your potential for communication (which can result in encouragement) when you play unfamiliar songs. So choose songs that are generally familiar to your entire congregation, and they will appreciate it.

Develop creative and cohesive transitions.
Creative doesn’t mean complex. Some of the most simple ideas I’ve developed have also been some of my favorite work. And believe me, simple transitions are better than dead space.

Further, make sure the transitions tie one song to the next. You’re not merely providing an introduction to the next song; you’re building a bridge from one song to the next.

Construct a prelude that enhances the service.
Hopefully you receive some type of advance information regarding the scheduled music for the worship services. Find out what the choir will be singing. Know the songs and themes of the other special music. Get a list of the congregational music used. Your initiative in this area will allow you to develop well thought out preludes that will raise your level of effectiveness.

Play with enthusiasm.
In order to do this, it might help to think about why you’re assembling together. (If it’s anything like our church, you’re assembling to worship God, give to God, fellowship with fellow believers, and respond to the preaching of God’s Word.) You have every reason to be joyful and energetic!

Although one or two slow songs might be appropriate, the best songs are going to be upbeat and evangelistic in style. Definitely begin, and end, with upbeat songs.

If you sense that a slow song seems to be dragging, it might be hindering the desired level of enthusiasm prior to the service. A quick fix is to simply change the tempo and mood at the next musical phrase, or during the refrain or next stanza.

Add variation to your preludes.
Especially if you’re the only pianist, doing the same thing week after week will become monotonous. Try playing a duet with another pianist, or a duo with another piano, keyboard, or an organ. Another nice touch is to play with a solo instrument (i.e. flute, French horn, violin, etc.) throughout.

What have you found helpful in developing and playing piano preludes?