Jon Nicol
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Jon's Blogs |
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Chord of the Week - F#m7(4) You'll also see this chord written as F#m11, F#m7add4, etc. This is my "go-to" chord for most songs calling for F#m7. It works best in the key of A (6m) and the key of E (2m)... Read More |
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3 Notes Per String Scale Jon introduces 3 notes per string scales as a alternative to major position scales. This segment was actually cut from Jon's "Lead: Step One" training video...but it was too good leave on the cutting room floor. So it crawled to YouTube... Read More |
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Six Lousy Methods to Get More Musicians, Part 4 Lousy Method #5: Implement the typical qualification process for new musicians...Pulse? Check. Welcome to the team! Read More |
| Six Lousy Methods to Get More Musicians, Part 1 One of the most often asked question I get as I talk with pastors, worship leaders and volunteers is "How do I grow my team?" What they usually mean is, "How do we find more musicians?" Here's six ways... Read More |
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| 8th Grade Odor and Sucking Out Loud: 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band, 4 Part 4 of 4 - 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band. #15 - #17, along with a bonus. #15. Leave them wanting more. Don't expect a weekly band--especially at first. You don't want your band burning out or your youth group growing complacent. 16. Foster Creativity... Read More |
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| 8th Grade Odor and Sucking Out Loud: 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band, 3 #11 - #14. 11. Make it fun. Recently, I became the subject of the youth band's joking -- actually, my mother did. Somehow "your mom" jokes started flying and stuck to me. Soon a theme song emerged: "Jon's mom is greater, Jon's mom is stronger..." Read More |
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| 8th Grade Odor and Sucking Out Loud: 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band, 1 I've been working the youth band at our church for last couple years. As a former youth pastor, it's fun to mix it up with the kids and NOT have to plan lessons or participate in lock-ins. Over the next few days, we'll look at some things I've been learning. #1. Start with who and what you have... Read More |
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Blog Post Rewind: Walmart Worship, I I needed softner salt. My town's water can turn a black t-shirt charcoal gray in a single wash. A musician needs to protect his black t-shirts. My wife needed some spices for something she was making. Two diverse items + one trip = Walmart. Crud. Read More |
| Blog Post Rewind: Charts... Charts - this is one of those places where the worship leader/pastor/director needs to overdo it. And by "overdo it" -- be all things to to all musicians, if at all possible... Read More |
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| Getting Kicked in the Teeth? A month or two ago, I wrote a piece here at WorshipMinistry.com called "How to Dump Your Worship Pastor ." It was my (therapeutic) response to another Dear Jon email I had just received from a team member ( a drummer, no less--it always hurts more when it's a drummer. Amen?). Read More |
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| Remove I'm in the middle of an interesting read: "Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process" by Blaine Hogan. Blaine is a professional actor and the Creative Director at Willow Creek. I bought the book because, a) I like anything about the creative process and b) it was only a few bucks on my Kindle.... Read More |
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| 28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #27 In these last few installments, we're looking at how to transition to the message. One simple way to segue to the sermon is by using scripture text the pastor's message is based on. I touched on this segue last week by suggesting using video to present the scripture. That's one option... Another option is a "worship team reader." Don't discount the power of gifted readers. They often will do a better job than the pastor at reading the selected text for that morning. Just like having team of talented vocalists who sing, build a team of talented readers who, well, read. Read More |
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| Is Your Left Door Locked? I grew up attending in a typical Mid-west, small-town, L-shaped C&MA church. At least I think it was typical of those kinds of churches in those days. Mostly hymns. A few "Alliance-approved" praise choruses worthy enough to sing in "real church"--you know, like Majesty and most anything from the Gaithers. There was also one thing that I'm not sure was typical, but I have experienced in other churches from time to time: the left door was always locked.... Read More |
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RadioShack Sound Systems & Faith-Infused Realism Most leaders (volunteer or paid) find it easy to think about what they want to do and have and be after their ministry or organization grows. A preferred future is fun to think about. The current reality, especially for those in small churches, well, not so much. Here was reality at my first church... Read More |
| 28 Ways To Create Great Segues: #23 - Videos, part 1 At my first full-time ministry job, I was the youth and worship guy at a two-pastor church. By default, that also meant I was the substitute sermon guy. (Have you ever noticed senior pastors aren't into quid pro quo. They never act as the substitute youth-talk guy. Studies show this is actually is a relief 4 out 4 students.) So when my senior pastor was gone, I'd phone in my youth lessons for a couple weeks while I prepped a message. At that time, only the young, hip preaching pastors used movie clips. Read More |
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| 28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #22, Pre-Service: A Preparation Time I once attended a Sunday evening service at Parkside Church near Cleveland to hear Alistair Begg preach. A Scottish accent always makes a sermon better. It was a typical traditional pre-service time with soft music, dim lights and people chit-chatting Read More |
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DOs & DON\'Ts of Being Dumped, Part 2 It's inevitable. People leave. Whether they move, get mad, get dead or otherwise decide that the worship team is no longer for them, people eventually exit. Handling this well isn't always easy. Here are some DOs and DON'Ts for when people leave... Read More |
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Forget Excellence... ...think "remarkable" instead. Excellence is subjective and overwhelming. Remarkable is doable: a small tweak and improvement to the "normal" that surprises people. The pursuit of excellence feels like a never-ending journey. How do we know we've arrived? Read More |
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28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #21: \"The Herding Song\" We've been talking about the "pre-service." I suggested in the last post that the pre-service time is one big transition time - comprised of several of small segues - that moves people into our worship gatherings. We can try to spiritualize this time, but let's just be honest: it's sometimes like herding cats to get our people into worship. We're competing with coffee and chit-chat in the foyer, people catching up at the kid check-in and the culture of the chronically late. Often our opening song feels like a sacrificial lamb--it gives its life to bring people into the worship center. Read More |
| They Need Me, They Really Need Me... They need me every hour, most gracious Lord/ To lose talent like mine, the team can't afford/ They need me, O they need me/ Every service they need me/ I'll bless them with my presence/ Until eternity... I think this bastardized hymn sings in the brain of every worship leader - full-time, part-time, volunteer - it doesn't matter. Read More |
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28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #17 - 20 I look at the pre-service time as one big segue: it's a sequence of elements used to transition people into corporate worship. The issue with most churches in American culture is this: the majority of people don't actually come into the service until right at the start time, or likely a few minutes later. We can use a few segue elements to help move them into the flow of worship. But honestly, none of these techniques will change the culture of lateness in your church, or mine. But these transition elements can help. And while each can be standalone tools, they'll likely work better when creatively combined with other elements... Read More |
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Crack, Nukes and Character Flaws [DISC Series] Ellen (not her real name) drove me nuts. I mean, "turn in my ministry credentials and go work at White Castle" nuts. I was in my first full-time gig working in a smaller church as a youth pastor, worship leader, small group leader and whatever else I was dumb enough to volunteer to take on. And this woman was my nemesis. Others politely described her as highly structured. The kindest word I ever chose was uptight. Read More |
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How To Dump Your Worship Pastor How to break up with your worship pastor/leader: 1. Stop showing up. I'll eventually get the hint. And let all my phone calls go to voice-mail and emails go unanswered. The longer we delay the follow-up conversation, the less awkward it will be. I promise. Read More |
| Bigger Than Bono... Two words: U2. (actually, not really two words…more like two letters..well one letter and a number. Anyway...) Last Sunday a friend and I ventured up to East Lansing, Michican to watch U2 perform under a giant green spaceship--see the picture above. (I could keep trying to explain, but you really had to be there.) As I was watching, I was struck by a few things. Bono really is a bigger-than-life rock star... Read More |
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| L.T.W.M. Part 3 Leave Them Wanting More is dependent on another well-worn axiom: Less is more . I've perpetrated the opposite - more is more - on several occasions in my ministry... Read More |
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| L.T.W.M. Part 2 There are three myths that get in the way of leaving people to want more. Myth #1. Sunday morning is the only chance we get. Unfortunately, not all myths are false. Our churches are often structured in a way that makes this myth a reality... Read More |
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| L.T.W.M. Part 1 There are two ways a TV show keeps you coming back -- characters and story. Some shows don't continue a main storyline from one episode to the next. Take any of the abbreviation shows: Law and Order SVU or LA, CSI, CSI:NY, CSI: Miami, NCIS, NCIS LA, OU812 -- sorry, that's a Van Halen album. All those shows have a back story that's helpful to know, but not necessary. And occasionally they'll have some thread of a subplot weaving forward, which almost always involves a serial killer nemesis of the main character. (This is helpful to know if you ever become a cop: at some point in your career you'll have nut job who stalks you. Just giving you a heads-up...) While the stories of these shows are compelling, they wouldn't have the same draw if viewers hadn't already connected with the characters. Read More |
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| The Mess and the Metaphor Whenever I go to a large worship conference, there's always an emerging worship song that dominates. A few years back I went to an integrity conference and Mighty to Save was that song. The early adopters had already been singing it for a years... Read More |
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| Sloppy Wet Kiss If you know John Mark McMillan, you know my title. Last night he performed at Christian Musician Summit in Buffalo . And all of us who knew him were waiting for How He Loves. You've probably heard David Crowder's version, or several other artists who covered him... Read More |
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Please Practice: 8 Tips to Give Your Team Of all the players that I've had in worship teams, the ones that practiced the most came out of the bar band scene. If any of them came to rehearsals unprepared, they apologized before they even pulled out their guitar. The players with church background, yeah...not so much... Read More |
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Charts Smarts - Serving Your Team with the Right Music When it comes to charts and music, what we provide and how we provide it is a huge opportunity to serve our team and set us up for success... Read More |
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52 Tweaks - Check Your Ego Tweak #52: Check your ego with a few questions. Do I get offended (even slightly) when someone else gets the lead part or receives praise from others? Read More |
| Ox Percussion... ...is what we get when the aux percussionist forgets he's, well auxiliary . Big. Strong. And way too much... Read More |
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Chart Smart Seminar Scheduled Hey friends, I wanted to let you know about a free seminar on December 5 at 7:30 (EST). Best of all, it's online, so you can sit in your flannel pants, drink hot chocolate and still watch Dancing with the Stars on TV. Read More |
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Taco Bell vs. Chipotle A burrito as big as your head for $6 or a three pound box of fast-mex food for $5? What we can learn from Chipotle and Taco Bell. Read More |
| Ministry, Intimacy and a Disrobed Disco For the Pharisees it was studying the scripture and keeping the law. For me, it's doing ministry. I wrap myself in the robe of pastor and musician instead of the arms of Jesus... Read More |
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Ministry, Intimacy & Disco We're doing rewind blogs this week between Christmas and New Year. Here's a short one from early in 2011. It's point is as sharp now as it was then... Read More |
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Walmart Worship, I I needed softner salt. My town's water can turn a black t-shirt charcoal gray in a single wash. A musician needs to protect his black t-shirts. My wife needed some spices for something she was making. Two diverse items + one trip = Walmart. Crud. Read More |
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Vocalist: Why You Should Lose the Music Stand... Practice singing without your music stand. Why? If it’s there, you’ll look at it. So lose it... Read More |
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Piano In Worship Training, Part 2 This is a must-watch for keyboard players (and people who play near them...) Read More |
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28 Ways to Make Great Segues, Segue #4 In the first installment of "28 Ways," we looked at three different ways to get from one song to the next within the same key. Now we start looking at moving from one key to the another. So prepare yourself for the greatest key change of all times... Read More |
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28 Ways to Make Great Segues, Segues # 1 - 3 Segues: Song to Song/Same Key If you're diving into this without reading the introduction first, either 1) you just stumbled upon this, or 2) you are a "type A" reader who always skips intros, thinks forwards are usele Read More |
| Groovin\' an Old Hymn In this video, I demonstrate and walk you through a new arrangement of Blessed Be The Name. You'll learn some inversions, some walking bassline stuff and how to use the "Jimi Hendrix" chord in church. You can download the leadsheet here. And ta Read More |
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28 Ways to Make Great Segues During Worship: An Introduction Transitions happen. Song to song. Music to preaching. Prayer to offering, etc. They happen. And they can happen just how they happen, or they can happen according to a plan. An unplanned transition is at best a speed bump; at its worst it's a train wreck... Read More |
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200 Words (or less) About Being a Worship Musician: Key Elements #1--Talented You'd think this element would go without saying, but we've all been to (or attend) that church that has a less than talented musician helping lead music. A few things about talent... Read More |
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200 Words (or Less) About Being a Worship Musician: 6 Key Elements What makes for a good worship team musician? Gotta have talent, right? But is talent enough? Or is it good enough to be faithful to the ministry? Where does passion fit? Or spiritual maturity? How about that often intangible idea of being "called"? Read More |
| 200 Words (or Less) About Being a Worship Musician: The Worship Musician as Teacher As worship musicians (vocalists and instrumentalists) part of our ministry is teaching. We teach the congregation what it is to participate in corporate worship... Read More |
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KIND v NICE There were two musicians that I worked with in a previous ministry. Looking back, I made two different choices: I chose to protect the feelings of one and speak truth to the other. I chose to "like" one (and really, to have him like me), and to show love to the other, and risked him not liking me. Read More |
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GeoTrax and Worship Planning My first few attempts at building a complex track system found that trains either got stuck going one direction or, even worse, were marooned on one section of tracks because I hadn't set up the switch rails and crossover tracks correctly. And the more systems I built, the more I realized: "I need more tracks!" This is where my wife rolls her eyes and asks Jesus why 1 of her 3 children is a 35 year-old man. Read More |
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Beginning Guitar Series: Lesson #1 - A, D, & E In this beginning guitar lesson, you'll learn how to read chord diagrams, and create three basic open chords: D, A and E. Not only will you learn how to play the chords, but by the end of the video, you'll know how to connect them without losing your place on the fretboard. Read More |
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Beginning Guitar - An Introduction Are you a novice guitar player, an absolute beginner, than this guitar lesson (and this series) is for you. You'll learn the basic parts of the guitar as well the three sets of numbers you need to play. If you've got a few chords down already, this video might be too basic for you, but then again, you may learn something you missed. Read More |
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14 Ways To Escape the First Four Frets - #11: The Major Scale In this video lesson, I dive into Position Scales - specifically G Major. "Position Scales" is an approach to playing scales by which we build a new "shape" or position scale from each note in the key. So this first G major scale is built on the root, or G. After this, you would move to the A on the 6th string (5th fret) and play the G major scale from there, and so one. Read More |
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The Lion on the Island [DISC Series] I remember the first time my lion roared. I had just graduated from college and was the co-director of Camp Shamineau’s “Island Camp.” It was “rustic” camp experience for late elementary and jr. high students on a 22-acre island in the middle of Lake Shamineau. The other director was Lance, a college friend. He was the hard-charging, task-oriented “make sure the pontoon boat doesn’t float away in the storm and the kids aren’t making out at the point” kind of guy. I was the fun-loving, people person... Read More |
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6 Lousy Methods to Get More Musicians-#6 Lousy Method #6. Hired Guns. Let’s grow our team by hiring outside musicians. Here’s why: 1. It’s a great way to invest our church’s money. While we’re at it, let’s talk to the treasurer about investing in Powerball Lottery tickets. We could hit the winner and take care of all this silly tithing and stewardship talk once and for all. 2. It will cover the fact that we only have average guitarists in our church who can’t rock the skinny jeans and man-scarves. Read More |
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3 Tweaks for Leaders Here are three tweaks from 52 Tweaks to Build a Stronger Team. These are specific tweaks for leaders... Read More |
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Team Devotional for Christmas, Part 1 What follows is an segment from the ebook, The Taming of Christmas, adapted for you to use as a team devotional. ...we talk about the stable and the manger, with the fresh bed of hay and the company of quiet animals. But we forget that a stable is a barn. And a manger is a feeding trough. And we forget to mention in our stories of the nativity that farm animals stink. Jesus was born in a mess... Read More |
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The Burning Throat. Part 1 As a worship pastor, you get notes. Some are encouraging. Some make you want to enroll in a diesel mechanics school. This one just gave me and my senior pastor a quotable line that, for us, ranked up there with anything from TommyBoy. But it forced me to ask a question: "Who do I key the song for?" Read More |
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Soar on Wings Like Egos, 1 If Lydia’s voice was an Uno card, it’d be a Wild Draw 4. Great when you’ve got it; bummer when someone else does. When Lydia’s voice is on, it’s fantastic to listen to. When it’s off, it’s like shoving a Q-tip a little too far in your ear. Only the Q-tip is a dull #2 pencil and “too far” is too TV-MA to describe further. So when certain songs come up that call for a female lead, there’s always this schizoid moment – should I give it to her, should I not? Read More |
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Jazz Guitar Training - Hark the Herald Angels Sing A study of jazz chords using a fun arrangement of Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Free PDF and instruction sheet available to download. Read More |
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Team Devotional for Christmas, Part 2 Messy People/Messy Faith: Shepherds were outcasts. And stunk. The wise men might have been pagans. That's who welcomed Jesus? Read More |
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Soar on Wings Like Egos 2 Every team has a griper. You know, that person who’d complain if his ice cream was cold. It’s like someone’s been spitting in his Cheerios every morning since he was nine. It’s easy to get frustrated and vent to others about him. But then–crud…now I’m the critical person... Read More |
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The Burning Throat, 2 I left us hanging in part one with unanswered, burning (throat) question: Who do we key the song for—the worship leader or the congregation? Umm…yes? Read More |
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Jazz Guitar Training - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen A study of jazz chords using an arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Free PDF and instruction sheet available to download. Read More |
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Team Devotional for Christmas, Part 3 Part 3 of the team devotional, The Messiness of Christmas, talks about us wanting a God who neat, clean and safe... Read More |
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1/2 off (almost) ALL Products It's No Post Wednesday, but I wanted to let you know that Brother Turkey (who's kinda like Father Christmas, only more, um...bird-like) is giving 50% off everything... Read More |
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The Gratitude Link In honor of Thanksgiving, here's a message I taught this last Sunday that talks about the "gratitude link" between grace received and grace given. Read More |
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The Burning Throat, 3 Here's guideline for managing the tension of where to key a song... Read More |
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Team Devotional for Christmas, Part 4 Part four of four - The Messiness of Christmas, a team devotional for the Advent season based on Jon's ebook, "The Taming of Christmas." Read More |
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28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #28 The introduction is the oldest segue known to man. When the population of the earth doubled during a nap, it was a introduction that segued history... Read More |
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Christmas on Sunday - How is your church handling it? Since Christmas is on a Sunday, what's your church doing about services? Read More |
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Soar on Wings Like Egos, 3 Is there something special about being onstage and part of the team? Is there an “energy” when you’re part of a live band? Can there be something extremely validating about singing and playing for an “audience”? With trepidation, my answer is yes, yes and... Read More |
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The Happy Third of the Circle of Fifths What's your "happy third" of the Circle of 5ths? When it comes to determining the best key, does the band really need to take second, or even third place? Probably... Read More |
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Beginning Guitar Lesson, 2 After watching this video, you'll be about two-thirds the way to rock star status. Once you learn the G and C chords in this lesson, pretty much all you'll need to learn next will be "the windmill." Read More |
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If It Can Go Wrong... I spent over an hour yesterday afternoon doing a trial-run for last night's webinar. No glitches. It all worked. Gloriously. That should have been my first clue that I was in for it... Read More |
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Soar on Wings Like Egos, 4 I remember my brief stint as a trumpet player in the junior high band. Whenever multi-measure rests occurred we had to just sit there while the saxophones played something cool. We pretty much just amused ourselves by emptying our spit valves on each other’s shoes... Read More |
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A Socially Acceptable Form of Por--What?! I was reading my Kindle while on the elliptical machine at the Y. It’s not the first time I’ve almost fallen off the elliptical, but it’s the first time my own lack of coordination wasn’t to blame. What did he just write? Read More |
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Sound Techs and the Blob of Sound The “blob of sound” happens when the team overplays or oversings. You can try to sculpt something out of it. But it’d be easier if they actually gave you something to mix... Read More |
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People Aren\'t Coming to Your Church Because of the Music If you're in a church of 200 or less, this is the bad news: People aren't coming to your church because of the music... Read More |
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Video Lesson: 4-3-2 Triads, Part 1 Here's another way to utilize triads to escape that muddy middle of the lower 4 frets. This guitar lesson uses the intro to Hillsong's Hosanna to show how triads are used worship music. Read More |
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Kick Your Charts to the Curb, Part 1 Get 12 tips to memorize your music.... Read More |
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Escape the 1st 4 frets...Triads 432, Part 2 In this guitar lesson, we'll continue to explore how to escape the first four frets by using triads. This free video training will show you how to move triads up the neck with simple shapes... Read More |
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Taco Bell vs. Chipotle [rewind week] Ever gotten in line behind the uninitiated at Taco Bell? They stare. And they stare. And they're just about to order, but, oh wait, what's a Chalupa? Read More |
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How to Dump Your Worship Leader [rewind] Ask a friend on the team to tell me you quit. I enjoy this one. It gives me that 7th grade feeling all over again – like when I got a Dear John note from my first girlfriend, delivered by her friend to my friend. Read More |
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8 Tips to Help Your Team Practice [rewind] Practice tips and wondering out loud why my ex-bar musicians practice more than my church musicians... Read More |
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A Letter to Me (the Guitarist) [rewind] To close out rewind week, I had to save the best for last. Remembering what a dufus I was as a young guitarist, I decided to write a letter to my self in hopes of helping younger guitarists be less annoying than I was... Read More |
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Kick Your Charts to the Curb, Part 2 Want to get serious about getting your head out of the music stand this year? Here is the 2nd half of 12 tips for memorizing your music... Read More |
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Meet the Blues Scale The minor pentatonic is to a lead guitarist what a sequence jumpsuit is to an Elvis impersonator. Read More |
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Develop Your Bench Developing new techs and musicans takes time. But the time is well invested. In one year, two years, three years, you’ll be happy you did. No. Downright ecstatic... Read More |
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What Worship Songwriters Can Learn From The Nashville Music Scene After talking about it for 5 years, I finally overcame my fear and started traveling to Nashville to write, network, attend workshops, and just soak up whatever mojo is in the air down there. Read More |
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Here Be Dragons At the edges of world where the sea was yet to be explored, an ancient map-maker wrote HC SVNT DRACONES: Here Be Dragons. Places unknown, unexplored, untamed. But where dragons be, there also be gold and other treasure... Read More |
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Making Sense of Relative Major & Minor We guitarists love the minor pentatonic. But unfortunately, if the song is in the key of A, we can't play the A Minor Pentatonic. Well, we can. But it won't sound good... Read More |
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The Hard Conversation What's one hard conversation worth? Read More |
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Understanding Riffs and Fills What's the difference between solos, riffs and fills? You'll learn the difference in this guitar lesson. Read More |
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Drums Too Loud? Five Options for Less Volume Are your drums too loud? Here's five or six options... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 1 Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at 29 relatively inexpensive "tools" to aid the musician, tech or leader in their worship role... Read More |
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Piano in Worship Training, 3 Bob Kauflin has delivered. This three part piano training is a must watch for every keyboard player on your team... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 2 Worship Backing Band is a great tool for well under $29... Read More |
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8 Healthy Steps to Initiate Change, Part 1 How to initiate change (without losing your team)... Read More |
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8 Healthy Steps to Initiate Change, Part 2 Spurring change (without getting bucked off the horse)... Read More |
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12 Steps to a More Prepared Team Missed the free seminar on Monday night? The playback and notes are available for free... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 3 In part three: unlimited videos, $5 wireless mic insurance and a manual on how to dump your worship committee. Read More |
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10 Tips to a Better Rehearsal, Part 1 Make your rehearsal more effective... Read More |
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10 Tips to a Better Rehearsal, Part 2 Invite techs to rehearsals and raise your expectations... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 4 Awesome chord diagram maker, getting snarky about tuners, and a whole new world of chord voicings... Read More |
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Loops for Beginners "Loops in worship" doesn't mean your whacked drummer who plays every third Sunday... Read More |
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10 Tips to a Better Rehearsal If you're the leader, lead. Don't run the whole song. A "noodle-free zone". And mark it up... Read More |
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10 Steps to Remarkable Video Storytelling How to tell great stories with video... Read More |
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Free Team Devotional: Heart Check, Week 1 Week One of a Five-Week Team Devotional: Heart Check - Do I Get Offended Easily? Read More |
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7 Deadly Things That Worship Musicians Say Turf-protection, talent-dependence, spiritualization of a lousy timing, etc.... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 5 Two rehearsal tools: one tool to listen to tunes, and another tool to tick-off your team... Read More |
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Free Team Devotional: Heart Check, 2 Do I find that I'm critical of others on the team? Even just a little...? Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 6 We're looking at two go-to tools for charts... Read More |
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6 Steps to Stop Killing Conversations What are you not hearing? And how I missed a conversation with a NY Times best-selling author... Read More |
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Mandatory Can we use the words 'mandatory' and 'required' with our volunteers? Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 7 Here's one of my top five picks in the $29 Toolbox... Read More |
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Why I\'m Giving In to Policy & Procedure... Developing policy and procedure sounds almost appealing to me as using corn syrup for shaving cream. Read More |
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Free Team Devotional: Heart Check, 4 Years later, I still took offense if the worship leader told me not to play on a particular verse, or (omigosh!) a whole song... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, Part 8 Why you NEED this tool... Read More |
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Creating a Great Band [Get Beyond Being Musical Roommates] Turn your team into a band (and not a stage full of musical roommates...) Read More |
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A Review of Eight Words...and giveaway... A huge and special thanks to Chris Gambill, worship leader and blogger, for the review on Eight Words... Read More |
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Y? Confident? Check. Cause-driven? Check. A sense of entitlement? Oh yeah... Read More |
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Free Team Devotional: Heart Check 5 Do I feel threatened (maybe just a little?) when a new person that plays the same instrument/sings the same part joins the team? Read More |
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Mistakes. Three Ways to Make Them Right... Fresh off a failure, here are three ways I'm dealing with it... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, 9 A presentation software that actually fits into the $29 or less toolbox... Read More |
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Develop a Solid Sense of Time, Part 1 8 Steps to Start Using a Click. Part of the Turning Your Team into a Band series... Read More |
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Team Devotional: They (REALLY) Need Me Do you ever get the feeling the team wouldn't survive without you? Read More |
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Creating Policy is More Fun Than It Sounds Steps to creating and implementing a "preparation policy" for the team...sounds like what every musician LOVES to do, huh? Read More |
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The Poetic Language of John Mark McMillan Do we have room in our liturgy and song lists for metaphor and lyrics that aren't always self-explanatory? Read More |
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Develop a Solid Sense of Time, Part 2 Time management issues... Read More |
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Why is This Song List SO BIG?! Has your song list gotten too big? Read More |
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Team Devotional: Restoration & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance What a '71 Honda has to do with the condition of my heart... Read More |
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Great Easter Song... Great new Easter song from Paul Baloche, along with a how-to video... Read More |
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Great Easter Song 2... Gateway Church's latest album has a good one for Easter. It's called Victorious... Read More |
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Develop A Solid Sense of Time, Part 3 What to do when your team can't keep time: blame it on the singers... Read More |
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Why We Call It Good In honor of Good Friday, I'll be giving away my ebook, Eight Words from now till Sunday morning... Read More |
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Learning Versus Knowing a Song What kind of investment does it take to move from "learning" a song to truly "knowing" it? And can you cross the line and be "over-invested"? Read More |
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5 Things Gungor Reminded Me About Worship & Music Packed into a small club with no one more than 15 feet from the stage, here are some things Gungor got me thinking about worship (and and bald white guys)... Read More |
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Free iPad. At the risk of sounding Zen - there is no free iPad... Read More |
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Music Stand Scribbles...The Fine Art of \"Mark Your Charts\" I’m working on a new mantra with my team (and myself) during rehearsal: write it down... Read More |
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The Glorious Awkwardness of Baptism Have you seen one lately? Not a ceremonial sprinkling, but a full-on drench. It's awkward... Read More |
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29 Worship Tools for Under $29, 10 #18 - a great cheat for guitarists... Read More |
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One Stupid Question Worship Leaders Should Avoid Do you REALLY...? Read More |
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Is Your Team Full of Renters, Squatters or Stewards? What a sinking tub and my neighbor's cat taught me about a healthy worship team... Read More |
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Six Excuses for Not Listening to Songs One of the most common preparation mistakes worship musicians make is not listening to the songs... Read More |
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Three Worship Myths That Frustrate Smaller Churches Breaking the myths about music and worship in a smaller church... Read More |
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Read this Saturday Night 10 Commandments to Starting Sunday... Read More |
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Journey of Worship or a Drive Around Iowa? One summer, my parents decided to take us on a driving vacation. The destination? Iowa... Read More |
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If Worship is a Journey, What\'s Our Destination? Is worship just the "preliminary" stuff before the sermon? Read More |
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Recalculating: 5 Questions to Ask When Planning Songs How to confuse your congregation during worship... Read More |
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Segues: The On and Off Ramps in Worship Transitions between songs happen whether we plan them or not. We should probably plan them. Read More |
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Hot Mess or Magnificent System? Weigh in your opinion Should a worship ministry have a rotation of four different "bands," each with their own leader, style and set of songs? Please weigh in... Read More |
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What I Learned In Buffalo... Five lessons I learned at Christian Musician Summit this past weekend... Read More |
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Baptism as Worship Why baptism is good worship... Read More |
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Ten Tough Truths Worship Teams Must Embrace Here's 10 things we probably all know, but maybe need a reminder about. I know I do... Read More |
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Three Ways to Stop Confusing Tempo and Feel Why is it important to understand the difference? Reason #1: immature musicians try to achieve “big” with “fast.” Read More |
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11 Deadly Sins of the Worship Team, Part 1 The first of 11 deadly sins of our worship teams commit... Read More |
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11 Deadly Sins of the Worship Team, Part 2 Major transgressions don't begin with major transgression... Read More |
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11 Deadly Sins of the Worship Team, Part 3 Sin Number Four - playing the chart versus playing the song. And a brief commentary on cheeseburgers... Read More |
