Smudgy Glasses and Cloudy Contacts (EW!)

The feeling you get when you have smudges on your glasses, or your contacts get so COATED IN POLLEN that they’re cloudy (amidst tears) is not any fun.


Thing is, trying to see a way to get your team to grow musically can be like that. You blink, but just can’t see the way forward clearly.


Annoying as pollen in the spring. #HatersGonnaHate


Puts a damper on your whole outlook when you have the same musical snags week after week.


Why?


Like the last Fertilizer, objectivity is ESPECIALLY rare among musicians when considering their own musical deficiencies and self-assessments of what makes a well-rounded worship musician.


So, here’s a little PDF that may Windex your view of the path toward helping your team grow.

The content is largely from a Vertical Worship workshop called "Focused Worship Band" by Kyle Smith & Jake France, via my good friend Brett.

One thing to note about each instrument is that the original content broke things down into beginner, intermediate, advanced sections. I’ve left them in order, but didn’t include the section markings. So you’ll notice that "playing with a click" is in the beginner sections for every one. 

Oh stop with the weeping. And the rest isn’t good for your teeth either.

Might you use this for having a conversation with your team at your next rehearsal or retreat? One of our coaches would love to unpack these concepts for your team as well as help them grow in the skills. We do a thing we call a "Rehearsal Coaching" where we show up to your regular rehearsal and serve as a sort of producer. We listen to what’s being created and give suggestions in between songs to make things feel and sound more together and beautiful. It’s well worth the $175. 

For example, the other week a team I was coaching was playing a song that everyone felt like was toooooo slow! But I checked and it was actually only 2 BPM slower than the recording. I noticed that the drummer had chosen to play 8th notes on the ride cymbal, and I asked him to try playing 16th notes on the hi-hats to add drive to the song. Night and day. No one could believe how such a small change could make such a significant difference. These lightbulb moments are what Rehearsal Coaching is all about. To find our more, just reply to this email.

-Dave
ps. I really appreciate you reading this! I never take it for granted!!