Worship Guitarist, Performing Guitarist, or Both?

Transcript included below…

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Today, we’re going to talk about how to address our audiences well as we play.

Even as we start this discussion, I’ll give you a heads up about which direction I’m going – just in case you’re wondering which type of guitarist I’m referring to.

I’m talking about two types of guitarists today.  First, I’ll talk about a worship guitarist who offers their gifts as an act of worship in a setting where they are leading others to the Throne of Grace through music…and then, I’ll be talking about a performing guitarist who shares his or her gifts in a message-driven Christian concert setting where people listen.

Then I’ll talk about what happens when those two worlds collide and a guitarist is invited to share a mixed set of songs with worship leading and some performance pieces.  You ready?  Let’s go.

There are all kinds of purposes for guitar playing beyond these two, but to keep our discussion focused, I’ll stay in these two specific areas, blending them together at the end of our discussion.

And there are specific needs that congregations and audiences have as they experience the offerings of these two guitarists, which are worth discussing.  There is great wisdom in knowing our audience.

So, if you’re a worship guitarist, a performing guitarist, or you aspire to be either or both, this episode is for you.

When it comes to playing the guitar in public for listeners, not all stages are equal, and not all offerings have the same purpose.

I’d love to offer you some clarifications about what your audience is hoping for, and what you can bring to each of them when you play your guitar.

Part 1 – The Worship Guitarist

The Lord called me to music ministry in the late 1990s.  I had purchased my first guitar in 1994, and shortly afterwards, I was playing it at a family camp, and someone approached me saying, “Hey, you have a guitar.  You could lead us in worship.”

To experience the full story, I invite you to check out Guitar Serious Fun Episode 6: “Not Ready but Available.”

It was at this point that I had just begun to grasp what it meant to lead worship with my guitar. 

Fast forward to present day, and I’ve led worship thousands of times, all over North America, and some seasons of worship ministry have found me leading on staff full-time and part-time at Christian churches of a few different sizes, from two hundred to almost two thousand.

Sometimes, I’ve been a worship leader for four songs on a Sunday…other times I’ve led a couple songs to kick off a conference.  In other settings, I’ve been a worship leader for multiple sessions at a retreat.

Whatever the case, I’ve been entrusted with playing my guitar in such a way as to lead others in singing to the Lord.

First of all, I’ll ask an important question.  Who is the audience in a worship environment? 

Well, if you said, “The Lord,” you’d be right.  And the Lord asks that we “play skillfully and shout for joy” (Psalm 33:3) and bring contrition in our posture. Psalm 51:17 says “A broken and contrite heart You, o God, will not despise.”

Everything we do, especially when we share our music, begins with the heart.  Our expression as guitarists will flow from the condition of our hearts.  Are we humble?  Do we see ourselves as unworthy, yet called to approach the Lord with our gifts?

Do we desire to come prepared, to play well for Him?  That’s my hope.  He is worthy of our first fruits, not our leftovers, right?

Now, the Lord is our primary Audience.  Some have referred to Him as our “Audience of One.”

Now, “audience” is a subjective term, because there could be people in a worship environment who are observing as I lead, and they may or may not be contributing with their voices in corporate worship.

But they are observing.

What do they witness from me as I play?  Am I clear, confident, and do I lead well, but do I also remain peripheral?

One class that has risen to the top in my collection of teaching offerings at conferences is a seminar I call “The Peripheral Worship Leader.”

The word “peripheral” has to do with the outer part of the field of vision.  Still visible, but not central.

If we move into central position, we take the focus off the Lord.  People are easily distracted, and we could potentially be contributing to this as worship guitarists.  Catch this: we can be peripheral whether we’re in the center of the platform or not.  It’s all about posture.

We can also be invisible.  By this, I mean we don’t confidently (and yet humbly) show the congregation that we are leading them.  If we “blend in” with the rest of the team and people don’t understand who’s leading the charge, we can also fade into the background, and this can be distracting as well .

So, a guitarist could be distracting by action or omission.  By action, he or she could play too prominently in the texture with big, flashy solos or with dynamics that aren’t sensitive to the context.  Or, he or she could be so meek that no one knows what to do next because there’s no real leadership element in place.

Let’s be real: the people who have come to worship are not there to experience a concert.  That’s something we’ll focus on in a few minutes.

By omission, a guitarist could play out of tune, and as you might imagine, there are people who might not know which strings are out of tune, but they know something’s not right.

And again, people need to know who’s leading, and someone has to lead the band (if there is a band) even if leadership roles are traded out with a few different worship leaders, even on the same set.

We, as a congregation should always be able to tell who’s leading us.

It’s a delicate balance we walk as worship guitarists, because people can be so easily distracted.

In terms of the practical aspects, we can take specific steps towards maintaining and preparing our equipment, getting proper rest, having excellent communication with our technicians, rehearsing intentionally with our team, and being as familiar as possible with our music.

And guess what?  Even if we do everything in our power not to be distracting, something beyond our control could still happen, and people could still get distracted.

But I’d say that being intentional and working towards preparation and skillful execution, while still having grace for ourselves and our collaborators, is a recipe for a healthy worship environment.

Some worship musicians don’t think this deeply about these kinds of things, but those who do tend to be more deliberate, and to offer an unwritten message about how much they feel the beautiful burden and calling for what they do.

I can tell, within moments, if a worship musician is taking their calling seriously. 

But here’s the paradox: we can take our calling and our Lord very seriously, and still not take ourselves too seriously.  I am constantly striving to find this balance as well.

Because if I’m playing precisely, but my body language communicates that I’m carrying a lot of stress, that’s not going to ultimately be a blessing to anyone.

So, I try to bring some levity to my rehearsals, and to intersperse appropriate humor. 

Exempli gratia: at a recent opportunity to lead worship for a multi-faceted Christian ministry organization, I asked the sound guy if he could put a bit more my “talent” in my monitor.

I basically wanted him to make me more talented than I was.

Everyone laughed, and we enjoyed the process that much more.

So, as we think about our offerings as worship guitarists, let’s check our hearts, bring our offerings with sincerity and humility, do all we can to play excellently, but still hold things loosely.

Part 2 – The Performing Guitarist

I wrote my first song in 1996.  I went on to record multiple albums and to tour all over North America.

But my touring largely consisted of concerts I performed.  The albums I recorded were not worship songs.  They were what I would call “testimonial” songs.

Now, this is a broad stroke, but go here with me.  Worship songs are typically simpler in song form, and more “singable,” whether with rhythms, melodies, or even ranges.

Performance-type testimonial songs can sometimes have more complex song forms, are better to listen to (maybe the chorus is an opportunity to sing along), but can have more complex rhythms, less predictable melodies, and can go really high, because the listener doesn’t have to sing those notes.

So as a performing guitarist, I have a different posture, because my audience has a different set of expectations.

When people come to a concert, they’re much more in a posture of wanting to be ministered to.  They are expecting to be taken on a bit of a journey, perhaps to hear stories, and as performance coach Tom Jackson has said, to experience moments.

In my concerts, I incorporate multiple guitar techniques, from two-hand tapping, to looping, to playing the strings with a pencil or a violin bow, to multiple alternate tunings and harmonics, and more. 

But when I lead worship, my offering is much simpler.

Really, with the exception of the occasional hammer-on, pull-off or slide, none of these above articulations would be appropriate for a worship set. 

They’re too prominent and dare I say, showy in the wrong context. 

They draw the focus away from what we’re doing in a worship environment, but they’re very much welcome in a performance environment.

In fact, I rely heavily on innovation and the “unpredictable” factor when it comes to playing for particular audiences, like people who’ve never heard me before.

Some venues I’ve served have been what I call “Type B” audiences, where people are already present at an established gathering (like a church, school, retreat or conference).   

“Type B” audiences may or may not know who I am and what I’m bringing to the event, even if I’ve resourced them with a promotional video that highlights what I do.

Conversely, “Type A” audiences are the ones who come to experience my ministry because they’ve followed me for a while and have gotten to know my music.

A “Type B” audience can be transformed quickly into a “Type A” audience, but only if the guitarist is moving adeptly and swiftly through textures and moments that keep the audience engaged, and even guessing.

I showed up to perform a concert at a “lock-in” for a junior high retreat, and the sound guy pretty much greeted me just as he was leaving.  He said, “Hey, I’ve got a boom mic and a guitar channel all set up for you in there.  Have fun.”

I gently stopped him right there and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa.  I’m about to try to hold the attention of a bunch of sugared-up junior highers for the better part of an hour.  If I stand at a boom mic and just play my guitar, I’ll lose them in the first 5-10 minutes.”

It took a little explaining to get the sound guy on board, but then he eventually realized that my collection of instruments and unique tools (like my multi-colored Boomwhackers) were going to be needed to hold the attention of all of those kids, and therefore, there was a necessity to have a good backline of audio support, to say nothing of the video support that would also be needed to put images and lyrics on the screen that would carry them along with a multi-media experience.

Some technicians think mostly about the tech, so we as guitarists sometimes need to do a bit of thinking for them about the artistic presentation.

Exempli gratia: I like to use two or three boom mics at a concert, sometimes switching over to a headset mic.  This is another “page” I’ve taken out of Tom Jackson’s book.

At a show I performed several years ago, I had a sound tech serving alongside me who was absolutely mystified about why I alternated between boom mic and headset mic.

He asked, “Why don’t you just use the headset mic the whole time?”

I answered, “Because different songs will feel differently to the audience depending on the mic.  There are different levels of pressure and dynamics associated with the visual experience of having these mics in place. 

A boom mic creates a slight barrier and anchors me in place more than a headset mic, which opens up the visual connection with the audience and allows me to roam about the stage.” 

He didn’t really get it, but he supported me in it because he had plenty of channels, and that’s what really matters.

I had one sound tech encourage me to use an almost invisible flesh-colored mic as I led worship.  But here’s the problem with that.  I like to signal the congregation (and everyone on my teams) that we are about to sing, as I step up to a boom mic. 

And when I move away, that is another way of communicating that we are not singing at that moment.  The boom mic is a tool of communication even beyond conducting an audio signal.

If I have a virtually invisible mic on, the congregation won’t get that visual cue.  I’ll have to try to look down and demonstrably cue them with my eyebrows, which can look a little forced. 

So certain mics work better for a worship environment, and others can work better for a performance environment.

In my concerts, sometimes I incorporate audience participation, which necessitates me roving about onstage, and even out into the audience.  The wireless headset mic is perfect for this application.

And my various guitar techniques, as well as different tempos, grooves, and even postures (standing, seated, roving about) will provide different dynamics for the audience to respond to. 

Humor, during a concert, can be super enjoyable.  I typically don’t try to be funny when I lead worship.

So, it’s important to “read the room,” and to “know your audience.”

Part 3 - When Worlds Collide: Worship and Performance Together

Occasionally, I find myself invited to a venue where I get to perform a concert and weave in some corporate worship. 

The typical venue for something like this is a family camp or a harvest festival.  I love these opportunities.

I also know what a delicate dance it can be to pivot to and from worship songs.  Typically, I will follow each worship song with a short prayer, not in a perfunctory “I guess we’d better pray now” fashion, but rather to help us transition from the worship song to the next moment in the concert.

The prayer allows us to recalibrate and to reacclimate to the performance dynamic.

Now, it’s all about being “in the moment.”  If I have an audience ranging from five years old to 75, and I’m hoping to minister to them culturally, to keep the young ones engaged, and to simultaneously bless the senior saints with a rich message of substance, while performing some songs, incorporating some worship songs that most can sing along with, and weaving in some fun…I’ve got a pretty tall order to fill.

But the good news is that the Lord can carry me through. 

Some of my work is in the planning of the set.  But some of it is just observing people as they respond (or don’t respond) to what I’m sharing during the event.

Fortunately, I mix the audio for most of my shows from stage, so I can skip over songs that might not work.  Even my projectionist works from a set list where he or she can jump to certain slides or videos if needed.

So, in these family-friendly worship concerts, the set list is rarely executed exactly as planned…but the audience doesn’t need to know that.  They’re just there to be ministered to and led in some worship.

So, I go into a performance/worship presentation with a deliberate plan, and simultaneously I have open hands.

And then, after I get home, I sleep very deeply.

Wrap-Up

Well, today we talked about how a worship guitarist and a performing guitarist can minister in a few different settings, and we touched on a lot of key points related to preparation, execution, the ability to be in the moment and to read the room, and especially how to know our audience.

This is definitely a process and a craft that takes years to become proficient at.  And if you’re a worship guitarist, a performing guitarist, or you desire to be either or both of these, I hope you gleaned some wisdom today.

If you’ve got questions, please offer them in the comments.  If you want to up-level your guitar playing, please check out GuitarSuccess4U.com where I’m actively serving and sharpening worship and performing guitarists week in and week out through a battle-tested online experience unlike any other.

Thanks for experiencing my thoughts here.  Keep having serious fun as you play your guitar, and I’ll see you next time.