Friday, August 10, 2012

Lead Sheets for worship

Every church musician should be able to work with a lead sheet. What I mean is that the vocalists should be able to read music, the guitarist should be able to read music, the bass player should know both how to read music and enough theory to improvise with the chords. The drummer should be able to anticipate his drum breaks by actually following the vocal line and any extra accents notated in the lead sheet. The reason that lead sheets are so wonderful is that they don't require page turns, they are adequate to the needs of the musical amateur and even the congregation (without the chords and accents notated). Yes, the congregation should use these same songs that are sung at church in home gatherings. The church will not grow unless we get real with a real musical culture in our churches that extends to homes,families,friends, etc. Thus I am proposing universal note-reading and amateur music making among all.