Interview conducted April 17, 2015 at Bridges Community Church, Fremont, CA
Ted: Can you describe for me the process of choosing a setlist?
Harry: It has changed over the past three to four years for me. I used to be a lot more intentional, like trying to make everything fit with the message. However, at least for me, you run out of song choices real quick. There’s not always a direct song linking to specific messages. Lately I’ve been listening to songs and playing ones that I and the band like. Your band gets into playing songs that they like.
With that being said, with the way our services are usually setup, we often have a song going into a prayer time before the message and one coming after the message. I would try to make sure at least one of those (preferably the one after message), speaks as directly as possible to the message.
Ted: Can you explain what prayer time means for your church?
Harry: Whoever the venue pastor is for that week comes up to the stage and will pray as we go into a time of greeting and announcements. We usually play through the chorus of the song we were playing right before that instrumentally softly during that time.
Ted: How do you introduce new songs to the congregation?
Harry: I try to use all of our different avenues. We will start putting new songs as part of our pre and post service music. Sometimes we put new songs on Spotify on the church’s Facebook page ahead of time. Usually we will do it in a portion of the service that causes them to listen to it more. Often we will do it early on in a service where we can say (as we teach the chorus), “if you get nothing else right now [with this new song], here is the chorus”. We’ll go over it a couple of times then launch into the song with the full band. Sometimes if it is a tougher one, we may make it a song as people are leaving as well – so we might do it twice on a Sunday to reinforce it.
Then we’ll throw it into the mix [of songs] for the next week. I then give it a week off. We’ll do it one more time and if it “sticks” based on the reaction to congregation, we will add it into the rotation of songs.
When people get a song, they usually sing it. If they come back the second week after introducing the song you can tell as a worship leader if they have been thinking about the song. You can also tell after service if they come up to you and say how they really like that new song. So we gauge it that way.
Ted: What is the importance of “singable” songs?
Harry: You know what? I go back and forth on that one. I think there is great joy and something really awesome about people able to sing. So I do try to put songs in a place where the congregation feels they can sing along.
I went to a conference this year where someone explained that they play a song based on who is leading it. If people can sing it, fine. If not, fine. But that was for a really big church and they run their music a lot louder. Their thing is, people might not even want others to hear because they can’t sing. But they still want to worship by screaming at the top of their lungs. Part of me goes, “man that would be awesome!” But knowing where I am at my church, people love to sing and hear those around them sing.
So I do tend to focus more on putting songs in a key that allows people to sing along.
Ted: By that token, would you pick the singer based on the key which makes it easier for the congregation to sing along with?
Harry: It depends on the song. I have a pretty wide range as a vocalist. But I found in many years of doing what I do, that even if I can sing a high part, women in the congregation always feel like they have to sing an octave higher. You end up with a screechy thing going on in the room. So I try not to go too far either way.
If I’m in a key where I go, “this could work for me” yet its not going to work for the room, I’ll put it in a key for the female vocalist instead. We try not to change the keys too much as sonically sometimes it doesn’t have the same feel. The song loses its impact.
Ted: Also, do you do “reflective” songs where the congregation is not necessarily singing?
Harry: Sometimes. We did that recently. I found the easiest way to do that is to not put the words up on the screen. If the words are on the screen people automatically sing.
Ted: What instruments do you usually lead with as the worship leader?
Harry: Normally the grand piano as I’ve been playing around on it since I was three and started taking lessons at five. Sometimes I’ll lead from the front with guitar. I haven’t led from keyboard, I’ve found it really hard to lead with pads. Also we would have to move the keyboard around on stage because we don’t have a deep stage.
Although for this past Sunday for the first time I led from a small drum kit because we didn’t have a drummer. [Ted chuckles in disbelief] It was a kick, snare and ride cymbal and I was playing brushes. By far that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Singing, leading people, the band, listening to the click track – there was a whole bunch going on! [laughs] We got through it but it was crazy. Not sure I would do that again [both of us laughing] That Sunday night was long – my brain was starting to hurt [laughing]
Ted: Do you have a typical instrumental configuration for services?
Harry: For the typical band we do piano, keys (a separate musician), bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, lead singing and two background vocalists. Sometimes we add a person doing percussion (shakers, tambourine, congas, that kind of stuff).
Ted: What is your approach regarding remaining faithful to a recording’s arrangement vs taking artistic license?
Harry: I like doing both. I personally feel that if we can be true to the song as it is originally recorded, then when we want to change things at least everybody has a working knowledge of the structure. Its one thing to say, “listen to the recording but we are not going to play it at all like that”. But if we play the song a couple of times with the original arrangement, its not a big deal to change a couple of chords for example. Roadmaps of a song are strictly done serve the story we are trying to tell on a particular Sunday.
For instance on Easter Sunday we opened with a song “This I Believe” by Hillsong which has a creed. It was coming after a video we were showing that did that creed as well. So we only did the choruses for it. That’s the feel we wanted to have. Thus the roadmap was totally changed to serve the story.
Ted: How do you communicate roadmap changes to the team?
Harry: I used to try to do it verbally but I found that people zone out or for whatever reason miss it. We can easily eat up 30 minutes to an hour due to, “wait, did you say chorus then bridge?” So we put the roadmap in planning center software. Actually we add it to the arrangement of the song so it gets placed on the top of the sheet. The catch phrase when questions come up has become, “its on the top of the sheet” [laughs]
Ted: Do you have music stands on stage?
We use both stands and iPads. If the band members have iPads and want to, then they use them. Its nice because we print out less paper copies overall. Usually about half the team is using the iPads so we’re cutting the paper down in half.
Continued on Part II
