Music, Keyboards and Worship
By Dehumo Togonu
Bickersteth
As a worship keyboardist for almost 15 years now, I have
experienced and ministered under so many different
leaders, and conditions and also before so many different
congregations that I have been forced to evaluate
and re-evaluate the role of a keyboardist in worship
services. In most churches, I will say, the keyboard
is the most important instrument in the worship. This
might not be a surprise if one considers that the
organ was the only instrument in use in most orthodox
establishments.
In some cultures, like ours, rhythm
and melodies mean a lot more than harmony. Although
with the extreme western influence, a lot of our modern
churches have adopted the emphasis on harmony like
the west and thus rely heavily on chords and intervals
(Multiple concurrent musical notes).
Musicians are a key element in
worship the minute they are involved with it. In a
manner different from vocalists, they are responsible
for the authenticity of the musical experience. The
word 'Music' must not be taken lightly. Whether in
church or in a secular context, music is a strong
purveyor of emotional energy, but worship is not just
an emotional exercise, it is a spiritual exercise
as well! If musicians do not understand the spiritual
importance of music then there is a limit to how much
input they can make to the worship experience. If
they are skilled, they will probably not detract from
it, but if they are skilled and spiritually aware,
they can add a completely new 'dimension' to the worship
service.
How does a keyboardist affect the
worship service? Three ways:
• Appropriate Playing technique
and skill for songs (chords, style, improvisation
etc)
• Appropriate Tone selection
(This is dependent on the keyboard model and sophistication
but if the keyboardist is not adventurous and sensitive,
level of sophistication might not be important)
• Appropriate energy level
Your skill determines how well
you play the songs, chords, technique and all. Improvisation
refers to your ability to rise up to the occasion
if things are not going the way you planned. Any skilled
musician should be able to handle this situation well.
Also you should be able to use your instrument as
a tool of communication rather than just playing music.
I'll explain this a little more. Imagine someone talking
to nobody in particular about nothing in particular,
he is still speaking a known language but to no effect.
Same thing goes if your music is directionless and
not played with any sense of achieving something.
The next is Tone selection. The
general idea in churches is to find a sound that best
resembles "Tom Brooks" awesome electric
piano sound. To be honest, Tom's Piano sounds only
as good as Tom can play. The issue is not the sound
of the piano but the sound you make with the piano.
Learn to use the tones available to you in the best
way possible. Somethings about keyboards that you
should be aware of are as follows:
1. Keyboards only sound as good
as the sound system they are on.
2. Keyboards with speakers on them
don't sound the same when amplified.
3. Professional keyboards have
different sound characteristics, not always better.
Though they are supposed to be better, they are professional
so they require professional handling. If this is
not available they might actually sound worse than
your 40,000 Naira Casio Keyboard even thought they
cost 10 times more!
4. Keyboards and pianos are very
different and require different playing techniques
5. Most keyboards are touch sensitive-this
means they sound louder when you play the keys harder,
but that is not all, they sound sharper as well, i.e.
when you play soft they sound quieter and softer,
cool and not so ear piercing, but when played hard
they become louder and sharper. Keep this in mind.
Some people play so hard that all you hear from the
keyboard is a lot of jangling and un-neat and distracting
sounds. This is not reflective of the keyboardists'
skills just inappropriate use of tones.
6. Keyboards have more than one
tone (More than electric piano, most have at least
127 tones and at least 10 of those tones are useful
in worship)
7. Keyboards have to be listened
to while they are being played because you never know
what cacophony you might be making! While your mental
image is heavenly, your congregation is crying out
in pain while holding their hands to their ears.
Music is fun. Whether in meditative
form or ecstatic form, it is fun. It isn't nice and
interesting to have musicians who don't seem to have
anything to do with the music they are making besides
moving some little fingers at the end of their hands.
If you want to encourage people to be free, to participate
in whatever, you have to experience that freedom also.
This is not to say you have to jump around on stage
or become ecstatic in praise. Besides, to fake it
is worse than not to do it at all. What I am implying
here is that have some relationship with your music,
this is something people can see whether you are sitting
down and playing quietly or you are jumping out of
your clothes! Don't let worship music become an academic
exercise to you, remain fresh, expressive and involved
with what you are doing, its' your weapon of warfare,
you do not fight a war with indifference, do you?
Spiritual awareness in worship
is very essential. It is what separates a worship
musician from a secular musician. What is spiritual
awareness? It is simply, knowing what God is
doing in the congregation as you play. You might not
know in explicit detail what is going on but being
in touch with the Holy Spirit, He leads you in the
right direction to facilitate a conducive atmosphere.
You know when 'noise' is required; you know when heavenly
pads are needed. You know when quietness is the way
and you know when a solo is just round the corner.
These are not issues about right or wrong, some people
might not even understand what your reason for doing
a particular thing is but you know you responded to
a leading in your heart and you know there was a need
for it.
One thing you must keep in mind
though is that you are not the worship leader and
God is not an author of confusion. Keyboardist sometimes
work contrary to their worship leader simply because
they play a role that gives them the ability to. If
you start banging around on a synthy high freq tone
when your leader is on the 'the Lord is in His holy
temple, let all the earth keep silent before Him'
trip, you are not helping matters at all no matter
how convinced you are that you are right! As already
stated it's not about being right or wrong, but simply
about being sensitive.
Finally, this article is just a
short piece on my approach to worshipping on my instrument.
There is a lot more I could share with you but that
might have to be later. One thing I would like to
add at this time is that skill is important but being
sensitive is a lot more important. You might not need
so much skill to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit,
or to express the content of your heart in worship
through music. Another thing is too much skill makes
it more difficult for you to rely on the Holy Spirit;
'it's easier to just do it because you can' get it?
Music is a spiritual exercise and
I cannot overstate this. Chord progressions and voicing
have a direct relationship to emotional tension and
relaxation. Tone timbre and colours have a direct
relationship with pleasure and pain. These are some
technical details you might want to look into, there
are a lot more. As with all areas of life, you do
not have to know all to do it right, just listen to
your heart, listen to the Holy Spirit, interact with
Him at home, whenever you play your instrument, let
him show you his way around that particular instrument
and you will be surprised what God can do with you
at your level of skill. Stop trying to play as good
as that person, that pursuit limits you and locks
you up in a tight little box of "not good enough".
Rather, free yourself to experience the liberty of
God' presence and discover new dimensions in worship.
This is not to say don't try to improve but rather
improve at a pace you can keep up with. Scoring black
gospel chord progressions for a choir special number
when you are having problems playing "Praising
the Lord Always" is what I call out of pace.
Finally, personally I have never
received any formal training and I still can't play
what I hear off tape accurately, but I enjoy worshipping
on the piano or keyboard so much that I can not play
what I play during worship, outside the worship experience.
I find that I am almost watching myself sometimes
surprised at the things I am doing, afterwards, if
I am asked to teach it or show it, I can't do it.
This is a personal experience and I just wanted to
share it with you
Dehumo produces for Fountain of
Praise. He is an accomplished keyboardist, songwriter
and producer. He presently lectures at the School
of Audio Engineering, Singapore. He can be reached
at dehumo@selahpro.com
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