Playing keyboards in worship - A personal experience
By
Theo Emmanuel
The message my “boss” (Pastor Wale) left on my phone
early one Monday morning to write this article left me
wondering, “what on earth am I going to write
about?!?” On closer look though, I realized it
shouldn’t be too difficult, as I was only to write my
“personal experience” and not produce the Holy Grail
on playing keyboards in worship. So, here goes!
Perhaps the most profound thing I’ve learnt about
playing the keyboards in worship is that, it’s NOT
about playing keyboards (only)! It’s all about
WORSHIP. And worship is all about God who sent Jesus
to buy us back from slavery to sin and ultimate
destruction. Many times as musicians we get enamored
with our instruments so much so that we lose focus of
the object of our worship – God himself. It’s a tricky
balance, but once we accept that worship is NOT about
music primarily, but an attitude – spelt “LIFESTYLE” –
it becomes easier to grasp.
Secondly, I’ve found that it’s not about how many
augmented, flattened diminished major 9ths you can
play that matter. If anything, in worship LESS is
often MORE! A dear brother impressed this so strongly
on me while I was engaged in the mandatory National
Youth Service Corps scheme in Nigeria in 1992 – 1993.
I found myself working with Panam Percy Paul’s
ministry then, in Jos, Plateau State. This brother,
Ahide “Bassman” Adum would tell me, “Femi, keep it
simple”. Back then, I was so hung up on playing ALL
the “high-tech” chords, that I easily lost focus on
the most important part of the music – GOD.
Eventually, I got the message, and I’ll be eternally
grateful to God for teaching me a life lesson through
my brother and Friend.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should
throw out your chord charts and restrict yourself to
playing only I-IV-V-VI chords. No. Far from it! What
I’m saying is if your focus is to impress yourself or
whoever else for that matter with the technical
wizardry of your playing then you might as well be
playing in front of a mirror…
In addition, most times we keyboardists are a PART of
a team of other musicians. We need to play with
SENSITIVITY and CONTROL so that we don’t get the music
all muddied up with an overcrowded keyboard competing
with the guitars, the drums; the horns (and everything
else in-between)…get the point? I’ve learnt that I
need to leave room for the other musicians (and that
includes the vocalists, too!).
Another important lesson I’ve learnt, no, still
learning is that I must be sensitive to the STYLE of
the person leading the worship AKA worship leader. I’m
a “supporting cast”. I’m not on stage to promote
myself or my own agenda. The worship leader has been
designated to LEAD. My job is simple – FACILTATE
whatever s/he’s doing in a confident and UNOBTRUSIVE
manner! An example in our church, Jubilee, comes
readily to mind. Recently, I’ve fallen in love with
the fine guitar sounds on a lot of western worship
albums, and since we don’t have a guitarist in our
team (yet) I feel “obligated” often to double as the
missing guitarist! Well, Pastor Wale finds my guitar
playing less than suitable to his style. I personally
think my “guitars” are not so bad…so what happens? I
recognize his authority as the “boss man” in the group
so if he doesn’t flow with the sound or whatever, I
drop it. (Of course I’m still secretly working on
perfecting my “guitars” for release sometime in the
near future. Watch out pastor Wale!!). Get the point.
SUPPORT the leader. Don’t COMPETE with him or her.
Having a humble spirit is a downright essential
attribute of the worshipper in the first place, and
more so as a keyboardist. What is humility? It’s NOT
about kow-towing to every suggestion or instruction
like a mindless robot. Humility is about NOT thinking
more highly of ourselves than we ought to (Insert
scripture that says not to think more highly of
ourselves than we ought to). NOTE, that also includes
NOT thinking of ourselves LESS than we ought to. A
humble person has a realistic (GODLY) perspective
about himself and place in the general scheme of
things. S/he’s not intimated by other peoples
attitudes, criticisms or talents.
Finally, perhaps the most profound (SCARY?) thing I’ve
learnt or still learning is that the anointing of God
or the manifest presence of God during our times of
corporate worship is NO sign of God’s approval of our
persons. There have been times when my heart / life
was not right with God, yet those were times when God
would show up BIG TIME during worship in our Church
services. It’s easy to mistake the manifestation of
God for His approval of us. I’ve come to the grim
realization that without me, God’s will for man would
still be fulfilled. Therefore the smartest thing I can
do is to carefully align myself with HIM as best as I
can at all times.
It would be a disaster of mega-galactic proportions if
after all our struggles here on earth we meet The
Master face to face and all He has to say to us is,
“Depart from me, ye worker of iniquity. I know ye
not!”. HELP!!
Actively living right for Jesus is the bedrock of a
meaningful “practice” as a keyboard player in worship.
Phew! So that’s the article. I hope you’ve been
blessed.
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 Theophilus
is also a professional photographer with MOdAMO.COM
Photography and he travels all over photographing
beautiful, rich people under the pretense that it’s
hard work! He lives in
Lagos and has a daughter. Visit his website
www.modamo.com
to view some of his work.
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