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Break Free From Praise Band Boredom

Jul 25, 2011

Try freshening up the recorded versions of popular praise songs with these tips from worship leader Rob Rash: Leading worship is a great and wonderful responsibility. We have to maintain creativity with song and structural integrity. So how do you balance creativity over being a worship cover band? It’s a…

In-Ear Monitoring Systems for Worship

When I started with click tracks and loops many years ago I began with a super simple (and primitive) setup. I’d create a drum loop in my software (Stylus), burn a CD and play it from a portable CD player on my keyboard. The drum loop would be fed mainly…

Lessons In Life: God Is Able

Jul 20, 2011

Reuben Morgan, Hillsong worship pastor and songwriter, explores the meaning and message behind the songs on the church’s latest live album. (more…)

Mighty to Save Authors Share Secrets to Songwriting

Jul 8, 2011

I had the pleasure of chatting with Hillsong’s Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding a few weeks ago when they were on tour promoting their latest recording. These guys wrote the mega popular song “Mighty to Save” and had a few insights on the songwriting process. Isn’t it amazing how many…

Mars Hill: Worship That Fits Your Culture

Jun 13, 2011

Last week I was in Seattle hanging out with PraiseCharts.com’s Ryan Dhal. We had the chance to visit the famous Mars Hill Church pastored by Mark Driscoll. This church is a prime example of a ministry reaching their culture if I’ve ever seen it. Seattle’s reputation as being an emo…

Writing A Song

Last week I had the pleasure of songwriting with one of the most prolific writers in Christian music – Chris Eaton. Chris has had songs recorded by many top Christian artist as well as secular artists like Janet Jackson and Keith Urban. You probably sing one of his most popular…

The Church of Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s has come to Greenville – it’s a “speciality grocery store” chain that has about 4,000 items (typical grocery stores have 50,000.) Most items bear the “Trader Joe’s” label and with each trip you’ll find something cool, unique and tasty. (I “cooked” my first Thanksgiving meal last year for…

What Would Walt Do?

Forty years before the “What Would Jesus Do” fad, Disney executives were asking “What Would Walt Do?” I’ve been hanging out this week with an old engineer friend of mine in Orlando who’s teaching me ProTools (I’m thinking of switching from Sonar – a topic for an upcoming article.) Whenever…

Take a Seat

Often, as worship leaders, we get so wrapped up in the minutiae of the job – charts, schedules, planning, tech and everything else – we lose sight of the big picture. When I was working at a megachurch, involved in the weekly worship grind, I once had a rare Sunday…

Does Good Music = Growth?

I used to think that really good music grows a church. Get the hottest band and singers in town and the people will come. I don’t think that anymore. I love to visit churches to see what they’re doing. I’ve been to huge megachurches with thousands of people and so-so,…

Keyboard Player Needed

The above picture is a real sign from a real church right down the street from me. They need a keyboardist but might as well get in line – all churches need a keyboardist and good ones are in short supply. I know of one big church with multiple campuses…

Starting with Click Tracks

In my previous article I talked about the magic of a click track and how it can turn a band of amateurs into something special. But how can you start? Here’s a list of 3 evolutionary click track steps from my own experience – from easy to high tech: 1.…

Click Track Magic

I’ve discovered one of the secrets to why the big megachurches have (usually) great music. And it isn’t necessarily because they have money to hire pros (although that is sometimes the case.) It’s the click track. I’ve seen firsthand how click tracks can turn ordinary, amateur players into something quite…

Songwriting Horror

I have a tale of horror that will terrify every Christian songwriter! Songwriters, if you ever get to the point in your career when publishers are interested in your music: beware. A few weeks ago I received a royalty statement in the mail from Universal Music Group that brought back…

Song Keys

Oct 4, 2010

I’ve been on a worship flow crusade lately. You visit these famous megachurches and expect to be wowed by their expertise and it isn’t necessarily so. On several occasions I’ve sat in a congregation of thousands only to see the worship leader and band sing a song, come to a…

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