Happy Mother’s Day! Mother’s Day is always a unique Sunday for us. Our Choir plans a concert that takes place during our 11:00 service which draws a large crowd including attenders from the other two services so we always plan for a drop in attendance at 9:30. Generally the planning and structure of the service don’t change much but an expected drop in attendance does have an impact on the planning process. First, when it comes to music selection we choose songs that are easier to sing (melody, arrangement, etc.). Second, on this particular day we decided to do an acoustic worship set. Less people=less volume from singing, less amps=less volume from band. It tends to create a good balance. The key is to make it easier to sing and participate in the service. We took songs that we’ve been singing for a while and changed them up to work with in an acoustic set. This is much more fun than limiting your selection to songs that are already acoustically driven. I had an absolute blast with the set this week and several band members told they really enjoyed it as well. Here was our band line-up for this week:
2 Acoustic Guitars
Baby Grand Piano (as opposed to the Roland x-8 we normally use)
Bass Guitar
Drums (only kick, snare, hi-hat with brushes)
3 Vocals
And here’s the set:
Let God Arise (G)
Come Thou Fount (D)
All We Need (E)
The band did a great job pulling this set together. Rehearsal was so smooth this week that we even got out early. All We Need was the highlight for me. It was just so much fun to take a song we’ve done to death and spin it to make it new.
I did learn a big lesson this week. You do not fully appreciate how many 6″ metal wires there are in a drummer’s wire brush until one explodes all over the stage 
For more fun stories and weekly worship sets head on over to Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Set Lists.
i thought for sure you were going to mention my screw ups….haha.
good read
Generally I only post information relevant to the worship community as a whole. Missing a couple of notes is so common that it’s hardly worth mentioning. I miss chord changes and forget lyrics every week. Besides, if we take an average of 100 beats per minute with an average song length of 4:00 and a typical 4 song set in a given week, only counting quarter notes that’s roughly 1,600 notes in your typical week. If I say you missed two, then what I’m really saying is you nailed one thousand, five hundred, and ninety-eight. Your batting average would be .998! If we worship leaders had a fantasy worship band league you’d be a top draft pick!
woah there numbers….
hahaha…