Playing in church and playing outside… the approach…

Haven’t written a serious blog in a long time. And since this topic was accidentally planted into my head, so I shall go into it.

Having played in bands longer than serving as a guitarist in church, I’m pretty sure people would be thinking, “Does JT’s approach to playing for church the same as playing in a band?”

Answer is, yes and no.

Yes?

Even though I’ve played songs like Glory, For All You’ve Done and so on a billion times, I still practice them before coming to the actual practice. Same with my band, we’ve played songs like The Anthem, Hell Song and All the Small Things so many times that we can just play it without practicing. But even so, I still choose to practice the songs and hope to improve on them (not add licks or what, just playing it cleaner).

And when it comes to the actual practice, I have the same practice – no phones, no goofing off, regardless of how tired I am, whether my dog ate a cat or what, when I come for practice, I concentrate on the practice. So some of you might probably realise by now that I get annoyed when we waste time.

Before any practices, I make sure I know the songs in and out. Even if I have to replay the mp3 a million of times and figure out the song on guitar for hours, I do it.

 

No… ok the hard part, I think.

My purpose is different. Obviously. One is to perform, one is to lead the people into worship and also my form of worship. Some people speak to God better by praying, some by singing, some by this, some by that, I speak to God by playing the guitar. That’s why I don’t really like it when the musicians dwell on how to make a worship “epic”. For me, if God wants to move you, He WILL. I admit, I have my off days as well. Sometimes I just don’t connect, but that just shows the human side of me. How does one expect me to play well if (for example) I just lost a close friend. Yeah, people say leave it God and all, but it is always easier said than done. Only once that when I played for church, my purpose was as a tribute to my late uncle Hon Kit, who suffered from diabetes. My reason: He has always wanted to see me play for service, and everytime I play, somehow he is admitted into hospital. And he passed away the week I was to play, so since I know that he will be looking down from heaven, so why not?

Improvisation. Yup, that’s what I like about playing for church. A normal mainstream song is already like that, you can’t change it much, the solo will be the same, the riffs will be the same, the breakdowns and cuts will be the same. But in church songs, you can have like many different versions of a song. I know there has been debates (or should I say, “I’m right you’re wrong” arguments?) whether it is alright to do an instrument solo? For me, its ok, but a limit has to be set. Cause for me, if you have an electric guitarist in the worship team, and all he/she does is play chords (not even fill ins), might as well sell the guitar he/she saved up for (not forgetting pedals and cables) and get an acoustic. And as far as I’ve been listening to Hillsongs and so on, I don’t consider those guitar solos as guitar solos. For example, Hosanna (I see the King of glory…), imagine that song without that instrumental before the bridge? Yes you can say, “Just play the chords la”, then my reply will be as I said, sell that guitar and get an acoustic.

And I think I have mentioned this in an earlier blog post, it will be a waste of the hours (I’m pretty sure I’m not the only guitarist putting in 2 hours daily) put in practicing your instrument and all you do is chords.

Then the question of whether that musician is able to worship? Well for me, I am able to worship and I’ve told some of my closer counterparts, I feel empty without my guitar. Yes I know, worship can be in any form, but how many of you can admit that you can worship in any situation without having the thought that you’re trying to sound the better Christian behind your head?

Are they showing off? Hmm I don’t know, it’s like a singer who can harmonize well, harmonizing during worship. Is he/she showing off that he/she can harmonize? Or the acoustic guitarist wanting to start every song so he/she will be heard first?

 

I realise this topic is always brought up by certain individuals only.

Jealousy?