Sometimes things don't always go as planned 😅 Can you spot the difference?

Some Sundays when we have a smaller worship band, we'll typically play without a backing track or an MD since our arrangements are more stripped down. Because of this, we have to rely pretty heavily on our practice time and general band chemistry to work out the flow of the setlist.

The worship leader for this set, Matt Freeman, had a great vision to transition from The More I Seek You into the chorus of Lean Back. Thursday's practice we struggled a bit to figure out how to do this naturally, trying out a couple different ideas but still never felt settled with anything.

For the Sunday morning practice, with us having zero verbal communication to follow up how to do that transition, we absolutely nailed it. The worship team as a whole was flowing and it felt special to simply be in that moment without an audience in the room. We were able to build the More I Seek You at just the right pace where we could then jump into Lean Back with a full groove.

I was so pumped to do this again for Sunday morning's main worship set. When it came to the point in the set for us to hit this transition and I was about to play full groove, we just...kept building 😅 at this point I was very focused on what the worship leader was doing, and I picked up that he was wanting to stay in the first song a little longer before picking up Lean Back. We eventually got there and the live play ended up feeling really good in its own right! The Spirit was very much moving despite my expectation that we would play through the setlist a certain way.

All that to say, a big component of playing in a worship band involves flexibility and openness to what is happening in the moment. I am always very attentive to the worship leader(s) and where I think they're headed based on body language, tone, and generally where I feel the Spirit is leading. When there isn't a backing track to maintain structure or an MD to provide clear verbal communication, this becomes even more crucial of a skill to develop.

I hope this doesn't sound like a daunting task to have to figure out if you are new to playing drums in a worship band. My intent is to provide insight from things I've picked up on and learned over the years playing with different worship bands. If it is something you're interested in or just getting started, then I would encourage you to start practicing mindfulness and awareness when playing with others. Don't just be focused on the parts you're playing, but try to listen to how it blends in with the rest of the band. If you can record yourself in practice or look back at a recorded livestream, that can also be a great way to listen back and hear what worked well. The more you practice this as well as the practical parts of your craft (i.e. repetition, active listening, limb independence), the more naturally this type of mindset will occur. Stay Saucy!

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