Bar Rock and Worship
I went out to a bar with some friends to see a band play. It was a cover band which isn’t really something I’m into but they were pretty talented musicians. They played a lot of classic rock and blues stuff. While I prefer to see bands that are writing their own stuff, I give those guys credit because most of the songs required a skill level that I would have to really work at to pull off. And the thing that really stood out to me was that they played for 4 hours with no sheet music.
I was just thinking of all the time and energy they put into rehearsing to sound really tight and it’s just for some money and free beer. And then I play on the worship team at church and most of the songs have 4 or 5 chords and I have to use music for a set that’s only 30 minutes. I wonder what would happen if worship teams put just as much time and energy into what they do as a band would that is playing in a bar. In fact, I think it’s a sad fact that most worship bands would never be able to get a gig in a bar because of the lack of quality. But yet it’s “good enough” for church. I long for the day when the world looks to the church for creative inspiration in music and art instead of the other way around.
interesting… sarah and i had this conversation recnetly after a boring worship service.
to sum it up, “if you are thinking about the song you heard on the way to church while the band is playing music (or worse yet, the soloist is singing along to tracked music), then something needs to be improved.”
i never want to get out to my car and turn on the iPod after church and say, “ahhh… GOOD music. finally.”
Isn’t it funny that you can pretty safely say that you’ve heard every worship band that is really good. Because if they are really good they have cds out that are really popular. Christians eat it up, man. Obviously Christians are really desperate for note-worthy worship music. Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, United, etc… These worship bands that are really good set the standard. Everyone tries to sound like them.
I don’t really have a point to make, just continuing the thought.
Glad to have had this same conversation with you on the drive home from “Gospel Prison Worship” I cannot agree with you more! Great blog page you have!!!!!