10 commandments for worship bands / 10. continuing education

1. thou shalt play in tune
2. thou shalt learn the song, not just the arrangement
3. thou shalt practice with a metronome or drum machine
4. thou shalt seek out a mentor or coach on your instrument
5. thou shalt know thy gear
6. thou shalt play less for more
7. thou shalt seek out feedback
8. thou shalt be on time
9. thou shalt learn basic practical music theory and ear training
10. thou shalt continue thy education

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well, this is the final installment in this series. i hope that something has been helpful to you. i know that thinking through all this stuff again has helped me - good reminders of things i need to sharpen up personally and in my leadership.

this final one about continuing your education might be a little redundant. we’ve covered this idea in other commandments, such as #4, #7 and #9. but i think it’s worth mentioning again.

our mission as worship bands are so important. what an unbelievable privilege and responsibility we have each week to provide an environment for and a method for people to pursue God in worship! this is not something we should take lightly. going through the motions will not do.

we should take great care to ensure that we’re giving our best each and every sunday. and beyond that, we should be working on our craft on an ongoing basis. there’s no way i can make the personal applications for this point. that has to be done individually. but here are some ideas…

*get lessons
*go to a rock concert
*enroll in music theory class at a local community college
*take your worship pastor out to lunch to ask for feedback
*pay for said lunch
*find a nearby worship leader/band that you can develop a mentor-type relationship with

whatever the next step is for you, let me encourage you to take it. and if your life is too busy, then let me encourage you to ask some hard questions about your priorities. could be that serving in the worship band is not for you right now. could be that there are other less important things that are crowding out the time/energy that you should be investing in the worship band, and you need to drop something else.

here’s to giving our best to God and for being determined to keep growing!