For many worship leaders the thought of incorporating a string section into their worship band presents a tantalising opportunity that ticks many boxes. As we know, strings provide depth, sensitivity, dynamics, and beauty and if you are just used to a contemporary rock band setup, a change from the norm. Using strings gives a role in the team to the classical musician, engages age groups in the congregation who may find drums and electric guitars a challenge, and on the whole can be made to blend well sonically with most contemporary worship songs.

Unfortunately strings can also sound over-busy if not well orchestrated, can struggle for space and volume when trying to meld with an insensitive and loud band, and, if classically trained, musicians can be so scared by the thought of playing without the score that they would rather boil their own heads than improvise in public!  So how do you as a worship leader include strings without the mess? Much of the difficulty centres on arrangements verses improvisation. So here are a few ideas to get the best of both without having to produce full scores yourself.

Improvisation in worship

If your musicians are able to improvise, the basic lead instrument rules apply that we’ve discussed in previous issues regardless of how many are in the section. I.e. only play the melody line at selective points where you want it to cause impact, and if possible using an octave above or below. Vary the dynamics by starting and stopping at song junctions rather than drifting in and out at random. Try to blend your sound with other harmonies and match each others’ volumes. Make a statement by playing in the gaps but again pick your moments wisely; you’ll make far more of an impact by not playing all the time. Read More »