Re-written narrations of the Christmas story [free Christmas presentation download]

By Guest Blogger | November 17, 2016

Pulling together an order of service that also includes a creative element to both refresh the usual content and appeal to visitors can be pretty daunting. We were discussing ideas for Christmas service planning in the Musicademy Worship Community (it’s a Group on Facebook – you are welcome to join too) when one of our regular community […]

Worship training day livestream videos

By admin | November 7, 2016

We were able to record a number of the masterclasses at our recent worship training day in Peterborough. These were doing using Facebook Live so are a single camera and on-board audio feed. Worship Team Essentials Part 1 If you like the concepts covered in Worship Team Essentials we would definitely recommend our Band Skills […]

Flare Audio’s Isolate ear defenders [Review]

By admin | November 2, 2016

I go to a lot of live music. Festivals, gigs and conferences. At the majority, sound levels are perfectly acceptable and I leave at the end of the evening without feeling that my ears are bleeding. But sometimes it’s loud. Too loud. At a pub gig a couple of years ago the music was so […]

Developing a sense of timing in your worship team

By Andy@Musicademy | October 17, 2016

Someone once told me that music with dodgy tuning is folk and music with dodgy timing is jazz… So does that mean lots of worship bands are actually playing sophisticated jazz-folk? All jokes aside, so many worship teams could improve their sound immensely if they just focused on improving their sense of timing. Most musicians […]

Same old chords new shapes

By Andy@Musicademy | October 5, 2016

Recently a guitar student asked me to teach them a cover version of Katy Perry’s California Gurls by YouTube boywonder Alex Goot. This kid is one of the many internet viral sensations building a readymade fan base poised for when they come to release their own music by covering other people’s songs and filming themselves […]

Power Chords – a cheats’ guide to playing difficult chords

By Andy@Musicademy | September 13, 2016

As a worship guitarist, have you ever been faced with a chord that seems impossible to play? Imagine the situation – you’re comfortably strumming along with a typical song that goes G, C, Em, D, and then out of nowhere pops an Eb minor add 13 sus 26 half demolished. What do you do? One […]

5 tips to help worship leaders become better singers

By Guest Blogger | June 29, 2016

 1.  In your practice: PLAY with your voice. Every sound that you possibly CAN make (no matter how ‘awful’ you THINK it sounds) can be used and incorporated as a colour into your singing palette when good technique is applied. Remember that the purpose of Worship is to connect with God and use the supernatural […]

5 tips for backing vocalists [+ free harmony backing track]

By Marie@Musicademy | April 29, 2016

If there are two of you then STICK TO YOUR PART. Learn that discipline if you haven’t already. Talk to the other singer and decide together whether you will go for the 3rd or the 5th (the higher or lower backing vocal line). Space is just important as filling it- sometimes more important! Just because […]