Coaching classical singers to sing in a contemporary style

By Chris Steynor | September 17, 2018

A singer in your congregation has a passion for worship, and has approached you about joining your music team. You have a heart to use people’s gifts, and this person is clearly well-trained musically, has a genuine faith, and is keen to serve. But it soon becomes clear that their singing style is very ‘classical’ […]

Separating song from genre

By Simon Timperley | September 10, 2018

Two stories: Christmas carol service, doing “Silent Night”. I had set it on mandolin with a very simple strummed guitar background, very few chords, very gentle and folksy. The keyboard player kept twitching and saying it wasn’t “Christmassy enough” so we had a chat, and he set up a nice big church organ sound, and […]

How to transition from traditional to contemporary worship

By Marie@Musicademy | September 2, 2018

In an era where many congregations are facing dwindling numbers many churches are turning to a more contemporary approach to attract and retain people. They see the success that churches such as Hillsong and Bethel enjoy with rock concert style music and seek to bring at least some of that style to their local setting. […]

Preparing your worship set – a practical guide

By Simon Patrick | August 28, 2018

As I’ve grown in experience as a worship leader one of the growing joys of the role is helping to bring others into not just the worship team, but leading worship too. The way we do that at King’s Church is initially through a process of co-leading with them. Planning together, and then sharing the […]

Annoying pedal boards

By Andy@Musicademy | May 30, 2018

If you can’t make products people love, instead go and make less annoying products that people will use I was reading a quote from the marketing guru Seth Godin a while back and he was talking about either making products that people love and if you can’t do that make products that become less annoying. […]

Travelling light – the portable guitarist

By Andy@Musicademy | March 19, 2018

I’ve recently been working on downsizing my electric guitar rig. I want top quality gear but I’ve always found those classic amps that give great tone are just too big, heavy and loud for use in most churches. I’ve had Fender Twins, Vox AC30’s and Marshall Stacks and can’t even turn the volume above 1 […]

Recommended songs for beginning worship guitar players

By Andy@Musicademy | January 18, 2018

We had an email recently from someone relatively new to guitar playing who wanted to know which of the songs we have available as backing tracks and chord charts are accessible for a newish guitar player. We’ve pulled together a list of simple songs which have video lessons available too. You can access all the […]