{"id":6157,"date":"2011-06-17T08:28:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T08:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=6157"},"modified":"2019-07-31T13:46:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T13:46:50","slug":"how-to-run-a-worship-jam-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-worship-jam-session\/","title":{"rendered":"How to run a worship jam session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Chollar wrote us a great post last week on the idea of jam sessions for worship teams. The photo shows one at his church (the drummers are out of sight in the biggest drum booth ever). One of the questions that came in as a result of this is “Sounds great – but what do you actually do <\/em>at a jam session”. Here Jason explains all:<\/p>\n

Jamming is just a term for an informal music making session.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been doing them for years at my church though, so let me walk you through how mine works.<\/p>\n

Jesus And Music
\n<\/strong>In the very beginning I advertized our JAM time as a cute little acronym for Jesus And Music.\u00a0 Not sure if I heard that somewhere or came up with it, but feel free to steal it and make it your own if you want.<\/p>\n

Who?
\n<\/strong>We have a weekly JAM session that is open to the public and do indeed have mostly jr.\/sr. high kids, but we also do have some brave parental types who join in, usually with some experience already.\u00a0 Many of the kids have little to no experience.\u00a0 I try to recruit some of my older players with more experience to help, which makes it WAY better. They are often willing to come to give back, because this is how they learned.<\/p>\n

When? How long?
\n<\/strong>We do it after school on Wednesday afternoons for 1 hour (right before Worship Team Dinner and Practice).<\/p>\n

Where?
\n<\/strong>Right in the main worship center (sanctuary, \u2026)<\/p>\n

Why?
\n<\/strong>See my other blog post:
\nJammin your way to a better worship band<\/p>\n

Very Size and group specific
\n<\/strong>Because the meeting is usually a fairly small group (anywhere from 2 to 20) I tailor the meeting specifically to that group.\u00a0 If everyone already knows each other and knows all the instruments, I skim through the first sections and do more in depth teaching or go straight to the instruments.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What?
\n<\/strong>1.\u00a0Introduction to what JAM is
\n<\/strong>I start out calling everyone to join me in a sitting circle and pray, and then talk about what JAM is: a time to explore this wonderful gift God has given us called music.\u00a0 I then take 2 or 3 minutes (or 5 or 10 depending on the week) and explain some basic theology and teaching on music.\u00a0 I\u2019ll explain that in another post.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Introduction to each other
\n<\/strong>Then I have people introduce themselves to one another, often with questions like:<\/p>\n

-Name \u2013 Age and \u2013 One of your favorite bands (so we get to know each other a little musically as well).\u00a0 Depending on how many people there are you may have to move quickly through this or you\u2019ll never get to making music!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Picking instruments
\n<\/strong>Now this might scare you, but this is how we do it.\u00a0 I explain that the Kingdom of God works upside down from the law of the jungle, so first timer\u2019s and new people and younger people get first pick.\u00a0 So I change it up a a little to make it fair, but first timers get first pick of the instruments and can pick anything they want: any of the instruments up on the platform.\u00a0 I have had our church over the years buy basic, no frills but decent instruments so we have drums, piano, keys, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and then I even have people run sound and words on the screen.\u00a0 And of course singers.\u00a0 And if we have extra\u2019s you can always add another acoustic guitar or djembe or cajon or shaker egg anything else people bring.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Your existing Worship Team as Coaches\/Teachers\/Trainers
\n<\/strong>If you can swing it, get as many of your experienced, regular worship team players to be there to assist.\u00a0 For example, your bass player can help train anyone who wants to play bass.\u00a0 If no one does, he can just play!\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have anyone who knows how, buy a bass anyway and let them play around with it and buy the beginner DVD on\u00a0www.musicademy.com<\/a> They\u2019ll be off and running in no time.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, getting your church a library of\u00a0www.musicademy.com<\/a> videos that you can lend out to potential players is a GREAT idea and a wonderful investment for your church.\u00a0 Once someone has watched it, have them bring it back and send home with the next guy.\u00a0 Also, we regularly cross train one another on the worship team.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t anybody on my team who hasn\u2019t had to at least try all of the instruments we have once.\u00a0 You never know!<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Start with a click right away if you can.
\n<\/strong>I have a whole blog post (which we’re going to publish at Musicademy in the next couple of weeks) on the advantages and how to\u2019s of playing with a click, but my advice is to hook up some kind of metronome (laptop, ipod app, dedicated little electronic device almost like a guitar tuner, \u2026) and blare that puppy right throw your mains and monitors and have everyone count along: 1, 2, 3, 4\u00a0 \u2026..<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Start SIMPLE!
\n<\/strong>Pick an easy, easy, well known song.\u00a0 Like Revelation song (D, Am, C, G) or How He Loves (C, Am, G, F)<\/p>\n

These two songs for example have the same chord pattern over and over for the whole song.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even really need a chordchart, although it\u2019s really helpful to have those for everyone, and even to have a leadsheet (with melody line written out with those little black spots with flags up against 5 straight lines\u2026. you know?) just in case you have someone with some training or an instrument that really needs those (flute, violin, trumpet\u2026)\u00a0 Songselect service provided by CCLI here in the states has the ability to print out lead sheets (with melody) and it\u2019s transposable, which is awesome for when you have someone show up with an instrument that is built in a funky key (Eb or Bb Sax for example, \u2026)\u00a0 Then you can print it out in their key as well and they can play along just fine.<\/p>\n

Other songs I have used: I could sing of your love forever (D, Em, G, A for everything but the bridge, so just forget about the bridge until later) or Every move I make (G, C, D, C with the same bridge issue) or there are plenty of songs that are fairly well known that have chord changes that don\u2019t move too fast (How Great is our God, Forever, etc\u2026)<\/p>\n

The main thing is to keep it simple and fairly repetitive.<\/p>\n

7. Make it even simpler if you have to!
\n<\/strong>Forget about playing whole chords.\u00a0 On the piano\/keys, have them play just one note at a time instead of the whole chord.\u00a0 Same on guitar (think power chords with just 1 note).\u00a0 Once they\u2019ve mastered that, then think about trying to move up to chords. It\u2019s not uncommon for me to actually ask my keyboard player to just play 1 note (maybe 2) on a nice long lasting ooozing pad sound for live playing on Sunday mornings and anyone can learn to do this.\u00a0 Same on bass.\u00a0 Just about anybody can learn to do it with little previous experience.\u00a0 Stand there and point to the spot where they should put their fingers and call it out right before they should play it.\u00a0 Seriously, anyone can do this.<\/p>\n

Drums are probably the hardest, but if they are really struggling to play a basic Kick and Snare and \u2026 backbeat, then just have them play the \u201cwe will rock you\u201d pattern on the kick and snare: kick kick snare, \u2026. kick , kick, snare \u2026 Stadiums filled with people can do this.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure you and your team can learn to do it too.\u00a0 And you can use that basic beat for just about every worship song there is (unless it\u2019s in 3\/4 or 6\/8 or something).\u00a0 And voila\u2026 they\u2019re off and running.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0Start SLOW
\n<\/strong>Who cares how fast the song really goes. At first you just go through the notes one at a time without even the click or anything, to make sure everyone knows which 4 places they are going to put their fingers and in which order.\u00a0 Then try it at a really slow tempo.\u00a0 If you can do it repeatedly and correctly at a slow pace, then move up the tempo a little at a time until you get to the tempo it should actually be at.\u00a0 Be patient. You\u2019ll get there!<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Celebrate every little success
\n<\/strong>If you made it through the whole song very slowly and got half of the notes right, celebrate and then do it again and see if you can get a few more right notes the next time around.\u00a0 Just taking the risk to actually step out and play a new instrument can be a daunting task, so shower beginners with praises just for trying.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Send \u2018em home to practice up for the next JAM Session
\n<\/strong>Send them home with music, find some way for them to borrow an instrument from aunt Hilda and tell them to practice up for next week.<\/p>\n

One final note\u2026<\/strong> be prepared for it to sound terrible at first (that\u2019s pretty much a given) but have fun anyway! \u00a0 At first it all sounds disorganized and messy.\u00a0 But be patient and give it some time and practice and have fun with it and you\u2019ll be making beautiful music in no time!<\/p>\n

Another way to think of it is this: give free group music lessons to whoever is willing to keep showing up and eventually you will have some great players at your disposal!<\/p>\n

I know another church who started doing this in town too and now they have most of their worship team that came from these jam sessions too.<\/p>\n

Have you done this before?\u00a0 How has it worked in your church?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to hear!<\/p>\n

-jason<\/p>\n

Click through to Jason’s blog for more great articles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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