Case Study: How one church uses Split Tracks with it’s youth praise band

 

Barry Collins, Worship Pastor at First Baptist Church of Gray, GA, contacted us to tell the story behind how he discovered our split track backing tracks (the lower priced alternative to MultiTracks) and also shared how they have been an answer to prayer. Some really common issues are raised here and it will be encouraging to others to see how Barry is addressing them. Here’s his story:

A “not very good” praise team

We had a Youth Praise Team that has not been very good for the past 3 years…Our Youth Pastor and his wife led them. She is an accomplished song writer and singer but she used the Youth Praise Team as her backup vocalist and band.

That may sound like a good thing but she never developed them into a solid group.

They left our church in May 2015 and I was given the task of keeping the youth praise team together but they were awful. So I started from scratch. New people with anyone that wanted to remain.

The vocalists are very good but the band is not so good. So, I have set up mentors for each instrument in the band: drums, bass guitar, keyboard/piano, acoustic guitars, electric guitar. These mentors are professions and love the Lord. They spend hours with the band each week working on technique and basic music skills.

The search for backing tracks for vocalists

That’s why I am so excited about your ministry – Worship Backing Band. I had a list of songs for the Youth Praise Band to get ready for the rest of 2015. The vocalists were doing great learning the songs but the band just wasn’t getting it. So, while getting the band up to speed, I was looking for something I could use with the vocalists so they could lead worship on Wednesday nights. I tried the iWorship Series from Integrity Music but everything was out of their range. I tried a few other worship video resources but they too were out of their singing range.

I had even thought about asking our Sunday worship band to play for them on Wednesday nights but they are all older, out of college, have other church ministry responsibilities, and have families to attend too.

Last week, on Friday morning, I was praying (out of frustration) and simply asked the Lord to direct me to some resources that I could use with the Youth Praise Team vocalists to have them singing/leading worship on Wednesday nights. While at lunch, the idea (from the Lord) of researching worship accompaniment tracks came to mind.

I got back to my office and began the search and came across your website. After further investigation, I realized the gem I had found.

Using Worship Backing Band Split Tracks

I use the split tracks to teach the songs to the Youth Praise Team Vocalists. With the lyrics already available it cuts my time of preparation to a simple click and download. With the setup of the songs, the lyrics, and the singable vocal ranges, we simply put the songs (backing band) in ProPresenter and ta-da we were setup for worship.

Tonight is the first worship service with them using the tracks but they are excited to finally be able to lead worship.

The ranges of each song is perfect for youth voices. We had already been learning some of the songs you have so Sunday’s rehearsal was more of a singing time than practice. We sang through several songs and they are ready to lead worship for their youth worship tonight.

Thank you again for your ministry. You are touching lives in Gray, GA. with your ministry.

 

We were very encouraged to hear this from Barry – thanks for sharing with us.

We’ve further suggested that he investigates the Pro Wav Player and MultiTracks as these can be great for teaching a novice band about parts, and also to play in the background whilst they learn. And of course our new Subscription Site is perfect for training up new musicians.

 

Photo credit Dean Sandham, Flickr Creative Commons