Background Music

Background music is often needed when the pastor is speaking or praying in the midst of worship, or during altar call or ministry. The mood is often low and meditative (although it can go up, like United's Selah, maybe i'll blog about that in the future), but I find that many guitarists tend to use it as a 'show-off' soloing session.

Here are positive and negative examples:



Dos:

• Use some effects to make your sound more airy. In the video, I used delay. You can also use tremolo.
  
• Use fills that aren't showy. Stick to simple and slow ones.
  
• Play broken chords more often. The pianist is having enough trouble tying the music together, give a hand!
• Flow with the band and worship lead. Your job is to enhance what is already present, and not to stand out like a sore thumb.
  

Don'ts:

• You'll drown out the pastor if you use a tone that is sharper than the pastor's voice. Lower your highs, and use less or no distortion.
• Don't ever play blues! Bluesy riffs sound great because they are showy. It'd attract far too much attention.
• Don't use bends, as they are showy and sound sharper and too aggressive.
• If you're using distortion, don't do too much strumming and double notes as these sound strong.
  

In general, check your heart - are you trying to get attention and adoration, or do you sincerely want to build up the congregation and support the pastor? Everything you play must be directed at the latter. Check out Chris' article for more.

You can use the following mp3 to practice, its a really nice song called Over and Over by Paradise Community church, highly recommended!



If there are more suggestions, pls leave a comment, and I'll add it to the list.