Worship Resources Article Index

Leading Worship From an Instrument David's "Letter of Reference" Barbless Hooks Friends of Jesus Christ "Worshipping Worship" - Say What? Should We Worship or Lead Worship? Phases of Organizational Growth

Tips For Blending Piano in Worship Eliminate Local Radio From PA Musical Instrument Guidelines Why Write Policies? Guidelines For Song Writing DJ Led Worship: Valid or a "New Cart"? DJ Led Worship: Interview With a Local DJ

Tips For Blending Piano in Worship

by Darcy L. Watkins

In contemporary worship we see more use of guitars and less use of acoustic and grand pianos. Many worship songs are geared towards this trend. The piano, however is far from dead. One common complaint though regarding pianists is that they tend to overplay or play in a manner which dominates and forces the remainder of the band to blend in. This can pose a problem if the pianist is not the lead musician whom others should follow.

"Actually, the classically trained pianists are the worst, because they are used to playing solo, not in a band. So they tend to "over-play" for a lot of the time. One of the things that they need to learn to do is to thin out the sound, to play less often (and less complex motifs). A piano is a difficult instrument to blend into a mix, it really does require a lot of thought to play well in a band setup."

The above is a typcial comment regarding this matter. First of all, what we have is a style clash.

What is needed most of all, is for all the team members to work together and play the same chord progression and the same rhythm. A classically trained pianist will typically need to learn chord theory and how to play by ear and jam. The best way for this is to spend a bit of time at practices jamming and having fun and not just working on new material (which he/she can sight read). You also have to balance people's capabilities and decide where more advanced players will trade off some frills for the benefit of less advanced players, and where you will push the developing musicians to the edge so that they will grow.

Always stretch harder during practices, but back off during services so that from a technical point of view, you are a bit relaxed and not struggling to keep up with tricky arrangements. Eventually the tricky arrangements become routine (after practice).

One other thing that classically trained pianists need to pay attention to while playing keyboards, is the role the instrument should play. This varies from song to song, style to style, arrangement to arrangement, and depends on the timbre selected, (e.g. EPiano, Strings, Organ...). Don't play a brass patch like you would play a Grand Piano. Listen to orchestral and contemporary musical arrangements to see how brass is applied. This applies to other settings. You have to listen and pay attention to what the others are doing. You have to listen and pay attention to what the others are doing. You have to listen and pay attention to what the others are doing. (Repetition intended).

The other chief difficulty blending a piano in worship is how to mic and mix the thing without it sounding unnatural. The following may help:

1. Use at least two good mics.
2. If you intend to record, get a pre-insert return signal into your recording mix for flat response. If you can get independent E.Q. on this then great.
3. For the live mix, place a 10 band EQ or better as inserts into each piano mic channel so that you can notch out the areas where the piano naturally fills the room and emphasize the frequency ranges which don't make it through. The result is a more pleasant live mix. Nothing is more annoying than amplifying the muddy portions of an acoustic piano (more a problem with uprights and closed grands). The piano should sound pleasant and no one should even notice that it was amplified, (i.e. sounds natural).

Similar technique could also be used mic'ing guitar amps, etc.