Tips for Playing Church Organ & Strings

Video Transcript

"TOM SMITH: Hi. My name is Tom. This is for ExpertVillage.com. We're talking about how to play keyboard in a worship team at a church. With all those other instruments, what I do too when I'm listening is I try and pick sounds on the keyboard that is compatible with the chorus like, what are the words of the chorus trying to say? Is this an upbeat worship tune? Is this a more reflective worship tune? And there are some basic fundamental sounds that I use. And you should use your keyboard or synthesizer or whatever the church provides to write down and get a couple of good sounds in each of these categories. You'll probably need a nice organ-type sound. Okay, the nice thing about organ is I sit on that note and the sound remains. Okay, it's almost like the glue that holds, especially if guitar or the bass is playing something percussive, that's kind of nice glue. Another glue sound which is good is strings. You should have a couple of good string sounds. Now, strings you have to be careful with because you don't want them sound too mushy, so you've got to watch about the definition. For instance, this particular string sound, it doesn't have a good attack, it kinda lingers when it comes in, and sometimes that works. But I've got a second string sound, for instance I use on this one, that's got much more definition. So, what you want to do again is listen to what other people are playing, are their chords ringing out? Are they playing percussive? Are you trying to have kind of a layer in the background or do you want a little more distinct attack so that people can pick up the part you're playing or help move the song all along. So, those are two sounds or flavors you want to have in your pocket for worship tunes."