Working With Youth Bands: Point and Play
Here is a little exercise we use with our youth band to work on playing together, keeping rhythm, following a leader and learning to listen to other parts. We took a repetitive section of a song, in our case we used the first part of “Undiginified” and we made sure everyone knew it. Then I told them that I had an on off switch. When I pointed to them they should play if they weren’t playing or stop playing if they were. I started off pointing to the drums and bass, then added guitar, keyboard etc. Then I switched off the drums to see how the rest of the group would keep beat. We played for about 10 minutes with this and I let my vocalists take a turn at telling members when to play or not.
It was something simple to do, but they really had fun.
What fun exercises do you use with your youth praise team?
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I like the idea of an on-off switch type exercise. Although we just are a 3-piece combo, we cut in and out as our songs build, but I see how this type exercise will force everyone to have better tempo and be more in sync. Nice post.