So, you are ready to invest in a drum set for the youth room because your drummer is tired of lugging all 48 pieces of his kit to the church every Wednesday night. This is a move I would recommend if your drummer is a consistent part of your youth program and if you foresee [...]
This is part one in a series of posts entitled “Back to Basics”.
Maybe this is familiar. You are listening to the radio or latest worship CD and hear a great new song. You go home, type out the chords or find them online, grab the CD and head to rehearsal. You then play the [...]
For a young musician, drums can seem deceptively easy. After all, all you have to do is beat on things, right? What often happens is you get a kid who learns a basic 4/4 beat in his cousin’s bedroom and the next thing you know he wants to be in the praise team, which may [...]
Last year I began a Tuesday night guitar class for some kids in my youth group who wanted to learn to play. Due to sheer time constraints, I had to discontinue my class. Some of the kids kept practicing while others lost the motivation they got from our weekly sessions. I recently [...]
One of the most difficult challenges in working with youth bands is dealing with students who are in the beginning phases of learning an instrument, particularly guitar or bass players. This can be frustrating for a youth worker/band leader who is an experienced player because you don’t want to spend a large portion of band [...]
This Fork In the Road blog was started as a way to encourage and share ideas, thoughts, advice and tips about worship leading in various settings from camps and retreats, to church services, to youth praise teams. I can write and share many things but I know that there are many more of you who [...]
We are just now on the last full day of camp. I have been leading for the 6th and 7th graders this week and I have really enjoyed it. There are a few more things I have learned and Ideas that I have seen I’d like to pass on.
First… I was kind of worried on [...]
An easy way to learn several songs with your praise team is to use songs that use the same chords and chord structure. Teach your team a basic chord pattern like G C D C. Once they can play that consistently and in time then reveal the songs that go along with that.
For [...]
