WorshipCentral

I find it takes a while to get this down and the biggest issue is communication with the drummer. I tend to use my head, the head stock of my guitar and even my playing to indicate changes. The drummers I play with have gotten used to it over time and now we are pretty good at reading each other.

Yeah I've got a good communication with my drummer now. But I want to get one group of signals that will give me good communication with everyone I play with.

my main signal is lifting my guitar neck. It means something is going to happen! Usually like cut out to just drums or just guitar or something like that. It all is sorted out before hand. Having more signals that would means if I change my mind in the middle of the song the band knows whats happening. But I find with a good few practices the band seems to know whats going on and seem to do a good job indervidually todo with dynamics etc.

lol we lead from keys... and whoever's on keys (usually my mum or me) just mouths like 'chorus' or 'repeat' and stuff like that lol. that's mainly for the singers and guitars thought... when i'm on drums i just go with the flow and can just tell what's coming lol... we do also practice though, and i improvise easily and don't get caught up when mistakes are made or anything, just have a good laugh about it while i'm still playing lol :P

another maybe could be lifting your leg up (bending it at the knee so it flicks up behind you) lol, you could use it for whatever you wanted, but i remember that being one that quite a few people use, as well as using their guitar's headstock etc.

In a perfect world, I’d have cue cards… and a person standing with the cue cards facing the band. They’d flip through each card labeled “chorus” “Verse 2” “Bridge” “Encouraging spoken word with band playing softly in the background”

That would be most helpful, because, honestly, I also forget where I am in the song sometimes… and I also forget where we’re going sometimes. Other times… I just forget everything entirely, like my name, or why these people are singing at me, and how’d this guitar get in my hands?!

But since I haven’t found a gifted cue cardist… I try to lead dynamically with the instrument/vocal mostly. If the song is building it’s easy, sing louder and start playing harder. To soften things up you can try to use refrains in the voice and instrument to bring it down. Normally the band picks up on it, it’s rarely perfect but to be perfect we would have to practice more, and no one has time to practice right now (in my band at least).

I have a few that have worked well that I'm sure I've adopted from others...

leg up - repeat whatever section we're in, most often the chorus

raise headstock - end the song

index finger point - drums breakdown

index and pinky (horns) - drums and bass

shoulder shrug - build

These have worked well, we even did a demonstration for our entire team so they were all on the same page.

Back in that repeated-single-verse-and-chorus period of worship songs (most of the 80s IIRC), I remember seeing the circular motion being used to request a repeat...

I even used it myself once when I needed the musos to keep going as I had to rush forward to sort a handheld mic - just got eye-contact and mouthed "keep going please"... shot forward, sorted the business up on stage... then shot back..

One time Luke (the bass player from WC) was leadin worship and arranged that if he lifted his leg it would mean repeat the chorus, but if he lifted his leg AND rotated it if meant go to the tag! He ended up singing, lifting and rotating his leg and playing this guitar! If only he'd fallen over THAT time.... (see Tim's latest blog entry...)

Hey Gilbert
Here's Mine

Foot up - Repeat
Headstock Raise - End
Headstock Nodding in time/Slowing - Slowing down for the finish
Point down - Quiet
Stamping foot - Loud

Shaking the head - Stop it/Don't do that!!! :)

We should really do this over a coffee :) Let me know when you're back in the North East

Having been trained well by Tim & Al, I started to lead my band for the first time with confidence, until I realised it's a LOT harder from behind a keyboard, never mind a piano!

So, I've ditched the piano and now play keys standing so that they can see my feet and shoulders. I use the following, all with either left leg (right foot is normally busy pedalling!) or right shoulder:

foot up - repeat section
shoulder up - quieten down
elbow out (kind of pointing) - drums & bass
thumping foot - louder

it's working....slowly.....