Yesterday we took a look at the benefits of memorizing your music for worship leaders. Today, let's take a look at how to actually do it!
It can be intimidating when you first try to memorize your music. There are definitely things that can go wrong but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Once you start leading worship with your music memorized, you'll realize that you're better at it than you thought - give yourself some credit!
Here are 3 keys to memorizing your music for worship leaders:
1 | Start Small
You don't have to dive into the deep end when you start. If you try to memorize all the songs you lead on Sunday morning the first time you try, you'll get discouraged. So, start small.
Start by memorizing one song for this Sunday. Pick the easiest song - the one you already know the best and then commit to leading it without music or words. The key is to commit to not even bringing the chord chart with you as a safety net. You'll realize leading without music isn't quite as scary as you thought.
2 | Don't memorize individual chords, memorize patterns
How do you actually go about memorizing your music? The key is to learn patterns not individual chords. Worship musicians often lament about the simplicity of worship music - "It just repeats the same thing over and over again." But when they're asked to memorize it, they say it's too complicated! Don't be that person!
If you see a verse that has the chords: Em, C, G, Em, C, G, Em, C, G. You don't need to memorize each individual chord you just need to remember that the pattern for the verse is Em, C, G - over and over again.
3 | Do It Consistently
Practice practice practice! The more you do it - the easier it will become. The more you do it the more patterns you will pick up on until eventually you can play any number of songs strictly from memory. Start with one song and over time you'll be able to play any song from your repertoire from memory!
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