Do you play music for God!

nucreation · 10-16-2001, 04:56 AM

My bass teacher today talked about playing music for God, it was unusual because he normally says to try and do all these difficult grooves while playing at church, but instead he told me to make the music match to what your singing.

Do you praise God while you play?
I have to admit that When I play at church, I can't concentrate on God, instead I always concentrate on how well I play and I always try to look cool and show off!! I need a few words of wisdom from you guys to show me how to Praise God while playing at church?

CrossEyed · 10-16-2001, 05:27 AM

I play at FCA, theres a small group of people there and I know them all pretty well, that makes the presure to do realy well less. That means that I can concentrate totaly on playing for God. when I play for God my music sounds better and people enjoy it more.

blue3236 · 10-16-2001, 06:07 AM

hey,
you play at FCA? That's awesome. Our school is going to start to have some singing and stuff, and I was asked to play my guitar. How many people are in your FCA? Ours has about 40 people in it. Any tips you could give me? We have our meetings in the morning, so I kind of haave to play the songs that everybody knows and stuff. I'm not sure what I'm going to play yet, but any advice would be good
<>< thanks

victor · 10-16-2001, 07:26 AM

I have trouble realy worshiping when i play. I have found if you practice and get reely good You dont think about playing. just listen to what the words say. Dont wory about what people think. I close my eyes and just worship him and i practice alot the songs i play

victor

nucreation · 10-16-2001, 09:01 AM

That's what I need to do. I need to practice the songs that i would normally play at church and memorize them.

Thanks Victor!

nucreation · 10-16-2001, 09:05 AM

What is FCA anyway?
I'm just curious!

smitty2622 · 10-16-2001, 04:09 PM

If your playing at church and worrying about looking and sounding cool, maybe you should reevaluate playing at church? Not that threes anything wrong with sounding good or looking cool but that shouldn’t be your diving factor when playing for God..

SccHarpGirl · 10-16-2001, 04:45 PM

Hey, I'm really glad that someone brought this up. I struggle with exactly the same problem.

The hard part for me is when people come up after church and compliment me. I know that they are trying to be nice, but that's always awkward. I always get this feeling --were they thinking about God while I was playing, or were they thinking about how great I was?

I always pray that my music will be used to glorify god before I pray. That helps me a lot.

Noelle

smitty2622 · 10-16-2001, 04:50 PM

I don’t really care if anyone notices me, I hope they don’t. When someone does complement me, or the praise band I usually try to ask them if they enjoyed the service. After all that’s why we are there.

jmlouie · 10-16-2001, 09:02 PM

Playing "wicked" (i use this loosely) gooves on bass is not grong for worship. It is why you are doing it that makes the difference. I have trouble singing when I play, so I worship by trying to do the best I can for God. This could be setting a simple bass line, or a kickin' (well, I'm not really that good) groove. Also, if you think it is distracting the group then it is probably not a good thing. So know where you are and where you are going in your relationship with God, with your music and everything. The problem I have is doing the music for the sake of music. But I also realized if David praised God with the Harp why can't I do it on some other instrument.

SccHarpGirl · 10-16-2001, 10:30 PM

When I play, I try to pick music that's reflective, and that people can pray too. I want the music to fade into the back of people's minds so that they can concentrate on their prayers. The biggest compliments that I get are when people say stuff like "That was so reflective".

BTW, I love all the biblical references to the harp

I think that my harp was bigger than David's though. Mine's six feet tall!

Noelle

LittleBassMan · 10-18-2001, 08:07 PM

why dont you try playing simpler bass lines? that way you dont have to concentrate on your playing so much and you can concentrate on god.

blue3236 · 11-14-2001, 07:05 PM

nucreation: FCA is Fellowship of Christian Athletes

Mr. Squirrel · 11-14-2001, 10:26 PM

There should kind of be a balance here. You should worship God and give Him the best you can too. Being able to close your eyes and lose yourself in the music comes with time, but you don't have to really lose consciousness of everything around you to truly worship. I say praise Him on that bass and just give Him the best you've got. If you feel comfortable with closing your eyes, great; if you don't, that's fine too. Just remember that the whole point of praise and worship is to praise and worship. That should be the only reason you're on stage.

rotj4 · 11-14-2001, 11:48 PM

I play all the time in my room with my son. I play the guitar and he drums and I really worship during that time. I find myself wanting to lift my hands but I cant cause I am playing. LOL Anyway, I think the issue of being to worried about playing right and not really worshipping is simply one of peace and confidence onstage. The first time I got onstage I clearly did not worship the Lord but instead I stressed myself out to the point where I had no idea if I even played the song right??? But the worship leader at my church is very used to the stage now and it shows up in his true worship. The other members of our praise band are very timid at times and they are just trying to get through the worship time instead of enjoying it themselves.