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Should you play your worship songs just like the recording?

1,800 views · Published 23 October 2018 · 6:52 · Indexed 2 October 2026
Channel: Practical Worship · 2018 · Howto & Style
When it comes to the songs we play on Sunday morning, a question that gets asked a lot is should we play it just like the original recording? There’s certainly a lot of fun and excitement that comes from trying to come up with your own spin on a worship song, but when it comes to helping your band be prepared for rehearsal and for the service, providing a reference mp3 and telling them to learn their part exactly like the original actually makes things easier—both on them and on you as the leader.

This video covers:

1. Why playing the worship song just like the recording is beneficial to an effective rehearsal
2. The power of a good song arrangement (and benefiting from an arrangement that's already been created)
3. A good way to come up with creative and new arrangements of songs
4. Why you should seek out a live recording (vs a studio or radio version) to emulate for Sunday
5. A few good resources for finding worship song arrangements

When creating reference mp3s to upload to Planning Center, many times I create an edit that matches the exact roadmap we’ll perform for the worship set. Here’s how I do that:
https://youtu.be/yp_LscCG1YQ

Shane & Shane’s Worship Initiative series is a fantastic collection of arrangement of modern worship songs. You can certainly just search for them on Spotify or Apple Music, but you can go one step further and sign up for a free trial of their service that provides chord charts and video tutorials:
https://theworshipinitiative.com

Church on the Move is a church that inspires me a great deal, and many of their arrangements of songs just click with me. Sometimes it’s something simple like moving a verse and a chorus around, and other times it’s a completely different sound. Here’s a link to their Vimeo account:
https://vimeo.com/cotm/videos

Finally, Nathan Drake has a great collection of simple and acoustic modern hymns, with YouTube videos, charts and tutorials:
https://www.reawakenhymns.com

Addition clips included remain the property of their respected owners and are used in accordance of the Fair Use Act (section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976).

- Watermark Community Church
- Church on the Move
- Nathan Drake

Download the FREE e-book here:
“20 Things I Wish I Knew 20 Years Ago: Advice That Shaped Me Into The Worship Pastor I Am Today”
http://www.practicalworshipblog.com/free-e-book/

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Should you play your worship songs just like the recording?

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