10 Musical Terms Worship Leaders & Worship Teams Should Understand

As worship leaders and as church musicians we can often get a bad rap for not having the best understanding of different musical concepts.  We even get labeled “amateurs” or “not real musicians” in some circles.  Sometimes that can be true, but we, as those church musicians, shouldn’t settle for the bare minimum.  I know church musicians who can talk circles around me about theory and different technology worship leaders are using today but I also know some church musicians who “don’t really know the names of the chords” as they say.  I believe we are called to excellence and if we feel unqualified, maybe that just means we need to put in some work.  By work I mean learning and study, we should take our craft seriously at all times.  Below are some musical terms that you, as a worship leader, should know and use.  You should always be adding musical concepts into your library; these terms will expel confusions caused by poor explanation in your rehearsals.  The biggest mistake we can make as musicians is to think we don’t need to learn or improve.  The biggest mistake we can make as church musicians is to think we aren’t called to excellence.

Colossians 3:23 ^“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters”

 

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10 Terms Worship Teams Should Use And Understand

 

1.  Four On The Floor

Four On The Floor is a steady rhythm pattern in 4/4 time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4) in common time.  Most of us know this beat but may not be aware how to call it out to our teams.  It’s obviously great to know as many drum terms as a non-drummer so that you can effectively communicate to the drummer.  In worship a “Four On The Floor” pattern is used all over the place to create builds, forward motion or intensity.

2.  Crescendo

The official definition of crescendo is a gradual increase in loudness in a piece of music.  In worship lets just call it out that it is a build in the song.  Worship ebbs and flows through various intensities throughout the worship set and its good to correctly use the word crescendo instead of telling your band “just get louder right here and play harder”.  The term crescendo communicates so much and that’s why you should adopt the term into your rehearsals.

3.  Measure & Bar

A Measure or Bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats.  In 4/4 time there are 4 beats in a bar which is determined by the top number.  The bottom number in 4/4 time tells us that a quarter note receives one beat.  In 6/8 time there are 6 beats with eighth notes receiving one beat.  Too many times have I been in a rehearsal and either the leader or another member on the team misuses the word measure by claiming an intro is 2 measures when it’s really 4 or 8.  I have even had drummers say they wanted to do a 2 measure drum intro and they really meant 1 or 4 measures.  When that happens the rest of the team only becomes confused as to what they are really trying to communicate.  Other times you will even hear measures replaced with phrases such as “after the riff” or “When I play this piano part twice”.  Some worship leaders only know how to sing or hum what they mean.  Music can be difficult to discuss and critique when one doesn’t understand musical terms.  It is definitely important to understand the concept of a measure to run an effective rehearsal and execute musical passages.

4.  Quarter Note, 8th Note and 16th Note

When communicating to your band you must have a clear understanding of the differences between quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes.  These are how we essentially divide time.  A quarter note has the time value of 1/4 of a measure in 4/4 time.  You would count a quarter note “1 2 3 4”.  Eight notes are half the time value of a quarter note which means you will have 8 eighth notes in a bar of 4/4 time.  You would count a measure of eight notes as “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”.  Sixteenth notes are even faster than eight notes.  In a measure of 4/4 you will have 16 sixteenth notes counted “1 (e and a) 2 (e and a) 3 (e and a) 4 (e and a)”.  If this seems foggy I would recommend picking up a basic music theory book from amazon or a local music store, especially as the leader its important to know this stuff.

5.  Backbeat

The term backbeat refers to placing a strong accent on one of the normally unaccented beats of the bar, usually beats 2 and 4.  Worship leaders need to be able to communicate to your drummers using their language.  This is a simple term to use but important.  When you clap to a song on the 2 & 4 you are accenting the backbeat.

6.  Downbeat

The downbeat is an accented beat, usually referring to the first of the bar.  This one is pretty commonly understood but I wanted to include it just to be safe.

7.  Drone

Drones are a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece.  An example of this would be if the bass player held a single note underneath the chords while they changed overtop of him.  Another would be if the key board player just held out the tonic (root note) to create ambience over the chord changes.  Worship music includes lots of ambient drone techniques, chances are you have told players to hold a drone but wasn’t aware it had a name.  Usually drones are the tonic note but not always.  If play these chords C  F/C  G/C  F/C your bass player would be droning the C.

8.  Trash Can Ending

The best way to describe this term is when you end the song and the entire band (especially drums) crashes out and plays fills to create an amplified crescendo effect.  This is usually done after a tune with high energy to a song that builds to a substantial crescendo.  You wouldn’t do this after a lower key tune. (Then again you can do whatever you want)

9.  Modulation

This most commonly refers to the act or process of changing from one key (tonic, or tonal center) to another.  This is another commonly understood term but it’s important to have on your radar.

10.  Staccato & Legato

Staccato is the act of sounding a note that is sharply detached or separated from the others.  Essentially it happens quickly and doesn’t last long.  Legato is sounding a note in a smooth, flowing manner, without breaks between notes.  Every band leader needs to be able to speak into what his/her players are doing and one of those is how they are playing a certain note or sequence of notes. These terms will help you communicate what you hear in your head and effectively communicate to your teams and fellow musicians.