"I love playing this song!"

This evening we started preparing the carols for this year's Christmas services. This is always a time people enjoy, and the worship team is no exception... although I always seem to find myself playing the role of 'Scrooge' - no, not in a theatrical sense, rather in a 'Bah-humbug-voice-of-reason-and-festive-pessimism' sense.

Those who know me well can testify that I've never been a big fan of playing traditional hymns myself. Saying that, I do love hymns. I love the words. I love the theology, and I adore lots of contemporary versions of classic hymns. (Chris Tomlin's 'Amazing Grace'. Soul Survivor's 'How Marvelous', etc)

My problem, however, is this:

We never seem to break though the 'gimmick' factor when we do Christmas carols.

This isn't through lack of trying. God knows, we try! I think the problem is a little thing I've started calling the 'internal backing track'.

The Internal Backing Track is the disease of the over-enthusiastic musician and occurs when he/she attempts to play a very familiar song. We can play all sorts of stuff, week in, week out, and have a lot of fun playing it. But there can come a point where what we think we're playing and what we are actually playing drift apart. You can be having a great time playing something but in reality it only sounds good because you can hear that amazing album version still ringing in your mind... no-one else can hear it!

This problem can occur on any song, but I find Christmas carols to be worst. It's such a novelty doing carols that we can have really fun time trying to play them. So much so that our internal backing track quickly drowns out the cheesy, gimmicky, dreadful sounding din we're actually making.

Tonight someone in the worship team said "everyone will be singing loudly anyway, so the music doesn't have to be that good". WOW! REALLY?? ... I was speechless. That attitude is wrong on so many levels. We should be pursuing excellence with our worship. Yes, it should be fun as well, but it must sound good!

"Let's do Hark the Herold. We always do Hark the Herold."

"Let's do the middle verse with a big organ sound to make it seem festive."

"Let's do a jazz-funk Away in a Manage. That'll be fun!"

"Can we get a snow machine and all the band can wear Santa hats?"

C'mon people! We're here to celebrate the Saviour of the world becoming flesh. Bring back the awe that we pursue for the other 51 weeks of the year. Please let's stop doing our cheesy festive routines that make us feel warm and fuzzy and full of mince pies. Surely there's a better way.

Take time to decide what you're going to play, and what you want it to sound like. What are you aiming for? What do you want people to experience? How can you achieve it? Be deliberate about the choices you make, and assess your work to see if you have hit your targets.

'Sometimes the songs we have the most fun playing don't necessarily make the best worship songs.' - Tim Hughes.

Our God is not a God of chaos. His Spirit in us is creative, but not by accident. Work at it. Refine your craft and your musicianship. And above all.... listen.