Find out just what happens when you memorize your worship songs…
Set List for Christian Fellowship Church for November 4, 2007:
- Praise to the Lord, The Almighty – Arr. Nathan and Christy Nockels
- My Redeemer Lives – Reuben Morgan
- How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash
- Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
- Shine – Matt Redman
Billy Chia 
We had a great time this weekend, even though I hit a sour note on an exposed part of our last song. Oh well.
Uhmm…I could NEVER do this video confessional thing!
you really want us calling you “lad”?
Sweet, we did Praise to the Lord, the Almighty today also. Ours was the traditional arrangement, though.
I’m with you Rich, I’m not going to make the whole internet suffer by looking at me on video.
A sentence I’ve never heard in all my years – “I know you love them barre chords.”
Awesome.
Rich,
Yeah, that’s always rough – actually today I forgot to mention that I was in the process of putting my capo on when a song started. I came in late and then we had to start the song over because of me. A nice exposed mistake. 🙂
Blue,
LOL – no, just a bit of sarcasm. It tends to run rampant here at billychia.com
Jeff,
Are you saying I make the internet suffer?
Chris,
I know how you love them sentences like that.
You know what, I’m kind of with Rich here. It seems that the only time I make mistakes is when I am playing the communion song and it’s just me and my piano. I was talking to my neighbor today and out of the blue she was like, “it makes me laugh when you hit the bad notes during communion”. Ouch!
And by the way…I did just this today…
Way to go on the memorization, Billy. Seriously. It’s not easy. We set the standard at The Summit when we launched back in January that our stage would be 100% free of music stands and chord charts and lead sheets at all times, so it means that everyone on the team, including me, has to memorize everything every week. Sometimes it’s tough, but it’s definitely worth it for the very reasons you mention here.
Nice Set! I’m a huge proponent of memorizing music.
We’re working with 2 new musicians to the team, so I’m being a little lenient right now, but I don’t use sheet music.
Great confessional video. Keep it up.
Kudos and Attaboy Billy!!
It’s funny, I’ve been weaning myself off my music stand while leading worship these past few weeks and for some reason the 1st service yesterday was chaotic. I sang wrong words, wrong lines, wrong consonants and vowels 🙂 I sang them with conviction though!
Big ups to the memorization, I’ve got a post coming on that b/c the worship I did on Saturday was mostly memorized vs. what I do on Sun and there were some interesting differences as you mention!
BTW the church we played at on Sat is looking for a worship leader!! Louisiana is nice this time of year.
Brent,
yeah, negative feedback can sting. Although I find it also gives me good insight into what to work on to improve.
James,
That rocks that your whole band memorizes everything. That’s the way to go.
visitsanctuary,
Thanks 🙂
Conner,
I knew I could count on you bro! Thanx for the attaboy. Messing up with conviction is the only way to mess up.
very cool — memorization is the way to go! i don’t get to that point most of the time, but when I do, it’s a much better experience all the way around.
way to go lad!
pete,
Thanks lad. Mighty kind of you!
Billy,
Great stuff. Thanks for posting this video about the benefits of memorization. I think you are spot on.
I’ve slipped a little in this area – I used to always be memorized. The excuse I’ve begun to offer is that we are doing newer stuff, bla bla bla…
but I have truly found that I actually make less mistakes memorized! And there is no question that I am more engaged. This concept seems counter-intuitive to most of the musicians with whom I serve.
I sent your video out to my whole team. I hope they watch it.
Have a great week, friend!
-Greg Allen