Balancing Tracks and Authentic Worship

Published by Loop Community on March 31, 2021

Have you ever had someone say that playing with tracks is “cheating”? Like playing along with a karaoke track? At first it can seem like using tracks may take away from your worship services. How do you balance using tracks and keeping the worship experience authentic?

1. Be strategic when selecting instruments.

Make sure that you aren’t using tracks for live instruments you already have in your band. There’s no use in using tracks for an instrument that someone is already playing live, and it could make your band member feel like they are being replaced, or aren’t making the cut – which isn’t a great feeling.

Also, make sure that the tracks you are using enhance your sound without being a distraction. For example, if you don’t have drums on stage, it may not make sense to use the drum track since it would be too obvious. There is no hard and fast rule here, but do what works for you and your church to have the best worship experience. Tracks should enhance worship, not cause a distraction.

2. Control your tracks – don’t let them control you.

Set yourself up so that you aren’t stuck to the track. To do this, you can customize your arrangement before the service so that instead of it matching the original album, it matches your church. You can also use a MIDI foot controller, like Looptimus, to control your tracks so you can be spontaneous during the worship set. If you want to do another chorus, you can press the repeat button and do another chorus.

3. Eliminate distractions

You and your team should practice and be comfortable with any technology you are using, so that the worship service goes as smoothly as possible. The more you know your technology ahead of time, the less you have to think about it while you’re leading worship.

I hope this helps you as you learn to implement tracks to enhance your worship service.