Jaydubbs.com » The Monday Mojo

The Monday Mojo – Easter Songs

Jaydubbs — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:42:03 +0000

Jesus conquered the cross.

He defeated death.

Light overtook darkness.

Love won in the end.

If you’re facilitating or leading worship for this upcoming Easter celebration at your respective communities…what songs will you be singing to help communicate these truths?

Here’s some new (and not so new) ones that I’m thinking of….check em:

Christ Is Risen – Matt Maher

God Is Alive – Fee

Let God Arise – Chris Tomlin

True Love – Phil Wickham

The Saving One – Starfield

Thy Mercy, My God – Sandra McC…

Here Is Our King – David Crowd…

The Monday Mojo – Using A Click or Metronome

Jaydubbs — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:49:23 +0000

The Monday Mojo is a weekly posting of great resources for worship leaders. Youâ€™ll find anything from album highlights and releases, introspective articles on worship and the church, helpful media, tips on instrumentation and sound, sites and applications to boost the organization & structure of your respective teams, even simple words of encouragement. Click the Monday Mojo category above or come back every Monday to stay in tune with the mojoâ€¦ -Jaydubbs

Lets get straight to the point here. If you are a worship leader/musician in the church and you’re not implementing a click or metronome during your music sets, you are severely limiting yourself and your ministry in terms of versatility & musicianship/talent. I will explain my thoughts on why that is below, but first, there is a prerequisite before you can begin piping in click to your players…you must have the ability to use in-ear monitors (IEM’s).

In-ears vs. wedge monitors are a whole other discussion, so I’m not going to focus on that, but the bottom line is you can’t use a click if you are only using wedges for your monitor feeds.

If you have the capability to use IEM’s, it would be ideal to have all your musicians and vocalists on click, meaning that they all have the ability to hear the click. At bare minimum, just having the drummer on click would raise the level of musicianship significantly once your players are accustomed to it a bit. Here’s 3 reasons you should be using a click:

Stability/Tightness: This is the most fundamental and important benefit of using a click in your sets. We’ve all had the song that started off at 105bpm and ended up at 121bpm by the time it was over. Or having the instrumentalist who starts the song starting it off waaaaayyyy ttooooo sssllloooooowww. Having a click allows you the freedom to assign a particular bpm (beats per minute) to the song and it will stay that same speed that whole entire time. A click will also naturally progress your musicians to a higher level of playing. Over time, your players will become tighter, tastier, and simply…better. The click makes musicians become better at their respective craft.

Versatility/Freedom: A click frees the drummer up from having to start a lot of the songs by giving tempo on the ride or hi-hat cymbals. Or from having the worship leader always start the songs. By having a click, you can let the keyboard player, the electric guitarist, or whoever start the song and be confident that they’re starting it at the right tempo. And those dramatic breaks in your songs will never be out of sync again!

Programming Tracks: One of my favorite benefits, using a click gives you the ability to incorporate programming tracks (synths, electronic beats, vocal textures, etc.) behind your music. Tracks, if used right, can give your music a beautiful secondary layer and movement that you won’t get from live instrumentalists.

Here’s a few metronome and click resources to help get you started in stepping up your game…

>Boss DB-90 Dr. Beat Metronome – This is, in my opinion, the best consumer click setup out there right now. It’s the one that I use 95% of the time.

>Music Math 4 – Great little free download for Mac’s that gives you the ability to find out the bpm’s of your songs by tapping in the tempo.

>Tempo iPhone App – This baby has saved my skin 2 times now since I’ve had it. Great resource to fall back on when you have no DB-90 or other click. You can even save set lists into the app just like the DB-90.

Are you using a click in your worship ministry? How has it affected the quality of your music programming?

The Monday Mojo – Get Outside The Box

Jaydubbs — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:57:48 +0000

One of the facets of worship leading that I am being challenged with lately is pushing myself to think outside the proverbial box when it comes to creating set lists and the songs that I am using to help form a creative and strong environment for worship. As worship leaders who are somewhat immersed in the modern worship movement, we are all well versed in the ways of Tomlin, Crowder, & Hillsong.

But have you ever thought of Foreman, Maher or Seay?

These names may be new to you. For some of you they may be familiar, you’re just not thinking of them when it comes to planning your sets.

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot has a tremendously brilliant solo project where he has compiled four different EP’s with songs that are all very folk-based and circled around the seasons of the year (hence the 4 EP’s; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).

Matt Maher is an absolutely astounding songwriter and his songs have been stirring an amazing revival within the Catholic church. He’s also great people and part of the network of worship leaders here in the Phoenix valley. Although he’s rarely here because of the success he’s having with his latest projects! Matt is the writer of the ever popular song “Your Grace Is Enough” (Chris Tomlin made this song huge, but Matt wrote it), and you can find some more of his craftings here. The best two albums are Overflow and his newest Alive Again, with some of my favorite tunes being “Canticle of Zechariah” (what a name right?), “For Your Glory”, “Behold the Lamb of God”, “As It Is In Heaven”, “Remembrance”, & “Alive Again”.

Robbie Seay of the Robbie Seay Band is one of my all time favorite songwriters. The way he molds the truths of who God is into the dirtiness and reality of creation and who we are is magical. Truth is I cheat off of him a lot in my writing. He’s a genius. His most recent release Give Yourself Away, which came out a couple years ago now, is chocked full of creative and fresh ways for your community to engage in worship. The song “Song of Hope” has just now begun to really make a move forward in the modern church, but there are amazing songs of his to yet be discovered by the church. Check out “Rise”, “Shine Your Light On Us”, “Eternal One”, “Hallelujah God Is Near”, “Rescued Ones”, “Jesus Garden of My Rest”, and “Faith of Our Fathers” (a song I’ve with a subject I’ve yet to hear anyone else attempt to write about).

Some other names to have on your radar when it comes to creating worship sets, whether they’ve been around for a while or are up and coming, are Tim Hughes, Jesus Culture, Desperation Band, Parachute Band, Delirious, & The Embers. I love finding new artists who are incorporating great new songs into the fold of modern worship. If you have any that you love, please comment below and share with everyone!

To leave you with some music (since we’re talking about music) here’s a song by Jon Foreman off his Spring EP called “Your Love Is Strong”. You know those great songs that are full of truth and simply beautiful? Well this one is directly based out of the Lords Prayer…and…well…listen for yourself…

The Monday Mojo – Are You Being Led?

Jaydubbs — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:26:42 +0000

Last night Jess and I were leading worship up in Scottsdale at Scottsdale Bible Church’s SomaNorth service. It was the first time I had led there so I didn’t really have any expectations as to how the community would respond in worship, sing, follow, etc.

I was blown away.

These peeps don’t take their worship lightly. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a group sing that loud. The great thing is it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Or the band. Or the music.

It was just worship.

During rehearsal earlier in the day when we were going over the song “Everlasting God”, we had planned that when we got to the first chorus we would just do half of it and save the second half of the chorus for when the song picked up. Well during worship, in an amazing moment for my heart, after we had sung that first half the people of Soma just kept on singing the second half.

It’s a bit hard to explain in words, maybe you just need to have been there, haha. But in that moment, I thought about the idea of what true worship is all about. It’s not about a good worship leader or a killer band or singing beautifully. It’s about the people of God coming together in obeisance to the Father. Just as Jesus did. God calls us to worship and that’s just what we did last night.

And simultaneously I remembered something that my good friend CJ once said. Sometimes, as a worship leader, the people that you are leading need to lead you. We as worship leaders need to be led in worship as well. Does that make sense? It means a lot to me after last night.

Just remember we are all going up in worship together and there are moments when you need to step back from leading and let your people lead you. Whether it’s a verse or chorus, whatever. Let your people take the lead.

Are you letting your people lead too?

The Monday Mojo – John Mark McMillan

Jaydubbs — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:00:13 +0000

Today, the mojo takes us clear across the country to North Carolina where John Mark McMillan hails from. An absolutely amazing songwriter, John’s music has pretty much been the soundtrack of my life for as much as the past year.

I keep returning to his album The Medicine over and over again. It’s simply that good.

But what I love most about John’s songwriting and attitude towards his music is his honesty and his heart. Every word that is sung is truly transparent, bringing hope and sorrow, tragedy and celebration with each turn of the melody.Â And his deep love for Jesus is forefront throughout the entire project.Â He makes no mistake in doing so. John describes himself on his blog, The Promenade, as a “North Carolinian songwriter who makes music for human beings and God to listen to.”

With a mix of folk, rock, soul, country, and ambient layerings, this album simply jams.

The main reason for this post is that I keep running into worship leaders and worshipers alike who have never heard John’s music, besides the popular song “How He Loves” which most people assume is a Jesus Culture song.Â And yet his music will encourage you and inspire you. Truly some of the best worship music I’ve had the chance to dive into in a while. The Medicine is on my top 5 albums of all last year.

Take a few minutes to check out John’s music and support him. You’ll be super glad you did, especially if you’re looking for music outside of the usual worship channels from Passion and Hillsong. But before you do check out this sweet video of John and his boys (and girl) at their finest. Here’s a live “acoustic-y” version of the song “Skeleton Bones”…

The Monday Mojo – “We’re All In This Together”

Jaydubbs — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:00:45 +0000

On November 4th, in theaters all over the country, Hillsong United will be screening their much anticipated documentary regarding worship and justice, “We Are All In This Together”. For this one night only, there will be a special intro from Joel Houston of United, followed by a live time of worship from the United team at their church in Sydney, concluded by the release of the new film.

You can see previews, get info on the screenings and tickets, and other details here.

I think this could be an amazing, resourceful event for your respective worship teams, bands, even church staff. The United peeps have been living out the relationship between worship and justice in the world in huge ways over the past couple years.

Are you going?

The Monday Mojo – “Your Love Never Fails”

Jaydubbs — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:00:38 +0000

Ok. So if you haven’t heard this song yet, your day just became better.

Worship leaders, if you’re not leading this song yet and letting these words of hope fall on your communities…you need to.

This song, “You Love Never Fails”, came out of the friends over at Jesus Culture in Redding, CA. And boy, is this song amazing. I’ve had nothing but great feedback when leading this tune.

I’ll shut up and just let you watch the video. Turn up the volume and listen to these lyrics…

The Monday Mojo – “Heaven & Earth”

Jaydubbs — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:06 +0000

The Monday Mojo is a weekly posting of great resources for worship leaders. You’ll find anything from album highlights and releases, introspective articles on worship and the church, helpful media, tips on instrumentation and sound, sites and applications to boost the organization & structure of your respective teams, even simple words of encouragement. Click the Monday Mojo category above or come back every Monday to stay in tune with the mojo… -Jaydubbs

Phil Wickham has been challenging the boundaries of the modern worship sound for the past few years. His sophomore debut Cannons brought his great melodic soundscapes and soaring vocals to the attention of the church, mostly led by the title track of the same name, which was more often than not on most churches Sunday set lists.

But, Phil has raised the notch even higher with his latest debut Heaven & Earth. It’s been quite a while since I remember a modern worship album really stretching the limits when it comes to musicality and pure originality. And that’s just what I experience when listening to this project.

I can’t get enough. It’s seriously been playing in my car for the past 2 weeks straight.

Sure there are noticeable influences, including the fellas from Muse and The Killers on the synth-heavy “Hold On”, and wonderful nods to the likings of Sigur Ros on the ambient beginnings of “Cielo”. But Phil presses into new grounds on most of Heaven & Earth.

Right now, you can visit his site here and purchase a special promotional package. For only $25, you receive an immediate digital download of the Heaven & Earth album (the actual album doesn’t come out until November 17th), a special acoustic version of the album not available anywhere else, an autographed Heaven & Earth album mailed to you in November, and an exclusive Heaven & Earth t-shirt.

Pretty sweet deal. Once you got the album in hand, check out tracks “Coming Alive”, “Heaven & Earth”, “Hold On” and “Cielo”. These 4 are my favorites, but the whole album is without a skippable song. “The Time Is Now” is another catchy track with creative Bonanza-esque strings during the outro. And Phil wraps up the record with a beautiful, broken down tune of hope in “Heaven Song”.