If my instrument was not good enough to play in a given setting, I would simply refuse to do it. That simple. I either have an instrument I can play in church or I don’t. If it’s not good enough then it’s not good enough. Providing a drum set and a piano is not a substitute for people having their own. It’s just that bringing those instruments and setting them up every week would be horribly impractical. If someone doesn’t have an instrument of their own then they can’t practice, and if they can’t practice they should not be involved.

Spencer, I started playing and singing in college, but over the last 20 years or so my guitar has mostly sat in my closet. So last June, I was determined to get it out of the closet and start playing again. Although I did it just for me originally, I had an opportunity to join our worship team a couple months after that. What I’ve found is that it is much more difficult to memorize music than it was when I was younger. 😢 (I’m 68 now). However, I’m not letting that be an excuse for me. I practice my music a lot during the week and I’ve been concentrating on at least trying to memorize the songs that I am leading. I’m not there yet, but that is my goal that I’m working towards. I’m trying to learn the Nashville numbering system and look for patterns in the various songs as you have suggested. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and experience with us each week. It truly has impacted not only my worship leading experience, but I think our whole team as well. As an aside, as I have been doing the welcomes and sharing scripture before we begin, and then in between some of our songs, the other team members have picked up on that and have begun using scripture as well! I’m not the leader, but as the newest but oldest member of the team I’m sort of trying to lead from behind! Thank you again! You da man!

For a guitar, you can follow the same ideas we did for the drum set. We did not have a drummer, but we knew the old donated acoustic kit needed to be replaced. We had many conversations for a few years about drum shields, electric sets, etc. but I wanted an actual drummer to select one within the church's budget and volume criteria. Once we found a drummer who we believed would be a lasting team member, he chose a decent kit for the church to buy. The same can happen for a guitar (don't let a pianist pick it). Our church doesn't have a guitar, but we do have a soundhole pickup (emergency use only lol) and we have guitar players who are good at sharing, as long as the guitar can be dropped off at church ahead of time. I personally prefer to stick to electric simply because I have developed more becoming ways of supporting the song that way than on an acoustic (I've played clos to zero acoustic for the last 20 yr).

lol, as a worship leader I recognize the reasons to get a “church” guitar. Our acoustic player loves playing 12 string. He used to bring his from home every week. With weather fluctuations and general bumping around, I got SO sick of waiting for him to tune, retune, retune, etc….I decided to use part of the budget to get one that would stay at the church…and that’s what it is. I didn’t buy a guitar for him. I bought a guitar for the church, that he can use when needed.

I agree with your statement/advice, “don’t expect your church to buy you a guitar.” I also get the feeling that the guy could be a little more willing to spend a little money for a decent guitar for church. Though I don’t know what he’s trying to save his money for, so there’s that.. 😊

Great advice on the guitar. Like you said with the drums, most drummers aren't going to take the time to move their whole set to play 3-5 songs. The set up and take down would be longer than the set itself. Plus, unless they came early, the whole band would be waiting for them. Keyboards are similar. I have in the past transported my keyboard (Korg Krome) back and forth. But the reality is that it is heavy and bulky and if my whole family (five kids) are with me, I don't have enough room in the vehicle for it. In general, keyboards are pretty universal. Most worship teams will function well with just a basic piano/pad layered sound that is on most keyboards. Bigger production churches will have soft synth programs that get whatever sound they need. So what about those guitars? I've been playing guitar for over 30 years. I find that every guitar I own is very personal. I can play any guitar I pick up, but mine are set up the way I want them to be. I use specific strings on my guitars and I like my action set a certain way. I think most guitarists feel the same. It would never hurt a church to have a guitar lying around that is kept up in case someone needs one (oops...my string broke right before worship) but in general a guitarist should have their own gear. As you said, it is very portable. For the guy asking about this: are you sure your guitar sounds as bad as you think it does? It sounds like you have been asked to do this more than once and whoever is in charge continues to ask you to do so. I would guess it isn't actually that bad. It's probably not where you want it exactly because you have obviously really dialed in the sound on your electric but not the acoustic. I would say have the conversation with your worship leader. Tell him how you feel. Ask him what he thinks of the sound of your guitar. Maybe he could even play it for you while you listen. Maybe he can even get one of the tech guys to help you dial in a better tone running through the system.

I am a keyboard player. I do have my own, which is a Yamaha CK88. The church i play at couple times a month does have a Nord stage 73, while i prefer my fully weighted board, i sometimes bring mine and sometimes use the Nord. To me tho, a guitar seems to be a little more personal type instrument. I do not think the church should “buy” the guitar but provide some financial renumeration to help the player purchase a guitar. If they truly like that person playing once a month, it would be an investment to their guitar player. Throw the player $50-$75 on his Sunday to help him purchase a guitar.

I used to go to a church that bought a used Kemper. And every guitarist had a day to come in and connect and save their patch and try out the 4 cable method on it and then we all saved our patches and used the Kemper every Sunday. A Kemper is a great investment, even a Tonex 1 could be an affordable solution for churches that want to invest in their EG players

An extremely straightforward option that I've seen exercised before is that seeing the need, someone simply donates an acoustic guitar to the worship team. Presumably, they used their tithe money to purchase it themselves, and then donated it. It then becomes church property and stays at church. This bypasses red tape and any politics, though you may want to clear it w/ your worship leader nonetheless. I'd only suggest that this first be brought to the Lord to ask His permission if you decide to do this w/ your tithe.

lol.... you want a Martin or Taylor buy it yourself Sparky.. geeze!

Guitars are very different in that every guitar has its own feel to it. When a person practices with a guitar they get used to that feel. Going from practicing with a cheaper, difficult playing guitar can alter playing as much as vice versa. I'm not a keyboard player or drummer, but I expect that those instruments are not as personal as guitar. Example, I'm learning dobro. I have been learning on a cheap resonator that I converted to dobro. Recently I was handed a very expensive, great playing dobro. My abilities went from 0 to 100 in about 3.2 second. So, the question is how much should a church spend on a guitar if buying one and will a player be able to convert their at home playing to this heavenly playing guitar? Frequently in churches there are others in the church with a higher quality instrument that would be willing to loan to the poor guy on a budget.

Nothing against the church owning gear, but my thought is, if you don’t care about playing acoustic guitar enough to buy a nice one for yourself, then why do you care whether you play a nice one in church or not? I think that if you keep being called upon to play acoustic (I’d say once a month is pretty regular) you should make an effort to become a more serious acoustic player, which might mean owning a decent (not necessarily expensive) acoustic guitar that would last you a lifetime. The idea is for acoustic to become something you enjoy, as electric seems to be. Also, you could look into a nice pickup/preamp or maybe IRs as a more economical option rather than needing a $1000+ Martin or Taylor.

How many volunteers are actually memorizing music? I’ve had various staff leaders expressing that goal to me for decades, but it has never seemed feasible to me. I love singing and playing in church very much, and I do put in the effort to practice and do a good job, but as a volunteer with a full time job and a family, I don’t think I could ever let those chord charts go.

The Answer is YES. Your church should provide all the default instruments and sound systems for the type of music they want or if they have no preference then you as the worship leader would make suggestions based on your musical experience and talent. In a perfect world, your church should be budgeting for the worship team and musical equipment needed. However, many small churches can not afford a worship budget so many times, the players just have to provide their own. It depends on the size of the church and their budget and your heart. If you have a small church and zero budget and you're also broke and only have a $50 guitar, then just use your $50 guitar and pray that the Lord will provide when you level up. But if you're a multi-million dollar budget church, then there's absolutely no excuse at not providing high quality base instruments for your band. And we also have to be reasonable, a quality default 6 string guitar should suffice for modern worship music that requires a guitar. But if you're that dude that just wants a 12 string guitar that only you can play, then that's just not reasonable. Unless you are full-time and on staff long-term, then I doubt anyone would be willing invest in a 12 string just for you.

I kind of like the idea of a church owning guitars and gear, as that would help with consistency between team members. The sound board could then use the same settings for every player etc. I don’t see that happening, but it’s kind of a cool idea. I assume a lot of guitar players would then refuse to play the church’s instrument in preference for their own, but who knows?

Over the years, I have found that church owned instrument are cheap (except for the grand piano for what ever reason) and always end up dusty neglected and the band members who use them are poor musicians because they never invest in their self improvement. Consequently the church would be better off without those non committed musicians who do more to distract from the P&W. I used to know guys who no matter how few songs they would play always would bring their personal drum kit; that's dedication. But case by case.

Only if your church is a megachurch prosperity gospel preaching church. Tell them you waiting for the windows of heaven to open up. In all honesty your church should drop all the instruments and do a biblical liturgy and not a man made liturgy. Accapella with Psalm is biblical, concert style music is secular.