Click Tracks – Holy Spirit Handcuffs?

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  We’ve all been there. Staring it in the eye. Those in-ear monitors with a (perfectly) repetitive click. “Wow, this technology would really let us stay on tempo…our drummer wouldn’t run away with the song…our rhythm player wouldn’t hijack the groove…” But then we back off. Isn’t the Christian walk, and the Christian life, and Christian worship…all…about… freedom? Why should we weight ourselves down, cage ourselves in, with the evil that is click? How could we ever have a spontaneous moment?

  The truth: a click track does not have to be the handcuffs on the Holy Spirit. But for this to work at it’s best (in my experience…while I’m on this topic, just assume everything I ever say has a “comma” in my experience” comma” in it somewhere) you will need to think about a few things.

  1.) A competent drummer running your click.

  In most musical performance situations the drummer is typically the guy that runs the click. At our church we just use a digital metronome that has BPM storage so we can go from one song to the next easily. This means the drummer always has to be on top of things. When the song ends, he needs to have the click ready to go for the next song so as not to, literally, miss a beat.

  2.) Does your worship leader lead with an instrument?

  I lead worship vocally and with my electric guitar. Because I use an instrument I can easily direct where the song should go. If I feel the Spirit moving for us to jump into a new song, I can veer off the click on my own. It doesn’t take long for our drummer to realize this and he simply shuts off the click. This seems to work best because then you’re free! The rest of the set was great, no speeding up or slowing down at inappropriate times. If you want to be a bit risky, you can always have a prearranged strategy in times like these…basically, you’ve told your drummer that you trust him to tap the click out and he can drop it in at any time by just hitting start on the beat of what the worship leader is playing.

  3.) Vocal only worship leader?

  When I’m not leading worship vocally, I’m still a worship leader. The worship director at my church, Don Frazure, is a vocal only guy. Not that he isn’t an EXTRAORDINARY pianist. He just chooses to lead with no instrument, as a piano can be quite a barrier. Now, the reason I said I’m still a worship leader is because God has gifted me with the ability to be “in tune” with His spirit in these situations. Also, our worship director and I have a great relationship and understanding of each other. To put it simply: I can read him like a book. My guitar is still the lead instrument. It decides where the music goes, but only by following the worship leader. This way, if Don hears from the spirit (and 9 times out of 10 I’m hearing it too) I know him so well that I can make that musical transition with the drummer.

  The parts of click that really can be handcuffs.

  If you decide to play tracks with your click, you’re locked in. If you decide to play along with a video, you’re locked in. That’s all there is to it. (I know exceptions can be made if you have Ableton and some foot switches and magic that I don’t possess, but for me…locked.)