One of the most important jobs of a song leader in worship is to let the congregation know when to start singing. This is so as to ensure that the whole group sings together in unison which everyone will enjoy more than awkward moments where they ask “should I sing now?”.

As a song leader, I employ three main strategies to ensure that the congregation knows when to sing; eyebrows, big breath and holding up the microphone.

1. Hold Up

A few beats before the singing will start, it is helpful to hold the microphone to your mouth, this is an obvious sign to the people in your congregation that you are about to start singing, and they should start too.

2. Big Breath

Before anyone starts to sing, they need to breath in order to sustain notes. And taking a big breath is a sign that you’re about to start singing, and when I say a big breath, I mean a big and obvious breath. So movement of your whole body is helpful in starting to breath.

3. Eyebrows

This final strategy is helpful for every song leader, but especially for those who are holding an instrument and unable to use other methods to signal the congregation. In order to use your eyebrows, you need to lift them up and open your eyes wide in a way that says look at me and follow me because I’m about to do something.

So there you go, three strategies that you can use as a song leader in order to get your congregation to start singing at the same time as you, and by creating a habit of doing these things, you will stop your congregation from coming in too early as well.

Happy singing!

After my last rant I have 1 coherent thought to present to you now.

I think that a large part of song leading is enhancing emotions.

This means trying to make the emotional highs higher, and making the mellow times more mellow.

When singing praises to our great God, it is inevitable that emotions will come into it, we as humans have been made as emotional beings, and our love for God has an emotional aspect. And as a song leader, part of your job is to help enhance emotional connections, help lead the congregation, not just in singing, but lead them emotionally.

For example, if your congregation (and by your congregation, I do not mean a congregation that you own) is standing there barely singing with their hands in their pockets. Then you should not be jumping around stage clapping your hands. You should be smiling and engaging with eye contact so as to lift them emotionally. The people with their hands in their pocket are telling you that they do not want to participate right now, and you have to level them up if you want them clapping.

However, if you are in the middle of “Mighty to Save” and most of your congregation is engrossed in the song, then join them in this, slow the song down, add a few extra bars before you sing the chorus again, go. acapella. Enhance their emotions.

So there’s a thought. Less coherent than I thought it would be. Please let me know if you disagree or agree with these thoughts. And maybe something coherent can come out of it.

As a side thought, a song leader does not “control” the congregation as I have alluded to, but a song leader does have the power to enhance emotions.

Song leading is the act of leading the singing during a church service (or the like). That’s at least how I’ve come to view it, please correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve heard it called many things before, worship leader, praise leader, singer, but I think song leading is the best description.

I’ve had a number of experiences of song leading, ranging from a church service of 20 through to a SUEU conference of 170, and I’ve been thinking about song leading for a while. Asking questions like…

• What makes good song leading?
• How to song lead well?
• Is singing the most important part of song leading?
• How expressive should you be when you song lead?
• Are you there for yourself or the congregation?
• Can you pray in the middle of the song?
• Should the song leader be the communicator between the band and the congregation?
• Can the song leader also lead the service?
• How does a song leader engage with the congregation?
• Should a song be introduced before it is sung?
• And is this introduction actually the most important thing that a song leader can do?
• How should a song leader hold the microphone?
• When should the song leader put down the microphone?
• How can the song leader show that he/she is about to start singing?
• How much should the song leader perform to the congregation and how much should he/she sing with them?

So basically I’ve got a whole lot of thoughts on song leading, and I’ve been trying to compress them into nuggets of information, but as of yet I have been unsuccessful, so… I’m just going to give it a go. Over the next while I’m going to be spewing out thoughts, and they probably wont be as coherent as what I normally write, but I’m hoping that through doing this I can think through what it means to song lead well.

Join me if you dare…