Resources for the Journey: Musicademy.com

There’s a good chance that if you follow this blog, then you are involved in the worship ministries of the local church you attend. If you aren’t, then you most likely know someone who is.

Worship is more than a Sunday morning thing. Leading worship should be more than a once a week practice thing. Planning worship is more than an hour before the service thing.

Unfortunately, it can be easy to default to some of those patterns.

• Time gets away from us.
• We get comfortable with our skill level and ability.
• We get weary of the constant cycle of Sunday mornings.
• We feel overwhelmed by all the great resources out there.
• As leaders, we’re unsure of how to best resource and equip our team.

I know I’ve found myself there before. We know it’s important to grow, play skillfully, prepare well, be spiritually growing, and to equip and mentor.

But how do we do all that? And with what?

One of my go-to resources is Musicademy.com.

Musicademy.com is a company based in Great Britain that started as a music school. They quickly found success and moved to offering a wealth of DVD based resources to train musicians. Their focus is to facilitate quality musicianship in churches, and thanks to the wonder of the Internet, they are able to do so around the world.

I’ve used a number of their resources in my ministry settings. They offer training courses for guitar, bass, keys, drums, vocals, and orchestral instruments covering a wide range of styles and skill levels.

One of my favorite products is their Worship Backing Band Practice Tracks. This is a DVD resource that features 54 mainstream worship songs. You can go in and turn off one of the tracks, for example guitar, and then play along with your guitar to learn the song. I’ve given this resource to some young drummers to help them learn the drum parts, but also to practice keeping time with a band.

They regularly introduce new products along the way. A recent addition to their options is a course on learning to play by ear.

They also have a great blog full of posts with relevant worship information of all types. These posts aren’t just promos for their products, but actual insightful articles. You should probably add it to your RSS reader.

If you haven’t ever checked them out, I encourage you to investigate Musicademy.com. Or, pass this resource along to your worship team playing buddies.

There are a ton of great resources out there, including Musicademy.com to help us grow in our skill and ability this year. For me, I’m looking to learn the guitar, and will be reaching for some of these resources along the way.

Musicademy – DVD lessons & online instruction in worship music for church based musicians.

For Discussion:
What resources do you use for growth and skill development?

For other great resources for the journey, be sure to check out the Worship Leader’s Toolkit series of blog posts from chrisfromcanada.com. Some great stuff there.

Note: In the interest of transparency, while this post is completely my opinion and thoughts, I will be receiving a free gift from Musicademy.com in exchange for sharing my thoughts.