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Church Sound: How To Create A Song Mix Blueprint in Five Steps

Your mixes will come together a lot faster and ultimately sound better
This article is provided by Behind The Mixer.

Have you looked at the set list for next weekend? Do you have any idea what songs you’ll be mixing? The standards, right?

A worship team worth its weight in salt (that’s a lot of salt) will be rotating in new songs now and then. The musicians will practice their respective parts, the worship leader will have an arrangement selected, and as a team they will practice the song until it’s good enough for playing for the congregation.

You are the final musician on that team, mixing all of their sounds together into a song lifted up in worship. What have you done to learn that song?

Following are the steps I take whenever I see a new song on the set list. I’ve mentioned before about the importance of getting a copy of the song which the band will be using as their blueprint.

This list goes way beyond that. It’s a way of creating your own mix blueprint. It’s a way of ensuring you are just as prepared as the musicians when you mix the song for the first time.

1. Listen To The Song

Get a copy of the song which band is modeling the style and arrangement. The worship leader will likely tell you something like “we’re doing the 10,000 Reasons song By Matt Redman in the same way he has it on the 10k Reasons album.” You can jump onto Spotify or YouTube and look up the same version, if you don’t already happen to have it in your personal music collection.

Listen a few times to get the general overall song feel. Is it slow or fast? Simple or complex? Does it have a big sound or a “small set” feel? Get the big picture.

2. Create A Song Breakout Order

From the musical side of things, a song is arranged into several common areas. You might think of this as the verses and the chorus. For your blueprint, start with the following six areas. This list can be expanded as I’ll soon discuss, but for now this is the best place to start.

Intro: Song intros can start in many different ways. It can be full on instruments, a slow drum beat, a rhythm guitar, or even a scripture reading over the instruments.

Verse: The verses of a song tend to have the same arrangement but can have a different number of instruments as a means of providing song movement.

Chorus: Choruses, like verses, can have slightly altered arrangements. A common arrangement change is the last chorus being sung without any instruments.

Bridge: Not all songs have a bridge. The bridge is often used to contrast with the verse/chorus and prepare for the return of the verse/chorus. It can have a time change and even a key change.

Instrumental: Instrumental sections of a song can be a few measures or it can be a long passage, depending on the arrangement.

Outro: The outro can have the same variety as the intro or you might have a lack of an outro. For example, the song immediately ends after the last chorus.

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