The hardest skill in worship music

If you're new to worship music, the first question is often this:

"What should I play?"

But in reality, a much more important question is this:

"What shouldn't I play?"

That's because in worship music, you can generally assume that less is more. Finding the balance between "tasteful" and "too much" can take a fair bit of discernment and experience. That's why (especially at first) it's better to err on the side of playing too little than to risk playing too much. There are a couple reasons for this:

This could manifest itself in a number of ways: playing too loud, playing a part that's way too busy, crowding out other instruments or vocalists, feeling like you need to play all the time (there are times when it's best to drop out), or just not blending well with the song. Moments like these can be distracting because they can pull worshippers' focus from worship and to whatever you're playing.

This is in direct contradiction to what we want to do as worship musicians. We want to connect with God, respond to Him with our instrument, and facilitate that connection for others. And if we are distracting others from worship, we aren't stewarding our responsibility of facilitating their connection with God. Instead of helping point others' attention to God, we are drawing their attention to ourselves.

And that brings us nicely to the second reason less is often more in worship music—and that's because...