So, your church wants to join the many other congregations that have incorporated a contemporary praise band into their worship services. Once your members have decided that they would like to have a group like this, there are many questions that come to mind. What musicians and instrumentation will be used? What style of music fits your congregation? What’s it going to cost to get the praise band up and running with instruments and equipment?

Picture the Perfect Band for Your Services
Typically, a praise band consists of the same components as any traditional rock-and-roll band. There is a bass guitar player, a drummer, a guitar player, a keyboard player, and one or more vocalists. Maybe this configuration works best for you. Each congregation has different numbers of musicians, which means you may have to create your own ensemble with a different instrumentation. As long as the musicians and the church members are happy, you’ll have a great praise band at your church in no time.

Instrumentalists and vocalists with prior ensemble experience (rock band, church choir, community band, etc.) are your best bet to get your praise band up and running. Your vocalists will have experience with microphones and proper mic technique, and your instrumentalists will have a good idea of what it takes to play as an ensemble (proper balance and blend, tempo, etc.), as well as an understanding of the equipment and how to operate it correctly. If there are some novice musicians in your congregation, it is okay to have them join the praise band as long as there are some more experienced musicians to guide them along the way.

There is a possibility that you have more than one guitar player in your congregation. It is best to get as many musicians involved as possible, so assign one to play electric guitar and have the rest play acoustic guitar. The guitar players can switch between electric and acoustic during the service to keep all the guitar players happy.

If you have more than one drummer in your congregation, I recommend incorporating auxiliary percussion instruments (congas, tambourines, bongos, etc.) into the service. Your percussionists can switch between drum set and auxiliary instruments for variety. I also recommend that you keep auxiliary percussion equipment in the hands of musicians who have had appropriate instruction. If someone grabs a tambourine just for something to do during services, it can actually detract from the performance.

You can have several vocalists in the group. They can sing harmonies or reinforce the melody so that the congregation has an easier time of singing along.

For appropriate balance and blend, it is only necessary to have one bass player and one keyboardist.

Brass and woodwinds are a fun addition that can really liven up your worship services. Just make sure you find music that can include these types of instruments.

Determine the Musical Style that Best Fits Your Congregation
This is fairly easy to do. Most folks in your congregation have grown up listening to all types of music, so going with a “pop” contemporary style seems to fit most churches. With the instrumentation listed above, or a slight variation thereof, this can be easily accomplished.

Be sensitive to folks who are used to traditional worship music. Try to include a mix of traditional and contemporary when you first get started. This will allow everyone to get comfortable with your praise band.

Microphone Placement
The number of mics you have to work with plays a pretty big role in your mic placement strategy. If there are only a couple of mics available, and there are singers in the band, that pretty much settles it. Guitar and bass players are next in line, and drums and keyboard, particularly if you’re playing in small spaces, come last.

Use as few microphones as possible. Every time the number of microphones doubles, the potential acoustic gain of the sound system decreases by 3 dB. This means the volume level of the system must be turned down for every extra mic added. The more microphones you have in use, the more likely you are to experience feedback. Using fewer microphones will allow more volume before feedback happens.

When multiple microphones are used, the distance between microphones should be three times the distance from each microphone to its intended sound source. This prevents the unpleasant hollow effect called comb filtering, which occurs when two or more microphones pick up the same sound source. This technique is known as the 3-to-1 Rule.

Many of the same microphone rules used in recording apply just as well for live sounds. The law of physics doesn’t change for sound reinforcement. A major difference between miking for live sound vs. recording is proximity to the sound source. The goal in live sound is to get the microphone as close as possible to the source for two reasons. One, placing microphones as close as possible achieves maximum sound level before feedback occurs. Two, close-miking reduces leakage and pickup of unwanted sources.  

Like the electric guitar, the saxophone has sound characteristics similar to the human voice. And that’s why the shaped response of a dynamic microphone is generally preferred. However, a miniature condenser microphone mounted on the bell often does the trick.

The sound is fairly well distributed between the finger holes and the bell. Miking close to the finger holes produces key noises, so, generally, microphones are placed toward the middle of the instrument. This technique does not apply to the soprano sax, since its bell does not curve upward; therefore, miking in the middle of the instrument won’t pick up sounds from both the key holes and the bell.

In most live sound systems, the drum set is miked with each drum having its own microphone. Using microphones with tight polar patterns on toms helps to isolate the sound from each drum. It is possible to share one microphone with two toms, but, then, a microphone with a wider polar pattern should be used. The snare requires a mic that can handle a very high sound pressure level, so a dynamic mic is usually the choice. To avoid picking up the hi-hate in the snare mic, aim the null side of the snare mic toward the hi-hat. The brilliance and high frequencies of cymbals are picked up best by a flat-response condenser microphone.

Remember, the ultimate praise band will be another tool that your church can use to help worshippers respond to God. Envision your goals for starting a praise band, pray about it, and then begin to build it one step at time.