We spent this past Monday, October 8, with other worship musicians in the Chiba region talking about issues concerning keyboardists in Japanese churches, especially in the Presbyterian Church. I was one of the guest clinicians along with my wife. Here were some of the questions we were asked from the group we were working with: What is more appropriate for worship...traditional or contemporary? How do you decide the tempo of a hymn? How do you keep a hymn from getting slower and slower? Does the worship musician lead or accompany? In praise songs, should you play the melody on the page or make up a melody? How do you make the melody stand out on the organ? etc. I was a little surprised at how basic the questions were. The worship resources (teachers, musicians, songs, books, etc) in Japan are fewer than you would believe.
This was only the third worship seminar the Presbyterian Church of Japan had ever done. It was encouraging to see how much interest there was from musicians and that th
e church is trying to help support their musicians. One of the speakers said "Let's never forget how important our worship musicians are." It was the first time we had ever gone to a worship seminar in Japan, but I think we will be attending many events like this in the future.
This was only the third worship seminar the Presbyterian Church of Japan had ever done. It was encouraging to see how much interest there was from musicians and that th
e church is trying to help support their musicians. One of the speakers said "Let's never forget how important our worship musicians are." It was the first time we had ever gone to a worship seminar in Japan, but I think we will be attending many events like this in the future.