26 Some Practical Tips for Christmas Carols and P&W [Jad & Auts]

[00:00:09] Speaker A: Welcome to the Creative Team talks podcast for Hillsong Creative. Hello, Hillsong Creative Team. It's Jad and Orts and also by some way of technology, jp Also, we're just coming and we just wanted to talk to you. We just wanted to talk to you a little bit about as we're coming into the Christmas period, as December draws nearer, just having a little bit of a plan for carols for the launch of Christmas, but also just some of the mechanics of doing it well and making it easy on ourselves and our team to. To have a plan for Christmas carols and just bringing that Christmas spirit, if you want, into our services without losing the worship from our set list. And so we just thought we'd have a little convo about that. So it's good to see yours. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Yes, nice to see you. December is one of the favorite months of the year. So hi to everyone listening. [00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah, very good. Well, listen, I just wanted to acknowledge that obviously bringing Christmas songs into your song list, if it's one of those things where you kind of like, oh, I've got to do Christmas, I've got to do a Christmas song in my set list, it's always going to feel like a little bit of a burden. But my encouragement to everyone would be to just have a little bit of fun with it, make sure that you're intentional so that when you actually do bring those Christmas moments, it's not a burden on everybody. It's not, obviously they just chucked in that song that we always do at the end of that song just to get it, just to kind of tick the box. And another common thing is that we always do, Come let us adore him. And everyone's like, oh, every service we do, come let us adore him. Can we please be a little more creative? And so we just thought in an effort to help and resource you guys, we'd just have a little convo about that. Do you, when it comes to ending these moments, what are your kind of, what are you looking for when it comes to working with your worship leaders? [00:02:28] Speaker B: Yes. Well, look, I think a lot of collaboration is nice of going. Okay, Jad, you've put this in your set list. What are you thinking? Is this a five minute Carol or is it a 30 second moment? We've done some mashups with like JD where he'll do a bit of Jingle Bells in the middle of a praise song or something like that. And so I think my first reaction if I saw that would be to reach out to the worship leader and go, what are you thinking, what's in, you know, what's your vibe for this? What are you trying, what moment are you trying to create? And then see, as an md, how I could support that. Some of the Christmas carols are very repetitive. You know, a lot of hymns and have several stanzas. And so I think as an md, I'm trying to go, how can we create light and shade so that we don't lose people in stanza for singing the same sort of thing? And how we can support the worship leader, you know, and how they want to do that. What would you say from a worship leader perspective? How would you approach it? [00:03:29] Speaker A: Well, I always. The feedback I always get from worship leaders is, oh, man, it's hard to do carols because, you know, often they're not worshipful or they're not, or they can be a disruption to the flow of a set list. And some carols, they don't have a chorus, like you say, they're just stanzas. So you're just kind of rolling through them. And you've got to try and be dynamic. You've got to try and get some engagement. You've got to try and get your momentum going. So for me, what I'm trying to do is make sure that we always keep it worshipful. So what I'll be trying to do, like you said earlier with mashups, I'd be, I'd be kind of. If I was going to do Come Let Us Adore Him, I'd maybe, I'd maybe do something like Tomlin's How Great Is Our God and then, you know, come down and instead of going into he's the Name above all names, I'd go into Come Let Us Adore Him. Do a bit of that for, you know, for a minute, two minutes, and then, and then go back into he's the Name above all names because it fits and it works, but it's worshipful. And there's other songs that you can do that with as well. But all it takes, like, it would take you five minutes to sit down at a piano or even with your guitar and be like, I feel like I could work this Christmas carol that is worshipful into my set and make it so that we don't lose momentum by having to finish a song, start this little two minute carol, you know, moment, and then get on with the service. I would always try and figure out how to make it so that it could be really seamless while tipping the cap to Christmas, but also being worshipful about it. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. And how do you. How do you select what carol to do? As in, do you have a short list? Do you just put on a playlist? What's any tips of the trade there? [00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I mean, I have favorite ones because they're worshipful. I don't. I never really. I never really waste time on ones that aren't kind of worshipful for church services, if you get what I'm saying. Like, yeah, but, you know, even like you said, JD would have fun when we used to do that song. What's the Matty Crocker one with the tambourine? [00:05:53] Speaker B: Born as the King. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Born as the King. We used to work that into everything and. But it would be fun and you'd mash it into other songs and Jingle Bells and all that kind of thing. That's fun. But yeah, I always loved Tomlin's version of Hallowed Manger Ground because it was very worshipful and it focused on Jesus. And I feel like if you can really make a point of doing that, then you don't really lose much momentum or engagement at all in your worship service. So just little things to be mindful of. There are some amazing Jesus centric Christmas carols that you can work into your song list where you don't have to rip up the handbrake, do the token carol and then get back to previous planning. So just be a little more proactive when it comes to your arrangements and just get dreaming. Because what's cool is if you listen to some of these perils that guys like Tomlin will do an acoustic version, or Phil Wickham or Tommy Profit or whoever, they'll do these Christmas. And often if, when you listen to them, you can go, I reckon I could work that into Praise the Name, or I think I reckon I could work this into whatever, whatever song. And so it's just one of those things where if you're proactive and you can actually. And you take the time to be intentional, then you can create something really special for your service. Would you add anything else to that Orts? [00:07:36] Speaker B: No, I think that's awesome. I love the idea of mashing up. And very selfishly, I'm going to confess on Team Talks podcast that whenever I see O, Come Let Us Adore and I'm on in early December and I know that I get that one. I'm always really pumped because it's a great song to do as a worship set. And I'm like, yes, everyone after me has to work harder on the other carols. But yeah, I think that would be my approach and to pay attention to tempo and dynamics and Jad. I think we've done even things where we'll change it slightly. Like, I was trying to think of a illustration, but there can be songs like Hark the Herald that has really complicated chords that sometimes if you and I were on, we would simplify the chords and it might do a tag or something that we kind of leave off a line or something to kind of make it work within the context of what we want to sing. So I think as a worship leader, MD duo, if you. If you. If the team can feel empowered to kind of workshop it a little bit and make it work for your context, those moments can be really fun and a win for everyone. So, yeah. [00:08:43] Speaker A: So, I mean, that's great. Well, okay, just to kind of wind this down and to sign off, one thing I wanted to encourage you guys with is with more of these traditional hymns and songs that we've sung for a long time. Just remember people coming into church around Christmas time. They've sung, say a good example would be Silent Night, the same way that they've sung it for the last 40 years or however long that they've been alive. So be really mindful that when we come along and we change the arrangement and we make it something really cool and maybe a little bit different, that they're gonna get. They're gonna just be like, can't wait to sing this chorus of Silent Night. And then all of a sudden, we've changed the chorus and we've changed the melody. And it's not the Christmas moment that they. That they've come to be a part of. And so just be mindful of that not to kind of change things so much that when people are actually like, yes, I can't wait for some Christmas. And then it's this thing that they can't participate in, I think. And that's just one thing that I'd love for everyone to remember and that worship, especially in our services, is about participation. It's about getting people to draw nearer to God and using these services and even the Christmas time and the Christmas carols in our services to draw nearer to God and to remember Jesus. And I think that's just an amazing thing to keep in the front of your mind when you're leading your teams and when you're writing your lists. So on behalf of myself and Orts and jp, we love you. Have an amazing Christmas. [00:10:21] Speaker B: Bye, everyone. [00:10:22] Speaker A: See you later, guys. Sa.