The Church worship band, aka ‘316’ (there is a reason for that – can you work it out?) has been playing in morning worship for a few years now. We’ve grown from a small group of relatively inexperienced people to our current gathering and we’d like to think that we add something different, lively, thoughtful, and exciting to the services we support with our music and singing. We’re always very keen to look at worship songs of any genre and try to "make them our own". This can be a fun affair… It usually involves creative use of instrumentation, always some really nice harmonies and can result in very interesting arrangements that suit our resources but sometimes are some distance from the original music.

We’ve grown comfortable in each other’s company. We all have an interest in music, of all genres, and work with each other to get the most from our collective abilities. We have different individual levels of ability. Some of us are ‘classical’ musicians who prefer a written score and others are happy with less formal notations. Sometimes, we have, let’s say, "disagreements" over the style / rhythm / beat (delete as applicable!), but those are healthy discussions that you’d expect in any musical group. The important thing is that we don’t fall out – and, I can safely say, that has never happened in all the years we’ve been together…

The ‘heart’ of the band is undoubtedly the members as a collective. There are no divas or prima-donnas amongst us – teamwork is essential. We have access to the technical knowledge which is so important in terms of the equipment and wiring that connects everything to the mixing desk and generates the balance of sound. You might consider this the ‘brains’ of the band – without that bit working properly, nothing else is right.

We’re very fortunate. We have access to, and the use of, equipment and gear that many churches simply don’t have and / or aren’t able to provide. Some of the things we use belong personally to band members and some of it belongs to the Church. Live music these days relies on this sort of equipment and it’s fair to suggest that young budding musicians and singers are often challenged by the sheer cost of accessing the gear that is necessary and required.

We don’t believe that ‘our equipment’, whoever physically owns it, should be our exclusive playground and we are very happy to offer it to any other musicians or singers who feel they can benefit from it and support music in worship, be that by being part of 316 or as part of a fresh group.

So, here’s the deal:

As a group, we’ve been together for a long time. That is a good thing in the sense that we feel as though we know what we’re doing collectively, are comfortable with each other and find it relatively easy to learn new tunes and to experiment with music we are given or choose to play. But, it can be a bad thing as well. Comfort can create complacency.

Perhaps others would like to feel they’d like to get involved with 316 but are unsure about how best to approach us? Maybe others would like to form their own group or band? Modern day worship has a definite place for any genre!

We want to really encourage anyone who would like to offer their musical skills to the church. So, there is an open and permanent invitation to anyone who likes to sing (we’d love a strong male singer!) or anyone who plays ANY instrument and who feels they’d like to come along to one of our rehearsals and to play or sing with us.

If you’d like to explore forming your own group, whatever the genre, let’s talk - remember our pledge around use of equipment.

This can be however YOU want it - if you’re a budding or experienced (or somewhere in between!) singer or musician, and feel as though you would enjoy playing music in church, either with us or as part of a different group, then please find a way that works for you.

And……. remember the ‘brains’..... If your interest is sound engineering, we can find a place for you.

Whatever your thing, you’d be made very welcome and given every encouragement.

Come and talk to us, and let’s see how we can make it work.