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SERVICES
BYB is a culmination of decades of worship experience by multiple instructors who guide potential worship leaders from a starting point (zero experience) to actually playing in student and adult bands in their churches.
Band Camps
BYB is a culmination of decades of worship experience by multiple instructors who guide potential…
Band Curriculum
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ReFresh Training
After leading bands for over three decades and producing programming and concerts for hundreds of…
Vocal Tune Ups
Get ready for your next audition with a Somatic Voicework Level III coach, bringing a…
The Heart and Soul of Building Your Band
ABOUT & TEAM
Since its beginning in 2010, David Loftis and his team of worship leaders have been training dozens of young worshippers to populate the stages with backline band players, upfront worship leaders and support roles. This ministry continues once again now as a curriculum which you can use – or we will bring – into your local area.
Carol Loftis
Schedule A CallCarol is the co-director of BuildingYourBand and managing director for Loftis Coaching, as a certified member of the American Association of Christian Coaches. She is active as a Women’s speaker and small group leader, focusing on spiritual formation and resilience coaching.
David Loftis
Schedule A CallA pastor, composer, vocalist, author, life coach, lifetime worship leader and motivator who loves to share Jesus Christ through the best of his gifts, David also thrives on building people up through the power of Godly, Scripture-soaked sermons and songs that point them to faith, love and hope in Christ.
Peter Bulanow (rhymes with Milano) is a veteran of church hymns and classical piano lessons. Hymn-style piano actually taught me the basics of chord theory, and organ lessons taught me how to play pads without a sustain pedal.I’m a co-administrator of the Apple MainStage Users Group – a healthy and active Facebook group with over 12K members.
This camp captures the heart of young people; they were seeing a new dimension of what God does through music: it captures their heart.
Band Camp has been a great source of inspiration for my generation coming up; especially within our churches, where there is a deliberate need for more musicians, but Godly musicians, who want to serve the LORD through their music.
The first band camp here in Jamaica was like a parched land having water poured on it and it soaks it up! It lit a fire in me and cemented my love for music.
Why Don’t We Sing First?
Why daily singing to God may be the most overlooked pathway to spiritual renewal — and how to start again.…
Where have all the students gone?
The church is under-resourced and our students are underestimated. How do we bridge the gap between the two? Here are…
Building Your Band: ORIGINS
In 2007 God birthed a new vision for developing worship musicians from scratch. The reality began in Kingston Jamaica in…
Seven Things We Would Lose If We Gave Up Our Modern Worship Songs for Hymns
Written as critical thought, in the similarly stifling spirit of: 5 Things You Lose When You Give Up Your Hymnals…
Peter James | Clashing With Every Single Person
We're joined by legendary Hillsong keyboardist and sound designer Peter James. Peter has been playing piano/keys for the last 25+…
Grant Norsworthy | Prancing, Stancing, Left And Right Glancing
A Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning musician (formerly with Sonicflood and Paul Colman Trio), Grant Norsworthy is also the founder, owner, content…
Intuitive Keys MainStage Template
I'm so excited to be releasing my own MainStage Template that I call "Intuitive Keys". This template is a product of…
Simplify your mix
Andrew Stone, Production Manager and Audio Director at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK., writes on his church blog:...…
Experience 2017
If you're at the Experience Conference Sep 5th to 8th in Orlando, and you're a listener of the podcast, I…
Dan Cuomo | Something’s Wrong With That Click Track
Dan Cuomo joins the show to share his thoughts, wisdom and experience playing rock drums, getting signed to a major…
Hymn Pirates
But the problem is that these “rediscovered” hymns aren’t really hymns at all. They are contemporary songs with old words.…
Nikki Lerner | You All Know The Words
With Nikki Lerner as our guest, we immediately get to the heart of doing multicultural worship. Nikki helps us explore our motivations,…
The Best Keyboard
Music pastors and aspiring keyboardists occasionally ask my take on the best keyboard for modern worship music, and while I'm…
+ Creatives
If you're a creative, you probably have an eye for Apple's design and you understand computing at the intersection of…
Jon Waller | Destroyed an Entire Genre
Jon joins the show discussing a range of genres based around Jazz to include Gospel and Neo Soul. Along the way, he…
New Year Inspiration
If you frequent this blog, you're probably looking for new inspiration, and fresh ideas, from other than the usual suspects. So…
William Brew IV | The Way It Is
William Brew joins us for an enlightening episode of drumming and discovery. Along the way we discuss his love of…
The Right Amount of Wrong | Aron Teo Lee
We are so proud of BYB Podcast contributor, bassist, and uber-dynamic speaker Aron Teo Lee who recently was featured in his very…
Bono & Eugene Peterson | Psalms
If you haven't seen this conversation between Bono and Eugene Peterson, it's worth taking twenty minutes of your time for…
Starting Point Workshop
We just wrapped up a "Starting Point" workshop for 5th to 9th graders, which is a simplified version of a…
The Five Stages of Musical Proficiency
Something that I think would have been helpful to me in my musical journey, was some sort of validation of where I've…
NC Workshop
We're excited to be partnering with Pleasant Garden to produce a Building Your Band Workshop geared toward the next generation…
Just Doing Demo’s
Look, writers; NONE of writers you most love feel great confidence or frequent inspiration. They just get their work done.…
David Loftis | Diverse By Design
Friend of the show, David Loftis, talks to us about about the challenges of producing three very different worship services each week:…
Music Theory: It’s a Language thing
A lot of people get bent out of shape about music theory and the need to have a certain…
Toto Masterclass
When we hold a workshop, we start out by talking about the roles for each instrument. Knowing the role of…
Trent Walker | Experts in Photoshop
Trent Walker talks to us about stepping out in faith- leaving a perfectly good job as a church worship leader to…
Gavin Morris | Never Really Said Anything
As the frontman and lead songwriter of Break The Fall, Gavin walks us through the process of creating their latest EP "The…
Steven Kristopher | 40th Birthday Gift
Steven Krisopher shares what was behind his most recent project, With Abandon, (edit: released December 15th, 2015). With sixty minutes of music in ten songs,…
13 ways your sound guy can make you sound bad
A pilot who was getting harassed going through airport security got a little frustrated by it. Trying to provide some helpful context to…
Adele SNL Raw Feed | Lessons Learned
I can't imagine many vocalists would be very pleased that their live raw mic feed was mixed with just a baseline and…
Apple and Alchemy
As a keyboardist and Apple aficionado who follows the likes of Gruber, Marco and Dalrymple, the acquisition of the soft synth, Alchemy, by Apple…
Remote GLS Stage Geometry
Recently we had the opportunity to play music live for a remote Global Leadership Summit event (ours was in Jamaica). When…
Jamaica 2015 Report
Friends and supporters of our music ministry trip to Jamaica - Thank you for believing in us, and for helping…
Dave Tauler – Not Enough Bassoon Gigs
In this podcast episode, Dave talks to us about how playing wind instruments informs the way he approaches singing and composition,…
Season 1 Remix | Kaleidoscope Edition
While recording and editing the first 18 episodes of the podcast, I began to notice some of the content commented on some of…
Visualizing Sound
Previously, I've talked about sound and harmonics, but I just came across this code site which does a fantastic job…
New to Hymns
Whenever you rehearse a hymn, even one of the new hymn rearrangements, you quickly get a sense of whether the…
Photoshopped Worship
You don't have to spend much time on the web, let alone Facebook, before you come across an article on how…
Jay Smith, ‘Cathartic Worship’
Guitarist Jay Smith spends 45 minutes with us pretty much not talking about guitars at all. Instead we discuss worship,…
Laura Blankenship, ‘Unbelieve It’
Laura shares the secrets and struggles of her journey as a Worship Leader and songwriter as a wife and mother of…
The Long Worship Tail
In 2004 Chris Anderson wrote a seminal article in Wired magazine about "the long tail" in which he essentially describes the…
Jayson D. Bradley, “3/4 Waltz”
Jayson talks to us about his passion for leading worship in a small church, the pitfalls and dangers of turning worship into…
Terri Plant, ‘Carrying Shoes’
Vocalist Terri Plant talks to us about cross-cultural singing in both English and Arabic, and how music has both moved…
Chordy, ‘Four out of Five Times’
Keyboardist John "Chordy" Teagle talks to us about growing up with a love for playing keys, the impact of learning theory…
Love Unquantified
Christianity has, in the broad picture, struggled with trying to cope with and understand (quantify?) love. On the one hand, there…
Brandon Peoples, ‘Back Pew Baptist’
Brandon (keyboardist for Break The Fall) talks to us about his thoughts as a "Back Pew Baptist", sitting in the rear…
Eileen Graham, ‘Wax On, Wax Off”
Eileen's love for singing is the subtext throughout this episode during which she surveys the typical range of vocal responsibilities in…
Zach Bulanow, ‘A Tale of Two Worship Teams’
Zach talks to us about playing acoustic guitar in two different student worship teams: one going very well, one going…
Brian Beasely, ‘Gospel of Brian’
Worship Leader, Backing Vocalist, and Bassist, Brian Beasely talks with us being a highly involved lay-musician in a local church.…
Aaro Keipi, ‘Keyboardists Agreeing’
Aaro Keipi and I agree for about an hour on playing classical, worship, and funk keyboard, the preeminence of pads,…
Justin Pinkney, ‘Translating CCM’
Justin talks to us about growing up in Gospel Drumming, needing a "third eye" to keep tabs on what's going on,…
Amanda Joy, ‘Bonus’
Amanda and I kept talking after the show was over. We got into talking a little bit about generational worship which…
Amanda Joy, ‘Blending’
Amanda Joy talks to us about singing background vs. lead vocals, and listening to everything to include the band to…
Dan Rebeiz, ‘Unifying’
Guitarist* Dan Rebeiz talks to us about unifying the emotional content of the music we create in this sweeping interview. Contact…
Aron Lee, ‘All In’
Aron "Teo" Lee (Twitter | Facebook) talks to us about owning the support role of bass. Topics include: Roles and responsibilities of the…
Michael Thomas, ‘Four Notes’
Cellist Michael Thomas talks about the minimum technical skill required to play in a worship band, tells us the secret…
Auditions
At some point in the process of Building Your Band™, probably not long after its inception, you’re going to want…
Playing the Mic
I generally haul in $5k of hardware and $5k of software when I play a keyboard gig, even if I…
Sarah Begashaw, ‘Multicultural Worship’
Sarah talks about her origins playing and singing in Venezuela, to leading a band at an intentional multicultural church in…
Kishore Carey, ‘Honest Worship’
Worship Leader and instrumentalist Kishore Carey talks about building a band in a church plant, his approach to producing, his…
What’s my motivation?
This story begins with the one thousandth time I'm playing "This is the air we breathe" and a simple question…
What’s next at BYB
Even though I love blogging and hope to get back to it more, I haven't been posting as much, because…
Sound – Feedback
Seemingly one of the great mysteries of running sound is the source and cause of feedback. Perhaps the greatest…
Sound: Quiz
What happens when a signal clips (runs out of headroom, or hits a digital ceiling, or an amplifier runs out…
Sound 202 – Inharmonic Timbre
Welcome to your second semester of Timbre! I hope you have everything from first semester under your belt! :-) Previously,…
Sound 201 – Timbre
Before we dig deeper, let's remind ourselves of some basics: Typically we humans hear down to 20 Hertz (Hz) or vibrations per…
Throw-away songs
Why does a third of the church leave during the last worship song? Do we have better places to be…
Lyrics vs music
It’s very rare to find a complete package in a song, where the balance of words and music is more…
Chris Tomlin holograms
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the…
Redeeming Oceans
By now you've probably seen this version of Oceans getting bounced around the internets. I hope the people in that…
A new song about an old story
It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all…
The simplest thing
What if I told you there was one simple thing you could do to make your whole band sound better…
Playing from the heart
With 17 years of piano lessons (most done with really poor teachers, some done with really fantastic teachers), I'm firmly…
Latin 101
Just like the language of aviation is English, the language of music is Latin. Here are some terms that should…
Snake Alley Band
One of my favorite books to read to my kids is Snake Alley Band. If you have a reason to…
Post-MIDI
Technology has had a huge impact on music. It's made us play steadier (I would argue even when not playing…
More Subdividing
We've already laid out how music generally subdivides each count into 2s or 3s. This means that in 4/4 (or…
BGVs
If you were to ask me who has the better voice - lead vocalists or the background vocalists - I…
If Blood Will Flow
On this day (Sep 11th), I could not recommend a more poignant video than "All This Time" by Sting (Netflix).…
Voicing the keyboard
I recently became aware of keyboardist Ed Kerr and really like the way he talks about keyboards and thinks about music. I…
Unity and Diversity in the Band
Now if the kickdrum should say, “Because I am not a snare, I do not belong to the drum kit,”…
Subdividing
Up until now, we've stuck with the integers of counting. Sure, we've counted in 3 and 4 and 5 and…
Odd Time Signatures
Once you get past the basic 4/4 and 6/8 time signatures, everything that happens next gets esoteric pretty quickly. But…
Basic Time Signatures
I happened to be in the studio when one of my favorite drummers was tracking some parts, and I don't recall if…
The price of a note
Notes actually do mean something. They have power. I think of notes as being expensive. You don't just throw them around. I…
Olá Brazil!
Yesterday was "Labor Day" a holiday in the US, and today is the first day of school here, so in…
Jamaica Music Video
The incredible Ted Keaton shot and edited this video of our time in Jamaica. I miss everyone. Jamaican Music Camp…
“Is there, like, a specific place I’m supposed to be looking?”
New Zealander Lorde recently made history by being the first female and first solo artist to win the best rock video award…
Good Form
If you're a vocalist or instrumentalist, if you sing backups or lead, if you're the worship leader or the producer,…
Producer’s Course
We had enough musicians to split the students into four bands. We noticed that bands didn't (formally) have a producer. I…
Beginning and Advanced Keyboard
The genius plan of David Loftis was to feature a key signature a day and build from there. Generously, instead…
Music in Jamaica
A few weeks before starting this blog, I called an old friend and mentor (Dave Loftis) to get his thoughts…
Keyboard Class in Jamaica
I just wrapped up a week of keyboard instruction in Jamaica at Dave Loftis' Teach 412 camp, and this was…
Serving the song as a… [worship leader]
The worship leader has a unique role to play. In my perfect world, you need to be the focal point…
Serving the song as … [vocalists]
Why do we have multiple vocalists? Any ideas? Are they there to detract from the person fronting? No. They remain…
Serving the song as a… [bassist]
The number one thing you need to do is become one with the kick drum. Which means you need to…
Serving the song as a… [timekeeper]
I love a great drummer. I love watching them paint with their sticks. I marvel at their limb-independence. I love…
Serving the song as a… [guitarist]
Much of the music we listen to today is defined by the guitar. There is so much you can do…
Serving the song as a… [keyboardist]
I like to have little 3-octave keyboards on top of a grand piano, and then a 4-octave USB controller to the…
Serving the song as a… [_________]
When we're just starting out, we learn to play solo, by ourselves. When we start to transition to playing with…
A critique
If someone were to critique this sight and what I am doing hear, I think they would probably say that…
The most important musician
Who do you think is the most important musician? This is not a question I have heard posed a lot,…
Keeping the main thing the main thing
A few years back, before the era of DAWs, I was living not far from Nashville and took the opportunity…
Piano songs and guitar songs
In most worship songs, it is pretty obvious when the song is a "piano song" or a "guitar song." When…
Where are you going?
Not all those who wander are lost ~ J.R.R. Tolkein ... except when you’re playing. Whether you're playing or singing,…
Sounding like a garage band using garage band
Among the dire warnings in the world of music was the prediction that software like Apple's Garage Band would allow…
How to sound like a garage band (the classic blunder!)
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is: "Never get involved in a…
How big should your band be?
Well, the bigger your band, the less everyone should play and the better everyone has to be at listening and…
What is a rhythm section?
Put another way - what is meant by a "rhythm section"? And more importantly, why is it called that? A…
Making room for the bass
Once again I am going to write from the perspective of the keyboardist, which I can fortunately do not only…
Flesh and bones
What on earth am I talking about here? This is how I think about the roles of the various instruments.…
New wine in old wineskins
If your church has been around for a while, it undoubtedly started out with a pianist and/or an organist. That…
A worship team prayer
Lord, allow us to listen -To each otherTo the congregationTo the space between the notesTo what you have to say…
A bigger band means playing less
If you took piano lessons, you learned that the piano is the whole orchestra. Your teacher made you play legato…
What is production?
At some point, churches understood that the ability to write and/or preach a compelling, moving, life-changing, visionary sermon did not…
In the beginning
Two moments I will never forget are: 1) when I saw my wife dressed in white at the end of…