Click Tracks: Why Not? (Part One)
The one about the reasons against using a click track in worship music
You made it! You weren’t scared off by the phrase ‘click track’ in my intro post. Great, let’s get to work.
Context behind the click
In this post we’ll talk about why we might not want to use a click track. But first it’s important to set some context. By way of full disclosure, I’m a drummer at a reasonably large church (by New Zealand standards). I use a click track whenever I play, and I’m grateful that my band and worship pastor are supportive so that the rest of the band usually has it running with me. I’m an advocate, but I want to be as fair as possible for those who may not share the same perspective. It’s always important to understand the why, and even more importantly to understand how God wants us to think about these things. That’s what I hope to get through in this post.
As Christians, we believe Scripture is God’s Word: it is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). So it makes sense that we want God to speak to us about how he wants us to play music in the church. Right? But here’s the thing: the New Testament does not contain any instructions about musical instruments. Not a one. The Old Testament has plenty, but the New Testament is all about singing:
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 5:18-20)
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (Col 3:16)
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. (James 5:13)
There are some churches who believe Scripture permits only a capella singing. While I don’t think there is a reasonable biblical basis for that, it isn’t at issue today: I will take it as a given that the Lord permits, and desires, us to use instrumentation for His glory in the church today (and I’m happy to have a discussion with anyone who thinks otherwise!) I will also take it as a given that where God has not expressly spoken, we are permitted to exercise wisdom in accordance with the overall tenor of the Scriptures (theologically this is known as the normative principle of worship: more here).
With that in mind, what are some of the arguments for/against click tracks? By way of context, I presume that a click track is used in the live performance of music for church worship in a regular service, or events like conferences or camps. Most commonly this occurs by at least one musician having in-ear monitors rather than a foldback speaker on the floor to hear themselves, and the metronome sound being played in their in-ear monitors while the rest of the band is playing.
With that context in mind, we will explore arguments against click tracks in this post, and arguments for them in the next post.
Arguments against using click tracks
These are some arguments against using click tracks:
It makes the band too rigid. Many worship teams nowadays will use backing tracks supplied by companies like Multitracks, which rely on teams playing exactly to those tracks and their accompanying click tracks. Practically speaking this means that teams are tied to the arrangements of those tracks. While there are some large churches that use the tracks as another instrument (triggering a chorus or verse repeatedly if the worship leader signals, for instance), the gear and personnel this requires means it’s out of reach for many in non-megachurch settings. Even if a team doesn’t use backing tracks and just uses a click track, some would say that makes the team play less freely because they are always worried about going out of time. It could also be said that the human sense of rhythm naturally flows in and out of time, and that music doesn’t always need to be exactly in time: there are points at which it’s appropriate for a song to move up or down in tempo.
It gets in the way of the Spirit. In churches with a charismatic bent (which I’m a part of now and have been in the past), a good desire is to be led by the Spirit of God during worship. This practically means sensing where the Spirit might be leading the room in a particular moment of worship: do we repeat that chorus, do we have just the voices singing, do we drive the bridge up a notch, do we linger in this specific chord progression? A click track may interfere with this process: some worship leaders may find it really distracting, and may not be able to lead well with it. And practically it may lead to a focus on keeping in time, rather than on what God is doing in the room. The most important thing, after all, is the honour and fame of God expressed in the songs of His people, and the experience of intimacy between God and His people, not whether the music was played perfectly in time.
Good musicians don’t need a click track. Listening to Led Zeppelin or the Beatles makes you realise John Bonham, Ringo Starr and many other world-famous, all-time leading drummers never played to a click track. Their tempos would jump up and down, and yet they are celebrated the world over. The same argument could be made for church musicians: why would we need an electronic metronome? It should be incumbent upon us to keep in time, particularly drummers/percussionists.
Using a click track requires an in-ear monitor setup. Many churches have moved to in-ear monitors in the last two decades, but this still requires some financial investment. If your sound system is older or relies on conventional foldback monitors, you simply won’t be able to run a click track, at least during a live service: no one wants the congregation to hear a metronome blaring in their ears while they are worshiping!
I hope I’ve done a fair job of representing these arguments. I’m not convinced by them personally, but I respect the fact that many hold them, and where Scripture is not clear then we are to hold to our own consciences (Romans 14). In the next post, I’ll explore the arguments for using a click track.