Have we all got the same music?

Which drummer is playing this week?

What songs are we playing today?

These are some of the questions I hear on a regular basis from our church worship band.  The problem is, we’ve never had an easy way to manage the team and the resources… until now.

The Problem

In a world where we have instant access to a mass of information with the click of a button, musicians can find chord charts to millions of songs online.  In theory, this is excellent, and with websites such as chordie.com, chordbook.com and ultimate-guitar.com, we have access to these songs instantly.  The problem lies with the authenticity of these charts.  If I go to one website and download the chords for Amazing Grace, and a fellow band member goes to a different website for the same song, there is a big chance that we will end up with two different arrangements.  With a band of 8 musicians, and with over 120 songs in our library, this could cause issues.  Nobody has the same music, but nobody has the ‘wrong’ music.

The Solution

I intend to create an online web application that will enable me to manage the team much more efficiently.  I will create a library of all the chord charts we use, put the current rotas online and allow people to have access to all of the information they need in one place.  Musicians will be able to search the database for the chord chart they need, download a PDF and add it to their own folder.  The digital format will allow the musician to either print it and put it in a folder in hard copy format, or import the PDF to whichever application they choose to use as a digital music stand.

Not only will the application allow band members to access resources, but the library will also become a resource for each of the band leaders when they are creating their set list.  With a simple check box solution, it will be possible to scroll or search the library and add songs to a playlist.  Once the playlist is finished, a simple click of a button will allow a copy of the list to be added to a ‘current setlist’ section, and also emailed to the band members.

Research

For the past ten years I have been an active member of the UT Belfast church worship band.  Over these years the team has grown and changed, but there are a few problems that keep arising.  18 months ago, I was appointed the Worship Director for the church, and so I decided to try and address some of these problems.

I began my research last summer with a team meeting, and one of the issues that was raised was that the music folders weren’t consistent.  This lead to a lot of wasted time photocopying music and changing chords during rehearsals. I asked the team what they thought would be a good solution and the general response was to take one folder; make is as complete as possible and then simply duplicate it.

I considered this outcome to be flawed, because it seemed like a temporary solution.  If we went with this solution, 12 months later we would be in the same situation again.  We wouldn’t, however, have a complete folder to duplicate once more, and we would have to start the process over again.

I decided to try and create a prototype of an online solution and present it to the team as an alternative plan.  I spent the summer creating this simple prototype and submitted it to the team for use from September.

Since then, I have had a lot of positive feedback and we have gained a lot more time in our rehearsals now that everyone has the resources ahead of time.

Another one of the issues that was raised was communication.  At that time, our main method of communication was email.  The problem was, it wasn’t our only method of communication. People would make changes to the rota based on work commitments, family commitments and other reasons and often, the band weren’t aware of the changes.

I decided that we needed an online management tool, so I began to research some solutions. I came across dotWorship.co.uk, a Worship Team Management solution.  I set up an account for our team, but as the service was only in beta (it was purpose built for the developers own worship team, and then released for public use), I found it to be unsuitable and restricted.  The fact that it was purpose built gave me the idea to integrate the online chord chart library with a management solution, and create a purpose built solution for our own team.

Techniques and Technologies

I will use HTML and CSS to build the webpage, and the user login will be handled with PHP and MySQL.  The library database will be managed with MySQL to allow searching for songs based on key, tempo and other criteria. I will also use a WordPress blog within the application to serve as a ‘latest news’ feature.  This will allow me to post media, new songs and other information.

Conclusion

This solution succeeds in combining all of the problems the team have faced, and solving them in one place.  The team won’t need to scan the Internet for chords or phone each other for rotas and check emails and Facebook for updates.  This will allow everything to happen in one place.  With everyone having access to the same resources, the team will run much more efficiently.  They will all be playing of the same charts, have access to the same copy of the current rota and all news and updated information will be fed to the team in one place, ensuring nobody is overlooked in the process.  It allows some of the onus to be placed on the individual band members to coordinate their own involvement, freeing the leaders to fulfil their tasks with a lot less hassle.

Due to the fact that this application is being purpose built for our team, it has the added benefit of allowing us to add new features and control exactly how the app serves us as a team.  We have complete control and therefore can be confident that any future issues that arise can hopefully be solved by adding additional functionality to the system.