Playing with skill

Playing with skill (From Chapter 3 of ‘A Heart to Drum’ by Terl Bryant)

“Chenaniah, leader of the Levites, was instructor in charge of the music, because he was skilful.” (1 Chronicles 15:22)

If you have a musical gift, the Bible calls you to invest in it. Naturally it is your choice. No one will force you to do it (at least I hope not), but if it is God’s gift, then surely we should honour Him by polishing it. While keen novices should always been encouraged, think how much more you can enhance the music by developing your skill?

You are in church, ready to sing with passion a song of worship to the Most High God. The bandleader starts with some opening chords on the acoustic guitar, and then…without warning there is a coal delivery on the drums! It sounds as if someone has thrown a cupboard full of pots and pans down a flight of stairs ending with the most painful damage at the bottom. It carries on, your eyes are squeezed tightly shut in a vain attempt to shut out the distraction and focus on the glorious lyrics of praise…and then at the end of the first verse, leading into the chorus… it happens again…only worse! The over-excited and rather wide-eyed drummer has just crashed entirely past the downbeat of the chorus hitting somewhere between beat two and three a bar late! The whole congregation braces – they are faithfully determined to press on. The worship leader remains utterly focused, although his fingers are now raw as he grates them on the wire strings to hold the beat together. The keyboard player loses it, as her eyes pass with exasperating looks between her family seated on the front row and glaring vindictive looks at the drummer… who is now totally crushed. His only response is to play even louder in a last attempt to put it all right…oh no!!

Been there?

There is another side. You are in church, ready to sing with passion a song of worship to the Most High God. The bandleader starts with some opening chords on the acoustic guitar, and then… the performance starts. You open your mouth making the shape of the first word in the lyric, and to your horror several extra bars of intensely clever, over rehearsed, pushes and stabs have been added in. You open your eyes, naturally looking for some helpful cue, because the odd-time meter (known only to the advanced musicians on the stage), has thrown you completely off balance. Then you notice (because you hadn’t really before), the worship leader’s shirt is open to the middle of his chest and his head is turned offering a pouting smirk of approval to the drummer who has delivered an intense fill (a run of sixty-fourth notes) around a range of tom toms (4”, 6”, 8”, 10”, 12”, 14”, 16”, 18” plus some others he’s knocked up in his workshop) at the end of the extraordinarily over-the-top, musically brilliant, but completely self-focused worship song.

Yikes…. that hurt!

We need wisdom to get it right. What, indeed does ‘getting it right’ involve? Firstly, let’s forget trying to create a rulebook.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

I want to talk about the scriptural call to play with skill and what that really means. Many have failed to find a healthy balance in this area. It has become a trap for some, who get overly focused on perfecting their skill, and then, in turn dismiss the honest expression of others that apparently don’t measure up. Others may not even get started, feeling they will never be good enough in the eyes of the so-called skilful.

Again it is in God’s Word we will find the answers we need, but we must be prepared for a little study: as we delve deeper into the original context and meaning of words we will grow in understanding. We need to know the Lord’s heart so that we can bring an appropriate offering to Him in our drumming, music making and praise and worship.

In the opening verse of this chapter (1 Chronicles 15:22) Chenaniah, leader of the Levites, held a position of leadership as an instructor,”…because he was skilful”. This could easily be misinterpreted based on our understanding of the word ‘skill’. The word here in the Hebrew is ‘sakal’ (pronounced ‘saw-kal’), and gives us more insight into why Chenaniah was given the office of instructor. It is also why we in turn must learn to play with ‘sakal’ and not just skill.

The word sakal means: ‘wisely understand, prosper, to have insight, to give attention to, consider, having comprehension, to be prudent or circumspect.’

Sakal appears in scripture a total of sixty-three times, most commonly translated into English as ‘wise’, ‘prosper’, and ‘understand’, but only twice as ‘skill’. Here are three examples with the word translated from sakal in bold:

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” (Genesis 3:6)

“Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.” (Deuteronomy 29:9)

“For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.” (Psalm 47:7)

Psalm 33 also refers to playing skilfully. In verse 3 the writer states, “Play skilfully with a shout of joy.” The word here is another Hebrew word yatab that has similarities to sakal. Yatab means ‘to do well, do thoroughly, to make a thing good or right or beautiful’.

Although very valuable, skill itself is not enough; we need to develop a ‘sakal’ mindset for our playing. The following two lists help us to see how this works. They are not necessarily in order of importance, but they are typical of the kind of response I have had from my students when studying this question.

To play drums with sakal is to play with:

• A heart open to the Holy Spirit
• Wisdom
• Understanding
• Obedience
• Consideration
• Sensitivity
• Passion
• Appropriateness
• Care and empathy
• Authority
• Patience
• Skill
• Technique

To play drums with skill is to play with:

• Technique
• Musical Knowledge
• Advanced study
• Speed and dexterity
• Control
• Experience
• Good musicianship
• Professional attitude

Can you see how playing with sakal is to play with spiritual wisdom and humility, and playing with ‘skill’ is something that can be done excellently without any sensitivity or connection to the heart. I am in no way suggesting that we ignore the value of playing skilfully but it must always be subject to sakal. You can see that the characteristics of the word ‘skill’ are mostly functional, and the characteristics of sakal are much more about the heart.

Playing with skill (From Chapter 3 of ‘A Heart to Drum’) available here