This post is specifically for my female worship leader friends, or anyone who works with other female worship leaders. A little background…
I was the only female worship leader on staff at my previous church. I worked with one other male worship leader, and all the other campuses had male worship leaders. Over the years, I have come to understand the difficulty of trying to lead the same set as my male worship leader counterpart. It has been a challenge! For one, I naturally don’t have the same type of “energy” as he does. Most of our congregation, when I first got hired, was not used to seeing a female take the reigns. It was a different type of leadership that they were not used to. Also, the guys didn’t know how to sing in a female key. Eek… what is harmony?! Females are so used to singing harmony to male worship leaders, but males have not grown up with that ear training. So, it was very difficult for them. Over time, I learned to place my songs in keys that work best for male and female both, but that still doesn’t solve every problem.
In addition, when we introduced songs, my male worship counterpart and I were supposed to find a song that worked for both of us. Yeah right! This is so hard. We found a couple of songs that worked, but it usually resulted in both of us struggling with the song. Compromise led to difficulty for our congregation. Shortly after, we worked out a rotation where we could introduce two different songs simultaneously to different services. I won’t go into the details, but it was an amazing process because we were able to introduce songs that fit our own style and heart, yet still ministered to our congregation. Co-leading has also helped this.
Another struggle that I have run into lately has been the availability of female-led worship songs for the corporate church. There is not much out there, especially upbeat songs! In the top 30 worship songs right now, there are only 4 female led songs and they are ballads. Typical, right? So how do I survive as a female worship leader!? Below are some resources that I hope will help:
- ORIGINAL MUSIC
- My heart is to write songs, specifically for females to use in the corporate worship setting. These songs are meant to be singable, catchy, and in a female key.
- To look through my catalogue, check out my MUSIC page.
- YOUTUBE CHANNEL
- I have a few live videos on YouTube. Most of the songs that I am posting are male-led songs that I have transposed and arranged specifically for me. Feel free to rip off the arrangements and use them for your own worship sets!
- UPBEAT FEMALE LED SONGS
- race Like A Wave, Elevation Worship- Key of C
- You Came To My Rescue, Passion (I like to do this song in the key of E and sing both verses up the octave)- Key of E
- All About You Jesus, River Valley Music- Key of C
- Unstoppable God, Elevation Worship- Key of C
- Take Heart, Covenant Worship- Key of E
- Never Gonna Stop Singing, Jesus Culture- Key of E
- MALE SONGS TRANSPOSED
- 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord), Matt Redman- Key of D
- Lion and the Lamb, Leeland- Key of
- One Thing Remains, Bethel- Key of E (without the octave jump)
- Christ Is Enough, Hillsong Live- Key of D
- The Rock Won’t Move, Vertical Church Band- Key of D
- This Is Amazing Grace, Phil Wickham- Key of C
- God Is Able, Hillsong Live- Key of E
- Stronger, Hillsong Live- Key of A
- Our God, Chris Tomlin- Key of E
- Everlasting God, Brenton Brown- Key of A
- Glory To God Forever, Fee- Key of F#
- Close, Hillsong Y&F- Key of E
I hope this helps! Please message me if you have any questions. My heart is for other female worship leaders and I want to continue to be of resource to you. More posts and resources to come.