Reviewed by Paul Loader

The Vertical Music Worship Tools programme quite frankly is a pretty neat idea. A full tool kit of instructions and music to aid the small group worship leader (at least that's what the cover blurb claims, but why it should be aimed at small groups specifically I don't know). The Tools programme is a quarterly publication from the good old US of A that comes with an audio CD and DVD. What I especially liked about this product is that as a worship group leader it gives you the lot. Featuring nine songs, it gives you an audio CD of those songs in a full on production format. Then it gives them to you again acoustically with just an acoustic guitar and piano. I found this particularly helpful because as a worship leader myself I have often struggled to translate the big brash production job of say the latest Hillsong's CD to my own slightly smaller congregation on a council housing estate in Bristol, UK. Then having given you the song to listen to in the car, on your iPod or even in the kitchen, the CD has PDF files that contain the chords, the lyrics, the acetate copies, the lot. THEN on top of all that the DVD contains the songs with instructions on how to play them for the guitar, the bass, the organ and even the drums. This flows together with the songs so that you can sit in the comfort of your own living room and play along, with the DVD even showing you how to play the individual chords properly (and not like most of us do). It even shows you what parts of the drum kit to hit should that be your instrument of choice. I thought I would give it a go myself and chose the American children's favourite "I Am A Friend Of God" and I found that having got the song in my head it was a breeze to follow and practise. All I now have to do is print off copies of the music sheets for the music group. Stick the lyrics on a memory stick for our projectionist and we are sorted. Mind you, I have been playing for the best part of 35 years, and so I thought I ought to get a more subjective view and enlisted the help of my teenage daughter who is also a fledgling worship leader. Even with her fairly new knowledge of playing the guitar, using the discs she was able to pick up the song to the point of sharing it with the church fairly quickly. My comment is where was this kind of resource when I was struggling to lead worship for the first time? My only gripe is the packaging. I know that it is supposed to have that A4 magazine feel to it, but once you have opened the packaging there is no packet to store the CD and DVD in and if you can't find a spare CD case lying around they are going to get scratched really quickly. All in all though, a well thought out product that I found extremely useful.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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