What are worship pads?

Worship pads are pre-recorded sustained ambient tones that can be played underneath a worship song to fill the sound and smooth transitions. A pad can be any sound but are typically synth or other artificial keyboard sounds that sustain easily and may have other effects like reverb and delay built in.

Unlike chords that include a third, pads usually only include the root and fifth notes of a key and leave out the other notes in the scale. Since pads need to fit any chord of a worship song, they don't usually contain notes that would conflict (sound bad) with any of the chords in the key.

Because of this, a pad isn't locked to any particular chord quality within the key. It sits underneath the music without clashing against chord changes. This is why the same pad works throughout an entire song regardless of which chords are played. You simply match the pad to the key of the song and let it run in the background.

Where they come from

On teams with a keyboardist, pads are often played live. The keys player holds sustained notes while the rest of the band plays on top. Having a keyboardist playing pads means they can actually change chords along with the rest of the team as the song is played. A simple pre-recorded pad track can't.

Pads can be good for smaller teams who want a larger sound or to help fill the space when playing slower songs. Several free and paid pad libraries exist in all twelve keys for exactly this purpose.

What they do for the room

Pads serve three practical functions in a worship set:

Fill the sound. Depending on the pads you use, they may focus on a specific range or fluctuate between all range levels: low, mid, and high. When a full band isn't playing, a pad can make a small team sound more full without adding more musicians.

Song transitions. When the band stops between songs, the pad can already be playing in the key of the new song and eliminate the awkward silence while a worship leader speaks, changes a capo, or announces the next song. See 4 Ways to Transition Smoothly Between Worship Songs for how this works in practice.

Hold the atmosphere during spoken moments. Prayer, scripture reading, and spontaneous worship all benefit from a pad being played underneath. This allows the musical atmosphere to continue without requiring everyone in the band to keep playing.

What this means for guitar

When pads are present, you don't have to play full chords, diads, and lead lines throughout the song - although you still could. A pad is another audio layer in the song and adds to the fullness of the band's sound even when the song is quiet or slow. Pads are one of the reasons playing with space works so well in modern worship.

Related glossary terms

• Playing with space - pads make sparse guitar playing viable and intentional
• Dynamics - pads are part of the overall dynamic picture of a set
• Vamp - pads and vamps often run simultaneously during held moments
• Click track - pads don't require a click track as they have no tempo