When things don't go to plan

It's Easter 2013 and I'm lying in a hospital bed writing this blog.  On Saturday morning our plans changed when my lung collapsed doing some exercise.

I've found 'life' throws curve balls at you, often when least expected and in a praise and worship team this is no exception.

A more common than you think scenario is a Saturday night text from the bass player who's become ill over the weekend, or the guitarist who's hurt his back playing sport and no matter who you contact it's hard to get someone who knows the parts the same to step in at this notice.

Ideally we are developing a culture of growth where these kind of events don't have a major impact to our team, however this takes time and all teams have a different amount of people.

It's inevitable and going to happen, so points to remember when plans change include:

Why are we doing this

No matter what happens God is still God and he still sits on the throne.  As much as we are thrown out His word is still true and where two or more are gathered he will still be there.  He's not going to not turn up because the bass player can't make it.

Sometimes our greatest challenges are our greatest opportunities

When the unexpected happens we are caused to rely not on our own strength.  In our weakness he is made strong.  This is as true today as it has ever been.

Be flexible

It doesn't actually say in the bible that there is a distinct layout for a praise and worship set.  It does say in Psalm 100 to enter his gates with praise and then bow down in worship however why not if you're electric guitarist suddenly can't make it look at focussing more on some reflective moments in transitions where other instruments can shine.  If need be change your songlist, or if change a song from being a guitar driven to a piano driven song.  You'll have to be creative and may need to play new parts but there's always options depending on the size of your team.

Don't panic, God love's our heart and what we do, be genuine and if we do the best we can, our hardest day may even turn into one of our greatest.

The hardest part of playing worship in church

Despite the length of a worship time in church (be it 20 minutes or a lot longer) there is always a couple of things in my opinion which are the hardest to bring together.

You may be surprised at this, but I think the biggest challenge in a worship time is not the actual playing of the songs.

Generally with the chosen songs we are given the words/chords/parts to play and usually an mp3 link to listen too and learn the song.  Playing the correct part does require skill, depending on the type and arrangement of the song but this often does not require a lot of creativity or thinking on the run.  

To me, the main challenge in leading the congregation into a powerful time of praise and worship is the transitions between the songs and the times that are often called 'free worship'.

First, the transition between songs is a time of great opportunity but also a time where things can 'go really wrong'.  Generally speaking, leading up to a transition we have displayed the words of the song on the screen for the length of the song (usually for between 4-5 minutes) and encouraged people to sing along.  In contrary to this, there is now a time where people can express their own individual personal words to God and listen for Him to respond back to them.  Keeping a flow where this takes place is not always an easy thing to do.  Our job is to help people keep their attention on Him by not creating a disjointed transition where it is possible for people to actually take their focus of God and even put it on the musicians themselves.

The other challenging time in my opinion is instrumentals in songs or 'free worship' moments.  Often we are playing songs that have been recorded with instrumentals and if we try and replicate that part of the song without the same instrumental part it can feel flat instead of 'lifting' at that time.  

Often an instrumental comes directly after a chorus where you have had most of the instruments/vocals in at a high intensity and then the vocals (particularly main melody) often pulls right out in the instrumental.  If there is no strong instrument at that time there is real potential for the dynamic of the song to drop right off.  

I think if we don't have the instruments or individual tone of instrument to replicate the instrumental in the original song, we should consider changing the arrangement or possibly even going straight into the bridge section and bypassing the instrumental altogether.  Our whole aim should be to not do anything half hearted but always look to help people stay focussed on God.

In closing, back to transitions, some thoughts I have to help these are:

1. Don't rush.  One of the worst things we can do is think we have to immediately get to the next song.  Especially if it is a reasonable tempo change take your time.
2. Try to avoid silence.  If the drummer is tapping in the next song try to always keep a pad or a similar instrument playing through.
3. Spend time practising transitions.  Often time is spent practising the song list however transitions can easily be overlooked.
4. Know your instrument.  Understanding the dynamics of your instrument is very important so you can play sensitively in these times.
5. Listen to the Holy Spirit.  He is God on this earth and will at times give us direction during these moments.

Be blessed, have a great week :) 

Dan

How to run a stress free soundcheck

I've been in a variety of church music teams and seen many ways of running a soundcheck.  The last church I was involved with had an excellent team and a great way of running a soundcheck.  To me the quickest and best way to run a soundcheck is as follows:

Have a time when the soundcheck is to start.  If an instrument requires setting up, e.g drums, electric guitars etc these musicians need to be set up and ready to go at this time.

Start the soundcheck with the rhythm section.  If you have mic'd drums start with the kick drum.  Each member is to stand in front of their foldback speaker or 'in ears' if available and while the kick is played simply point up if they want more of that instruments volume or down if they want less.  

Once each person is happy with the kick drum, the process should be completed with the snare drum, then toms, hi-hats, ride and overheads.  If there are minimal mic's on the drums carry out the same process with what mic's you have available.  

Following the drums have the drummer play the chorus of the first song and bring in the bass guitar.  Carry out the same process as above.  

Once this is completed this bring in the electric guitars, one by one if there are two.  Have them play the same chorus and all musicians continue to signal up or down with the sound person adjusting the volumes as required.  

After this run the acoustic guitar, keys, any other instruments and then the same process with the vocals.  If everyone is organised this process should only take around 20-30 minutes and every person should have their own well balanced mix.

Once this has been completed run through the first song top to bottom and then quickly go around the musicians asking if anyone wants any volume changes.

Finally, a couple of key things to remember include:

1. Always ensure the sound person has a mic and can be heard clearly by all musicians/singers.
2. The sound person can do a quick eq if necessary during the above process but this will usually happen during the rehearsal.
3. It is essential everyone has an as good as possible mix to ensure all are playing not as individuals but together as one team.
4. If it is a pre-service rehearsal always finish by running the first verse and chorus of the first song so the sound person is ready to go for the beginning of the service.