i’ve made many mistakes in my time as a worship leader. one that i’ve realized recently is that i’ve often under-prepared the sound engineer. when i think about that it’s crazy! the sound engineer is the final determination of whether or not our music and message is clear and engaging to those we’re trying to lead.
too often i’ve neglected to give the sound engineer ample notice on new songs coming up. we send demo recordings to our musicians, why not include the sound engineer? we each have responsibility for one part, while the sound engineer has to have his ears and hands on every part. there are countless musical decisions that a sound engineer has to make on the fly.
we’re blessed at crosspointe to have don smith. he’s a fantastic leader, and he balances the technical with the artistic better than anyone i’ve had the privilege to work with. as a sound engineer, don is every bit as much part of the band as any of us are. why have i not seen this before? don gives each instrumentalist and singer feedback at times. i trust him because i know that we have the same end goal in mind.
as much as possible, i try to make sure that don and i carve out time to sit down together and listen to music. we analyze each section of a song, offering our opinions on which parts are signature to the song and need to be prominent in the mix. what instrument is driving the rhythm? where are the interesting counter melodies?
as a worship leader, it’s vitally important that you have a good relationship with your sound engineer. you MUST trust each other, and you MUST have good, open, dialogue about your vision for each element of the service and how they flow together to create the right environment for an engaging, inspiring worship experience.
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June 8, 2007 at 7:46 am
jbow
thanks to you both…all the relational and musical investment you do does indeed pay off huge each weekend. love you both.
June 8, 2007 at 8:42 am
terrytimm
this is excellent stuff. we are in a season of transition with sound techs and i did not pay enough attention to what you highlight here. thanks for the reminder!
June 13, 2007 at 1:27 pm
joebob3
Stephen, just found the blog, and this is a topic that I’m struggling with lately. In most church situations, you may have multiple sound engineers that all have different ideas of how Sunday should sound.
My questions are two: 1. How do you convey your ’sonic vision’ to your tech(s)? 2. What tangible things have you done to build trust between the tech team and worship band?
I hope that the team is going easy on the ’suck’ button, but I don’t know if I’d call it trust yet……Thanks for rambling on about the dilemmas that are filling my head lately….great idea about providing music to the tech team!!
June 13, 2007 at 3:36 pm
onelouder
hi joebob. thanks for your comment and questions. until this past fall, i’ve been in a situation with multiple volunteer sound engineers. i admit, it’s much easier to have one “go to” guy. that being said, i think there are certain things you can do to help the relationship with sound volunteers and also improve the end “product.”
as far as the sonic vision - a couple of the things i mentioned in the post would still be applicable - 1. make sure they get recordings of any new songs. 2. if possible, sit down with them to listen to the music. make notes on particular parts of the songs that need to be prominent in the mix.
here’s an idea that i haven’t tried, but seems like it would be good. take them to concerts. if you’re using rock-n-roll music, go to a good rock show. talk about the characteristics of rock music that differentiate it from other genres - prominent bass and kick drum, punchy guitars, etc.
as far as building trust…..it helps to include the tech teams in with whatever social or ministry events that you have the for the worship teams. any way you can welcome them as part of the worship band will go a long way in building that relationship.
oh well, those are my thoughts for right now……