Worship Musician April 2019 | Page 186

MAINSTAGE KEYS NEW SOLUTIONS BRING NEW PROBLEMS | David Pfaltzgraff Anytime you find a way to take your worship team to the next level, rest assured that you’ll come up against new obstacles, concerns, or problems. This is especially true where technology is concerned. In last month’s issue, I shared some simple tips to ensure that your team gets on board with the motivation behind and benefits of using software for your worship keys rig. If you follow those suggestions you’ll be well on your way to success, but just because your team gets on board and you’ve played your first software- based chord doesn’t mean you’ve arrived at the final destination. New solutions bring new problems and getting out ahead of them will make sure you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year, month, or week to make your MainStage (or other software) based rig work for you and your worship team volunteers. LOOK MA, NO HANDS! If you or your worship team have felt the frustration of not being able to find (let alone play) the keys sounds you’re hearing all over modern worship music, discovering the software-based approach can feel like a breath of fresh air. The flexibility to shape your sound, the near limitless expandability, and the exciting adventure of a new sandbox to play in can reinvigorate what might have grown stale pre-software. It can also be so open-ended that you or your volunteers can get lost or not even know where Imagine a kid cruising down the sidewalk on So how can you both enjoy and leverage the to begin. their bicycle, hands lifted off the handlebars for flexibility of keys software while avoiding the the first time, wind flowing through their hair pitfall of being overwhelmed by that flexibility? The near complete lack of guard-rails or only to realize that steering (or even stopping) In my opinion, the simplest way is to create restrictions (at least that you are overtly made is a bit different without the familiarity of some rules (however arbitrary) for what aware of) can be both a blessing and a curse, those handlebars. you’ll ask the software to do. Whether this is enforcing a limit on the number of presets you’ll especially for newcomers to the software world. 186 April 2019 Subscribe for Free...