YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
WHAT ABOUT AUDITIONS ? | Vance & Michelle Shepherd
Is it your dream to have your youth worship team leading true heartfelt worship and sound like professional musicians and singers ? As owners and instructors for our school of music , we firmly believe in auditioning every musician before each worship event . It is one of the most important things that can be done to excel your team ’ s skill level and get the best results for every worship event . Some of our students have been with us for years , and we still have them audition before each event . You would be surprised how many of our first chair players still occasionally fail the audition process . It would probably be safe to say that Sunday morning or right before your event is not a good time to find out that some of your musicians don ' t know the material well enough , and haven ’ t practiced enough during the week .
There was one event that we had less musicians than usual , and after auditioning the band members , we unfortunately had to fail four of them , yikes ! Not fun for us , as we were responsible for providing a worship team to a church for that date . Two of our sibling students that had failed their audition told Michelle , " I feel like giving up … this is just too hard ". Michelle gave them both a pep-talk and encouraged them to go back home , work on the material a bit more , and re-audition . When they showed up for their re-audition a few days later , they both came in so happy saying , " I ' m so excited to audition again ! I practiced for four hours yesterday ! I feel so good about the songs !” And then … they both nailed their audition . They were so excited to get to lead others in worship , and they both realized then that it takes real dedication and hard work to achieve excellence .
TIPS FOR THE AUDITION PROCESS Step # 1 : Formulate an email that will be sent to the students as well as copied to their parents . We list every song in order that will be in the worship set , with the audition date ( we like to hold auditions 5-7 days before the event , to allow them time to re-audition if needed ), the worship event date , and venue address and time .
Make an audio file with all the songs in order , with a click track imbedded for them to practice to , and give them any work files they may need ( sheet music , tutorial videos , etc , if you have them ).
Step # 2 :
• They must stand during the audition ( crucial for stage presence ).
• They have to bring all their gear to the audition as if they are on stage ( to make sure all their cables are good , and everything works correctly ).
• They have to make all of their patch changes , pick-up selections , etc .
• If they sing and play , we require them to sing their part as they play their instrument .
• They must have the songs memorized ( no lyric or chord charts ).
• As the audio file is playing , we take notes per song as to what they need to improve on , and give them a % score as to how well they know each song .
• Every musician is required to play to the click track .
Step # 3 :
If their scores are too low we offer them a reaudition before the event to correct parts via the notes we took per song . Note : We have rarely ever had a student fail the re-audition .
If you are the leader of your youth worship ministry , we can assure you that if you take the time to hold auditions for every event , it will save you much frustration and your band members much embarrassment . It will always challenge them to do better , giving their very best to the Lord . We explain to our students that it is a sacrifice of praise to take our craft seriously and to strive for excellence . If we don ' t audition them and just let them sing or play even when they ’ re not ready , the chances of them getting better and having satisfaction in their music drops dramatically . Training , teaching , keeping high standards and mentoring them in their youth is crucial in helping to shape their adulthood .
May you be blessed as you pour into or become the next generation of worship leaders !
Vance & Michelle Shepherd Founders of The Shepherd School of Music in Las Vegas , NV , where they work with youth to raise up the next generation of worship leaders and musicians . facebook . com / shepherdschoolofmusiclasvegas www . ShepherdStudiosLV . com