WORSHIP LEADERS
LISTEN FIRST: THEN MAKE SOUND | Grant Norsworthy
It’ s painfully easy for musicians- especially amateur volunteer Church musicians- to think that making music is all about producing sound. But I would argue that making music- and being truly musical- is first and foremost about listening and then( and only then) about making sound.
Without listening- I mean really listening- we can fall into the trap of focusing way too much on our own playing or singing. We cease being a“ band” in the truest sense. We’ re just a group of individuals making sounds at the same time. A collection of soloists!
Without proper and full consideration of the sounds being produced by the other members of the band, we will make poor musical choices. We may end up making a thick slab of cold, coagulating sonic soup that is not musical and will not warmly invite our congregation to worship God by singing along with us!
Listening should be a higher priority for each of our team members than making sound is. If it’ s not, here are some examples of unmusical situations that may arise:
• One of our vocalists is unaware that they are singing different lyrics and a different interpretation of the song’ s melody from the other singers. Or they could be unaware that they are singing sharp or flat, or even off key.
• The keyboardist doesn’ t realize that they are playing an A minor chord as the other instruments are playing A major.
• The bassist does not hear that their E string is tragically out of tune.
• The acoustic guitarist’ s sense of the song’ s tempo is tugging uncomfortably against the tempo from the rest of the band, but they are all blissfully unaware.
• The drummer is delivering fills that cut awkwardly across the song’ s melody and has no inkling that they are playing their instrument with way too much intensity and volume for the current musical moment.
• The audio engineer is so totally engrossed with the digital effect“ bells and whistles” of their new mixing desk that they have not noticed that two vocal mics are still muted.
• The electric guitarist is slabbing out fully distorted arena rock power chords during a gentle, meditative musical moment.
• Overall, the band displays very little dynamic variation. There’ s no rise and fall. No light and
shade. It seems that every instrumentalist is playing constantly and at 8 or 9 out of ten!
• While the“ worship leader” is satisfied with his own vocal“ performance” and the support offered by the rest of the team, they have not registered that hardly anyone in the congregation is actually singing.
In my role as More Than Music Mentor I often have the opportunity to coach teams of Church singers, instrumentalists and technicians in( what I call) a Rehearsal / Workshop. Typically, in a Rehearsal / Workshop, the team will play a song from their repertoire and I will offer coaching. I coach with the specific goal of helping the team improve their overall sound so that, when they are next leading their home congregation to sing worshipfully, the congregation’ s participation will improve.
But of course, before I suggest any changes to the sounds being produced by any member of the team, I must listen. I must listen critically.
I have listened to and heard all of the negative examples I listed above and more. Each of these problem areas, I am sure, will create smaller or larger“ barriers” to the vocal
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