When I auditioned for David Cook (I found out
later that it wasn’t really an audition because
they were already pretty confident that I could
nail the part from watching videos… thank the
Lord for the Internet!) one of the things that
David said when we ran through one of the
songs was that it sounded like I had done my
homework. Rehearsal shouldn’t be for doing
the dirty work of learning the song there in the
moment. It should be to run through it and
make sure that everyone knows their parts and
is together.
[James] When I first started playing with
Steven Curtis Chapman, they just called me
and said, “Can you do these shows?” And I
had to show up with no rehearsals, barely even
a sound check, and be able to play all of his
songs in the set. It was one of the hardest,
most stressful experiences of my life. But if you
do your homework and spend the time diving
in, it’s noticeable. It’s important to know how
you learn best, and to spend the time putting
in the work to know the music. There have
been times where I’m going on tour and they
James with Hillsong’s Nigel Hendroff
expect me to know thirty songs. They’re only
and tune in to who might be having a bad day, building blocks down. It’s interesting to see the going to pick fifteen, but they want to know
or realize when you’re having a bad day. It’s like little pieces that I’m missing, or to really analyze that you know all of their stuff. You just have
being in a family. You won’t always get along, what happens between beat 4 and beat 1 of dive in and know that you know it. The worst
just like in a family, but you have to be mature the next bar that isn’t readily apparent on a thing would be for them to say, “What are you
enough to deal with it. Sometimes you have first listen. playing there?” or, “Where is that part?” and to
to put your own ego and your own needs on
not know it!
the back burner for the greater good of the
situation that you’re in.
[WM] Do you have any tips on how to ace
an audition?
[Jeffrey] When I auditioned for Lincoln,
one of the questions that I asked during the
interview was what was it going to take to win
the audition. He told me that the very fact that
we were talking in the interview meant that I
had already passed the musical portion! One
of my big tips is to nail the nuances. I like to
learn a new song, play through it a bunch, and
then go back after a couple of days and relearn
the song. It’s always amazing to me to see
how much I’ve missed after getting the basic
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May 2018
WorshipMusician.com