Worship Musician November 2019 | Page 52

ONSONG USING ONSONG MESSAGES TO DIRECT THE FLOW OF WORSHIP | Dakota Kibler Within the past decade or so, you might have How does this work? The answer is simple... can all be communicated to your team without noticed that there has been a revolution in the live OnSong utilizes the connection of all devices uttering a single word. Pretty awesome, right? worship industry. With all the instrumentalists, either through WiFi or through wired stage singers, tracks, loops, and gear being used monitors to send a message instantly and But wait- how can these messages be sent during live worship sets nowadays, more and efficiently. By simply tapping a message in to the team if the person sending them is more worship teams have discovered the need OnSong’s list of available messages, that also currently playing an instrument? Have no for someone onstage to discreetly guide the message is then instantly displayed for a fear- AirTurn is here! AirTurn is a company that band while they’re worshipping. Armed with customizable period of time in a noticeable but manufactures compact, wireless, and easy- musical knowledge, intuition, leadership skills, nonintrusive way on all connected devices and to-use foot pedals that are fully compatible and a microphone that can only be heard by monitors. with OnSong. When it comes to sending band members, Music Directors (commonly messages in OnSong, an AirTurn foot pedal known as MD’s) have begun to fill this role and By default, OnSong is configured with five can be configured within OnSong to send any make live worship as smooth and efficient of a default messages: Now Playing (which sends message that you desire with the simple press process as possible. the title of the current song in the set), Up Next of your foot. This is truly amazing! It allows you (which sends the title of the next song in the set), to communicate with your entire band which However, sometimes a worship team might not Start, Continue, and Stop. For most worship direction to take in a song or set, all while like hearing someone talk to them and guide teams, these commands can get the job done allowing you to fully play an instrument, sing, them vocally through a song. Other times, just fine. But if you’re like me, you might want to and engage the congregation as you normally maybe a worship team only consists of a few repeat a chorus or bridge if it’s really going well. would. members and doesn’t have anyone who can Fortunately, OnSong also allows you to create take over the role of MD. Still other times, custom messages (like Repeat), as well as OnSong truly takes music directing, onstage a worship team simply might not possess choose how long these messages will appear communication, and teamwork to the next level. the right equipment to make having an MD on your team’s devices for. Combine these things with OnSong’s main possible. Is there anything out there that can functions of organizing, storing, and editing solve these types of problems and ensure a You might be thinking, “Okay, that sounds great, your chord charts, and you have a revolutionary smooth flow of communication for a worship but what does all of this look like practically?” tool that will keep your worship team all on team that is playing live? Picture this: You’re in the middle of a worship the same page- literally! If you want to learn set, but the pastor wants to come up and share more about OnSong, just visit onsongapp. Yes, there sure is! Introducing… OnSong. something briefly. You can simply tap the “Stop” com/wm. And if you’re interested in learning OnSong is an iOS app that allows you to message to signal your band to stop playing or more about AirTurn foot pedals, just visit organize, store, and edit chord charts on your bring the song down, and then use “Continue” onsongapp.com/airturn. iPad, iPhone, or iPod- but it also does so much to signal your band to resume after the pastor more. You can use OnSong to toggle backing has finished. Then later on, you can signal your tracks or a metronome, project lyrics onto band to build dynamically in a song using a a screen, and in the case of missing MD’s, custom “Build” message, and finally, you can you can use OnSong to send quick wireless remind your band what song is next in the set messages to the rest of your team’s devices in with yet another message. The possibilities are the middle of a worship set. truly endless with OnSong messages, and they 52 November 2019 Dakota Kibler Marketing and Media Manager for OnSong LLC. He has been a faithful OnSong user for over 7 years and utilized OnSong long before officially joining the OnSong crew. Dakota graduated from Regent University in 2019 and currently resides in central Pennsylvania, where he performs with and leads worship teams for several different churches and groups. www.OnSongApp.com Subscribe for Free...