WORSHIP PRODUCTION
[ PREVENTING FIVE CLASSIC WORSHIP & TECH FAILS, EPISODE 1 | Doug Doppler ]
If you’re driving your car down a familiar road, SOLUTION: sure they are the right fit. Sunday morning
you know where the potholes are and how to I keep extra batteries in my case cubby, car is a bad time to find out you’ve got the
avoid them. Without getting into the why of it door, and with the tech team as a backup. wrong adapter.
all, worship and tech teams seem to make the As a bit of preventative medicine, try putting same mistakes over and over, year in and year a piece of painter’s tape on the back of your out. While we’re all guilty of making them, after headstock and mark the date with a Sharpie a while it does get frustrating and this does so you can track when it’s time to change the create some underlying tension inside teams – battery. Don’t forget to unplug your instrument Yep, I’m going there. You warm up your car
neither of which is healthy. between services, as this will drain your before you drive it, and vocal warm-ups are
battery prematurely. how to get your voice ready to lead worship
Again, noting that these mistakes are perennial
for many of us, I opted to put my “greatest hits”
list of the classic fails in the order they occur
on a Sunday morning. In this fashion, we can
all work together to fix these problems over the
coming months in a strategic and orderly way.
Interestingly enough, the first five barely get us
through sound check, which means there’s
definitely more to come, so let’s get to it!
FAIL #1: I FORGOT MY GUITAR STRAP
Truth be told, there has been more than one
Sunday morning where I opened my case and
discovered that I forgot my guitar strap – doh!
FAIL #4 NO VOCAL WARM UP
and sing tight harmonies.
[ ...try putting a
piece of painter’s
tape on the back
of your headstock
SOLUTIONS:
Regardless of whether your team does a vocal
warm-up, try using your car ride to church to
prepare your voice for worship. This is every bit
as important for backing vocalists as it is for
worship leaders, perhaps even more so. Once
and mark the date the team is at church there is a great window
with a Sharpie so while the instrumentalists are setting up. If you
you can track when checking first or just before the vocalists so you
it’s time to change
the battery.. ]
for a group warm-up and running harmonies
lead from acoustic, I’d suggest either sound
can accompany them with your guitar.
FAIL #5 INFINITE SOUND CHECK
SOLUTIONS:
Make a checklist of everything you need to
FAIL #3 I LOST THE ADAPTER FOR MY IN-EARS
bring with you and don’t forget to check it! I’d
There is little that is more demoralizing to a team
than having their precious prep time chewed up
also suggest keeping an extra loaner strap at Between sticking them in my pocket and then church for the team to share – someone will leaving them on my nightstand, there has appreciate it, and it just might be you. been more than one Sunday morning where I SOLUTIONS:
opened up the cute little case that came with While worthy of an entire article, here are a few
my IEMs, only to find that my adapter had once tips. Worship peeps, be in tune, ready to play,
again gone “missing”. and try choosing the chorus of both a loud and
FAIL #2: THE 9 VOLT BATTERY IN MY GUITAR/BASS
IS DEAD
by a disproportionately long sound check.
quiet song so your sound team has an idea of
SOLUTIONS: what to expect. Sound techs, many of the new
In my experience, this one applies to acoustic If you use professional IEMs, purchase some boards allow you to create presets for each
guitarists and bass players pretty evenly. I think extra adapters from the manufacturer and musician, and this is a great way for technology
we’ve all witnessed “battery fail” more times always leave one at church. If you’re using to serve you as you support the worship team.
than we care to remember, so fortunately this headphones beware that there are a few Teamwork is the operative thing here so keep
one is a pretty easy fix. different styles of adapters (snap-in, screw- that in mind!
on… etc.), so if you pick up some extras make
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October 2017
WorshipMusician.com