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Church Sound Basics: Communicating With The Worship Band
Do you have a tried and true method of communicating in the midst of a service?
With the rise of personal monitor mixers the Sunday morning sound tech has had to worry less and less about the monitor mix for the musicians.
However there are still a large number of churches which either do not have personal monitor mixers on stage. Or, only some musicians have personal mixers and some musicians like the vocalist still have their monitors controlled at front of house.
One very compelling reason to keep control of vocalist monitor mixes at the main mixing board is feedback.
With the potential for feedback the front of house sound tech has a couple of options.
1. They can control all monitors that have open mics near them from the front of house board.
2. They can work with and educate the musicians on how to properly use a personal monitor mixer, by helping the musicians to understand what causes feedback and thus trust they will not create it.
3. They can give the musicians who have open mics headphones to remove the potential feedback issue.
For the large number of churches who do not have onstage personal monitor systems and for those who like me, still control the vocalist monitors from the front of house board, nothing can be more embarrassing and humiliating than having a musician ask for more in the middle of a worship service.
The amount of embarrassment corresponds directly with the attitude and demeanor in which it was asked.
To help avoid the embarrassment I suggest that you work with the musicians to develop a simple set of signals to know when and how to adjust the monitors.
Giving credit where it is due, it was a worship leader who approached me and explored setting up some signals. The worship leader that approached me had a great spirit about the situation.
He stated that he understood that I could not listen to the monitor on stage to adjust level.
He also stated that I didn’t know his mood or physical condition that morning. He described to me that when his allergies are bothering him he not only needs more overall level but just as important he needed more piano to stay on pitch.
He said that when he is congested his own voice seems to “resonate” in his head and when this happened he cannot hear the piano as well.
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Church Sound, Feature, Poll, Audio, Education, Engineer, Mixer, Signal, Sound Reinforcement, System,
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Comments (2) Most recent displayed first
Likewise, the sound guy signals the worship team needs to understand;
1. The head shake: "You really don't want me to do that."
2. The head nod: "Now THAT'S the sound I wanted to hear."
3. Hands on hips looking at mixer: "Something's wrong but I didn't do it."
4. Holding hand up: "Don't talk, I'm busying listening"
5. Pulls at face: "You are driving me crazy!"
[oops, did I just write that last? :) ]
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7. Raised eyebrows and a look of surprise: You're off key.
8. Eyes squeezed tightly shut or grimacing facial expression: You're butchering it.
9. Arms flailing wildly: Turn your mic on!
10. Hands together & head bowed: You need help beyond my abilities.
I would just say too keep it simple. Signals tha are too complicated will lead to bad communication. A friend of mine used to use the right index finger pointed to the head of the mic to mean more vocals, and a right pinky pointing down the mic as less vocals. A left index finger mean more piano or prominent instrument, and a left pinky mean less piano or instrumentation. It does take practice and a heads up mentality for it to work.