In fact, this past weekend, I tweeted, “Giving a few Audix heads a try this weekend. Really like the OM6 on our worship leader. Very smooth.”
A little while later, one of our pastors replied, “huh dude? Huh?” He caught me in the hall later and said, “I don’t understand almost anything you tweet.”
Now keep in mind, he’s a gifted pastor, teacher and great student of the Bible.
But trying to explain the difference between an OM6 and an RC35 is like me reading the Old Testament in the original Hebrew. It makes no sense.
I get this all the time from people on the worship team who’ve stumbled upon my writing. When they tell me they’ve been reading, it usually goes like this; “Most of the time I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it’s cool that you’re writing it.”
The longer I do this TD thing, the more I realize that while my understanding of technology is important, it’s equally (if not more) important that I understand how to relate to non-techies. And that’s hard.
I vastly prefer spending a few hours taking with my friends Jason & Dave about the latest compression techniques–conversations that can go on for hours, literally!–than trying to explain to a women’s group leader how to properly EQ an e6 for maximum gain before feedback.
However, as TD of my church, that’s exactly what I need to be able to do in order to really be successful at my job.
As much as I enjoy practicing mixing with virtual soundcheck, calibrating projectors, and focusing lights, I also need to give time to thinking about ways to make these incredibly complex systems more accessible to more people, and coming up with ways to explain to non-technical people how to use them effectively.
And few things will develop patience in us normally impatient TDs than explaining, for the fifth time, that turning all the EQ knobs all the way to the right is not considered a best practice.
So the next time you are tempted to get frustrated when having to explain a “basic” technical concept to a non-techie, remember to cut them some slack.
More importantly, remember that honing your ability to communicate with non-technical professionals is just as important as your ability to dial in that killer mix. After all, what we think is basic might as well be a lunar landing to others.
Mike Sessler has been involved with church sound and live production for more than 25 years, and is the author of the Church Tech Arts blog. Based in Nashville, he serves as project lead for CCI Solutions, which provides design-build production solutions for churches and other facilities.