Q&A – How do I help my musicians play more cohesively together?

Alex |

How do you play more cohesively with other musicians on the team? That’s one of the questions that I answer in this bonus Q A episode. I had a one on one coaching call with one of our academy students, Mike Halverson from Bloom Church. Shout out to Mike. And I thought it would be great to share some of these answers over a two part podcast series. So we have about twelve questions and we’ll break it up into two episodes. Today is the first first one. We cover lots of different questions from his team, but they will directly apply to your team and your leadership as well. So I’m excited for you to hear this. But first I wanted to give a shout out to one of our listeners who left us a podcast review. And this is from So Lauren 15. She said, I’ve never listened to an episode that I didn’t take notes on. Open your Notes app while listening. PS. Love the new intro music. Keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you, Lauren. And if you guys want to leave us a nice shiny five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, I will shout you out in one of the future episodes.

Alex |

But thank you guys for listening. Check out these questions and answers and I will see you at the end of this video.

Alex |

Brenda Collins actually asked a question, and she asked the question, how do you communicate with the vocal team on what their parts are and who will sing those parts? And does someone on your team or you record those parts for your team?

Alex |

We do record our parts for our harmonies in Planning Center. Each time we add a new song. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You don’t even need to use like, any recording software. What we usually do is we’ll just play the MP3 and sing the harmonies into our phone and label it correctly and upload that file into Planning Center as a reference. And we don’t do the whole song. We usually just do the choruses and the bridge and obviously just one chorus and one bridge, and we do that for each of the parts. And yeah, that’s kind of how we map it out. Where we maybe don’t take things as seriously as some other churches is we don’t schedule people based on their ranges. I know certain churches will have like, alto, scheduled soprano, scheduled tenor. We don’t do that. We just schedule people like we mentally know this person thinks higher, this person is more in the mid range, and we just kind of schedule two or three of those types of people in those orders. But it’s not as organized as I’ve seen other churches do it. And then we don’t specifically even tell them or assign them.

Alex |

You’re going to take the high, you’re going to take the middle. They kind of just know where their range is and they kind of seeing the natural harmony that they hear and so they just kind of do that and stick to those. And that’s kind of how we schedule our vocalists. We do equip them with the recording. Our vocalists rehearse on the same side of the stage so that they can talk through little things here or there or like, hey, what are you singing? Or hey, do you want to sing this? Or hey, maybe you shouldn’t sing here. I do have a female on staff who she’s like our strongest vocalist and she also leads the vocalists loosely leads the vocalists. But our team is not afraid of feedback or talking to each other or being direct. So we’ll just say like, hey, why don’t you not sing here? And nobody is a diva and nobody gets their feelings hurt. We’ve just created that culture through our culture docs, through our onboarding process. But I do know some churches might have actual documents in planning center where it’s got like the whole song and it’s a roadmap for the vocalists where it’s like verse one solo, verse two unison, verse three alto.

Alex |

I’ve seen that. But we’ve taken a looser approach and our vocalists are good enough to where we just kind of go with it. And I have kind of trained them over time, like how to build a song dynamically with harmony. So in the beginning I was telling them a lot like don’t sing here, sing here, do this here. But now they just kind of know the formula and if you want to know the formula, it’s basically, for me, the way that I like to build a song harmonically is like first verse is usually the worship leader by himself or herself. And then first chorus is maybe like one harmony or if it’s a female leading the song, I’ll come in and sing underneath her in the tenor and just one harmony on the first chorus. Verse two, we usually like to double the melody. So if I’m singing then I’ll have a female doubling the melody on top of me. And then verse chorus two is like maybe all the harmonies in or most of the harmonies in bridge is like full on all harmonies unless it’s a down bridge and then we bring it back to the vocalist leader and then build it back up to the full.

Alex |

So that’s kind of how we built it over time and they just kind of know and they just do what they kind of have been trained to do. And occasionally I will say, hey guys, there’s too many of you singing in this first chorus. Like, can we just do one? Or maybe let’s do none or maybe let’s just do all melody together. But usually they follow the formula, sometimes they get antsy and jump in and I’m like, hey, let’s not give it all away too early. So that’s how we do it. Again, it can be a lot more complicated than that, but for us that works, and hopefully some of those tips are something that you can apply there.

Alex |

Do you record the parts, Alex, or do you have a team member that does that for you?

Alex |

Yeah, Lauren the assistant, does that mostly. Sometimes I do and sometimes we don’t. Like I said, I’ve been the worship pastor for six years and we built a good team and I don’t even have to work that hard anymore because the system is flowing and sometimes I don’t add the parts because I just know all of my harmony singers can hear it. But if you don’t have harmony singers who can hear all the parts, then you definitely want to equip them. It just depends on your team. You really want to assess the level of your singers and equip those who need the help. And if they don’t need help, then don’t do the extra work. But if they do, it’s our job to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

Alex |

Let me ask one more follow up question, Alex. How many vocalists do you have on your team.

Alex |

Right now? If I had to guess, I would say 14.

Alex |

I’m just curious, like, when somebody new comes on your team. I don’t know how often we’re going to ask some recruiting questions here, but I don’t know how often you guys get new vocalists or get new musicians on your team. If someone is unfamiliar or maybe someone who is at a lower skill level, do you just set the bar so high that that person can’t get on the platform? Or do you try to raise and train that person up to get to that level so that they can be so flexible as you’re talking about?

Alex |

Right. It depends on the person and where they’re at, but if they’re really close, like they can hear, one of the harmonies will be like, great, come in and you’re going to always sing the third instead of the fifth or whatever. That’s totally acceptable and fine. What we don’t want on our team is and we tell people we don’t even audition people who can’t sing harmony. So if they can’t hear harmony on their own, if they need to be trained every single, we just won’t. This isn’t the right fit for you, but we do have other places where you can serve women’s ministry, the choir, like, we have a choir and that’s a great place to start to understand harmony. So, yes, I think if it’s someone who’s really close one on one, training for a couple of weeks will go a long way and then making sure that they’re doing some work on their own at home. If it’s someone who’s not close, it’s like, hey, why don’t you plug into this ministry or that ministry where you can get experience and get reps or send them YouTube videos. Here’s how to hear harmony.

Alex |

So it’s a case by case basis, but definitely you want to equip people and you want to put people where they will succeed.

Alex |

Absolutely. So let’s move on to so this is another vocal question as I go down the line here. This comes from Nicole Starling, but she said, how have you found the balance of telling the vocalist how to sing dynamically versus flowing in the spirit? So you’ve talked a little bit about training them and dynamic and things like that but as you are letting the Holy Spirit kind of move in your service, you found the balance of that.

Alex |

I guess if you could clarify the question a little more for me because I don’t fully understand. Does that mean that the singer can just kind of go off and sing whatever part they want or they can? What do they mean by that?

Alex |

We may be in a section of a song and we’re using tracks and we may just loop that chorus. Right. How do you dynamically in the worship moment let your vocalists build into that, maybe into the larger chorus that’s behind it?

Alex |

That’s an interesting question and I may not be the best answer because I am pretty scripted in my worship leading like I like to just in my set building, really think through how is this going to feel, how is this going to go? So very early on in the process, even before I’m dealing with the band, I’ve kind of mapped out the whole flow of the worship set and the pause moments and this and that. And we don’t do a lot of spontaneous worship or anything like that. For us, the most we might do is if we’re not using tracks for a song we might double a chorus that we didn’t plan to or double a bridge that we didn’t plan to. If we’re using tracks, we’re kind of stuck to the roadmap we don’t jump around. And so if we do anything, it will be at the end of the song where we’ll kind of maybe sing a few lines and then say, let’s sing that chorus again. So I may not be the most equipped to answer the question that the person is asking. I personally am very direct in how I lead my band and kind of mapping out what I want everybody to sing or play again.

Alex |

Early on in the process, I was much more like telling everybody directly what to do. But as time has gone on, they know kind of what I want and then I give them more freedom. So if a vocalist wants to and I’ll do this, if I’m singing background vocals on a song, I might sing a word and let it instead of following the melody and the words of the worship leader of that song. If I’m singing harmony on that song, I might sing one word and then carry out that word over the other phrases that the worship leader is singing. Or I might go up and do something on top of that while she’s singing that. And it’s cool. And I’m comfortable with my team expressing that creativity and those melodies that come out of them naturally, as long as it fits into a nondistracting and helpful and beneficial moment of the song, it’s all about that tastefulness and really being tasteful. So I’ll let people do what they want as long as it’s tasteful and not distracting and is actually enhancing the worship. So I don’t know if that’s kind of helpful. I know it’s not exactly what the person is asking, but that’s the best response that I have at this point.

Alex |

Well, I think it’s perfectly fine that different churches have different methods of doing things. You know what I mean? Bloom we figured out a way to use tracks, but still also be able to do spontaneous and things like that. So I think that’s the question she asked, but I think you did a great job of answering that.

Alex |

Yeah, I’m very rigid and you’ll see that as these questions go on. I’m not a very spontaneous person. I’m like, let’s map it out. And there are moments, like I said, where I’m like, man, we really need to sing that chorus again. And if we aren’t using tracks, we will. Or downchase after the song is over, or let’s just sing that phrase a few times, or whatever.

Alex |

Okay, so this is a band question. Brody, an amazing 14 year old, asked, how would you recommend being more flexible and in sync with other musicians?

Alex |

Yeah, and Brody, I love 14 year old, too, are amazing and want to keep growing. So I’m excited to see where you’re going to be when you’re 24, bro. So my biggest thing with musicians and training musicians is listen more than you play. Like, I had to train my team this when I came to my church six years ago. It was like, busy, busy, busy. Everybody was just overplaying everything all the time. And the best musicians listen more than they play, and they’re actually okay with not playing. Guess what? Not playing something is a part. Because when you do enter with a part, it means even more than if you’re noodling the whole time. So I would say really actively listening to what everyone else is doing and simplifying if necessary is the key to being a great musician. So, as an example, sometimes I play bass on our team when we have other worship leaders. And last week I was on bass. We had a very technical drummer. He does a lot of really cool fills, like as he’s doing his beats, it’s not distractingly, busy, it’s just kind of like energetic. And then we had two electric guitars plus all the other instruments.

Alex |

Right. So I simplified my bass, playing so simple that it was like 8th grade status, like just like root notes. And even on this is Amazing Grace on the intro I was literally doing quarter notes whereas on the record it’s like 16th because everybody else is covering the Subdivisions and there’s just so much going on and it’s not all quantitized to the grid. Like on an album I was just like I’m going to match the kick and just simplify. So simple. I probably did zero fills for that whole service on my base just because, like I said, there was so much sonic energy happening that I needed to pull back and be okay with being less and not showing off my chops or whatever and letting the song have space that all the parts interlock together. So musical maturity is knowing when to play and when to not play, right? It’s knowing when you need to add something and when it’s going to be a distraction or simply unnecessary. A lot of times people play things because they can, but it’s not necessary. And musical maturity is like, is this really helping or is it just because I feel like it needs to be there now if there’s some dead space and it needs to be filled, by all means fill it.

Alex |

But if everybody else is covering stuff or sometimes a negative space is actually helpful for the song. So yeah, I’d say just be attentive to what the whole band sounds like. You’re a part of the whole and make it more about the whole than about yourself. So that would be my response.

Alex |

Alex, can I ask you some production questions? We do have production people in the audience. Zach, who’s also one of our production leaders, he wants to know how do you come up with new ideas for camera shots when your resources are limited? And let me clarify the question. I think resources are limited. It’s probably when it comes to maybe camera ops available, how many those sort of things. And because we have some fantastic gear, I guess you could say we’ve got some great stuff. So maybe you could just speak to that.

Alex |

Yeah, that’s great. And thanks for clarifying the resources. Limited part being more about personnel than about gear. I mean, a couple of thoughts. First, just about utilizing what you have to the full potential. If you haven’t yet done this yet, and probably you have, but if you haven’t, definitely do it, is to take the cameras that you currently have, unplug them from all their cabling, plug batteries into them, put them on tripods and literally just walk around the sanctuary. We did this at the beginning of COVID We were like, okay, the sanctuary is empty, let’s get creative with our camera placement. And so we just picked a day and we spent the whole day going around the sanctuary and trying every angle you could possibly think of and be like, okay. And we did make sure that there was someone standing on the stage because you obviously want to have a subject, but we just went around and looked, okay, this is amazing. Shot like, we should use this from now on. And we have a lot of cameras, so we did that with all of our cameras, and you obviously want to make sure there’s variety, and I’m sure you guys have thought about all that, but we did that off stage, like, back a room, side of room angle, and then we did on stage as well.

Alex |

In terms of resources being limited with finances, if you still want to get more creative, I think throwing a couple of GoPros, because GoPros are pretty affordable, especially if you buy them used. Put a GoPro above your drum kit, like, face down, so you can see all the drums. That’s a fun shot. And it doesn’t cost a lot unless you have to buy a new switcher because you run out of inputs. But a GoPro there a GoPro on the base headstock is a fun shot. So, yeah, just try to get creative with some of those more wideangle cameras that are cheap and that you can just slap up there, run an HDMI cable. It does obviously take some infrastructure, but that’s pretty affordable for kind of adding some extra shots that you get. Now, in terms of personnel, there’s this guy on YouTube, he’s kind of coming up. His name is Ryland Russell, and he has a video of his church, which is a smallish Baptist church, but his live streams look insane. They look amazing. And he has so many of his cameras rigged up on these pretty affordable tracks, so he’s always getting movement and motion.

Alex |

He even has one that’s on this zip line thing, and he said he did it all for, like, I don’t know, I mean, over ten grand. But that’s including all the cameras. But it’s a really cool video. It might even be Collaborate Worship that did the video. It’s a really cool video, and it’ll give you a lot of ideas how to get movement, even if you don’t have a lot of camera operators. So that would be one of the cameras even does, like, a zoom. He has, like, a mechanism that zooms the camera in and out slowly, and then they just cut to it when they want pushing in and put pulling out. So it’s pretty rad. It’s amazing what you can do with robots nowadays. Wow.

Alex |

I hate to see that. Ry or L-R-Y-L-A-I think it’s Ryland.

Alex |

And I think Collaborate worship made the video.

Alex |

One more production question here. So Bet, who is actually our production lead, she asks when in a role that is isolated. So someone who’s running switcher running proprietor, center, front of house. We’re actively leading worship. How do you still lead your team? I think she’s thinking on a Sunday where she’s not really able to get out of the production room that much. I don’t know about you, but sometimes our services go a little bit longer. We’ve got three of them, and we’ll more than likely have only ten minutes in between services. And it’s a scramble sometimes to productions. They got to run to the restroom and grab a snack or whatever. So I think that’s the the question that she’s asking.

Alex |

Yeah, and I was thinking about the question too, for a while. And I think also I understand it in the sense that when you’re actively behind a computer, like directing or whatever, or you’re on stage leading guitar, how do you lead the team when you’re doing the thing? Right? And so that’s kind of the approach that I’m taking on, how I answer it. And really, you’re right when you’re doing the thing, if you’re playing the guitar or if you’re directing or switching or whatever, it’s impossible to lead a whole team while you’re doing that. And therefore, I think there are a couple of options. One is you either designate someone to be your lead while you lead. So at our church, what do we do is when I run rehearsal, I’m calling all the things, hey, sub, drop here on four. Like, Shaker come in, bass, come in, whatever. Like uplifter, blah, blah, blah. Like giving direction to all the band. And while I’m saying all that, the music director is listening to what I’m saying because he is going to basically parrot me during the service so that he can give direction. And you can do the same in a production role.

Alex |

I actually saw a video the other day where the director was actually standing in the production booth calling everything, but he wasn’t pressing the buttons. He had someone else doing what he was calling. And so that’s kind of the same idea of where you designate, like the MD can be your lead while you’re leading. And that wasn’t my initial response. I actually wrote something else, which I’ll share in just a second. But I do think that that’s something worth considering. And even at Archurch, sometimes when you have so much going on with the room, imag and propresenter stuff, plus the live stream maybe being different, it can be a lot to manage. We don’t do it differently anymore. But during COVID anyway. Whatever. So we actually designated like a producer person who is next to the director. That helps keep all the balls in check and be like, yeah, the solo is coming up. Or like reminder, this reminder that right. So that’s one way to do it is to delegate authority to somebody. The other thing that I have written down is most of the leadership is going to come from you before and after, not in the moment.

Alex |

And it’s about being radically clear with your team in rehearsal and then even right before service. So if I talk about something in rehearsal, hey, guys, we’re going to start like this, and then I’m going to talk here. We’re going to pray here. There’s this thing happening here right before service. I will say, all of that again, because you have to just be radically clear and take away all confusion. I always say the leader’s job is to eliminate confusion and provide clarity. And so, like, being radically clear with what you want and reminding them right before it happens, and then they do it. And then you follow up with feedback right after service, encouragement. This was great. Hey, next time let’s try this. Okay, so if you do the before and the after, then the in the middle stuff should run itself, so to speak.

Alex |

Fantastic. I think that answers the question. I hope Zack up in bed. I hope you guys got a lot from that. I know I did. So, Alison, let’s move on to a recruiting question, if you don’t mind. Ryan asks, can you discuss the recruiting efforts that you use and how to get the whole team on board to be a part of the recruiting culture?

Alex |

Yeah, I think recruiting is probably the hardest thing for worship leaders, especially post COVID. Although now that people are kind of like getting back into the swing of things, they want to be involved, and you likely have new people in your church who are willing to be involved. And so now is a great time to start that push. I think it’s important that we take, like, a multipronged approach to this because what I’m finding even in just running worship ministry training is like, I can say it on social media and I could say it in an email and I could say it in the academy and I could say it on YouTube. And if I do all of those things, still only 50% of the people hear it. If I push out the information everywhere, like 35% of the people hear it, even if I push it everywhere. So it’s important to be very proactive and realize that different methods are going to hit different people differently. So I would say that the best thing you can do is to start announcing it. So obviously a generic announcement is fine. I have not personally had much fruit from that.

Alex |

And I recently did an interview with Jason Houtsma from Worship Artistry, and basically he was saying that he did the announcement thing multiple, multiple months in a row and no one came forward. And then he just started walking around his church and asking people face to face, hey, do you play? And it’s a small church, so he can do that because he knows everybody. Hey, do you play anything or do you sing? And he found 14 people in two months, so it’s just about being super hyper focused on that one particular thing. So anyway, I would say make the general announcements. Yes. But for me, one of the things I found that got the most response was when I would make an announcement, a verbal announcement from the stage. I would say, hey, guys, if you’re a musician or a singer, who has live experience and would like to potentially be part of the worship team. I’m going to be right down here after service. I’m going to sing the closing song. I’m going to hop off the stage and I would love to meet you up front and just get to know you. When I did that, I always had, like, in our church is large, but I always had like 15 to sometimes around 15 people probably average come forward each service.

Alex |

And then I collected their information with the paper and I followed up, and guess what? 90% of them didn’t respond. 10% did respond. 5% of them were actually decent. And we added one person to the team out of the whole, you know, 45 people who came forward. So it’s a numbers game. So I would say that was a very effective strategy for me. And then put it out on your church’s social media. Put it up on your church’s bulletin. If you have a bulletin or a digital bulletin, put it up pre service slides and just make the process or the mechanism to get involved very clear if you’re interested. And it’s always the same call to action, email so and so or go to somethingsomething.com or whatever the call to action is. Make it super clear and consistent across all your communication. That’s just the announcement, getting the word out part of it. But you also have the person to person, peer to peer. And that’s where you just always want to have your ears open, right? You always want to be listening, asking questions, be in the lobby, be talking to people. If they talk about how much they love the music, just throw it in there.

Alex |

Yeah. Do you sing? Do you have any talents? Are you hiding something from me that I should know? Are you a drummer, right? Please say yes. Please, God, I’ll give you the sticks. Just come and then checking in with your other ministry leaders, like women’s ministry, men’s ministry, youth ministry, like, hey, who should I keep my eye on? Who’s up and coming, whatever. So definitely conversing with other ministry leaders and saying, who should I be watching out for? So those are just some ideas. And then obviously ask your team members, hey, do you have any siblings who are musical? Do you have any cousins who are musical? Because your team members usually have friends who have some musical interest. So that’s great. And then I just love the youth ministry. There’s always kids in there that you can train up.

Alex |

I think that’s awesome. I think that’s fantastic. I think the biggest thing you said is that it’s all about people and going out and actually talking to people. I think sometimes we rely too much on our next steps process, our growth track or whatever we want to call that. We rely so much on that, oh, they’re going to send to somebody, they’re going to email us. Somebody instead of actually getting out there and finding the one out of the 45 that will make the team and things like that. Right. Fantastic.

Alex |

And one person can make all the difference in the world if they’re a faithful team member. You’re like, oh, my gosh, I’m so glad that we got that one extra drummer or those two extra drummers. And it’s like the effort, it takes effort, but it’s worth it. And your life is much easier and better usually, if you do it right. And the Lord provides the right people, obviously also pray. Like, God knows, and he knows what your church needs in that season, so he’ll provide the right people. And if he doesn’t want to provide the right people, there’s a reason for that, too.

Alex |

Awesome. Amazing. We’re going to kind of stay on the lines of recruitment. I think this is more of someone who’s already on your team, but you’re wanting to kind of raise up, if I’m understanding this question right. So this question comes from Alex. She wants to know, what do you look for someone who you want to raise up on the worship team, both as a leader and as someone who’s maybe coming onto the team? And then how do you know that they’re ready?

Alex |

Yeah. So personally, the people that I want to invest in, I wrote some words down. Responsible, diligent, humble, hardworking, eager, excited, and open to input. If I have someone like that I’m like, all day long, bro, I will invest in you all day long. That is like, the ideal person. And that honestly, to me, if they have those traits, to me, I’m looking at them not as a team member, but as a future minister. I’m like, this is a future church leader right here. And I have like, two or three of those kids. They’re like 17 or 18 now that I’m just like, dude, these people could be amazingly useful in the hands of the Lord as church leaders one day. So, yeah, those are the traits that I look for in a leader, in a team member. What I’m really looking for is faithfulness, and I’m kind of testing them in the small things. Like, do they respond to my text? Do they follow up with email? Do they submit the application to be on the team? Do I see them in church often? Do they have a good reputation? I’m paying attention to the subtle signals and signs that there might be some sort of immaturity or ungodliness or I’m paying attention like, oh, they have a boyfriend.

Alex |

Who’s the boyfriend? Is he a Christian? You know what I mean? And I’m not saying we should exclude them from the team if they have a boyfriend that’s not a Christian. We actually have someone or had someone who they don’t have a boyfriend anymore, praise God. But for a while they did, and it was like part of the discipleship process was allowing them to be on the team and letting them be around and work through some of that stuff in the midst of community. So I’m not saying everybody should be perfect because there are no perfect people. But yeah, I’m definitely paying attention and like I said, faithfulness and just responsiveness is key for a team member. Musically, obviously, they have to be somewhat close to the bar that we have and then how do I know if they’re ready? I would say it’s more of a gut feeling than anything else. And then I also usually check with one or two leaders that are on my team and I say, hey, look, I’m thinking about adding this person. Do you know anything about them? Is there anything that gives you pause? And then can you keep an eye on them with me over the next couple of weeks or months?

Alex |

So that way there’s multiple eyes on it and I can get input from multiple sources.

Alex |

Wow, I love that. I think that’s fantastic. I think as you’re raising a worship leaders and you’ve got someone in mind, maybe for a new song right, somebody who’s never let a song right and you’ve taken them through whatever your process is, is it just a gut feeling? Hey, this person is ready to lead on a Sunday or is there a little bit more to it than that.

Alex |

For the song portion where they’re actually ready to lead a song?

Alex |

Ready to go?

Alex |

Yeah, there’s two questions there. Ready to get up there? It’s like if they’re going to play electric or sing background vocals. Like if they’re ready, they’re ready, I can see it. Or if they’re close to being ready and what they need is to get up there and get the experience, then, yeah, let’s do it. And then give them feedback. Expectations before, feedback after, expectations before, feedback after. And then they are going to grow through the reps, the repetition of doing it. In terms of leading a song, I know that was one of the questions and I think that’s a different level and skill set. One like you don’t want someone leading a song if they are blatantly not doing well with God, because leadership positions are people look up to you and then they find out, oh, you’re doing that on the weekends. So that spiritual maturity. But then also vocal maturity to where what I’m looking for with a vocalist is that their tone is clear and cuts through. Because I have a couple of singers who they can sing fine on harmony, but their tone is so soft and round that they don’t have the cut to cut through and be clear and directive with their vocal tone.

Alex |

And I think you can learn some of that. But we’ve had that person lead a few times and it’s just never really there. So the vocal tone, but also like the directness of their ability to hit the pitch, some people slide or swoop or they’re on for 85% of the notes, but they’re flat for the 15% or 10%. That’s not quite for us, that’s not quite the level that they should be at. So one way to test it is in rehearsal, say, hey, for service, Sally is going to sing the song. But for rehearsal, will you just try getting some practice singing it? That’s a great way to do it. Another great, safe way to do it is to be like, hey, in this service, you’re going to lead verse one, right? That’s it. Or verse two is even better because verse one needs to be strong. And then verse two can have a little dip because the band is in there supporting it. And then verse three, it’s got to be strong to take the church home. So those are some thoughts about vocalists being ready. All right, I hope these answers really helped you.

Alex |

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