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Listen And Learn
Here's a great exercise for everyone on your worship team. One of the best ways to improve your playing, singing and mixing (as well as your own skills) is to study a recording of someone who does it well. Imitation is the sincerest form of ...er, growth!
Actually, that's true in the spiritual realm too:
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV)
How do you study a recording? Something called Active Listening, a concept popularized by Paul Baloche (LeadWorship.com). Active Listening is simply a matter of picking apart the recording to learn how they did what they did.
What To Listen For
For example, the vocalists may listen for when a soloist is singing versus when a pair or group of singers are singing. Where are the harmonies? Where are there no harmonies? How are they using dynamics? How about vibrato? And on it goes.
Or sound techs may ask, Where are the keyboards in the mix? Are they as loud as the vocals? Is there a delay being used on the lead voice? What is the lead instrument in this song? What instruments are handling what frequencies in the sound spectrum? What happens to the mix when the worship leader starts praying?
Active Listening is a skill that will benefit nearly everyone on your worship team (OK, the graphics & video techs might be a little challenged...).
Listen And Learn Worksheet
Paul Baloche, through his fantastic instructional DVD series, made a worksheet available to aid worship teams as they studied recordings. Our ministry wanted more flexibility and more information as we listened. So we created the following Listen And Learn worksheet, which you're free to use in your Active Listening sessions:
So give it a shot. Get the team together, put on a favorite song and note things like, "Verse 2, guitar doesn't play", "Bridge, strings hold one note throughout", or "Chorus, high hat plays sixteenth notes." Try not to sing or play along, just listen meticulously. And then listen again, adding to your notes. Then discuss what you heard and you'll "hear" things through the others that you completely missed!
This exercise is guaranteed to get you thinking differently about "how they did that," and give you new insights on how you can do that too!
