I Have a New Respect For You All

[shayward]

As you know, I'm the dreaded Music Director (or MoM) at my church. Having been behind the desk on many occassions for a number of reasons, I do appreciate just how hard musicians are to work with and how tech sometimes (or often) doesn't get the respect it deserves.

Our lead operator's wife was ill on Sunday and so for the evening service (I almost never play at it) I was the tech.

Got the lineup 5 minutes before service, a 5-verse hymn wasn't in the system, and it was ready to roll just as the Pastor called for it. (It was the first song).

Other than 4 hymns, I had no set list. The evening leader is from Newfoundland so picking up the first line is sometimes tricky. (Some Newfoundlanders - including ours - pronouncing things differently, including missing the letter H... 'e touched me! O, 'e touched me! Something 'appened and now I know... 'e touched me and made me ''ole.) Great Maritime sound, though, and a wonderful ministry. We just love our Newfoundlander to bits.

We never have a list of scriptures but that evening the Pastor was particularly quick... no pause at all between announcing the verse number and starting to read. It was a marathon but 2/3 of the time I had the scripture live as he said the first word and other times it was by the second word.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

You guys deserve a huge amount of respect. Without good techs, the service would suffer greatly!

On behalf of Music Directors everywhere, let me just say "Thanks!"

- Shaun

[voyager529]

I had that happen once. The then-worship leader at my youth group was notorious for doing stuff on the fly, doing songs that weren't on the set list, and overall just being quite difficult for us to follow. One year, she got the job of doing lyrics at the Winter Retreat. Saturday nights at the WR, I don't even bother to ask for a set list because I know that all bets are off. She had a bit of trouble on the normal days, but Saturday night, she cracked. I took over and started typing up the lyrics to the song we were presently singing while displaying it at the same time, while she watched amidst her nervous breakdown.

She stuck to her set list after that.


Joey

[kbob]

Thanks!

I had that happen once-for three straight days of worship (with no set lists), and sermons given in Spanish and translated live, with no verse list available ahead of time. Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning....whew.

Two of us split that duty...it made for a long long long weekend. On the other hand, people were pretty good about making sure we had drinks and food throughout the day...they are pretty good about that at my church.

[shayward]

had that happen once. The then-worship leader at my youth group was notorious for doing stuff on the fly, doing songs that weren't on the set list, and overall just being quite difficult for us to follow.

Yeah... I totally do that too. But at least I respect to poor projectionists. Do I get any brownie points for that?

[[Director] Joseph B]

The key to a good service (In My Opinion) is to have a set list AND be prepared to be flexible. I don't have a problem with a Worship Leader changing the verse order or doing a verse or chorus over, it's when they insist that they have to do everything on the fly. When I hit a gig with someone who does that, I do the best I can. As I recall I've only ever threatend one worship leader. He was doing worship at a men's retreat and had a set list before we left. Gave me a different set list after diner (all new songs that had to be typed in). After I spent an entire night of the what was supposed to be a time of renewing and fellowship alone typing in lyrics and picking backgrounds he started the next morning with no warning whatsoever with an entirely different set of songs. I told him that under no circumstances was I spending another night typing in lyrics and that he was going to use one of set lists that was already done or do without anything going up on the screen and when anyone asked me why explain to them that HE was being unreasonable and/or incompetent.

[jflash]

I'm appreciating more and more how well our worship leader and pastor stick to the predefined order. My biggest concern is always this one song that our pastor will occasionally want played without warning. I now have started loading it into the CueList every Sunday just in case.

[shayward]

The nice thing about Easy Worship is how well it works on the fly. You can just type in the first line of any "block" (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.), hit Enter, and it's a go. That's how we do all of our scripture references.

[[Admin] osborn4]

SongShow Plus has buttons for each verse/chorus/etc in the currently displaying song with hover tips that show the words for that part.

Bible verses are quickest brought up by reference, but can be searched for via text query.

[twj]

It would be a shame if this thread turned into a "My software is better than your software" thread.

[waynehoskins]

How about "software is better than no software"?

[[Director] Joseph B]

No we all can play well together. Almost all of the worship software lets you work on the fly a bit. It's just easier and the flow is better if you know what's coming up.

[shayward]

The way I see it, all of the major players have good products. Each one has an inverse ratio of simplicity to functionality. It's just a matter of picking the one best suited.

So even for those who don't use Easy Worship, I still respect you