Thoughts I Haven’t Thought Yet

This time of year, you seem to see posts about busyness on all the church tech blogs.  It always strikes me how crazy this time of year can get.  I am pretty fortunate to be in a situation where we don’t do a major Christmas production.  I may not be as busy as some, but I still seem to be busier this month than any other.

In our church, it seems like there are more videos, more rehearsals, more stuff than normal.  We have basically doubled our average in-house video production, and each video seems to be a bit more complicated than the last.

On top of that, we have Christmas Eve services, and all our regular Sundays.  You may be looking at this and saying, “you really have no idea.”  And that is probably a true statement.  So instead of telling you how to handle your Christmas rush, I will instead share a few thoughts I wish I had thought of at least a month ago…

1. Scheduled Time To Schedule:  This month, I really needed to sit down before I started and looked closer at my schedule.  Some scheduling issues were above my pay grade, and therefore out of my control.  But I should have had more input into the things I could control.  This week I had a school Christmas concert Tuesday night, rehearsal for Sunday on Wednesday night, rehearsal for the Christmas Eve worship band on Thursday night, and rehearsal for a jazz band for Christmas Eve pre-service music on Sunday night.  Add that to the personal Christmas time plans, and other random time obligations, and there are simply not enough nights in the week.
2. Don’t Forget Family:  Last week I was talking to my wife about my schedule .  Her comment was, “I really won’t see you at all this week, will I?”  That question struck me like a punch in the gut.  I have a three month old baby at home, and the week before her first Christmas I will spend more time at work than everywhere else combined.  I definitely need to prevent this from happening again next year.  Fortunately, this year it happens that I have a little time off after Christmas.  I don’t think that makes up for my schedule this week, but at least it is something.
3. Think Through Stage Needs: This probably could have gone under the scheduling thought, but I will share it separately.  One thing I did not think about until much too late is all the times I have had to, and will have to change my stage.  Last week on Friday we had a movie night in our auditorium.  We rented a large screen and projector and set them up on the stage.  It was a great night, but it required me to set-up my stage for rehearsal on Wednesday, tear it down Thursday for the screen, and set it back up Friday after the movie night.  Then Sunday afternoon I had to tear the stage down again for a school Christmas concert and rehearsal on Monday and Tuesday.  Set it back up for Wednesday rehearsal, change it for the Thursday Christmas Eve rehearsal, change it back for Sunday, change again for Christmas Eve, then back to the regular Sunday setup again.  Last month, I should have planned this out better to limit the number of times I have to change the stage, or at least find ways to minimize the differences.
4. Contingency Plans For Contingency Plans:  I am fortunate that I don’t have to rent equipment for our Christmas season.  However, the month does tax my contingency plans.  Typically speaking, I have a few wired mics, if a wireless mic or two are not working.  I also have a spare wireless handheld mic to use in emergencies.  I also usually have at least one spare D.I. box.  But Christmas Eve, all of those extras will be in use.  So what happens if something fails?  This month I need a backup plan for my backup plan, because my backup plan is becoming my main plan.  And of course, I should have thought this through sometime before a week till Christmas Eve.
5. Test Early, Test Often: There are a few pieces of equipment that I only get out of the closet once or twice a year.  One example of that are my orchestra mics.  I have a set of mics for orchestra instruments, leftover from a bygone era.  I get the opportunity to play with a couple of these mics each Christmas.  But of course, I don’t think about testing them until the week before Christmas.  Far too late to do anything if one of them isn’t working.  Another testing failure for me this year was a couple of snow machines.  This year the pastoral team asked if we could make it snow on stage on Christmas Eve.  We have a couple of old snow machines that have been in the church longer than anyone on our staff tech team.  This time, I did manage to follow the “test early” concept, and I had tested both snow machines, found clogged pumps, and repaired them in early November (go me!).  What I failed to do was test them again until last week.  One of the snow machines is still working great, the other is dead.  I again took apart the pump, but could not get it to work again.  So we have had to settle with only one snow machine.  The effect on stage is still nice, but we do not have the even coverage we had with two machines.  If I had tested the snow machines again before it was too late, I could have ordered a new pump and had them both up and running for Christmas Eve.
6. Remember To Stop and Remember:  There is a reason this is such a busy time on the church calendar, and our personal calendars.  It is not just because of the cookies and carols.  We are celebrating the birth of a life that changed the world.  It is far to easy to lose sight of the reason in the midst of this season.  I must do a better job of stopping and remembering why we do all this, or it all becomes meaningless.

I am sure that there are other thoughts I haven’t even realized I should have thought yet.  Hopefully next year I can look at this list earlier and not put everything off to the last minute.

Us Vs. Them?

If you have much experience in live music, I am pretty sure you have felt it; the animosity between the stage and the sound board.  We have all heard the jokes.  Here are a few of my favorites (being a sound guy, I will pick on the sound guys):

What is the difference between a sound guy and a puppy?

– Eventually the puppy stops whining. 

 

How many sound guys does it take to change a light bulb?

– None (“I don’t understand, it should be working”)

 

What’s the difference between a sound guy and a chimpanzee?

– It has been scientifically proven that a chimpanzee can communicate with humans.

 

And there are some good ones on the musician side as well.  A lot of these jokes I find very funny.  But I wonder if they are funny partly because they contain some element of truth?  What do these jokes tell us about the relationship between the stage and the console?  There appears to be a bit of underlying animosity.  It seems like every musician has a story of a sound guy who is terrible to work with, and every sound guy has a story of a similar musician.  Apparently those individuals never heard the old cliche, teamwork works best.  But I think we can all be guilty of the us vs. them mentality from time to time.  It is not just the worst of us that fall into this, but all of us can.

I think the underlying problem occurs because we tend to approaching things from two different directions.  Typically (maybe stereotypically) musicians tend to be creatively minded, and sound guys tend to be more analytically/technically minded.  Not that there is anything wrong with either basic mindset, we just look at the world differently.  But the question is what can we do to overcome these challenges?  Let me share a bit of the story of how I came to be where I am, and maybe we can all learn a couple of lessons along the way.

If you read my “About” page, you know that I work as the audio engineer for a large church in Northern Colorado.  It was a strange and winding path that brought me here, and I am pretty sure I do not have the time to write, nor do you have the patience to read, all the details.  But I will hit some of the highlights along the way.

I knew in high school that I was called to work full time in a church.  At the time, I thought that meant youth ministry.  Over the years, I went off to bible college, dropped out, wandered aimlessly for a while, finally found some direction in the Air Force, and wound up going back to college and getting a Theology degree.  Throughout this round about journey, I stayed involved in church technical ministry as a volunteer, spending most of my time at church behind a sound console. Then I branched out and started playing bass, and then lead guitar.  Eventually, I became a worship leader for a youth group.  After graduation, I began searching for a full time ministry job, focusing my efforts on worship and youth ministry positions.  But, as often happens, God had other plans.

After over a year of searching, and after being the second best candidate for several positions, I came across the job posting for my current position as an audio engineer.  This is something I had done on a volunteer basis for 13 years, and something that I had led and trained others to do, but I had never thought of it as a vocation.  I sent in my resume practically on a whim, not really expecting a response.

Well I got a response, and then an interview, and then a second interview, and was eventually offered and accepted the position.  Through the process my soon-to-be boss was very open and honest about the search, and what they were looking for.  There were several candidates who were more qualified or had more technical experience than me.  But in the end, it was my attitude that made the difference.  I was focused on being a team player, and their team needed a team player.  I could have come in with an us vs. them mentality, like is all too common behind the console.  But that is not what the church needed, and that was not what I needed.

In the end, we are all just small pieces of a larger puzzle.  We have a vital role to play in the message of the Church, but we are no more important than any other piece.  As sound guys, it is far too easy to fall into the mentality that says: “without me nothing works, no one hears the worship, no one hears the sermon, there is no church.”  But there has been Church long before there were sound guys, or consoles, or speakers.  And there will continue to be Church long after all of us are gone.  We must approach every service with this mentality; that we are just a piece of a larger team.  We are not hot shots, or lone wolves.  In the grand scheme of things we are not even truly necessary.

My first draft of this post included a list of key ideas to overcome the us vs. them mentality.  But I think every one of them falls into this concept of team.  If the keys would be helpful to you, let me know and I can post them.  But I think just trying to be a team player leads us to naturally approach our duties differently.

So next time you stand behind the console (whether it is at rehearsal, service, or whenever) remember that we are just a small piece of the large and complex puzzle.  An important piece, but at the end of the day, an unnecessary piece.  When I mix with that mindset, it’s not about me, or my mix.  It is not us vs. them.  It is about the team, the message, and ultimately about God.

Happy mixing,

Aaron

Fading Into The Background

For me, one of the most rewarding and frustrating parts of being the sound guy is a life of anonymity.  If you are good at what you do, you simply fade into the background and no one even notices you exist.  This can be hard for some people, and very rewarding for others.  For me, it is both.

When I was first thrown behind a sound console (practically kicking and screaming), I was a quiet high school kid who wanted to avoid the limelight at all costs.  Maybe thats one of the reasons they asked me to run sound.  Maybe they were just desperate enough.  Whatever the reason, it started a long and winding journey that led me to where I am today.

For years I happily faded into the background.  I ran sound for everything from youth groups, to church services, to local bands.  During that time I complained about the lack of recognition, and the focus on mistakes, but honestly, I enjoyed the background.

Then something strange happened.  I had been playing guitar for several years, normally alone in my bedroom and rarely in front of other people.  But I wound up in a church that had a great sound guy, but no bass player.  So I gave up my life of anonymity for a life of slightly less anonymity as a church bass player.  Over time, and as I moved from place to place in the military, I wound up as a lead guitar player.  Looking back, I can’t quite tell what happened.  One day, I am safely hiding behind a sound console, a then I look up and I am playing lead guitar in front of hundreds of people.  Every step of the way was filling a more pressing need, and every step brought me further from the shadows and onto center stage.

Then there was a more pressing need.  The youth group in my church needed a worship leader, and I felt compelled to step into that role.  I still dabbled with the sound board, and I led and trained the tech team, but my primary role was in front of everyone.

And in that role I realized something that really changed how I look at life.  Even when I am squarely in the limelight, I am not supposed to be the center of attention.  As a Christian, no matter what our job or position may be, our purpose in life is to point to God.  No matter what our role is, we are designed to fade into the background.

Once I learned that truth, my role mattered a whole lot less than what I did with it.  After three years of leading worship, I stepped into my current role as audio engineer for a large church.  Many people questioned my decision at the time.  They questioned whether I could go from center stage to anonymity.  What they did not realize is that I have been in the background the whole time.  And I have found that whatever role I find myself in, it is always more fulfilling when I remember my purpose: to fade into the background and let God take the spotlight.