My Church Gig

If you’re single and work at a church in a production role then you already know where this is going.  Here’s what it’s like.

You:

• are perpetually available and value that as a positive spiritual attribute.
• are often commended for going above and beyond the call and lap up the admiration of your pastors.
• are secretly resentful for constantly having to bail out ministries that don’t plan their events well.
• find yourself on campus more evenings than there are days in a week and lament the lack of a social life. And the mere thought of the effort it would take to develop a social life on top of your job makes you queasy.
• find that all of your friends = workmates = church people = the same people you see 9 days a week.
• have more unused vacation than most pastoral staff.
• feel guilty for saying no because, though you won’t say it out loud, your personal time seems to carry less value than everyone else’s.
• wonder why you’re still single.

If you resonate with that list at all then you are my people. Here’s what I’m learning in my 40s, never married, having been committed to ministry in various forms throughout my life. Read the rest of this entry »

If you follow this blog much you’ll know by now I’m a bass player and musician as much or more than a sound guy.  Honestly, more than less. Good bass players live between the precision of the beat and the flow of the groove and we’re generally more aware of the whole picture than the rest of the band. Generally speaking, I’ve noticed that bass players are more likely to become engineers (live or recording) than the rest.

One thing good bass playing has is, bluntly… sex appeal.  Seriously, good bass playing is straight up sexy.  Not gonna lie.  I’ve had a man-crush on more than a few players.  Clearly, I’m no expert on sex appeal but I’ve read that the main ingredient is confidence.

Rules # 1, 2, and 3: Play and sing with confidence.

Feeling confident and playing with confidence are two different things – and it takes a little time and maturity to figure out how.  This applies to every aspect of life by the way.  So much of life is reflected in live music, don’t you think?

With that said here’s what most bass players are dying to say to you all. We do you no favors by keeping quiet.

1. Play what you mean.  Mean what you play.  Always.
2. Sing what you mean. Mean what you sing.  Sing it wrong; just sing it strong.
3. Attack the first note. Not the second, not the third, not the fourth.  The first! The first note is the most important note of any phrase and if it’s not solid then the rest matter less.
4. Get into it for chrimeny sake! Don’t stand there and eek out words and notes like it’s a transcendent humility at work in your soul.  That’s the opposite of soul, my friend.  Smile.  Put some personality into it. If you don’t feel like you have any personality of your own then borrow some.  (I actually mean that.)  Playing live is not unlike acting.  Don’t punish your listener with your lack of feeling it.  Your job is to help them feel it, not you.  That’s not faking; that’s caring and serving.  Fake it till you make it.  That’s what I say.  (You might carry that advice into your marriage by the way.)
5. Make it fun. Fun doesn’t mean it’s not serious.  Playing with a tight, smokin band is seriously fun.

Sam out.

Hey, check out this thing I made with Adobe Flex.  I mean, who doesn’t love a hot blond chick in a desert canyon?  Move the bottom slider and observe some mad coding skilz.

Read the rest of this entry »

My buddy Noah is a front-end web developer and pretty much a rock star at it. Any web developer will tell you that Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of their existence; that its quirks seek to taunt your sanity, even your living soul, right out of your body. The blogosphere is rife with arguments for and against supporting the old hag of a browser.

The basic problem with IE6 is it’s nearly impossible to do all the sexy stuff you can with every other browser and we all know how hard it is to kneel before the lowest common denominator. It’s a humility that takes real cojones to muster.

Here are links to two of Noah’s posts about IE6. Short reads and well worth it. If you’re into web development you’ll thank yourself for adding the feed to your reader.

• The Secret to Becoming a Rockstar Developer
• Because It’s My Job

Web development is very much like audio engineering for church. I love both for the same reasons. There is a fine balance to strike between art and usability. And, most importantly, your target audience determines this balance. If your target audience includes folks using ten-year-old white boxes or users on networks where admins have kept IE6 for security reasons then you have to support it. Great developers agree it’s used enough in general that it shouldn’t be ignored at all.

Talking with Noah last week after rehearsal I dropped the words, “They are my IE6.” Whom, you ask? The congregation. Selfish thing to say, I know. Thing is, I’ve had a taste of running sound for a few awesome concerts. I’ve gotten to drive some big A rigs at festivals for many thousands of people. There’s absolutely nothing like it. Running sound at a church certainly is nothing like it. Ever feel like you’ve been handed an 8″ by 11″ piece of paper and some watercolors with which to create your masterpieces. The drama of the ego is unbearable sometimes, isn’t it?

The question of “target audience” is the Mexican jumping bean in my noggin lately. A couple years ago our pastor told us to reach younger in attraction with our production. I took it as liberty to crank things up to where it sounded the best we’ve ever had it IMO. It’s ok if your target audience isn’t necessarily the audience you have as long as everyone’s on board with it. I know of an aging church in San Francisco that hired a younger pastor with the intention of targeting a younger generation. I respect that.

After a couple years of this downward reach I scan the auditorium, as I always do during worship, and the crowd still looks pretty much the same. The complaints are the same. The compliments are the same. The volume has come down to lower than ever before. On rare Sundays we’ll peak only at 89dB-A but most of the time at 91 or so. Granted, it’s compressed so the average volume hasn’t dropped as far.

Bottom line. People coming to church in middle-class suburbia don’t expect a concert experience and some (if not most) honestly just don’t want it.

In his blog Noah inspires, “I’m not going to sit on my ass and let a sad browser defeat me. I’m going to make my work look good in IE6 for as long as I need to because it’s my job.” That’s what makes a real rock star in this business – deriving your satisfaction from kicking tail at creating something satisfying to others if not yourself.

I’ve said before that I preach to myself a lot. I need it. Here goes:

As church FOH engineers, our greatest challenge is to find where our best sound and the most acceptable volume level intersect. At times the two seem planets apart. It is a Jedi art form, no doubt, but remember, just about anyone can make it sound great when it’s loud. Making it sound great within limitations is as hard as designing an elegant site for IE6.

Rock and roll wisdom advises, “If you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with.” Makes sense to me.