Simple Stage Planning for Great Sound and Worship

What can be done?

There is a solution to the madness! It requires the work of only two people. And you’ll find you can leave the ibuprofen at home.

Find out who’s in the band! Get a list from the worship leader of the band members. If there are different bands, then a list for each and what they do; sing, play guitar, play & sing, etc. In the case of revolving band members on a single band, find out the typical setup; one acoustic guitar, one bass, two backup singers, etc. Now you are equipped with a good expectation of the requirements of each band.

RELATED: Worship Leader: You’re Killing Us!

Find out who’s playing next week – every week. A few days before the service, check with the worship leader as to which band is playing and if there are any changes based on the list you got in step #1. After a while, the worship leader should start emailing you this information each week without being reminded.

Determine the stage layout. Grab some graph paper and draw up your stage. Make a few copies. Now draw a different setup for each band. Nothing complex, just write the person and their setup like “Chris; Ac. Guitar.” Once you have this for all the bands and the band members, you have your layout. You can also add notes like “Chris; Ac. Guitar. #5” so now you know which stage jack Chris will be using. This makes mixer setup a breeze.

An alternate approach is creating only one schematic of the stage planning and labeling all the inputs. Then use a spreadsheet program to list all the input numbers and enter the usage next to each, for example: “[5] [Acoustic Guitar].” Duplicate the spreadsheet for each band and adjust accordingly.

Change the layout. Yes, after doing all that work, you have to change it; but not immediately. Try these setups with the band(s) and see if they like it. They might say they prefer certain people/instruments to be near each other. Change it for the next service and if they like it better, then you have a new layout.

Once you have this system in place, you can have the stage set up before the band arrives, they will have more time for practicing the songs, and they will benefit from a familiar stage planning each week. Familiarity leads to better music because the chaos and uncertainty will be removed.

Using the above steps, your stage planning can be as easy as getting a band list mid-week, comparing it to your existing band layouts, tweaking appropriately, and setting up the stations on the stage before the band even walks into the sanctuary.