10 Ways worship leaders can support audio techs
1. Have the worship team be on time for rehearsal/sound check. Don’t waste the tech’s time. This usually requires the instruments to be “strapped up” in advance of the scheduled start of rehearsal or sound check.
2. Communicate your plan and requirements with your audio tech as far in advance as possible. They usually need some lead time to set up what you want and to deliver it with the quality that you expect.
3. Try not to throw impromptu requests at your audio tech right before rehearsal or sound check, and be patient and understanding if it takes awhile to accommodate them.
4. Don’t speak negatively of or sarcastically to techs through the mic or in front of the band. Unamplified comments can hurt. Amplified comments hurt and embarrass.
5. Don’t negatively comment on the house mix from the stage where you can’t accurately hear it. Make sure you’ve heard the mix from the seats before you comment.
6. If your audio tech makes a request, be respectful and remember they have the best possible outcome at heart. They’re really not trying to complicate your life. If the request is something that can be accommodated, it will usually result in a better sounding mix.
7. If you have questions or concerns about something that can wait until a private discussion can be had, please wait. It’s important that techs can trust your intentions and it’s hard to do if they feel embarrassed.
8. Remember, audio techs do everything they can to make the mix great. They cannot make musicians play better or vocalists sing on pitch. They can only take what they are given and blend it together.
9. Include your techs in prerehearsal and preservice prayer, as well as worship team get-togethers. Make them feel like part of the worship team because they are a critical piece of it.
10. Pray for your techs and remember that just like every artist, they have insecurities and are putting their art out there for everyone to judge. Take every opportunity you can to be supportive and encouraging.
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Remember a great worship set takes a collaboration of artists all worshiping God genuinely, doing their part in excellence. Worship leaders and audio techs need to be on the same page, supporting and encouraging each other. Their relationship is a key foundation for the rest of the worship team and those being led.
Are you in one of those positions, and a strained relationship with the other makes worship a challenge, or even something you dread?
