I've always wondered what most churches expect praise and worship team singers to do if they don't have the words to their songs on paper in front of them and the screen in back that is normally there as a crutch goes out.
Does your worship leader say, "I expect you to have all lyrics and all structures to all songs we do memorized, such that should that ever happen, no one in the congregation would notice?"
What's your policy? Do you even have a policy?
If asked, do you think your worship leader would say, "That's one of those things you can't really plan for, but if it happens, it happens, so just wing it, or let the guitar players/keyboardists who have music or lead sheets in front of them along with lyrics carry the load while you stand there and smile during all remaining songs."
I'm calling it a 'teleprompter' just for the sake of convenience. I'm talking about the screen in back that most churches have installed.
If you have no such screen, I'm still interested in what's expected. Memorized lyrics with no paper on a music stand? Have you heard of anyone ever being kicked off the team cause there's no screen and they keep forgetting the words?
For what it's worth, I've been on stage when the problem was that the person in back whose task it was couldn't forward the powerpoint to the next screen on time. Ironically, it was fine in all previous rehearsals, including that morning. Either a different person was doing it for the actual service, or the computer got overloaded and lagged. I didn't have all the lyrics and song structure memorized and was dead in the water until it got caught up. VERY uncomfortable feeling that I'd rather not experience again. It was a small church, and it's likely no one noticed or would care if they did. The screen in back wasn't meant to be synced with the the screen in front, so the congregation never new the one in back was messed up. In the mega-churches where it's important to keep up appearances and be professional, that might not sit well with the pharisees.
I've also seen slow fingers at the media table in back before, where the person charged with that duty just didn't understand that you don't wait until the next line of lyric starts before pushing the button. It's as if the person was deaf and couldn't hear which word the group was singing. Very frustrating. No input from me as I stood right next to them and signaled when to push the button helped at all. They just couldn't get the timing right. It was as if they were deliberately being stubborn as if to say "I don't need any help doing this." Well, yes they did.
Does your worship leader say, "I expect you to have all lyrics and all structures to all songs we do memorized, such that should that ever happen, no one in the congregation would notice?"
What's your policy? Do you even have a policy?
If asked, do you think your worship leader would say, "That's one of those things you can't really plan for, but if it happens, it happens, so just wing it, or let the guitar players/keyboardists who have music or lead sheets in front of them along with lyrics carry the load while you stand there and smile during all remaining songs."
I'm calling it a 'teleprompter' just for the sake of convenience. I'm talking about the screen in back that most churches have installed.
If you have no such screen, I'm still interested in what's expected. Memorized lyrics with no paper on a music stand? Have you heard of anyone ever being kicked off the team cause there's no screen and they keep forgetting the words?
For what it's worth, I've been on stage when the problem was that the person in back whose task it was couldn't forward the powerpoint to the next screen on time. Ironically, it was fine in all previous rehearsals, including that morning. Either a different person was doing it for the actual service, or the computer got overloaded and lagged. I didn't have all the lyrics and song structure memorized and was dead in the water until it got caught up. VERY uncomfortable feeling that I'd rather not experience again. It was a small church, and it's likely no one noticed or would care if they did. The screen in back wasn't meant to be synced with the the screen in front, so the congregation never new the one in back was messed up. In the mega-churches where it's important to keep up appearances and be professional, that might not sit well with the pharisees.
I've also seen slow fingers at the media table in back before, where the person charged with that duty just didn't understand that you don't wait until the next line of lyric starts before pushing the button. It's as if the person was deaf and couldn't hear which word the group was singing. Very frustrating. No input from me as I stood right next to them and signaled when to push the button helped at all. They just couldn't get the timing right. It was as if they were deliberately being stubborn as if to say "I don't need any help doing this." Well, yes they did.
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