Ch 4: Supporting Services
Navigating change is a vital part of the Music Director role, and a great MD can pivot and adapt to whatever the moment needs. You’ll have to navigate two types of changes as a Music Director: (1) Flowing with your worship leader and (2) changes that originate from external factors. In this lesson, we’ll be talking through the first type.
As a team, we should always remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit, on-stage and off-stage. During a set, a worship leader may transgress the script and go in a different direction than planned. We, as Music Directors, need to steward these beautiful moments well!
Getting the Call
A Worship Leader will generally make a call in one or two ways: a verbal cue or a hand signal. An example of a verbal cue may be them saying, shouting, or singing the lyrics of the section they want to go to next. An essential part of all this is how we respond to the call. We previously talked about one of the goals of an MD is for the Worship Leader to feel supported and followed. A great way to do that is to acknowledge where the Worship Leader wants to go immediately after the call is made, even if there’s a lot of time before that call needs to be made. We want to minimize the time between when a WL calls for something and when we let them know we saw it because even a few seconds can feel like an eternity to a WL who isn’t sure if you picked up on the call! Sometimes, it’s wise to communicate a change in the mic twice. The first time, to assure the WL you saw or heard the call, and the second time before we go into the section for the team’s sake.
Tracks
If we’re playing to a track when a change is requested, a great MD will assess whether we can flow with the tracks or if we need to move to just a click. This is also a great reason to know what’s in the track so we’re equipped to make that call. If it’s as simple a request as repeating the chorus we’re on, repeating that section of the track should be fairly straightforward. If the WL wants to change the dynamics and structure of the song, moving to just a click may be a wise call. Tracks should never be a reason why we can’t go where the Spirit is leading us!
Debrief
A great way to continue to build trust with your WL is to debrief with them after the set to ensure you were executing the vision they had in mind and if not, debriefing where any breakdown in communication may have happened.