First, let me say that I have been singing and playing music for many years. I have been a music leader, a singer/soloist, bassist and guitarist and there is nothing more daunting then the idea of standing in front of several well schooled musicians and being asked to audition.
To provide a little back story, I recently started becoming involved in large church in our area with a membership in the thousands and as you can imagine there are many great singers and musicians who are actively in ministry there. Beginning my worship adventure at this church involved first, meeting with the worship staff for lunch. The lunch was a great way to meet one of the ministers of music and get his insight into what the church needed and how I might fit. Conversations ranged from my experience as a bassist and singer to how I accepted Christ into my life. The lunch ended with my decision to start singing in choir immediately and see what happens from there.
I am now three weeks into the journey and my experience so far has been wonderful. The people seem very nice, genuine and happy to help, but soon the inevitable questions had to be asked. Is the choir the only outlet for my talent here? In order to find out the answer to this important question, I had to setup a time to perform an audition. I contacted the office and setup a time for next Wednesday.
Now, I find myself doubting my skills and trying to find a way out of the Christian version of American Idol. My doubt has led to other questions surrounding this process. For example, "is it acceptable to hold formal auditions?" I think the answer is yes, but what is the cost to the layman musician? In the past, I have only been involved in small and mid-sized churches. In these churches talent is found by the concept known as the "Sunday night solo." For those who grew up in traditional Baptist churches you know exactly what I mean, but for the uninitiated, here is pretty much how that process works.
Usually, someone who knows you can sing, will mention to the music leader that Matt can really sing and you should ask him to sing a solo some night. Inevitability the music leader will find you and ask you to sing one night for special music (a lost art in today's church). The beauty of this approach is the pressure is really on no one but the singer. If he doesn't do too well then no one really cares and no one asks him to join the choir or sing on the worship team. Everyone is let of the hook with no issues. If he does really well then someone will ask him to sing more specials or sing in the choir/praise team and so forth. This approach has worked for hundreds of years in the Baptist Church, but today we have a more formal approach. We have the audition.
The audition, involves the singer coming to the church building one day and singing a song (usually of his own choice) for one or more music leaders. After hearing the singer sing, the leaders will make a decision where this person would best fit or not fit at all. To the already fragile ego of a singer this process can be devastating to say the least. In a perfect world, it is just a formality to see where to best put this new singer. In the real world, the singer may be told that he has no place and his vocals will not fit into the current format for the organization. Imagine someone who has been singing their whole life for God and suddenly their music ministry is shattered within a five minute conversation. After sharing it this way, I think you will see that the old system is much better on the singer.
So where does that leave us? Well, we live in an imperfect world and music is much about opinion. Some like to hear high pitched sopranos and some find them annoying. Some like the high tenor and others prefer the baritone. We all have and example of a song where the singer is mediocre but we love the arrangement and the combination works for some reason. In the end, it is really up to God and where he wants us. In the face of rejection we must press on and finish that race! We can't let fear of failure define us as people of God!
To provide a little back story, I recently started becoming involved in large church in our area with a membership in the thousands and as you can imagine there are many great singers and musicians who are actively in ministry there. Beginning my worship adventure at this church involved first, meeting with the worship staff for lunch. The lunch was a great way to meet one of the ministers of music and get his insight into what the church needed and how I might fit. Conversations ranged from my experience as a bassist and singer to how I accepted Christ into my life. The lunch ended with my decision to start singing in choir immediately and see what happens from there.
I am now three weeks into the journey and my experience so far has been wonderful. The people seem very nice, genuine and happy to help, but soon the inevitable questions had to be asked. Is the choir the only outlet for my talent here? In order to find out the answer to this important question, I had to setup a time to perform an audition. I contacted the office and setup a time for next Wednesday.
Now, I find myself doubting my skills and trying to find a way out of the Christian version of American Idol. My doubt has led to other questions surrounding this process. For example, "is it acceptable to hold formal auditions?" I think the answer is yes, but what is the cost to the layman musician? In the past, I have only been involved in small and mid-sized churches. In these churches talent is found by the concept known as the "Sunday night solo." For those who grew up in traditional Baptist churches you know exactly what I mean, but for the uninitiated, here is pretty much how that process works.
Usually, someone who knows you can sing, will mention to the music leader that Matt can really sing and you should ask him to sing a solo some night. Inevitability the music leader will find you and ask you to sing one night for special music (a lost art in today's church). The beauty of this approach is the pressure is really on no one but the singer. If he doesn't do too well then no one really cares and no one asks him to join the choir or sing on the worship team. Everyone is let of the hook with no issues. If he does really well then someone will ask him to sing more specials or sing in the choir/praise team and so forth. This approach has worked for hundreds of years in the Baptist Church, but today we have a more formal approach. We have the audition.
The audition, involves the singer coming to the church building one day and singing a song (usually of his own choice) for one or more music leaders. After hearing the singer sing, the leaders will make a decision where this person would best fit or not fit at all. To the already fragile ego of a singer this process can be devastating to say the least. In a perfect world, it is just a formality to see where to best put this new singer. In the real world, the singer may be told that he has no place and his vocals will not fit into the current format for the organization. Imagine someone who has been singing their whole life for God and suddenly their music ministry is shattered within a five minute conversation. After sharing it this way, I think you will see that the old system is much better on the singer.
So where does that leave us? Well, we live in an imperfect world and music is much about opinion. Some like to hear high pitched sopranos and some find them annoying. Some like the high tenor and others prefer the baritone. We all have and example of a song where the singer is mediocre but we love the arrangement and the combination works for some reason. In the end, it is really up to God and where he wants us. In the face of rejection we must press on and finish that race! We can't let fear of failure define us as people of God!
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