This past weekend I visited a conference in sacramento. I went to connect with a couple of people, but during my time there I sat in on one of Tom Jackson’s teaching sessions.
Tom and I go way back to my days in Big Tent Revival. You see, Tom is a live music producer and performance coach. If you don’t know what that is, he coaches artists and bands on their live performance. He’s great at it. When Big Tent hired him, we were about 3 quarters of the way through our career. We felt like we had a pretty good show going, but we were bored with our show and needed to spice it up. Enter Tom…
Tom has this ability to get you to do things you thought weren’t supposed to be done and yet teaches you to do things the top entertainers do. Sounds weird being in christian music and all but the reality is, people buy a ticket to not only be encourage by the artist…but they want to experience a live moment.
When I watched Tom give his seminar, I quickly remember all of the things he taught us. All the little things that make a show really work. (Tom has worked with the top christian artists in the industry and works with some of the biggest names in the mainstream world and he really knows his stuff)..here’s what’s interesting…Tom was teaching this seminar to worship leaders who are in charge of worship teams at church. He had a worship team from the host church of this event onstage showing them the ropes.
Worship pastors, worship leaders, and artists…pay attention to what I’m about to tell you.
Tom explained something he taught us years ago. Something we all seem to take for granted. The whole goal of a live show is to create moments not to play all the hits. There are exceptions to this at times, but a show isn’t about playing just the hits or the most popular worship songs. Let’s face it…there are some songs that will never go to radio and be a hit, but are incredible songs to experience live. Why is that? Because those songs help create the moment. The hits are just icing on the cake.
Just an example…Tom said, if someone tells you your time on stage is 15 minutes, then the first thing we as performers first think is…how many songs can we do in 15 minutes? When actually, what we should be saying is…we have 15 minutes to create a moment. Believe me…you can do this with two songs and leave people wanting more. The point…it’s not about cramming songs into 15 minutes…it’s about creating a moment in 15 minutes where people will walk away moved by the moment.
Tom will say “if an artist thinks that playing tight, singing correctly, moving a lot or being cool is what moves a crowd, they’ve lost an opportunity to connect with their audience. The goal is capture, connect and emotionally move everyone in the building!”
Example: We had a song called West Memphis Lawyer. The recorded version is 5 minutes long. It wasn’t a hit and never got released as a single but it turned into one of the songs that created a moment. Why? We got super creative with it and turned it into a 12 minute song. The end result was usually a standing ovation by the time it was over.
The live show is about the moment…however, where does this fit into leading worship at church?
People come to worship to experience a moment with God. The attitude, body language, and overall presence of the worship team will either enhance this or kill it. I watched Tom guide these players into some very simple things that ENGAGES the audience to go to that moment. I was impressed and at the end of the session I connected with Tom and told him how needed this information is for worship teams to learn. Folks…pastors…worship leaders…and not to be left out…artists…what you do on stage or don’t do on stage WILL not might…but WILL play either a positive or negative effect on the audience.
If you want to take your worship team to the next level…I strongly suggest hiring Tom to come work with you. Remember…this isn’t about the performance…if you are on a worship team, let’s assume you know it’s not about performing…but it is about LEADING people into a moment of worship that allows them to go to the next level.
What you do onstage matters…something else you will learn about is this…Seeing is hearing. When watching a live show, a small percentage of what is engaging about the show is how well the songs are played and how it sounds. But what people really hear is what they see you do while you play. Seeing is hearing.
You can check out Tom here at tomjacksonproductions.com
I’m bringing back The Sunday Post. It’s a highlight of blog sites I think you should check out. It’s a short list but Sunday’s seem like a good day to throw a few places out there for you to check out.
03/22/2009
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