Winning the Volume War: Introduction highlights 8 variables that affect perceived volume in our worship contexts.

A few weeks ago during an early morning worship band rehearsal at Vineyard Community Church I asked our sound  team member to capture something (on his iPhone) we’ve been doing for a long time: stepping away from the mic to hear and tweak our vocals. Check it out here:

In our world of in-ear monitors we can easily loose the humanity of our harmony because we are so separated by sound technology. This is the same with wedge monitors as well. To remedy this, we periodically  get close to one another in a circle and sing the song. We look each other in the eye and communicate in a way that is impossible looking forward and hearing the band in the vacuum of our monitoring. In bluegrass music there is oftentimes just one mic that all the musicians share; they use proximity to balance the instruments and voices. I have found this is a beautiful way to enjoy and tweak what we really sound like! Try it during your next rehearsal. Exercises like this and more are a part of the worship training I do in churches, check it out HERE.