Stage Presence and Worship

Does our presence on the stage really influence a participant's worship experience?  Josh and Jason wrestle with expressive leading, authenticity, and invisibility.

Four Questions from the Podcast

Brian Yaw asks: How do you help someone who has no innate concept of how (s)he is communicating visually? If we video the team, should we do the follow up discussion as a group or one on one?

Josh: I played at a church for about a year and a half where they videotaped the service. I don’t think it was made live, but our worship leader would send us a link, have us watch it, and critique ourselves.  He would critique us too [individually], “hey, let’s tighten this up,” or “look more alive here.”  That church was very big on having stage presence and making everything look alive.  I’ve been a part of that and video doesn’t lie (someone said).

Jason: Neither does the recording!

Josh: I think it’s great.  I think going back and watching video and listening to the recording [helps].

Jason: On Worship Artistry, we take the record, look at the parts, and break them down into the best parts to play for a five-piece band and teach that.  Every once in a while, I’m trying to learn the acoustic guitar part and it’s so buried in there I can’t tell if it’s capoed or open… So I’ll find videos from church services, the worship team from this church doing this song.  

Josh:  I think there’s a fine line there with that one.  You don’t want to be fake, by any means.  Don’t do something to over exaggerate.  I’ve rarely been in a worship service in which I’m not having fun.  Unless something’s going horribly wrong or people aren’t prepared, I’m having fun.  Side note, this Sunday at my church, during the first song in our first service, about halfway through, the power blinked off and back on.  I don’t know what happened.  So that means in-ears go out, guitar cabs turn off (and back on, hopefully), our sound board had to do the 30-second reset that it does.  I just looked at my worship leader, and he was just looking real.  He was in it.  Hand was up, he wasn’t playing when the power went out, but then he started playing again, and I had a split second decision.  The loop is done, we’re just “real” playing, we weren’t relying on click or anything.  He just kept going, so I just kept going with him. 

Jason:  It illustrates the point that I’m always trying to get across.  People will ask us all the time on the website to do the charts and tabs in every key.  No!  You need to learn to transpose because at some point your iPad battery is going to die or the power is going to go out.  You need to learn to tune.  Yes, you should have a tuner, but in case your tuner doesn’t work, you need to learn to tune your guitar!  This is the perfect example—you need to learn to play in time when your click and your drum loops all fall apart.  That’s why we teach that way. 

I think the important thing is that when you’re trying to be expressive, you’re not trying to be expressive of something that you’re not actually believing or experiencing.  You’re just trying to communicate what you’re feeling inside.  “I’m engaged with God right now, and I’m engaged with my community, so how do I show that I’m engaged?”  I don’t try to talk to my wife and just try to look engaged while I’m thinking about something else.  I’m an active listener and I’m doing that because I’m listening to her and I want her to know that I’m listening to her.

Jason:  It depends, are they paying you?  Because that’s just like paid practice!  That’s how my band always looked at it.  I don’t know if it really helped with stage presence, though.  Because I think a lot of it is that you’re feeding off of people. 

Josh:  It goes back to how it depends on your ‘venue.’  It’s your stage presence to the room.  Sometimes it shouldn’t be like that, like if you’ve got a worship service and it’s somewhat empty on that Sunday, and you’re not very enthusiastic about playing to a quarter of the number of people you expected.  Playing off of people, that does play a part. 

Brian Yaw asks: Do you have thoughts about the best way to start songs?  Drumstick click, leader count, other?

Josh:  We play with clicks or a loop every song.  We use very minimal tracks, but we usually do have a loop or pad in the background, or clicks with cues.  In those songs, everybody knows when to come in because the little lady is counting in your head.  I think stick clicks are appropriate in any setting to count off a song. 

Jason:  I think that works great.  In our setting, songs will build from somewhere.  If a drummer comes in off the top, you can absolutely count off.  We’re creating music.  I feel that sometimes in worship we work so hard to be invisible.  We emphasize good transitions.  We keep a pad going and that’s great and everyone can pick up from there.  That’s appropriate, but sometimes we get caught up in trying not to break the mood, we can’t stop.  No, we totally can.  You can start, stop, do all kinds of things because the Spirit isn’t going anywhere!  So there’s no need to act like we’re going to "spook" him.