Hillsong Consejos

UP CLOSE& PERSONAL

with the Hillsong team

Autumn Hardman
@autumnhardman

WORSHIP TEAM PASTOR, KEYBOARDS
TOP 10 MUSIC DIRECTOR’S TIPS 1. Know your own instrument parts, so that you aren’t distracted playing them while trying to be aware of the rest of the band. 2. Make sure you can hear everything on stage. If there is a person/instrument on stage that you can’t hear, you won’t beable to tell if they aren’t doing the right thing, adding to the music. 3. Know the basics of each instrument part: guitar riffs, drum dynamics, keyboard, synth lines... 4. Time manage soundcheck/ rehearsal wisely — work with your teams on stage (Worship leader) and off stage (Technical director etc) to finish on time. 5. Identify the vulnerable areas of the set you are rehearsing and run them tilleveryone is confident, and call confidently in those moments – i.e. Transitions etc 6. Read the meeting. Don’t leave it to the worship leader to read where the meeting should go. The more on the ball you are, the more you can help lead the church in worship. 7. Always think ahead, and always have a few plans/options up your sleeve. Think ahead about arrangements in a meeting, or what the band mightbe called on to do (i.e. New song, etc) and give the band a heads up for as much as you can. These little things can make or break spontaneous calls within a church meeting. 8. Worship while paying attention. No one benefits from me shutting my eyes and lifting my hands while I’m MD’ing and playing a keyboard. :) I worship, but I must still pay attention. 9. Build good relationship with theworship leader. The more trust between you and the worship leader musically, the more the worship leader can gauge where they can go in the service and what moments they can/can’t create with you as their music director. 10. Remember your position is to serve. As music directors, we are not there to be seen, we are there to help guide the service musically and craft within it great moments using ourinstruments collectively. Never get too caught up in your ideas of arrangement/musicality if they do not serve the meeting and serve the worship leader/senior pastor.

Nigel Hendroff
@droff

MUSIC DIRECTOR, ELECTRIC GUITAR
NIGE’S MUSIC DIRECTOR’S TIPS 1. RELATIONSHIP RELATIONSHIP RELATIONSHIP - you need to know your team, understand your musicians’ skill level and capabilities, know theirlimitations, etc. Build trust with your worship leader. You’ll be able to read better where they’re wanting to go and what they’re trying to achieve in the service. 2. COME PREPARED - Work with your worship leader beforehand to be prepared with ideas for songlists/keys of songs/transitions/arrangements/tempos/etc. It’s important for me to obviously know my own guitar parts, but also the other partsthe rest of the band need to play. 3. UP-SKILLING – have a holistic approach to your musicianship. Always challenge yourself to be practicing and sharpening your skills in different facets of music. As a guitarist, knowing how to play is one thing, but knowing how to create different palettes of sounds and getting the best from my gear is another. Also, for me, I’ve found it extremely beneficial tomaster Pro-Tools – amongst many things, it’s given me a greater understanding of how instruments, parts, frequencies, etc need to work together and not just individually, to create great music. Which leads onto my next point... 4. KNOW THE LANGUAGE - learn how other instruments work and interact, and learn the language associated with each different role. You don’t need to be able to play everyinstrument, but you need to be able to effectively communicate to your team in a language that they understand (drummers/singers/audio engineers, etc) 5. BE SEVERAL STEPS AHEAD of what’s happening. It’s like approaching a busy interaction while driving - you don’t wait till you cross the intersection before checking whether the light is red or green. As an MD, you need to be worshipping with one...