neillyboy
From St Kentigerns Church
9 March 2009 - 10:31pm
I play guitar in my church band but i also give assistance and advice in the technical area. Now we as a church have worked hard to set up the audio system in a fixed position so it doesnt have cables everywhere. Now the band has been asked to play at a gig in a barn. Which means we have to completely dismantle and move everything across there.
We have a team of 3. An older man, a 23 year old girl and myself. The older man cant attend that day so has left it to the rest of us. The girl is a youth rep in the area and is studying divinity in the hope to be recieved in the ministry and is never there on the sunday when the band is playing.
Now I sat and drew a diagram of the most logical way to do this as we have not got a lot of time to set up and sound check. when i asked her what she thought she turned round and said i dont need your help and im in charge of it. it will go the way i want it.
The other issue is i lead the band and need it to be right because most of you know having issues can be very distracting and can take people away from the focus. She is very full of self importance and always has to be right and that may be down to what she does in the area but im not going to judge there as only God can do so.
What do I do and how do I get round the issue??
Michael
From Canterbury Baptist Church
10 March 2009 - 12:07am
Ouch. Those sorts of situations are always awkward, especially when you can see it going so wrong if you leave them to it...
If you've tried talking to her and failed, my advice would be to express your concerns to someone higher up in the church who may be able to help resolve tensions as well as sort the practical side of things out, even if it involves drafting a couple more people in to help. The last thing you need is tensions between you and the sound people, that's never good...!
So yeah, resolving the tensions before the practicalities would be my advice - because if you can get that sorted, everything else should go a lot smoother when you work together.
Good luck, really hope it sorts out - I know what it feels like in that sort of a situation but I'm sure you'll find a way through it :)
Michael
Just a quick thought - how much would it cost to hire a decent sound engineer and sound rig for your gig. It might be a lot cheaper than you think, especially if you can find a nice christian one. Tearing stuff out of working installs can cause a fair bit of friction.
M
So her atttude clearly stinks and she needs bringing down a peg or two. That's God's department pray he does it when the time is right....
In all honesty if I was in your position I would be glad to take my hands off the sound side of things a bit so as to focus on the music more. You've got all the responsibility that goes with leading to worry about it so if someone is saying "I'll sort sound out" I'd listen whatever their tone of voice.
I hear what you say about "need it to be right" but you really have to trust whoever's doing your sound for that. I find it really hard sometimes to fight the temptation to meddle with sound (I've done sound for 10 years and am studying electronic with music tech) when I'm leading but you just have to trust whoever is your 'ears' out there. The way the sound goes affects us as musicians but it's not our responsibilty and we have to do everything we can to support the person whos it is.
i agree with Toby its a tough thing for a band to trust the engineer to mix them well, which is why you read about big bands and artists having the same engineers tour with them for years.
If this lass has said she'll do it then i'd say let her do it and have a senior figure listen and make the call (helps if they are a musician) as to whether it sounds right, that way you're not involved in the politics and you can concentrate on the music. We have a small team of engineers here and have worked with the same band leaders for few years and have a good trust between each other but that has taken time and a lot of listening to each other.
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