There is so much to learn about the "live performance."

It's easy to think that - because you do well on Sunday Mornings in your local church's Praise & Worship setting - you are ready for a big stage. Duh-Duh!! Not so. It's a completely different animal. I used to wonder why it took so long to get the stage ready for national artists. It appeared that their soundchecks took forever. Now I understand why. Sound makes all the difference in the world.

When you are in the audience listening to one of the national actists you expect every note to be perfect. The artists know that as well. In order for that to be the case, the artists have to be able to hear themselves clearly. That is where the long soundchecks come in. They are necessary to get the perfect mix on the stage so that the performer/artist hears everything clean and clear. When you can hear clearly you can sing on pitch. If what you hear in stage is all garbled, you won't know when you have drifted.

The last three large engagements have taught me a lot...

AF'RAM... we didn't do a real soundcheck. We were so happy to take the stage that we went with whatever mix we were given. So, the BGVs (background vocalists) couldn't hear themselves - and I certainly couldn't hear them. The band sounded great on stage to me - but they couldn't hear themselves very well. The audience could hear me and some of the band but not everything - and certainly not balanced. So, our execution wasn't great. Still, the crowd got with us. But I know it could have been a lot better.

Issachar Conference... due to the weather we didn't have time to do a thorough soundcheck. So we roughed it out. It was much better than AF'RAM in the live setting. However, I just got the DVD with the direct sound. It was not good at all. The vocals drifted a lot - and it was evident that they couldn't hear themselves. When the music was low ans soft - the BGVs were on point. When the music got loud, the BGVs drifted from pitch. Also, if the BGVs were singing softly they drifted because they couldn't hear themselves distinctly.

Gospel Block Party... there was no soundcheck - but it wasn't necessary to do one because we were using a track. The mics were hot and the track was hot. The blend on the stage was great and the execution was on point! The BGVs could hear themselves clearly and that made all the difference in the world.

So - we have two rehearsals before the July Baby Birthday Bash. I know exactly what we need to work on. I have a tool that I'm going to try to implement that should make a huge difference. I'm going to have the BGVs use an earplug in one ear. We've also implemented stage separation - having the BGVs on one side of the stage and the band on the other side. That way the BGVs won't be completely absorded in the volume of the instruments. I think that combination will help a lot. I'll let you know what happens.

Shalom!!