When I set out on my professional music career in 1980, the first thing I learned from my mentors was to connect with the audience. I was taught that the stage is not like a fish bowl, where the audience peers statically at the action happening on stage. The potent energy that flows back and forth from performer to the audience is a very important aspect of the presentation. That is why live performances haven’t been completely obliterated by movies and television; people still desire that back-and-forth, “being there” camaraderie of a live program.

The concept of “entertainment,” in the context of church, is forbidden in certain circles. But as I’ve said before, using musical and dramatic techniques to enhance the art of storytelling can help create a flowing and enjoyable experience–one that allows the audience to lose self-awareness, to the point where they are fully engaged in the action on the the stage. To make sure that I’m not misunderstood, I want to emphasize that delivering the message of Christ and His redemptive power is, by far, the most nobel and virtuous use of the stage, cutting-edge technology, and excellence in all genres of performance.

Performance Myths

The perspective of the audience differs from that of the performer. Tom Jackson, a professional live performance producer, helps bands develop their live shows to effectively deliver a powerful performance. In a teaching from one of his DVDs entitled Stage Performance: Making Our Services Rock, Tom spoke of several myths from a performer’s point of view:

1. If we feel the music then the audience must feel it, too.
2. It’s all about the song [that the song is strong enough to carry the performance].
3. If we play well, sing well, and the audience hears the words, we win.
4. There are no performance rules—we just “wing it” because we are spontaneous.
5. “I’ve been doing it for ‘X’ amount of years; I know what I’m doing.”
6. I feel comfortable onstage, so it must be great.
7. If I’m uncomfortable, it must not be “me.”
8. If it worked for a bigger church then it will work for me.

The difference between a great performance and an average or poor performance is essentially the connection with the audience. Jackson made a humorous but accurate observation of a great performer, using Bono, lead singer of U2, as an example. He said Bono is “married” to the audience, when most of us are just “dating” the audience. It takes a great amount of work and skill to create a great performance, and in doing so, we earn the audience’s respect. I’ve personally seen U2 perform live and Bono had that huge indoor sports arena in the palm of his hand!

Three Performance Basics:

1. Connect WithYour Audience (Love Them and They’ll Love You Back)

2. Lead Your Audience (They’re Gonna Follow You!)

3. Your Audience Is Less Aware Than You Think (Keep Your Flubs to Yourself)  

The #1 thing to remember in a performance is: Connect with your audience. Therefore, be prepared and confident. Practice to the point where everything you do flows from the subconscious—as if the effort was second-hand. That way, your body language will emit an air of confidence and fluidity rather than being stiff and awkward. A performer’s ability to be authentic, warm and engaging, yet humble toward the audience, helps them build confidence in you. When you exude a lack of confidence, your audience feels unsure, expecting you to make a mistake,  or misspeak. Preparedness begets confidence!

The #2 thing to remember is: The audience wants to be led. We help the audience along on our journey through:

• Directing their attention toward important aspects of the performance through visual and verbal cues (please stand; please sit; “let’s welcome to the stage X, Y or Z;” “Please direct your attention to the video screens;” musical cut-offs; receiving applause, etc.
• Giving them permission to respond appropriately
• Helping them move through transitions in the performance without losing focus

Don’t take for granted that the audience knows what to do…they don’t! Your job as a leader is to lead them!

The #3 thing to remember is: The audience is unaware. I could say ignorant, but that seems a little harsh. What I mean to say is that the audience is not as aware of the intricacies of our performance as we are. Things aren’t always as obvious to our audience until we direct their attention toward something. Many times our mistakes will go unnoticed if we simply don’t bring attenuation to it. Therefore, we must remain confident and in control.

I once heard it said, “My play was a complete success but the audience was a failure!” Sometimes as performers we may think that way, but in reality we cannot blame our poor performance on the audience. Our lack of preparation and planning will hurt our performances. Very few great artists “wing it.” A wise performer’s every move and spoken word is scrutinized for effectiveness, whether in worship or on a secular stage. The key for every performer, worship leader and preacher, is to make what they do seem effortless!

James Taylor, the great singer/songwriter, has said that a live performance is a common emotional experience for the performer and the audience. As performers, we must plan, prepare and practice for a performance. But there comes a time when we must surrender to the moment–to be fully “present” in our live performances and let things unfold. That’s why each performance, even though they contain the same elements, can be received and enjoyed in various ways by different audiences.

Connect   >   Lead   >   Make It Look Effortless   >   Worship!

Sometimes in life I feel completely overwhelmed. Being a dad, a husband, and a grandpa–all the while making a living as a musician in a fickle economy–can lead to discouragement. I feel sometimes like that little doll in Toy Story that gets burned in the forehead with a magnifying glass by the bully. Life can be brutal, and staying on top of bills, while trying to glean a living from multiple income streams can be daunting Living in these times has turned many a confident strong man in to a weakling with spaghetti for legs.

That’s where I am reminded that, as I’ve trusted God as my Savior and Lord, He is in control and I can trust Him for the details, the inspiration, the ideas and creativity to do what He’s called me to do..

I’ve mentioned before that Brenda and I started out as a married couple (28 years in December!) with an unusual calling. We’ve never done anything the easy way. It has been our mission to serve God as a couple and to live in complete faith that God will lead us and provide for us in everything we do.

We know that many of our friends shake their heads when they see how we operate. Most people like to do things the safe way, with limited risk, a limited investment, but expecting big returns. When Brenda and I decided to–as Aerosmith aptly put it “walk this way”– in faith, we were all in, fully committed.  At times it’s seemed like we made a mistake in putting our trust in God’s Word. But as Paul says in Philippians 4: 6-7:  

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)” 

We’ve stuck by the Word, and God has never, ever failed!  

Our mission as a couple has been to demonstrate the fact that God exits. We will continue on this path until He returns. It will never be easy, but it is an exciting life. Edith Schaeffer, in her book, L’Abri, said: 

“What happens when you pray? God is all powerful in every realm. He can do things in a variety of ways, but one way in which He works is to ‘move’ in the realm of men’s minds. God can place an idea in a person’s mind. He can cause someone to feel a strong ‘urge’ or ‘conviction’ to do something. So when we pray about a certain amount of money, God can cause one person to reach for a cheque-book and send that amount, or He can cause a dozen people to send odd fractions of that amount, causing the total to be exact. You may not believe that He does this, but I am simply saying that when I talk about praying for money, this is what I mean. (p 126)”

We will continue to “walk this way,” and I invite you to join us! Have a great week, and look to see God working in areas that you’ve never before seen.

In a recent post entitled “A Brief History of Praise and Worship,”  I mentioned that I make a substantial amount of my songwriting income from CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International), a collection and distribution hub for songs performed in the church. Another source of my songwriting income is derived from BMI, of which I receive radio, movie, and other types of live, non-church performance royalties. When a recording is sold in stores, or through online downloads, I receive royalties through the record company that releases the product. As you may gather, a songwriter’s income is derived through many “streams,” the sum of which keeps a roof over my family’s head, pays the light bill, and hopefully paves the way for more songs to keep the income river flowing along.

A songwriter’s future is precariously balanced on the hope that our songs will become classics, to make their way onto “greatest hits” packages or collections. For a new song catalog, writers must stay viable in a fickle market where changing fancies rule. We must stay on top of trends, styles and musical fashion to keep writing what artists want to record. The chances of making a continued income on songs for years, even decades, is an honor for a fortunate, single-digit percentage of songsmiths. I have been extremely blessed over the past twenty years as a songwriter in the Christian music field to see income steadily streaming in from songs written long ago. I am currently an active songwriter with new cuts slated for production on recent projects.

I received my quarterly royalty statement Saturday. Most will grab the check and leave the rest of the reading material from the publisher in the waste bin. This time, however, I read the cover letter from the head honcho, (not before eyeing the amount on the check!). The message from the president of the company who sent the royalty made some interesting remarks about the realities of songwriter income and the music industry.

In 2011, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, the revenue generated from digital music sales (50%+) surpassed the sales of physical music. The purchase habits of music consumers have shifted over the years and change continues today.

In 2012, it was reported that 15% of music consumption was from streaming, through companies like Spotify and Pandora. You see, it’s no longer a matter of music ownership that is important to consumers, but rather the accessibility to songs. According to ASCAP (a royalty collection and distribution company like the aforementioned competitor,  BMI), the song Someone Like You, written by Adelle and Dan Simpson, had a total of 169,000,000 streams of play on Pandora. The writers only received $9,000. People aren’t buying records anymore, they’re streaming! Record companies have lost the goose that laid the golden egg, and are scrambling (pun intended) to find new ways to profit.

My point in all of this is: a successful songwriter isn’t necessarily rich, and if your motivation to write songs is to make it big, then you’ll most likely end up disappointed. I still get giddy when I hear my songs on the radio, or on outlets like Pandora. The fickleness of music for me is still overshadowed by the fact that I am making a living doing it. Rich or poor, I, like Paul the Apostle, am content…blessed is a better word. What we are challenged to do as an industry, and what Integrity Music’s C. Ryan Dunham said in the cover letter from my royalty statement, “…we must look at new economical ways to bring music to the market.” It’s time to reinvent the wheel, folks!

Church music has made an astonishing transformation over the past fifty years. This revolution can find its roots stretching back to the hippie days of the ’60s and early ’70s, when after becoming Christ-followers, these counter-culture castaways began attending churches like Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa in California, writing their own praise songs, and forming bands to spread the Gospel. Maranatha! Music then became the unofficial record company of the Jesus Movement on the west coast of the United States, and Chuck Smith from Calvary Chapel, along with a handful of others, became the de facto pastors of the movement. 

Over the years, this phenomenon surged into a worship music tidal wave that eventually flooded the entire country. By the ’80s, the deluge led to the creation of an out-of-the-mainstream, independent record company, Integrity Music in Mobile, Alabama. They began their ascent by distributing tapes of new worship songs every six weeks to subscribers. In the decades since, worshipers have seen thousands of these new songs transform people worldwide through their pop music-stylings, singable melodies and conversational lyrics.

The history of congregational singing goes back even further to the days of the early church, when liturgical texts were chanted. The Greek cultural influences of the time were borrowed and incorporated into songs of praise. Before the Reformation, congregational singing was not allowed by Catholic laypersons, but instead was performed in Latin by the clergy.

The invention of the printing press led to a proliferation of hymnals, out of which percolated some 250 ubiquitous hymns that would eventually bare an ecclesiastical “thumbs up,” deeming the selections proper for the flock. Congregations sang these songs in churches everywhere, and everyone knew these hymns by heart. Then, as if slamming on a huge air brake, with the use of desktop computers in worship, and with advancements in projection, American churches all but ditched the hymnal, in trade for praise songs displayed on a pull-down screen.

 When thousands of pastors from various denominations began attending Promise Keeper rallies in the 90s, many who were skeptical about the new worship choruses were eventually won-over by the power of experiencing heart-felt worship first-hand. As a result of this life-changing experience, many pastors began allowing guitars, drums and rock music styles into their services, in hopes of capturing the same emotional and spiritual results they witnessed at the rallies. In time, they either augmented the ever-present choir, or began to dismiss the large vocal ensemble altogether.

 As a cumulative result, there has been a significant decline in the market of printed music for church choirs. On the other hand, though, as a result of this bourgeoning new music genre, mainline recording companies–known for promoting Christian performance artists–began promoting worship songs, sung by “worship artists,” who then helped propel this new music in a steady upward trajectory.

 Probably the most significant shift in worship music popularity happened when Michael W. Smith made his debut in “praise and worship” with his CD “Worship.” It was fatefully released on September 11, 2001, and included such classics as “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” “Forever,” and “The Heart of Worship.” Soon after, and probably due in part to a spiritual reaction to the 9/11 attacks, praise and worship started to become a popular radio format. Church attenders were hearing songs on the radio, as were the worship leaders and music directors, and this led to a barrage of  more worship songs being introduced to the church through radio. As a result, new songs continued to find their way into the church.

Since its launch in October of 1988, the copyright licensing organization, CCLI, has grown to represent 200,000 churches with its stated mission (from the website): “a ministry of the Church and a service to the Church, to educate the Church about copyright laws, to protect the Church from the consequences of copyright infringements and to encourage greater utilization of copyrights in Church services.” Through the services of CCLI,  “The Church Copyright License is a contractual agreement with songwriters and publishers from around the world. For an annual license fee, a church receives legal authorization to copy from over 200,000 songs for congregational use.” A popular CCLI song has the potential to generate handsome revenues for all involved. For song writers like myself, CCLI provides a major portion of my income.

According to an article entitled “A Brief History Of Congregational Song”  (Liturgies, Sonreign Media, Inc.), “Since 1950, there has been more music published for congregational singing than at any other time in the history of the church. Nearly every major denominational body, as well as many independent congregations and publishing companies, have produced official and supplementary hymnals and related collections of songs. 

In an interesting blog post called, “Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church,” David Morrow observes that the overwhelming amount of worship songs we feed our congregations may have a negative effect, and that our congregations are over-saturated by way too much. He wryly adds, “In short order we went from 250 songs everyone knows to 250,000+ songs nobody knows.”

 In response to this dilemma, Morrow states that men “…are doers, and singing was one of the things we used to do together in church. It was a chance to participate. Now, with congregational singing going away, and communion no longer a weekly ordinance, there’s only one avenue left for men to participate in the service – the offering. Is this really the message we want to send to men? Sit there, be quiet, and enjoy the show. And don’t forget to give us money.” 

 Morrow goes on to suggest that if we are going to teach new songs to our congregation, we must be sensitive and allow time for the songs to permeate into the soul, for the worshiper to become emotionally connected with the material. 

“Years ago, worship leaders used to prepare their flocks when introducing a new song. ‘We’re going to do a new song for you now. We’ll go through it twice, and then we invite you to join in’…There’s nothing wrong with professionalism and quality in church music.The problem isn’t the rock band, or the lights, or the smoke machine. The key here is familiarity. When that super-hip band performed a hymn, the crowd responded. People sang. Even the men.”

As the praise and worship phenomenon continues to be a generally positive move forward in congregational singing, we must continually check our motives and methods to assure that Christ is the true focus of our singing, and that our congregations are given the opportunity to make that connection. 

Our family friend Beth came to own one of Duane Allman’s glass guitar slides. One day she brought me the 4″ x 2″ x 1″ box containing the slide and graciously gave it to me.

Beth intrigued me when she spoke of an earlier association with the Allman Brothers Band, and told me that, at one time, she had been engaged to the band’s tour manager, Twiggs Lyndon. She made a huge life-change in the following years. Beth felt the need to make a break from her past, so she gave me the Coricidin bottle as a gift. Beth told me she had visited Macon, Georgia, a few times with her former fiance, who had given her the slide. Here’s Beth’s story in her own words:

“Upon one of those visits to Macon, Twiggs and I went to Greg’s house to deliver his car in trade for Duane’s guitar. Greg had shown an interest in the car and Twiggs knew he could always get another car but Duane’s guitar was a rare treasure to keep safe. Our visit coincided with a first time visit from Cher who was also part of our little meeting. The next time Twiggs visited me in my home in Mobile, he set out to remove the frets himself and implant them onto the back. He was seated at the kitchen table and took much time laying out the frets on the back until he was ready to pound them in. He replaced the old frets himself and often played the guitar.

Twiggs was a great story teller and enjoyed nothing more than to be occupied with a project and tell stories related to his colorful experiences with the music industry. Having started out with Little Richard, he had fond memories of being the only white boy traveling with the otherwise all black band. Anyway, he gave me the slide then and told me I should hold on to it as it would be worth something someday. So I tucked it away with my personal keepsakes in Mobile. I pulled it out when you helped with me deal with issues from that past as I knew you would appreciate it. I can only imagine that Steve Morse came to own the guitar as Twiggs managed the Dixie Dregs. Not only did he inherit the guitar but my engagement ring diamond as well that Twiggs wore in his ear as seen on the cover of the Freefall album.” 

Brenda and I toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2011, and came across this very guitar that Twiggs transformed years ago. Over time, the guitar made its way back home to Duane’s daughter, Galadrielle. She has generously given permission to display the it in Cleveland.

I feel very blessed to have this slide in my possession. I have been asked since to donate it to the Hall of Fame Museum. I guess its selfish, but I don’t want to part with it. Maybe I will in the future. I cherish my slide and Duane’s yellow hair band that accompanies it.

I guess I relish the fact that I have the missing piece.