With the advent of personal monitor mixers the Sunday morning sound tech has had to worry less and less about the monitor mix for the musicians. However there are still a large number of churches that either do not have personal monitor mixers on stage or if they do, often the vocalist will still have their monitors controlled at the front of house mixing board.
One very compelling reason to keep control of vocalist monitor mixes at the main mixing board is feedback. When a microphone is fed back into a monitor the possibility of feedback occurs and when the musicians have control of their volume on stage they can cause the feedback by turning up their microphone too loud. I have been mixing front of house when a musician has done this; it is very frustrating as the only potential control that you have to try to fix the problem is to turn the input gain down on the mixing console.
With the potential for feedback the front of house sound tech has a couple of options.
1. He can control all monitors that have open mics near them from the front of house board.
2. He can work with and educate the musicians on how to properly use a personal monitor mixer, by helping the musicians to understand what causes feedback and thus trust they will not create it.
3. He can give the musicians that have open mics headphones to remove the potential feedback issue.
Now for the large number of churches who do not have onstage personal monitor systems (and for those who like me, still control the vocalist monitors from the front of house board) nothing can be more embarrassing and humiliating than having a musician ask for more monitor (most musicians always seem to want more of themselves in the monitor Click Here for the entry I wrote on M3 technology) in the middle of a worship service. The amount of embarrassment corresponds directly with the attitude and demeanor in which it was asked.
To help avoid the embarrassment I suggest that you work with the musicians to develop a simple set of signals to know when and how to adjust the monitors. Giving credit where it is due, it was a worship leader who approached me and explored setting up some signals. The worship leader that approached me had a great spirit about the situation. He stated that he understood that I could not listen to the monitor on stage to adjust level (I could use headphones to listen to the mix, but level could not be judged as I was not on stage). He also stated that I did not know his mood or physical condition that morning. He described to me that when his allergies are bothering him he not only needs more overall level but just as important he needed more piano to stay on pitch. He said that when he is congested his own voice seems to “resonate” in his head and when this happened he cannot hear the piano as well.
To help each other he suggested that if when he held the mic and pointed his finger on the hand holding the mic up towards the top of the mic that he needed more voice. He also suggested that if he would clutch the microphone with two hands that he needed more piano, and finally he suggested that if he put his hand by his side parallel with the ground that he needed less over all monitor. These three simple signals served us very well the numerous times that we worked together. Additionally, no one (unless they were very astute or knew the signals) in the congregation even know that this was taking place. As a side note, a good number of years ago a vocal group sang at a church where I was involved in the tech stuff. During the rehearsal time I began to pick up on the somewhat complex set of signals they had with the sound tech. A raised outstretched arm met one thing, a raised arm with a finger pointed in the air meant something else, and two raised arms meant something different…….. I figured out that their movements not only controlled monitor levels, but also song list order, when the offering would be taken and they even included a request to have someone get more water bottles. To the audience it was totally transparent, I even had some say how “charismatic” the group was as their arms always seemed to be in motion……. If only they knew…..).
From my simple example to the complex one about the vocal group, a few important things made the signal system work.
1. Most importantly the sound tech was constantly watching the stage. No head buried in the board action here, but rather heads up and pay attention!
2. This seems obvious but both parties need to know and understand the signals. I occasionally did get what I thought were conflicting signals but always responded with the correct action. The conflicting signals usually resulted from the Worship leader accidently making a signal and then quickly correcting it by making a countering signal that negated the previous one; like more vocal in the monitor followed by less vocal in the monitor. I understand that particularly for the person on stage it is easy to accidently give a signal or mistakenly give a wrong signal, so as a sound tech be gracious and respond to all the requests given to you. This will build trust.
3. As with everything related to TnT (tech and talent) an understanding and gracious spirit from both sides of the stage is essential.
Your job whether worship leader or sound tech is to do what the worship leader I mentioned above did with me; with a gracious and understanding spirit have the conversation about using signals with the other party. Doing so will ultimately help both of you out and will also bless the congregation as they will not have to endure the interruption of a musician asking for his monitor to be adjusted.
