A Hostile Audition at a Church

Introduction

    I would like to share an experience I had at a church, auditioning for an electric guitar position.  In sharing this, my hope is that people learn from it and/or take steps to prevent this from happening to them.  My goal is not to attack my church or to gossip.  Gossip is wrong and does nothing.  But this church and several others have made it clear that they are not interested in hearing the feedback of their congregants unless or until it suits them.  I am writing this as a paid electric guitarist who is linked up with a national chain of musician referral and booking.  As I write this, I have been doing this for 5 year now, and I have zero complaints about my tone, playing, or preparedness.

    Keep in mind, this is part of why I have a more or less anonymous page on this server.  I've been punished for speaking out in my own defense.  Hence, this is where it goes.  While I write this, I am praying that God heal me (though it's not a serious wound) and that more importantly, God help my church to do better at onboarding musicians.

The Audition Process

    When I first joined the church, I honestly was not paying attention to how their music sounded.  Perhaps I should have.  I might have noticed from the beginning that they regularly neuter their electric guitars.  I might have noticed, for example, that they would not include the prominent guitar solo in Glorious Day.

    So I volunteered.  They had a background check, which is fine with me.  The sign-up process, however, required me to include recordings of my playing.  Not difficult for sure, but I had to actually record.  None of the example songs from the most recent service had prominent guitar parts.  But no worries, I believe GOd would always have me volunteer my services at my church as my spiritual duty to God.  So I signed up and included recordings.  One one song I even provided essentially all the tracks except drums and recorded a full song with vocals.  It was a quick one-off, but it wasn't bad.

    Perhaps key signs here is that they did not ask for an in-person audition.  This is much more ideal from a musical standpoint because you throw songs at them and they must play those songs in person, which means you get to watch to see if they make mistakes, know the songs, can read music, etc.  No, the audition was to play in a live service, but not a main service.  No worries, right?

The Week of the Audition Service

    The week of the audition, I was put on Planning Center.  I noticed that there were no notes on how electric guitars (EGs) should sound or what they should do.  When I inquired, they essentially said to play what I want.  They said I would be the only guitar, so I decided to be selective as to which parts I played.  They could not tell me if there was going to be a bassist, which means they didn't have a good clue as to who in their band was faithful or not, or were giving someone a bit too much grace to not be able to commit on a regular basis.  No worries, I kept going.

    Because there was no input, I practiced the songs from MultiTracks.  They surprisingly included songs with prominent EG like Glorious Day and Good Plans (not surprising for the service type but surprising for this church).  No worries, I practiced all week, practicing both the rhythm and lead parts for all the songs in the keys provided.

    The day before the service, I was informed of key changes (and late at night).  But I decided to keep pressing forward and practice with changes.

The Service

    When I got there, I was given minimal direction as to what they wanted.  Most their musicians arrived late, but not the singers.

    During rehearsal prior to service, I was told I was running too much drive.  Usually my complaint throughout my career is that I'm not giving enough, but I had re-tuned my Boss ME-90 for more drive given the type of midweek service they advertised.  But no worries, when told I immediately backed off the drive to what I normally do.  The lead singer made some sort of either sarcastic or disrespectful comment about not being able to give me instruction prior to a service (it's been a while and I have forgotten what she specifically said) but I ignored it, adapted, and rehearsal proceeded.  Ten minutes before service, the rehearsal ended, and I went to the sound booth to ask if I had backed it off enough.  The sound guy said I was fine.  The actual worship leader of the church was there, I asked him if my edits to patches had fixed the problem with too much drive, and he said it sounds better now.  Got it.

    Let's ignore the fact that they told me when I gtot there that they had an additional key change.  Being the only guitar, I wouldn't want to play some solos too much past the 12th fret because in some instances this can sound shrill.  The key change put it too high up.  Nevermind the fact that this shows very poor planning on their part: the booking agency I'm in demands that churches finalize keys in advance so musicians aren't thrown off.  Sure, I can play that prominent EG hook at the 18th fret, but you probably won't like it, or at the 6th fret, but it will take up space that should be filtered out for the singers.  Key matters, and even though I can adapt and play stuff in any key without a capo, it's still important.

    Service seemed to go fine.  I didn't hear anything for about 4 months.

Afterwards

    Afterwards, about 4 months later, I asked for feedback.  You see, the church had told me they schedule people quarterly, so basically 2 cycles of scheduling musicians had transpired and I was not put on the schedule.

    They replied to my email saying I was not a team player, could not adapt fast enough, and that they had no time for me.

    Now sure, rejection hurts.  But I'm not that worried because I play for a booking agency and I get paid to go out and play at churches.  It's not like this is the end of the world.  But it's the tone of it that bothered me: because it contained essentially a lie.  I adapted to what they wanted.  It's only when I thought of it afterwards that I connected the dots.

    This church, my church, neuters the electric guitar parts.  Now, I say this carefully because there's nothing in Scripture that says churches must do things the exact way MultiTracks does it.  But I have some minor points:

    It would be self-serving to point out that I am one of the most trusted musicians within this region of the booking agency in question, and have regularly come through for this agency at the last minute.

How To Protect Yourself as an EG Musician in the Modern Church

    I can't tell you everything you need to know about how to protect yourself as an electric guitarist in the modern church, but here are some ideas off the top of my head.

  1. Before you join a church (if being on the worship team is important), attend multiple services (I'd say at least 20) and focus on the EGs.  I didn't focus on that.  Do they have regular musicians?  Do musicians seem to "bounce off" this church, i.e. you see them once and then never again?  I had spoken with the lead EG musician this church favors and they acted like they were tired of being the only EG player.
  2. Listen to the music they play.  Do they regularly cut out the solo?  Do they mix out the EGs so that you don't here prominent drive when you should (i.e. per the MultiTracks)?  Churches can reimagine the songs however they want, but it's something you should note.
  3. How hard is it to audition?  Do they run an in-person sound check before they schedule you?  A church that acts exclusive, i.e. resistant to newcomers and new musicians, should be treated with suspicion.
  4. How well do they communicate?  Communication is key.

    You see, there's a reason the "good" churches have all the musicians.  They engage in the basics of good interviews and good recruitment.  As for churches, here's some stuff off the top of my head:

  1. Communication is key.
  2. You should have a live sound check, not audition by putting people in a live service.  The risk of interrupting live services is too great.  If you want to see if people can be thrown a curve ball and adapt, do it in a non-live situation.
  3. I do not generally recommend recruiting musicians first and asking them to join the church second.  However, at the same time, some people who want to serve their church in music will want to know if they can volunteer at their church.  There are some caveats.
  4. Pay people to be on the team when it's a last minute thing or if you contract musicians out from booking agencies like mine.  However, allow some people to offer a "first fruits" concept where they serve the first time for free, if they wish.
  5. Provide instruction to your musicians, especially if you do non-standard things (i.e. not what Loop Community or MultiTracks indicates).  On Planning Center as well as in person.
  6. If you have someone on your worship team who will say they will attend and serve but then don't, and they've done it more than once, stop scheduling them and communicate with them.  If you need to provide someone with feedback, it needs to be no less than one week after whatever incident is driving the need to communicate.
  7. If you or the church worship department makes a mistake, own it and apologize ASAP.  Don't push it off on the individual with the convenient excuse of "goodness of fit."