How do you Train?

[Adam Ogden]

Hey guys-

This is kind of a second part of the "Ways to Serve" thread. How do you train people who are interested in serving your ministry? Do you have a set guideline or model that you follow, to make sure everyone gets the same information in the same way, every time? Do you utilize any kind of tests, or auditions? Do you give special treatment to people that have some prior knowledge? I am very interested to see how others do it...

[dtpuga]

Great set of questions Adam, I'd like to know that myself.

We are currently trying to develop a 'manual' for training our tech volunteers. Currently we are different every time. Fortunately, with ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer you can train even a monkey on how to use them well in under 15 minutes, 5 minutes if they have used a mouse before.

Sound board training is where we are kind of spinning our wheels. We are in desperate need of new volunteers to get going before we head into our new building next year and more than double our concurrent needs. Right now we find out who is interested and invite them to our rehearsals on Tuesday nights. It gives them true live experience without the stress of an audience. A newbie's experience level determines where we start. My confidence in them and their comfort level will determine when they are ready to 'fly solo.' We are looking into two training tools, Sound Made Simple and Golden Ears, if anyone has any experience or advice on those, let me know PLEASE.

My experience is that you can train the willing on how to run a board, its the ear that needs more work usually. A good mix obviously has some standard characteristics but the finishing touches are obviously so opinion based it makes it hard to get everyone happy.

I am interested to hear your methods Adam, and everyone else's.

Travis

[twc_admin]

Hey,

I'm loving the idea of using Golden Ears to train - only because I got so many "freebie" type courses from Dave Moulton back in the days when his stuff would be included on the resource CD of Recording Mag.

One of the things that I've been talking about is the ability to actually multi-track the rehearsals and services, then go back into it "after the fact" and do some hands-on mix/EQ training.

[WorshipCity]

Yeah this is the big problem for us as well. I'm training 2 sound techs right now. We've done as suggested. I first got them out during the week with me to run through the basics: board, snake, signal flow, etc. Then I paired him up with one of the currect sound tech volunteers and let him watch a practice. Debrief. Do a practice with the 'Tech Chaperone'. Debrief. So a Sunday morning with the 'Tech Chaperone.' Debrief. The debriefing after every stage lets me know how fast/slow the person is progressing.
B/c the ear is the critical thing here what I do as well is let the band jam and have him mix it. Actually, even before that, play the song we're going to do and point out key parts in the recording to see if they can even distinguish guitar parts, bass from kick, etc. So we'll listen to Beautiful One by Jeremy Camp and then have the band vamp out to Beautiful One and have the guy 'mix it.'
I do ongoing weekend training for all the sound techs. I've got a friend of mine who graduated from Full Sail and runs sound in Dallas so he's come in and helped us out tremendously. B/c he's gotten really busy I'm looking for a local contact. I found that actually your 'mega church' may be a great resource for you. Typically their tech teams are pretty deep with all their needs but they may not be in a regular rotation or could come help out for a weekend training or practice or what not.

[Adam Ogden]

Hey guys-

These are great posts. I've never tried the CD's or other published sound trainings before....they could be good....maybe something I will look in to. Fred, I like your idea about multi-tracking the services for later use....we are days away from doing that ourselves...with our DiGiCo, we can connect it to our Mac with a single cable, and get all individual tracks, something we are doing for the sake of making accurate rehearsal CD's for our musicians; but it could be a great way to train to. This cross-church communication thing is sweet.

As far as training, we have two methods. Like I said in my last thread, I have two departments, Auditorium crew and Global crew. We train differently between the two.

Auditorium:
A method I developed over time, not overwhelmingly brilliant, but having a formula on paper to follow, helps me, and it helps them. It's basically a weaning process, starting with me doing it (now), and ending with them doing it (future). The formula looks like this:

I Do (present day, I am doing it alone)
I Do, You Watch (I do it, you start to watch systems, methods,etc)
I Do, You Help (I still do it, but now you get your hands dirty a little)
You Do, I Help (Now, I am helping you, while you do most of the task)
You Do, I Watch (I'm over your shoulder watching for smoke, but its yours)
You Do (It's yours, I feel comfortable leaving it in your hands)

Again, not overwhelming, but it helps to see the process. Here is the benifit I have found to this process: It flexes with people. Guys who already know Audio, may fly through this process in 3-4 weeks...and as long as they hit each "point" in the timeline, that's great. However, the slower learner may be stuck on any 1 step for several weeks. I had a volunteer that stayed on the "You do, I help" step indefinately, until we came to a mutual understanding that it wasn't going to work out. This process helped them realize this too, so it wasn't just me saying "no"...they could sense it to. The disadvantage to this process I realize, is that it has no specific technical relevance. You could use this model training someone to change the oil in the car....it's about the process, not the technology. But it makes them comfortable, and makes you comfortable, because you agree on when it's time to move to the next level. For use, our production crew shows up 2 full hours before the band or anyone else arrives. This is to set up, patch lines, etc. Since we don't do another during-the-week rehearsal, this is a perfect time to show them the ropes....stage inputs, basic console layout, how to prep for service, tech storage room, all of the logistical stuff. Then the band arrives, and you begin with step one of the process, with a little bit under your belt.

For our Global Sector:
This area is still new, and still being formulated into a written standard. We do that more like you would expect; because those people are usually less technically knowledgable, we start with the basics: This is a Microphone...This is a sound console.....etc. We show them console setup, how EQ's work, what monitor sends are, etc, etc. It just so happens that we have managed to say the same thing every time, but we still realize the importance of having a set guideline for training, and we are working on that. One thing that we have put in place, that helps with training: We do not allow people we have trained, to train other people. If you ever played telephone as a kid, you know what happens in translation....if we do all of our training...even though it's more time consuming at first....we have the piece of mind know every single one of out 73 volunteers have the exact same pieces of information. It helps form consistency, and lowers our troubleshooting time later on. I am working on writing a "Master Class" ciriculum for our global systems, that if people REALLY want to know more than the standard Audio 101 we teach them, they can come to that training, and learn some deeper technical things like EQ tips and tricks, how Compression, Gates, and Limiters work, system processing, Microphone types and applications, etc.

I don't know if this helps any of you, but it works for us. Our main things here are consistency and excellence. So far, what we are doing help both of those.

In regards to the last reply to this post, you are ABSOLUTELY right....reaching out to other churches is a huge way to get further training and ideas. I am working with 4-5 churches here in town that are smaller, helping them with equipment selection and design, volunteer training, and other stuff. I have reached out to other churches like Willow Creek and CCV in Arizona, and have always been helped. There is a huge benifit to having a 3rd party person come in...even if they say the same thing you do....for your team, having someone confirm what you have told them, from a reputable church who does things right, is a huge help. I am sure there are churches around you, but if there is anything I can do, please let me know.

Here's to helping people be a "10"!!!

-adam

[garyhodges]

Good stuff. Thanks, Adam for giving us a great overview of a system that seems to be working well in a larger church. I think it can be used as a model in most churches.

One thing that kind of jumped out at me though, was the fact that you "do not allow people we have trained, to train other people." This makes sense from a practical standpoint. But at this point in my ministry carreer I'm all about equipping others to accompish the proverbial "working myself out of a job." Sure, you will be training some individuals who simply don't possess the skills to train others. However, if you have people who are capable in that area, why not "train" them to be trainers with the same 6-step method used in your other training? This is all a part of the whole church multiplication process that every church leader needs to be mindful of. We know that people aren't with us for the entire life of the church and will be moving on to other fellowships where they can get plugged in. What a joy for a worship leader to have a new person coming to their church who is a qualified sound tech trainer! I would love that!

It may be folly, but I have begun writing a sound tech training manual for the average, non-tech guy going to a small church, looking for a place to plug in and hears, "That's our sound system. It's what the salesman recommended, but nobody really knows how to run it. You want the job?" I see this time and again. They open the manual for the mixing desk and get lost in the terminology (I must say, however, that Mackie has a great manual). They look at other training materials a get overwhelmed with the comprehensive nature of them. I would love to have something to put in their hands that is easy to read, easy to understand, entertaining enough to keep their interest and makes them feel like, "Okay - I think I can do this - AND understand what it is I'm doing." I envision one manual to get them started with the basics and then maybe a follow-up that gets deeper into the technical and philosophical aspects of the position.

I'd love to hear ideas any of you may have as to things that would be useful, but that I might overlook.

A side note - I teach voice lessons and the husband of one of my students (both long-time friends) was recently hired at a rather large church (2000 members) to oversee all the technical systems. He has virtually no experience with running sound. In fact, he is the first to admit that when he listens to music, he can't distinguish between instruments, etc. Yeah, I know what you're thinking -- why was he hired for this? So long story short, he asked me if he could pay me to give him private training in running sound. So now, once-a-week, we meet up at our church for a 45 minute training session. I've really been enjoying it and am considering maybe offering a course that others could take.

I only wish we had a multi-track system so that we could do as Fred mentioned. That works so well when it's available.

Sorry for the ramble...

[worshiptrench]

Sound engineering is like being an athelete...50% genetic.
If you could invent a foolproof way to see if a guy/gal could really hear musically, you'd be rich. If they are a musician (even a novice one), you have a better chance than not that they can hear.

We are actually decreasing the size of our mixing crew from 4 to 2. I know this goes against everything else I preach about an inclusive ministry, but I am tired of hearing four different mixes. The other guys will move laterally to other tech positions...not the funnest conversation but a necessary one.

Why?
1. I want a consistent mix. A digital board will help this but I want even more consistentcy.
2. Confidence for the worship leader....that the cues will be hit, that if something crashes you will have a guy that knows exactly how to get under the hood and fix it. That if there is a complex situation happening i can have someone there to fix it.
3. Even when we feel we have someone trained, something happens, such as a violinist joins us in the mix and they tend to either overemphasize the "newly featured" instrument or under emphasize it.

So how then are the future "pro" sound guys going to be raised up?
I am not saying that we won't raise up anyone. I am just saying that:

1. Instead of telling 5 of ten guys, "Sure we'll train you." We'll only tell one in 10.

2. They will have to serve a long time and be patient before they are handed the FOH...if it takes 6 months for them to be ready or 2 years.

This is one of the few positions at NW I take this philosophy on. Everything else we work for rapid inclusion.

[Adam Ogden]

Good stuff guys.

I should clarify from my earlier post....When we do our "cattle calls" for mass trainings in our global setting, we don't allow ALL of those people to go out, and train others. We DO however, train trainers, who can train trainers, and so on....we just do not allow EVERYONE we train, to train the next person. Sorry, I should have been more clear.

As far as the book, that is a great idea. It's in my ministry plan this year, to produce that very same thing (with my staff AV manager heading it up). Basically a FAQ or Troubleshooting book that covers nearly every possible issues that might arise. This is the audio forum, but this would be a good practice to use for all areas of technical ministry. Things I would find useful are signal flow diagrams, input lists, etc. We also plan on doing a lengthy "If/Then" section....IF the Wireless Mic doesn't work, THEN 1. Check Battery, Check Mute, Check Channel Gain, etc. Trying to guess every little thing that might one day happen is tedious, but to know I can go home at 6pm, and not get a call that something isn't working properly, makes it worth it.

I love what worshiptrench said....sometimes you have to have the hard conversations. It's benifical for them, and it's benifical for you, to do so. That goes back to "being a 10" that I mentioned in another thread. When someone shows interest here, I never even give them the notion that they are automatically in, just because they want to help. I too am struggling with maintaining consistency across the different guys on my team. I don't mind slight personal variances....everybody has their own style....AS LONG AS...it still fits unsder the "Canyon Ridge Sound" umbrella.

Good stuff guys.

[WorshipCity]

Great things here again, if I could simply empathize with Worship Trench. I'm doing the same thing. We've got 5 sound techs and what I'd like to do is get 1 consistent 'lead' tech that then delegates the others. Consistency in the mix! THANK GOODNESS someone else said that! I'M TIRED OF GETTING 4 DIFFERENT MIXES! Dude, I'm with you completely! Honestly, I'd love to have 2 Sound Techs at our service to cover our bases but 1 who mixes! 1 who's point so that as a Worship Leader I'm confident in knowing that what we're trying to accomplish up front is being heard in the congregation!

[twc_admin]

Hey Ya'll -
We've made this thread a "Sticky" - it's great, and I think there are thousands of people out there that could benefit from the experience, so share it with your lists and people.

Gary - thanks for your feedback "from the field" ... because I know who Gary is, and because it's so easy to neglect checking people's profiles and websites, Gary is a missionary in Ireland who is actually out there training worship teams and developing worship ministry in Europe! Awesome.

[ericnkim]

I'm really enjoying this thread everyone! I'm a worship leader that's new to my church (9 months). I came in the middle of a sticky transition in which most of the previous band and tech team left the church! FUN!! I am in a total rebuilding process and have been looking for training materials, especially dealing with sound. Right now we only have one (very over worked) sound tech who has some training, he can mix fine, but he doesn't know the details of how and why a system works, eq's amps, gates, etc. If we had a serious sound problem next Sunday, something technical, we'd be in trouble!
Have any of you used the Church Sound Secrets training DVD's? We are looking in to purchasing them as a starter, hoping that they cover what we need.

[Klampert]

there is some great worship training material at Paul baloche's site www.leadworship.com and on www.worshipmusic.com

[amprodirect]

Once again I seem a little delayed in any response to this. I think Adam's model there is perfect (or at least near perfect). When training someone for sound, video or lighting in the House of Worship, it is imperative that they understand more than just the "technical" side of things. In fact I have found that I usually prefer someone with very little knowledge over someone that has great expertise in once of these disciplines to train. The one with years under his belt will often times have his/her own agenda or way of doing things. I certainly welcome the challenge and perhaps the way they have done it is better than the way we do it. But being teachable (the teacher and the student) is key. Once reason our mission statement is Technical Excellence with a Heart of Worship is that we strive for the excellence in our technical delivery but our heart is for the Master, not the product.

In '08 we will begin our audio training series (we took '07 off) called TrackSide Training. This is a once a month session focused on any subject. This month we are kicking it all off by sharing the vision, hearing from the Pastor, and taking a look at what is coming up for the rest of the year in training. We cover subjects like microphones, mixing desks, signal processors, setting a system up, sound check, and working with people. We open this up to the Austin area churches as well.

We also employ two other training curriculums, one is a 6 hour training seminar (the outer layer of the onion type) and second we have a mentorship training called 7 Track. We have interns from local colleges and universities participate in this.

I love training folks to do the work of the ministry. At Shoreline we have about 120 volunteers (I call them staff) providing technical support for 30 events a week filling 80 positions.

I am always looking for new ideas to train and develop great leaders. Thank you for sharing your ideas.

[halster]

though a little behind in this post a well .... would certainly like to take the consistany piece a little further .... We are currently working toward getting the process down on the sound board to get away from 4 different mixes from 4 different guys. Instinctively, we have said ... well get the gains, eq and effects set .... basic group mixes completed ... all then that's required is the "chasing" of leads and hi-lites ........... do you think we're kidding ourselves in thinking this will help us get that "this is who we are" sound we're looking for .... Thankfully we don't have to be concerned about tear down and set up for each event ... and players and vocal teams are consistant (with few exceptions).
Any thoughts .?? :)

[Stevie Nature]

I used to train mostly with freeweights, but now I got a Bowflex.

[russhutto]

I used to train mostly with freeweights, but now I got a Bowflex.
Chuckle...:o

[halster]

thx for the judgement ........

[worshiptrench]

Halster,

A digital board with recallable snapshots/scenes would help you massively not get four different mixes, especially if you have same players or player with similar gain structures. If one guy's mix gets "goofy" you could always say "Let's go back to baseline and see what is happening." Then hit scene recall and watch the HH fader that made you sound like disco queen drop half-way down. "See Your HH was a little too hot," you could say with a knowing smile. MAGIC!!!

[halster]

digital would be awesome ... but not there yet ..... :) thx