In this first in a series of interviews with Worship team members, leaders and tech directors I speak with Freddy Wachter, Worship of Pastor at Crossroads Church in Fremont, CA.Freddy was kind enough to spend several hours with me (I intended 30 minutes but we were both passionate about the topic and just kept going). I learned a LOT as a worship team member especially from the perspective as a leader! The interview was conducted March 13, 2015…
Ted: For the music at your church, do you have an ideal instrumental configuration/setup for services or one that you use most of the time?
Freddy: We typically want to always have a full band. A full band just gives a livelier sound for certain songs. But I’m always open for trying new ideas.
Ideally if I have a drummer then I’m gonna want a bass player. For me it really depends on the teams we have each month. That’s how I plan my sets. So if I don’t have a lot of lead guitar players I’m not gonna plan really rockin’ songs.
Ted: So part of it is you plan on who is available and what works for the songs?
Freddy: Yeah… As far as vocals go, our stage is pretty small so we have narrowed it down to two to three plus myself at the most.
Ted: How important is it to you to have “singable” songs for the congregation?
Freddy: I think its really important, and what I find (and this is just my personal feedback from people) is there is something interesting that happens when a female vocalist leads over a male. The congregation reacts differently. I don’t know what it is. Even though I’m a tenor (I’ll sing “higher” songs) and I have a female sing the same key, she [sounds like she’s singing ] like an octave above me even though she is in the same register. To the ear it sounds like its higher and really its not. Same thing with altos and female vocalists, so their’s got to be a balance.
I read an article Chris Tomlin wrote and he said one reason he sings high is it forces the congregation to shout the songs rather than just say the words. I kind of took that mentality when I sing higher keys and have noticed the congregation does sing a little louder. I would say if you are in smaller environments like small groups or small rooms where people aren’t gonna really sing, then you want to drop the keys though.
Ted: What is your process of choosing a setlist?
Freddy: Once a month the Senior Pastor and I will meet (which I really love) and we will basically go over an entire month. Once a year the church leaders go on a retreat and map out a plan for the year. When they return from the retreat we flush out the details.
We always want the last song to be the reflective [on the sermon message] song. Sometimes we’ll leave with a congregational (congregation “friendly” or worship) song. As far as the setlist goes, I’ve been taught to teach the congregation one new song a month. We only do three songs so its hard sometimes. You want to teach them new songs, new theology or else the repetitiveness leaves the congregation just saying the words not singing the songs. I’ll try a new song for two weeks and if the congregation is not singing it, or its not resonating with them I’ll pull it from the setlist and I’ll never do it again.
We also do a type of song we call a “special” – a song that can be sung but isn’t necessarily singable. For example, we do a song “Come Away” where the lyrics are from God’s perspective. It is important to set up that type of song or else the congregation is gonna be totally lost.
Ted: Let’s talk about volunteer musicians. Can you elaborate on issues like selection, motivation, creativity, etc?
Freddy: Their’s a saying that goes “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care”. And “you can’t ask for someone’s hand until you touch a heart”. So one thing I did intentionally is I had a meeting with every single band member when I first came to this church. This way I could get to know them and their stories. Then I auditioned them to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
I think a common mistake for Worship Leaders is they rely more on team member’s skills and don’t emphasize that they actually are part of a team and they matter. They “use and abuse them”. Be a part of their life.
I always tell the teams, “God first, family second ministry third”. Too many times I find people who put God first, ministry second and family third. Then they are serving so much that their families feel neglected. Next thing you know they are burnt out and leaving the church. I always work around the volunteers availability. I try to plan the setlist two weeks in advance each month and a reminder goes out to check on people’s availability.
I’ve learned to help meet their family’s needs – the volunteers see you care and are often more willing to serve and come more prepared. There’s a saying we have here: “without vision people perish”. Without a vision a worship team is just singing songs. The vision for our teams is to bring excellence because God deserves our best. Our vision is also to take songs that help either a person who has never been to church before understand who Jesus is, or people who’ve been in church their whole life connect with God in a ways they can’t if they aren’t singing.
The vision is also: “we accept anyone with a heart.”.. I look at the musician’s heart more than their skill. But, I also think that everyone has to be teachable and willing to put in the time. A lot of times you see musicians who just want to play. Its like, “If I’m not gonna play or if you don’t think I’m good enough I’m going to leave the church”. Well then I know where their heart is – they just want to be on stage with the lights… and it doesn’t match our vision.
People do tell me all the time, “I have the heart so isn’t that enough to be on a music team?” My response is that music is a learned skill. Just like you wouldn’t go to a surgeon to do open heart surgery on you who hasn’t been training themselves in the latest and safest methods to ensure your life. You wouldn’t just put someone who can’t sing or play on a stage only to see them fail. Don’t get me wrong failure is part of success. Practice makes you better but never perfect.”
Lastly, I do tell those who continue to challenge me with, “but, God can be glorified even if I can’t sing or play”. True to a certain extent. To whom which I reply, “I’m pretty sure that when David was asked to soothe King Saul from his tormenting visions that David played very gracefully and skillfully. Hence David writing in the psalms sing and play skillfully before the LORD.”It was established from the beginning God wants our best. Look at what happened with Cain and Able. God always deserves our best not 2nd’s.
I also believe in giving the musicians tools to succeed. One of the biggest pet peeves for people who come prepared is if someone comes unprepared. then its [the prepared musician’s perspective] “Now you’re just wasting my time, I could have spent 15 minutes with my kids or watching my TV show or whatever.”. So I believe in giving clear song roadmaps ahead of time to communicate to them. They can use the roadmaps for practice and take notes on. I let my musicians bring their notebooks with the roadmaps to service if they need them but not the vocalists since we need to connect with the congregation. I’m hoping working with more detailed roadmaps will make it easier for people to come prepared.
Ted: Tell me about giving feedback to team members. Let’s say something is not going quiet right at practice. What is your approach to handling this.
Freddy: I generally give the feedback on the stage. One thing I learned is “public praise, private critique”. I think every musician should take critique, but it depends on how it is presented. If you humiliate someone in front of the entire team you’ve lost “change respect” from everybody else. Sometimes I’ll ask the other team members “is that how that lick goes?” to see if there is a consensus. That way the person doesn’t feel the leader is attacking them and they are getting encouragement from everybody else. Sometimes if it is way off I’ll ask the soundman to play a recording of the original song for us to hear and compare.
My perspective is sometimes the original artists have spent hours or years of perfecting the song to where they thought it was the best it could be. So what right do we have to come and go “hey I don’t like this I want to change this? I can do a better solo than this person.”
Ted: So you like to follow the recording closely?
Freddy: For a season, then when we’ve played it a bunch of times I’ll say “ok, let’s make this our own”. Memorizing something a certain way is easier than trying to come up with something new yourself, so this also helps the practices go smoother. It also depends on the skill level of the team members and their particular strengths.
I’ve also learned some people are really good but can’t do a particular part. Due to their strengths they actually play their own part – something different but very interesting. I don’t push and say “you have to learn it this way or I’m not happy.” But I will encourage the person to play the part.
–For part II, go to this link [button style=”” url=”https://www.sonicnuance.com/2015/03/18/freddy-wachter-interview-part-ii/” size=”” block=”false” target=”_self”]here[/button]
For more information, contact:
Freddy Wachter – Pastor of Music at Crossroads Church
Freddy@crossroadsfremont.org
