PRAISE-WORSHIP JEWEL No6: WHO’S ON YOUR TEAM? After last week’s PWJ5, I can hear the question you’re asking yourself: “ok, I got that, I discerned what my talent is, so what’s next?” Beloved Praise-Worshipper of the Most-High, Somebody said: “if you want to go fast, go alone! If you want to go far, build a team!” Anyone who ever played in a real good Praise-Worship team knows that the greatest challenge is to bring everyone to play as one; that’s Harmony, that’s Team Work! Whenever you check a really successful Gospel album, you will be surprised by how many people are acknowledged for their contribution: it’s a whole team in each song! Did you know that recording a successful song is unfailingly tied to the ability to build a great team? Let me just illustrate it with a simple example of a soccer (football) team: 1. The goalkeeper or No1 (producer) has the vision of the goal to be accomplished: he will initiate the whole action, get all the capital for the project, and will indeed be the “goal keeper” who makes sure the project stay the course, and does not deviate from the vision. 2. The Goalkeeper throws the ball to No 5, the central defender or agent, explaining to him what his vision is. 3. The agent goes to No2, the composer who immediately teams up with No3 the songwriter to create the great song. 4. The ball is next into the feet of No4 or the studio technician-programmer, who brings the basic song to life 5. At this point, it’s time to send the ball to No10, the central orchestrator of the whole offensive movement, the arranger, who is the offensive initiator towards success. The arranger will give the song its final structure for success. 6. No 10 sends the ball to No6, studio producer who knows how to convert the ideas of the arranger into the perfect sounds that will appeal to the desired audience. 7. It’s time to complete the midfield with No8, the video producer who will be involved in shooting all the sessions for future clips. 8. Now the ball moves into full offensive mode to No7, the instrumentist (s), crossing to No11, background vocalists. 9. The last pass is to No9, the goal striker, the one who will get all the credit for success, the one the audience will remember: the lead singer. Please note that the pathway described above is just one possible scenario among many, but most of times, from experience, this is the typical structure for a winning combination: you might well be the lead singer initiating the whole thing, but you still need to bring the ball back to confide your project to a good agent or a good producer who becomes a hired project manager. The best such example was the secular example of the Beatles who recognized their need and hired an agent, Brian Epstein, who in turn found them a producer, George Martin, for one of the most amazing musical successes ever. That choice was so crucial that when Brian died in 1967, the group could not hold more than 2 years! Bottomline: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TEAM! So the question is: who’s on your team? How are great team built? The answer is all over the news, every single day: you pick the best there is in each single position, and get them sold to your team vision! This is where big, big problems begin: Many are self-proclaimed composers, lyricists, arrangers, producers, studio producers, technicians, etc… I used to say to all our SOYOKO artists: “whenever you produce a music album, like or not, you just entered the competition for the Music World Cup! Why? Because every single CD buyer entering a Music store will compare your album to the very best in Industry worldwide according to his/her personal standards, and then give his/her money to the winner!” Therefore imagine the Real Madrid complacently recruiting average players to go compete against arch-rival Barcelona, a team with players of the caliber of Messi and Neymar: they would be crushed! That’s what happens daily throughout planet earth to many, many Christian artists who fail to get this simple concept: it’s all about the team, and you have to make sure that 1) you build a complete team and 2 ) you team can compete with the best! Please take note: one person might very well play 2, 3, or more roles on your team that could well be still very competitive, on the condition that he or she be really competitive in each position, having genuinely measured up with the best in the category (award winning or nomination, prizes won, recognition by peers or by the public, etc…), and not by simple self-proclamation. So here we are! Once again we’ve come to that self-check station: Who’s on your team? Blessings and lots of love to y’all, Roger Nkembe Pesauk
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:21:28 +0000
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