2012 April — Tom Jacksons Expressive Worship

Passion Sells

This title might seem crass and cheap at first glance, but let me explain. I was on a flight home from working with a speaker who is just beginning a tour in which she delivers five, 5-7 minutes talks to arenas filled with Jr. High kids. An audience NOT for the faint of heart, I might add!

We had spent 2 days together, weeks before the tour, crafting the talks she’d written, getting the right words and thoughts together, finding the best scripture translations, and worked on her storytelling. Since this girl is just 15, what she was saying needed to sound like how someone that age would say it, as opposed to how an adult would.

We also had to think about her audience and make sure what she was saying made sense and was relevant to how a Jr. High mind thinks as well. [Read more...]

Be the Unique Person God Made You

By Tom Jackson Leave a Comment

Psalm 139:14 – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Taking risks can be a scary thing. In all the years I’ve worked with musicians and singers, I can’t recall one who didn’t have an invisible wall of fear – something they were afraid or uncomfortable to try.

But if you want to be the unique person God made you, using the special gifts and abilities you have, pouring your personality into whatever you do – you need to have the courage to take risks! You can’t always just “play it safe.” [Read more...]

Seeing the Music

By Tom Jackson Leave a Comment

I’ve worked with many singers who are trying to find and develop a unique vocal style. A great vocal coach can help with this. On the flip side, a bad vocal coach who only understands one style and tries to teach you that (whether your voice is suited for it or not), is a big mistake! You’ll never find “your voice” that way.

If you’re a guitar player who takes lessons from someone who can only teach one style (and it’s not the style you want), you’re with the wrong teacher. I’m not saying you can’t learn something from them, but you’ll never find your “instrumental voice” that way. You may find out what you don’t like, but it’s not the way to develop your own sound, your own tones, your own expression on the guitar.

The same thing holds true with expressing yourself visually onstage. Most artists don’t need to learn how to dance, so they don’t need a choreographer. They don’t need to take a theater class to learn what to do onstage. But there are fundamentals that everyone needs to learn to express themselves onstage. [Read more...]

Rules Don’t Limit!

By Tom Jackson 1 Comment

There are rules for writing a song to be played on radio.

Some of those rules are obvious: a song shouldn’t be shorter than 2 1/2 minutes and shouldn’t be longer than 4 minutes. And generally you need an intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus format.

There’s a plan, a form to get played on radio.

We willingly follow the rules for songwriting to communicate for the format called radio because we want people to hear our music and our message, we want to influence people, and (sometimes) we want to earn a living.

But most artists don’t know there are rules to communicate from another format called the stage. When it comes to the stage, most artists operate in ignorance and generally just “wing it.” Great athletes don’t “wing it.” They understand they don’t get four strikes in baseball or five downs in football. Rules bring a format and a context for the great athletes to shine! [Read more...]

Fun With a 5-Stroke Roll

By infoattjp Leave a Comment

It’s so helpful to know the classic drum rudiments. I use them all the time for exercises and warm-ups. [Read more...]

Winging It, or Planning It?

By Tom Jackson 1 Comment

Being in this music industry for at least… well, a lot of years, I’ve seen most people “winging” it. There’s nothing wrong with learning as we go, because that’s life.

But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a show (a big show) and I watch the artist backstage with their band or producer, and ten minutes before the show they’re writing out a set list.

And, depending on where someone has to change a guitar or whatever, they put a big “T” for talk. Someone needs to talk there. [Read more...]

My Heart Was Right

By Amy Wolter 3 Comments

In my recent blog Freedom to Disappoint, I wrote about how it’s pretty impossible to keep everyone in one church happy. If you try to do this, I’m sure you’ll go insane.

Jim wrote in after reading that blog, saying how he cleared the stage one Sunday for a pared down acoustic-type set, and had sent an email to leadership letting them know what he was going to do.

Well, he got jumped by the sound guy, who was taught that no one messes with the sound board or stage between services, and ended up in a meeting with him and the pastor over it. Jim also stated he ‘disappointed’ people because the things he said and the way he expressed himself from the platform was too ‘polished’. [Read more...]