Transcript included below…
Have you ever broken a guitar string? Has it ever happened in front of a group of people? Breaking a string onstage is what I would call “just shy of helpful.” I restring my guitar regularly, often enough that I can tell which string will likely break first.
But we’ve all been surprised by a string going “snap” at a very inopportune moment.
I watched this happen to someone else when I was a musical guest at a church. Here’s how it went down. There was a solo worship leader who was leading an opening worship set of two songs. I was slated to go up and share an original song after his set.
But just as he was wrapping up the first song, one of his strings broke. It wasn’t too loud, but I heard it. And at that point, only he and I noticed it.
In the interest of keeping the momentum of the morning going, I motioned to him that I could hop up and share my special music song so he could go put a new string on his guitar. That seemed to make sense to him, and as I went up on the platform, I glanced at the sound tech, who adjusted gracefully to mute the worship leader’s guitar and to unmute mine.
The worship leader then disappeared backstage with his guitar as I seamlessly moved into my song, sharing my heart, playing well, and serving that congregation.
Everything was flowing smoothly. Until the worship leader came back out with his guitar, plugged it in, and spoke into the mic.
He said, “Hey, I’m really sorry about that. I’m not sure if any of you noticed, but I broke a guitar string during that first song, so I needed to stop and go put a new string on. I hope you weren’t distracted.”
I smiled and shook my head, thinking, “We weren’t distracted, but we kind of are now.”
It took a moment for us to get back on track as he tried to transition back into worship leading for the next song. I’m pretty sure some of the folks had a hard time recovering from that awkward moment. I know I was caught a little off guard.
Congregations come to church with the hope that they’ll be led in a focused time of dwelling with the Lord. It’s my conviction that what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
I certainly don’t want to throw this worship leader under the bus; we’ve all said things on the platform that we probably could have abbreviated or re-phrased. But my willingness to step in and cover was an excellent opportunity for him to take a cue from me and to continue to guide the people forward throughout the morning.
I remember one time that I had bought a bad batch of guitar strings that were old and oxidized. Against my better judgment, I put those strings on my guitar, and watched in disbelief one morning at my home church during worship as three strings broke at three separate times.
Fortunately, we were able to cover as others spoke, prayed, or there was a time of congregational greeting. I was able to quickly re-string three times during that service, and believe it or not, no one noticed…not even my own mother.
Since then, I keep my guitar strings fresh, and sometimes, if I’m playing in different tunings, I’ll even have a secondary guitar with me on the platform, all ready to go.
But in those times when I’ve broken a string, I really do try to avoid drawing a lot of attention to myself…especially if it’s in a worship environment where my desire is for the Lord to be the focus.
People don’t need to know about these things. There’s little they can do anyway. Think about times when you’ve seen someone step up to a podium, or be handed a microphone, and they say, “I’m really nervous. I don’t like speaking in front of people.”
“Cringe,” right? “Ok. Well, you’re speaking in front of people. And we want to hear what you’re going to say. So please consider focusing on that, instead of why you don’t like speaking to us.”
For the most part, when we’re in front of people, especially with our guitars, they want to hear what we’re going to play and sing for them. So, let’s play.
And when the inevitable string breaks from time to time, let’s just ride loose in the saddle, recover graciously, quietly ask for assistance if needed, and the congregation or audience will go along with us for the ride.
What they don’t know won’t hurt them…but even if they do know about it, as long as we’re not upset about it, they’re likely to be pretty chill about it, too. And then we can get back to the seriously fun music we came to play.
P.S. More is waiting for you at www.GuitarSuccess4U.com.
What They Don't Know Won't Hurt Them