Transcript included below…

Today, I want to talk briefly about an administrative element that can benefit guitar players who lead worship, play concerts, serve at weddings or memorials, festivals, school chapels, conferences, or just about any venue where someone might wield a guitar.

Now, I may have almost lost you at the word “administrative,” but I think we can all agree that in addition to the artistic side of our musical offerings, there is also a logistical side.

With this in mind, I believe there are a few things we can do that can bring peace of mind to us, and even to the people we collaborate with.

Most notable is the strategy of putting together a gear checklist so that everything we bring to a venue can come back home with us, and only those items.

You might have a simple setup, like: a guitar, capo, tuner, strap, and cable. Or, like me, you might have multiple instruments, several stands, dozens of cables, and even a portable sound system in tow.

I do my best to be as self-contained and self-sustaining as possible when I serve in ministry. In other words, I don’t assume that a venue will have items that I know I’ll need…even simple things like boom mic stands or guitar stands. I really prefer my equipment whenever possible. But I can be flexible, especially when I need to fly to a venue.

Looking back over my career, regardless of whether I drove or flew to venues, I eventually wised up to the fact that it might be prudent to make a list of the gear I was bringing to the venue.

As my presentation got more complex, so did my equipment. And some of it was on the expensive end, or at the very least, the customized end. So, I needed to make sure I brought these things on the road, and also brought them back home. Let’s take a closer look at two of these items.

Specialized Gear Piece #1: the TA4FThere is a particular item that’s a little unusual that has found a place in my collection of equipment for over 20 years that I’ve grown to depend on for every concert.

It’s a battery pack and receiver for my wireless headset. This battery pack has a connection that some technicians will recognize – it’s called a TA4F. Turns out, it’s not a universal connection.

I’ve used this setup for over two decades at my shows, and it doesn’t take much for me to pack it up when I drive to gigs.

But when I knew I was flying out to a venue hosted at a huge conference facility, I submitted a tech rider with all my specs, and even followed up with one of the staff members with a phone call to make sure they had a TA4F. His response was, “Sure, I think we can do that.”“Hold on,” I said. “You think you can do that, or you can do that?” We talked for a few minutes, and I wasn’t entirely certain at the end of our conversation that he would have that item in hand.

So what did I do?

I packed a more portable and lower-end version of the battery pack and receiver (with my needed TA4F connection) to have as a backup.

After flying to the city where this event was to take place, I took the train, walked multiple blocks, and arrived at the venue, where I greeted the technicians.

“So, you guys have a TA4F connection for my headset mic, right?” I asked.

Their response was a blank stare. They had no idea what I was talking about.

Their front of house tech said, “Listen, I don’t know who you talked to, but we don’t have any of that kind of equipment here.”So, my backup setup became a lifeboat. And this setup was, of course, listed on the gear checklist I brought with me. The event went off without a hitch, and people were blessed as I played my guitar and sang into wired mics and my wireless headset mic.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. “Why not just sing all of your songs into the same mic?” Yes, that would certainly be more practical.

But perhaps I might ask a similar question, in a totally different area of artistic expression. If someone is a painter, would they use the same brush for all their paintings? What I’m getting at is this: in the words of performance coach Tom Jackson, “If your songs don’t all sound the same, they shouldn’t all look the same.”

That’s where the different mics come in. After following Tom’s wisdom for over two decades, these various tools have really proven themselves to enhance my artistry, especially since I don’t travel with a live camera crew to amplify the look of my show.

Let’s talk about another custom piece of equipment in my collection of gear.

Specialized Gear Piece #2: The Foot Cradle Apparatus

For one song, I play two guitars at once; one with my hands, and one with my feet.

To keep the “foot” guitar in place, I have a special customized cradle my dad built, that attaches to a customized stool I sit on, and which has straps that lash the guitar down so it doesn’t move as I fret and strum it with my feet.

The operative word for the cradle and the stool is “customized.”

I call this device my “foot cradle.” It folds up nicely, and I wrap it in a blanket for transport. The song, which I call “Four Limbs,” is a great closer for my concerts, as I sing about bringing glory to God with all that I do.

You may recall me mentioning this when I talked about my America’s Got Talent audition in Guitar Serious Fun Episode 23: “Don’t Stop Playing Your Guitar.”I did a concert several years ago where I drove over an hour to the church I was serving at. I had planned to play “Four Limbs” for the evening concert, but partway through the morning of worship services, it dawned on me that I had not packed the foot cradle.

I had no margin to go home and get it because I had a 3-hour guitar seminar I was planning to teach in the afternoon, which led right up to sound check, a quick bite for dinner, and then the show.

The pastor, who was very “can-do” and solution-minded, saw the perplexed look on my face and said, “If you’re missing something, I’m sure we have something like it here at the church, or if not, someone in the area probably has one.”

I didn’t quite know how to put it, but once I used the word “customized” a few times, he realized that it was looking like the song would need to be scrapped for that evening’s set. So sad. Not tragic, but disappointing.

Fortunately, my sound tech’s wife graciously agreed to make the “two-hours plus” roundtrip trek to my house and back to retrieve the cradle. I thanked her profusely, and then performed the concert, closing it out with “Four Limbs.”I never made that mistake again – I’ve always brought the cradle to my shows. Why? Because now it’s listed on my gear checklist.

Now, I usually remember to bring the gear to the venue that I need, but there have been occasional times where I’ve left gear at the venue.

In the years before I had a gear checklist, I can recall a few incidents where I left cables that didn’t have my name on them that became absorbed into the venue’s equipment. Another time, I left a customized mic stand at a church. I even left a guitar strap at a festival I played at.

But one time, I left my custom Four Limbs stool at a venue, and had to drive almost 3 hours roundtrip to reclaim it. I hadn’t included it on my gear checklist.

I could tell you more stories, but you get it. Having the gear checklist is essential to my process, whether I’m doing my complete show, or teaching guitar workshops at a conference, or leading worship.

I now include a gear checklist even when I travel to a conference as a student, because I want to make sure I have everything with me for optimal learning.

My mindset for “gearing up” for these venues is not unlike a team of astronauts flying to an unexplored planet. They have a manifest of equipment that they’ve loaded onto the shuttle. And they travel with everything they need.

If a piece of equipment is not on board, they’re not going to find it on the unexplored planet.

I served at a church plant for several years where we knew that the school that was hosting our services was not positioned to provide anything but power from the wall. So we came with an entire backline, most of which was in a box truck that pulled up each Sunday morning.

But there was a host of music gear that also needed to come with the band, which varied each week based on how much gear we used at that week’s practice.

And certain band members, in addition to bringing their own stuff, brought gear that the rest of the band could use, like music stands or amplifiers.

The drummer had his own gear checklist, because he brought a full drum kit. Not having a snare drum could have really put a damper on things, right? Fortunately, we always had the full kit.

I put the gear checklist in the digital “plan files” for our Planning Center plan each week. (Notice how many times the word “plan” was used in that sentence.) The mindset behind the gear checklist is the idea of planning.

We can’t wing it each time and hope to have success – there needs to be a plan of action. This is easier for some than others, but it can bless everyone. Sure, we can throw a bunch of stuff in the car and grab what we need at the gig, but efficiency eventually pays off.

This is especially important when time is limited.

I did a show one time at the Hard Rock Café in Seattle, where I shared the stage with two full bands, both of whom had a ton of gear.

In terms of performance order, I was second in the lineup. So I had my equipment staged to the side, pulled it up onstage for my set, and pulled it right back offstage afterwards. This kind of setup is very common, especially when I’ve played Christian music festivals in a lineup of multiple artists. Having less gear helps, but it’s still a quick transition.

A friend was helping me put my gear back in the cases after my set after my Hard Rock Café show, and he shook his head at my 2 column, 2 page gear checklist.“This is crazy,” he said. To which I replied, “This is not my first rodeo.”

Suddenly, he got it. If I had accidentally left some of my cables, mics, or other gear behind, they would have been unintentional gifts to one of the other bands or the venue. The flipside is also true – I could have unintentionally taken gear that didn’t belong to me.

That would have been very unfortunate, especially since the gig was a good drive away from my house, and the other band members were from all over the region. But everything went back to its proper home.

At the end of the gig, what saved the day? The gear checklist.

If you plan to take your guitar anywhere, I highly recommend a gear checklist for you in your guitar travels.

You don’t have to make it super fancy, but here are a few ideas.

Tips for Making and Using a Gear Checklist

First, type it up in a document you can save or print.

Having it in digital form to glance at on your phone can be good. A printout is something you can hand to someone who is helping you pack up, so they can read it out loud to you.

I recommend both. I’ve occasionally lost my printed version in the shuffle and needed to rely on the digital copy on my phone.

Second, listing things in categories can be super helpful. I tend to group things by how they fit in cases, whether instrument cases, suitcases, or bags. I have a list of stands as well.

Third, feel free to number certain items, and/or to use boxes on the document that you can check off.

Even as I type up the gear checklist, I highlight things on my desktop as I load them into my car, and once they’re all in, I “unhighlight” them, and then I print up the checklist.

Here are some sample screen shots of gear checklists I’ve made for my ministry endeavors.

You can even lay everything out and snap a photo with your phone, which I’ve done, but this only works if it can all lay flat without hiding equipment underneath it. And this approach is best for a simple setup with just a handful of items.

Sometimes, I’ve shown up without an essential item, like a power supply, direct box, or adapter. And most of the time, the venue has been able to provide it.

But there have been times where I’ve needed to go without a certain part of the performance because I didn’t have the gear to support it.

I’ve also had multiple circumstances at the end of a show when I was ready to head out, and when it was really tempting to just say “Yeah, I probably have everything.”

But my better judgment gave me the motivation to read through my gear checklist, and sure enough, there was a cable or music stand that had almost been left behind, sometimes blending in with those from the venue...because someone had unwittingly moved my gear over to the venue’s gear.

Once again, saved by the gear checklist.

One bonus pro tip is to find some way to label your gear, either with a label maker, or some colored tape. But do something to make it look distinctive, so that if a sound tech is packing up alongside you, he or she can say, “Yeah, this must be yours, because it doesn’t look like one of ours.”

Once you’ve created your gear checklist, save it as a template so you can make use of it in different iterations for the needs of each specific venue.

And after your gear checklist is all dialed in, what’s next?

You know it…playing you guitar, bringing glory to God, and having serious fun. You’ve done the diligence, and now you can reap the benefits.

Well, I hope these ideas have been as helpful to you as they have been to me in my decades of touring, leading worship, teaching workshops, attending conferences, and playing for events.

Please know that my heart is to serve and encourage you practically, and if this episode has accomplished that, I’m doing a little happy dance over here.I also invite you to drink deep of the knowledge I’ve carefully curated for beginning and intermediate Christian guitarists inside my unique online experience at GuitarSuccess4U.com.

I invite you not to wait, but to join now. I hope to see you there.

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