New Thought Music - The Sacred Music of Our Times

How NOT to get hired as Special Music In my church

I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how NOT to be picked by a person like me to come and do what I know you love to do. Please follow these suggestions closely :

1. Don’t have a spiritual path that’s identifiable. Be unable to tell me what you believe in. I love diversity and welcome Pagans, Theosophists, Native Americans, and most everything in between, but if you can’t tell me what you believe in, what kind of spiritual practice you have, then I have trouble connecting with your sincerity and your fit in my program.

2. Please call me repeatedly and make sure to tell me over and over again how wonderful you are, and how “everybody” loves your music. Early on in my career I would be so thrilled when members of the audience would come up to me and say “I absolutely love your music, you are fabulous”, but got a wonderful lesson when I visited the same church the next week, listened to someone else sing and heard exactly the same comment from the same congregant’s mouth. Somebody will always think you are wonderful. And you are, but please don’t tell me that.

3. Be sure to tell me your music fits my congregation. Unless you are a congregant, you wouldn’t know, and more importantly, the music has to fit into what we’re planning to do. A few years ago we did “Religions of the World” and it was very difficult to explain that we were looking for Christian music that month. A musician who chants in Sanskrit, however wonderful they may be, isn’t gonna work that month.

4. This is really important----please go directly to my Minister and try to convince him. And when you talk to me, tell me you’re his personal friend and he LOVES your music. I really like that.

5. Don’t send me a demo, so I can easily load you into my computer and listen to you as I work. I really like to hear the breadth of a person’s work, get to know you thru your music. Please don’t send me to your website instead. Even a special demo with verse and chorus is great. I’m not expecting a copy of every cd you have. I want to know what I can pull from. It gives me more of a chance to work you in.

6. Take it personally if I have to say “no”. I don’t like saying “no”, but it’s part of my job. If you want a gift from me, ask me why I have to say “no”, and listen in as detached a way as you can. I would be willing to tell you, and it may have nothing to do with the quality of your musicianship. Once I was introduced to a woman who had studied an incredible instrument in China for years…..I still don’t know what it’s called, a long boat-like instrument with many strings, and she was astonishingly proficient: but the sound timbre and range of the music—the whole genre was so alien to me I could hardly listen to it. And she was incredibly good.

So if you want to get hired by me, do your spiritual work first. Send me a demo with lots of contact info, be easy to work with, and willing to work with my schedule.

And soon you’ll be hearing about how to make my Sunday (and yours) work really, really well……and how NOT to!

Linda Webb-Khakaba, prolific songwriter and singer, has been the Music Director of the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa for 7 years, and a church musician since she was 9 years old. She’s co-ordinated the UCRS Gathering, Asilomar, the ANTN conference, and has been awarded a Heroine of Forgiveness award from the International Forgiveness Alliance. You can reach her at www.lindasmusic.net