Worship Training Seminar with Wayne Huirua

A little clip (courtesy of Nigel Old Soul), from the vocal workshop conducted by Wayne Huirua. Here Wayne is demonstrating tone and dynamics with regards to worship vocalists, as we're singing the chorus of "Worthy."
L-R: Jonathan on drums, Reg on bass, Cheryl + me + Seng on vocals, Andie on keys, Jimmy (from Integrity) on electric guit. Wayne on acoustic guit in front.

Wayne @ RiverLife for the songwriting workshop.
L-R: Ernie, Ivan, Jeremy, and Wayne in his black skinny jeans again!
(Photo credit: Jerry Chua)

This week Wayne Huirua was back in town to conduct a series of workshops organised by Integrity Singapore. We had him at RiverLife for the songwriting workshop on Tues, and at Trinity Christian Centre @ Paya Lebar for the Weds and Thur workshops on vocals and band dynamics. I was really encouraged to see pple from various worship & music ministries across S'pore gathered in one room to worship God and to learn together. It really broadens your view of ministry and your heart for God's Kingdom.

A beautiful sea of worshippers. It was also the day that Cheryl & I were the accidental "Barney Freaks" in purple. Everyone kept asking if we coordinated colours deliberately. haha! The next day though, Nigel actually WANTED to coordinate our colours. So we both turned up in guy-friendly black. (Photo Credit: Jimmy Chew)

The RiverLife team had the honour and pleasure of being his backing band for the Weds and Thur workshops. As Cheryl said, "it was a stressful, but very fun experience!" Stressful because 200 people who paid good money for the workshop, are staring intently at you while you're trying to get it together on stage. Well, it helped to have our front row of RiverLife supporters cheering us on, and telling us how proud they were of us. So sweet rite? Seems like we all take turns to groupie each other! haha!

(Photo Credit: Nigel Old Soul)

I'm really thankful for that valuable experience of working with Wayne, who's become such a good friend to RiverLife. Loved his generosity in worship, his humour (the man can do a mean Singlish accent! Better than me and Cheryl in fact!), and his insightful teachings. I took away many lessons and nuggets of wisdom.

In particular, when he spoke about singing, leading worship from a place of brokenness, from the depth of life experience....that really resonated with me. I also loved his 'cake analogy.
"When you lead authentic lives, the song you sing on Sun will just be the icing on the cake. The church has too much icing and not enough cake." Brilliant stuff eh? That's something worth chewing on. :)

The next challenge is to write more original songs that reflect what God is doing in RiverLife. Hmm....