This past Sunday, I was running propresenter and we had a new director in the chair next to me. Midway through the service, I noticed he was using the “auto-trans” button exclusively. He didn’t cut at all.

New directors (and most churches, which tend to have self-taught, or local directors) tend to think that music demands a cross-dissolve “because it’s smooth.” While I won’t argue with the smoothness of a good cross dissolve, I will argue that music, especially needs it.

Look around at your experience. Have you ever instantaneously moved from point A to point B, several feet away, without moving through the distance in between? No. Our brains don’t notice cuts (unless we’re specifically looking for them or the ones causing them) because there’s nothing in our experience to train us to look for a situation where you’re one place and then another without the movement between the places.

Now, slowly close your eyes and open them again. Maybe tomorrow morning open them and wipe the gunk from a night’s rest. This is more like a dissolve. You’ll notice a dissolve because it’s more like what you do all the time.

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