A performance. Here’s one of the big problems I’ve had with alot of praise and worship groups in recent years. Several years ago, worship music suddenly became the “in” thing to do; performing artists dropped what they were working on and produced worship albums, or totally became worship bands. I really hope that this was done by them feeling like it was God calling them, and not because they new it would make them money if they produced worship albums. Either way, it was done, and they did well.
But here are some of the problems it produced. While being worship bands and singing worship songs, at the same time they were doing it in a performance style, which means high vocals and lots of bridges and solos and repeats. These can be two hinderances to worship. Because people heard the songs and wanted to copy them, so they looked up the chords and listen to the album over and over and then went to their church or youth group or wherever they were and sang them exactly like they were performed on the CD. Sigh. I’ll tell you why this is not always the best.
We don’t all have the vocal range of Pavarotti. Performance bands sing songs really high because that’s what people like to hear, and they are able to do it. Most people in the congregation don’t have those high notes and either have to drop an octave if they know how or just sit there and feel bad because they can’t sing the song. Performance bands also play in a performance style that doesn’t necessarily have alot of repeats except for the chorus, which means they can have more verses and bridges and solos and all that stuff for your listening pleasure, which is great but doesn’t always transfer to worship music so well. So now we have worship leaders excited that their favorite performance band has a worship album out, goes and learns all the songs note for note and word for word, and leads them to a very frustrated and confused crowd.
“So you are saying that we should not sing those songs then?” No, I’m not saying that at all. Many of these songs are great. “So what do we do?” I’m so glad you asked. Like I briefly mentioned before it’s gonna be through changing keys with an understanding of vocal range, and creative control.
Since I took so much time on the set up though, we’ll save it for tomorrow. Peace.
