Making Music Singable

This essay is adapted from Neal’s book, How to Hit the Ground Running: A Quick-start Guide for Congregations with New Leadership, Revised, scheduled for release in September.

Donning my hazmat clericals, I want to discuss the tendentious topic of church music, specifically, how to make church musical singable.

I am of the view that tunes sung in church are culturally neutral. Just as a hymn is a song of praise to God, music appropriate for singing in church is any song that praises God, whether that be Gregorian chant, monophonic or polyphonic liturgical music, folk, jazz, rock and roll, or whatever style of music the congregation prefers.

Many have said that if our church would simply add contemporary music to our service or a worship service that features predominantly contemporary music, then “our” church would grow. However, “contemporary music” in a religious setting can have two completely opposite meanings. It can mean difficult atonal Mass settings by avant-garde classical composers or it can mean a sort of soft rock “praise music” of a very specific kind. I am not lobbying for your church to use any particular style of music. I am recommending that, when it comes to music sung in your church, you consider several basic questions to guide you.

Question 1: Who Is Your Target Population?

Remember the Peter Drucker question: Who is our customer? Who is our target population? Whom are we aiming to reach? The issue with respect to music is not: What do I as the canonically authorized person in charge of the musician like? Instead, ask this question: What kind of music will help the people who are our target audience to engage the presence of God? Some people simply don’t like contemporary (pop) styles of music. Other people don’t like hymns. Many people like certain hymns but don’t really like more modern atonal arrangements to hymns.

The core value to be affirmed is to be culturally connected to our target population. The church is a missionary community that must engage the culture at the culture’s starting point. Thus, we begin with the hearer and ask how we can best communicate with this certain type of hearer. Music is not a unilateral act. It is participatory in nature. Music that is inaccessible to the worshiper fails to allow the worshiper to participate in worship.

An individual congregation might choose to limit its musical expressions to classical music and hymns, but if there are no other Episcopal churches in the area that offer alternative musical styles, then a large portion of the surrounding population may, in fact, be missed. Or, a church might offer multiple services, aimed at reaching different constituencies. One size does not fit all.

Question 2: What Style of Music Do Your Major Stakeholders Deem Appropriate for Singing in Church?

Not only should music be culturally connected to the target population, but it should also be culturally connected to the institutional culture. The kind of music that a person enjoys listening to or singing for pleasure may not be the kind of music that person believes is appropriate for worship. Although I enjoy listening to Willie Nelson sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” I may not have a sense of fulfilling worship by having sung that song on Sunday morning.

Try this exercise several Sundays. Make a list of each musical piece that your church sings in the worship service. Which hymns or songs does the congregation seem to sing well? Do they sing the responses or leave the service music to the choir? When people leave church, do they have smiles on their faces or are they somber? 

Question 3: Can We as a Congregation Do This Music Well?

Some hymns are simply too difficult for the average person to sing. The musical arrangement of some hymns may be too difficult for an individual organist or keyboardist to play. When a priest friend of mine first arrived at a new parish in New York City in the 1980s, she reported that the only hymn the congregation sang really well was “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” Rather than have the congregation sing a variety of hymns poorly, this smart priest had them sing “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” every Sunday. Instead of it becoming boring to parishioners, they sang it with gusto each Sunday, until the hymn attained something like “theme song” status among them. The Promise Keepers movement was tremendously successful in getting men to sing hymns. The hymns that they would sing were pitched several keys lower than found in standard hymnals, and the arrangements were more contemporary in their orchestration. 

Question 4: Does the Congregation Know this Hymn?

How often do you introduce music, and how often do people get to sing hymns or songs that are particularly beloved by the congregation? If you will reduce the number of hymns and repeat the singing of certain hymns that are special to your congregation, people will be able to sing more vibrantly, and worship will be much more satisfying.

Three Suggestions for Enhancing the Singing

First, as a priest and musician I have three other suggestions to help enhance the quality of singing. First, I am a capable singer and can sight-read music. However, I also know that if I am sight-reading music, I am not worshiping. When I am sight-reading, I am focusing on the notes rather than worshiping God through the music. Part of the power of our liturgy is that, Sunday after Sunday, we pray prayers and the Eucharistic prayer that saints have sung and prayed for centuries. Because we know the words so intimately, and the music so well, God’s Spirit joins our spirit, and worship occurs.

Second, always end the service with a “war horse” — a tried and true hymn or spiritual song that the congregation loves. You want to give people a song or hymn that they will hum as they leave. Most churches sing too many unfamiliar and difficult hymns and as a result reduce congregational participation. The liturgy ceases to be the “work of the people,” and music-making becomes the province of professional musicians.

Third, consider surveying parishioners and asking for their 20 most favorite hymns or Christian songs. Pick the top 20 hymns and have one of those favorite hymns each Sunday. Don’t worry whether the words fit the theme of the sermon. The chances are highly likely that the majority of your congregation will leave the worship service humming the final hymn, and thus taking the hymn home.