Why most worship songs aren't singable
Some very dedicated and well-informed worship leaders and musicians are saying that today’s worship songs are not suitable for congregational singing. Andy Chamberlain, co-founder of Musicademy says
“… you songwriters out there should take more of an active role in showing the worship team how to make their songs congregationally more singable, playable and useable”.
The answer lies in how successful worship songs happen. They rise up quickly via radio airplay. Once played on air, album sales, downloadable chord charts, arrangements, backing tracks, inclusion in set lists and the CCLI Top 100 quickly follow. So ‘successful’ worship songs are created to achieve radio airplay and/or album sales. This requires a different style of song to one suitable for congregational singing. It requires songs written and recorded to make great listening, not great congregational singing.
Not in tune with the congregation
This explains why successful worship songs are pitched to maximise the dramatic vocal range of gifted artists (and the current fashion - a high tenor). That’s never going to be the right key for a congregation, which needs a community average key. Some commercial worship songs don’t even have a ‘right’ key – their written range exceeds the average vocal range, so it’s always going to be too high or low somewhere.
To quote Kenny Lamm in his authoritative blog Renewing Worship:
“… one of the greatest ‘transgressions’ of worship leaders that leads to congregational spectatorship (is) the key of the song… if songs are too high, people just stop singing.”
Album-style performance
Congregations can’t follow a melody sung with ‘groove’. The timing variations that create an expressive artistic performance are too intricate and spontaneous for massed voices to follow. But singing the melody straight on a recording (or at a concert) sounds too restrained, like you’re singing without ‘feel’. And you’re not going to get airplay or sell albums with vocal performances that don't have 'feel'.
To quote Jamie Brown from his blog Worthily Magnify:
“One simple thing that many worship leaders could do that would immediately increase their effectiveness … would be to stay on the melody … only deviate from it when it won’t throw anybody off.”
Why melody and rhythm matter
Composers – often the artists themselves – create songs most likely to get airplay and earn downloads, because this is the way a worship song gets quickly and widely known. So even if you stayed on the melody, it probably doesn’t have the steady predictable rhythm essential for a congregation of limited musical ability to keep in time with each other or the band. Worse, lyrics are often written without the congregation in mind. It’s hard to get idea-rich, scriptural lyrics into a steady singable rhythm and harder still to do it consistently in each verse. So writers vary the melody to fit around lyrics that are out of meter and vary it again with each verse. The congregation probably sings the same line a dozen different ways. Which would sound terrible if you could hear them. But can you hear them?
Drowning out the problem
To counter the problem of making congregations sing worship songs written to sound good on the recording and generate airplay and downloads, many churches adopt a strange solution … they set the stage volume high enough to drown out the congregation. Not just the combined sound of their massed voices: loud enough to prevent individual members hearing their own voice. Church should be a congregation singing to each other and to God with the help of a worship backing band. Instead it has become a worship concert band performing to an audience. So it doesn’t matter what the congregation is singing or whether they are keeping in time or in tune. Doesn’t matter? Aren’t worship songs congregational songs? Shouldn’t every worshiper be able to hear their own song-offering to God and that of their fellow worshipers? Kenny Lamm thinks so:
“Think of the congregation as your most important musical group” he says.
'Success' makes worship songs fail
Commercially, airplay and downloads ensure the success of a worship song. Musically, they guarantee it's not going to be a congregational song at all. Andy Chamberlain explains:
“Many current popular worship songs are … promoted primarily through tours, albums, conferences, festivals and of course radio. That’s really the only way for songs to be heard … the problem is we require a worship song to be too many things to too many people.”
Ever wondered why worship songs produced for airplay and album sales sometimes begin with recorded applause? It’s to remind you that the song is for performing in front of a congregation, even when the vocal range and performance style tell you it isn’t.
What about church musicians?
The problem of giving congregations songs that are not singable is compounded by giving musicians a target sound impossible to play live. Album tracks today are not played, they are built layer by layer using an array of sophisticated effects. So the pressure to match the album sound has migrated the studio into the church, with live musicians playing along with sophisticated multitrack recordings.
Church karaoke? Are you serious?
If you like using multitracks and your congregation are blessed, keep doing it. Just understand that it’s a trend driven by the industry, not by congregations. A major market has been created by encouraging a fashionable worship song sound impossible to play live, then selling you the means to create it. That’s not a comment on the multitrack producers. Their recordings are very high quality, far superior to anything church musicians can add ‘on the fly’.
But how far do we want to take the trend? If our aim is to create a studio sound in church, we’d be better off using every track on the multitrack and just miming …. playing ‘air guitar’ and ‘air everything else’. Having done that, why not also mime the vocals? We know perfectly well why not! Now is a great time to think about the authenticity of live church music before worship ceases to be live at all
What about live concerts?
The common justification for church bands playing along with pre-recorded backings is that secular concerts do the same. They certainly do. But church is not a concert and the worshipers are not a concert audience. Your worshipers are more like a community choir, the church musicians are their backing band and the worship leader is their servant and guide. It’s the Christian version of a community sing-along (and yes, that is a bit ‘retro’) not the Christian version of a rock concert. Christian concerts are also great acts of praise. So too are concert items within a service. But let’s not confuse them with live communal worship where everything is authentic and the congregation is the main participant.
Solving the problem
Plenty of people are saying what I’m saying. You’ve probably said it yourself. But nothing will change until worship songs are created and selected for congregation singability and band playability, not what’s top of the charts. You can link to our website now and hear 70 totally new contemporary congregational songs played (and playable) by a 6 piece band, no tricks. And singable by a congregation after they have heard it once or twice. They are going to sound different to album tracks, especially the cross-generational categories. But they sound great sung by congregations.
Listen to PRAYERSONGS first – this category borrows most from the current sound. But they are still played, not ‘built’ in the studio. Then hear ANTHEMS for songs that maximise the beautiful sound of massed voices in praise. HIGH ENERGY are to energise your worship time, BALLADS to encourage your congregation to reflect deeply. TWEENS/JOY are celebration songs for children or just happy worship moments. RETRO celebrate contemporary styles of the last 3 decades. They create variety for your congregation and encourage versatility in your worship band. You can download the written parts just as our session musicians played them. And practice with the vocal-out rehearsal tracks if you prefer to learn by ear. Enter the site now to try it out or if you’re enjoying this conversation, I’ll talk more about the differences between songs written for listening and songs written for congregational singing. And I invite your comments to kylejardeau@gmail.com
Big melodies
It’s hard to create great tunes within the singable vocal range and steady rhythm essential for massed voices. Most songwriters don’t try, because it puts them at a commercial disadvantage compared to songs that go beyond these limitations. But it’s possible. ‘Shout to the Lord’ did, and that song is still on everyone’s lips 20 years after it was written. MMM Worship aims to create songs as memorable and inspiring as this, but in a very wide range of cross-generational styles. And if you haven't guessed, MMM stands for Melody, Meaning and Musicianship. Big melodies that bring the message back to mind again and again, meaningful lyrics that do justice to out great gospel message and a wide range of musical styles that improve the skills repertoire of your church musicians. Hear samplers of all 70 on the site or if you prefer to hear a song in its entirety search Kyle Jardeau on YouTube.
Idea rich lyrics
We aim for lyrics good enough to be read as poetry. Try reading the lyrics of some of your current set list and see if they pass that test. Our idea-rich lyrics, drawn from scripture and the contemporary experience of God, are never just an assembly of religious-sounding phrases. Professor Lester Ruth challenged Worship Leader readers to create new songs without the words holy, great, worthy, mighty, almighty, high (and higher, highest, greater, greatest etc.) These words form the lyrical basis of the vast majority of current worship songs. So it may surprise you that the Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount combined hardly use them. ‘Worship in Spirit and Truth’ means worship with heart and mind. Our melodies lift the heart and our lyrics engage the mind.
Live-played recordings
Our downloadable MP3s are studio recorded so church musicians can hear their instrument clearly in the mix. We only use audio effects that could reasonably be applied from a well-equipped live worship desk. If our 6-piece band can play them, so can yours. Not straight away, because they encourage you to master a variety of styles (including some Retro styles - hey, let's have worship songs that cross the generations!). The aim is for you to encounter new musical ideas, build your skills and enjoy doing it (see Psalm 33.3). If your band is smaller than ours, just use the musicians you have. You’ll find our melodies are strong enough, rhythm steady enough and words meaning full enough for every live worship moment.
Session arrangements
Our charts are more than chord charts. They are the same arrangements our musicians used in the recording. Want to increase your musicianship? Learn your part the way our session musician played it before making it your own. This teaches you to play in many styles, rather than following the chords and playing whatever comes into your head. If you prefer to learn by ear, listen to the vocal-out rehearsal MP3s and follow the chart as you do. It’s the perfect way to learn to read music, because you are seeing, doing and hearing. These rehearsal tracks and the full vocal version can be freely copied to your congregation once you purchase the $9.95 Performance Pack, which also includes the detailed band arrangements. If you’re just evaluating the song, download the Evaluation Pack for $2.95 which includes the vocal part and the MP3 plus the right to freely copy and circulate both to your music ministry team.
Church is not a dress rehearsal
Church time is too precious to waste on awkward moments struggling through a song the congregation doesn’t know. You band gets to know every song before playing it in church for the first time. Shouldn’t your congregation have the same opportunity? With our Performance Pack comes the right to copy, distribute and circulate the MP3 to your entire church membership, whether that’s 50 or 5,000. Upload it to your church Website, post it on your church Facebook page or attach it to your church e-newsletter. Your congregation can learn the song just by enjoying it at home, in the car or on their iPod.
They never need to download an album or pay anything.
Freely copy once downloaded
Our free-to-copy policy must cost us some serious money in lost album sales. Yes it does. We’re doing this as a small expression of our desire to see God’s people grow in their faith. Given all God has done for us, it’s the least we can do. So it’s time to cross to the site via the links on this page. Start with PRAYERSONGS, because they make the most concessions to current fashion, so the style will be familiar to you. Then try ANTHEMS which are for choir-led congregations or congregations who just love the swell of massed voices. Choirs are only museum pieces when they sing ‘museum-piece’ songs.
Then sample HIGH-ENERGY and play them loud! These are fast paced ‘Call to Worship’ songs that will wake the dead. (Well, God will wake the dead, but you know what I mean!) Then experience BALLADS and remember how beautiful melodies can fix our mind on a beautiful saviour and bring peace to a troubled soul. Then try RETRO to learn some adult contemporary music styles that reach the generations. Then explore TWEENS for kids who have outgrown simplistic children's songs!
Freely download up to 6 Performance Packs, with written band arrangements, free-to-copy MP3s, lyrics and vocal-out rehearsal tracks with our compliments. All 6 are free and come with our best wishes for every worshipful moment in your church.
In fellowship
Kyle Jardeau
kylejardeau@gmail.com