The Traditional Church in the Twenty-First Century: Doing Something about the Church Music—Part 1

By Robin G. Jordan

A Perennial Problem. A typical traditional church is small. It usually has limited musical resources. Its music program, if it can be graced with that name, is often woefully inadequate and is beset with all kinds of problems. The choir has too few voices or there is no choir at all. The church matriarchs and patriarchs are opposed to any and all changes in the church music. The organ is broken. The piano is out of tune. The organist or pianist is inexperienced and can play only a handful of hymn tunes. The acoustics of the room in which the congregation worships are poor. There is acoustic tile on the ceiling. The vestry carpeted the floor and padded the pews, making the acoustics even worse. The congregation sits scattered around the room. They sing half-heartedly and their voices are barely audible. They seem afraid to utter the words. When the hymn is unfamiliar, the voices falter and one by one fall silent. The pastor who picked the hymn for a reason only known to him and who thinks that he knows the tune sings an off-key solo. The challenges are so many that we may be tempted to throw up our hands in exasperation. Something must be done about the church music, we mutter under our breath. But what? And how?

A Ray of Hope. Thom S. Rainer in his research into why the unchurched become churchgoers discovered that among the things that may attract the unchurched to a particular church is the attention that church gives to the quality of the music in its worship. This tells the unchurched person that the particular church takes the worship of God seriously. He also found that it did not matter what kind of music that was used. It could be very traditional music.

Rainer’s findings fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that to attract the unchurched a church must use contemporary music and replace the organ or piano and the choir with a band with electric guitars and drums. The conventional wisdom is based upon the observation that certain segments of the unchurched population are attracted to this kind of music. While this observation may be accurate, the traditional church can also attract a segment of the unchurched population with traditional music if it gives attention to the quality of the music in its worship.

Good quality music does not need to be complicated. It can be quite simple. What matters is whatever is done is done well. If a church is indifferent to the quality of its worship music, it conveys the message to unchurched visitors that the worship of God is not important to that church. It is simply going through the motions of worshiping God but the heart of its clergy and congregation are far from him. Unchurched visitors are quick to conclude that such a spiritual environment is not something of which they want to become a part.

Where then do we start?

Congregational Singing. The congregation is the primary musical resource of the traditional church. The improvement of the congregation’s singing should be a top priority. This may be challenging if the congregation is aging, has weak voices, and has little or no confidence in their singing ability. But it is not impossible.

According to James Rawling Sydnor, “great congregation singing is being achieved when the entire congregation sings a sizeable number of good hymns with spiritual perception and musical artistry.” He identifies four objectives.

1. All of the congregation sings. Our task is to do all we can to increase the percentage of the people who participate in the singing of the hymns and service music.

2. The congregations sings a wide variety of good hymns. The congregation that sings only a dozen or so old favorites cannot be described as displaying the quality of singing found in an enterprising congregation that knows a hundred or more excellent hymns.

3. The congregation sings with spiritual perception. Each singer feels and understands the emotions and thoughts contained in the text of a hymn. The congregation is singing the hymn to God with the spirit and with the understanding also (1 Corinthians 14:15).

4. The congregation sings musically.”Good congregational singing,” Sydnor writes, is the result of following such simple musical rules as united attack, spirited movement at a tempo set by the organist or pianist, blended firm tone, and vital rhythm.” Sydnor notes that John Wesley in his seven “Directions for Singing” in his 1761 Select Hymns offers good practical advise for achieving congregational musicianship, which have survived the test of time.

Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.

Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.

Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.

Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.

Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.

Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.

Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

The following are some ways of improving the congregation’s singing, which have proven their effectiveness.

1. Identify what hymns, hymn tunes, and service music that the congregation knows. Recruit a large group of people who regularly attend a particular church service. This group should be fairly representative of the congregation of that service and should include non-singers. It should not include choir members if your church has a choir. The group will need someone who can play the hymns and service music for them. Over several Sunday mornings the group should go through the hymnal and rate each hymn and hymn tune. If If almost all or most members of the group know the words of hymn to a particular tune, the group rates the hymn “familiar”. If almost all or most of members of the group know the tune but used with different words, the group rates the hymn tune as “familiar.” (If all the members of the group know the words or the tune, the group may want to rate the hymn or the tune, as the case may be, as “very familiar.”) If a large part of the group does not know the words or the tune, the group rates the hymn or the tune as “unfamiliar.” If no one knows the hymn and or the hymn tune, the group rates it “new.” The group does the same thing with the service music.

The end-result of this process should be a list of all the hymns, hymn tunes and service music, listed as they are found in the hymnal and rated according to familiarity. A copy of this list should be given to whoever selects the hymns, hymn tunes, and service music for church services to guide them in their choice of music. Most of the hymns and service music used in a service should be familiar.

If the congregation is small, the entire congregation can be recruited to identify the congregation’s repertoire. If the church has more than one church service with music, the repertoire of each congregation should be identified. The use of familiar hymns, hymn tunes, and service music does wonders to build the confidence of a congregation in its ability to sing.

However, if our goal is great congregational singing, we should not be satisfied to stick to only familiar hymns and service music. Identifying the congregation’s repertoire is a first step. The next step is to expand that repertoire in a systematic manner.

2. Be deliberate in the way unfamiliar or new hymns, hymn tunes, or service music are introduced to the congregation. This is to key to helping a congregation to become more open to the use of unfamiliar or new music.

I am a great believer in congregational rehearsals either before the service or during the week. When they are held during the week, they provide an opportunity for fellowship as well as for learning new music and practicing unfamiliar music. Congregational rehearsals also convey the message that the music of the church services and the role of the congregation in that music are an important priority. Helping a congregation to learn and master the music that they use in the worship of God on Sunday mornings is one of way that we build up the congregation in the Christian faith and life.

One small but thriving church with which I occasionally worshipped in the 1980s would have a potluck dinner after the church service on Sunday morning. The congregation would then learn any new hymns, worship songs, or service music planned for the upcoming liturgical season, practice unfamiliar ones, and then finish with a hymn sing of old and new favorites.

A brief congregational rehearsal before a church service in which familiar hymns and service music are practiced helps to warm up the voices of the congregation. It is difficult to plunge into singing without a proper warm-up but we expect congregations to do it every Sunday.

One successful method of introducing unfamiliar or new hymns or hymn tunes to congregations is the hymn of the month. In selecting an unfamiliar or new hymn for the hymn of the month, pick a hymn with inspiring words, a wide use, and a winsome tune. In selecting an unfamiliar or new tune, pick one that is engaging and worth mastering or learning. An unfamiliar or new alternative tune to a familiar hymn can breathe new life into a hymn. When the hymn of the month method is used to introduce an unfamiliar or new hymn or hymn tune, the tune is initially introduced either as a prelude, instrumental offertory. This acquaints the congregation with the melody. I recommend against introducing the tune as a postlude as people generally pay little attention to postludes. Their minds are on lunch or whatever they are doing after church. The tune, however, can be repeated as a postlude if it was introduced earlier in the service. If the congregation has a choir, the hymn is sung as a simple hymn anthem between the epistle and the gospel, before the sermon, at the offertory, or during the communion on the following Sunday. The words of the hymn will determine the best place in the service to introduce it. The congregation may be invited in the service leaflet to join in the last stanza of the hymn when it is sung as a hymn anthem. On the following Sunday it will be included for the first time with the other hymns that the congregation is expected to sing. Where hymn is placed in the service will be determined by its words. The hymn then repeated the remaining Sundays of the month. Ideally, the hymn will be one that can be used at several points in the service so on each successive Sunday it can sung at a different juncture in the service. When introducing an unfamiliar or new hymn or hymn tune it does not matter if it sung at the same place in the service for several consecutive Sundays. Following the month in which it is introduced, it should be repeated fairly frequently to integrate it into the congregation’s repertoire.

If the congregation does not have a choir, a cantor or soloist can be used to introduce the hymn on the Sunday after the melody of the tune is introduced to the congregation. Or a brief congregational rehearsal at which the hymn will be taught to the congregation can be held before the service at which the hymn will be used for the first time. The hymn is then repeated on the remaining Sundays of the month to help the congregation to master it.

A practice that should be avoided is the unvarying use of the same familiar hymn Sunday after Sunday at a particular juncture in the service where a variable hymn or anthem is called for. The children’s hymn, “Thy Gospel Jesus We Believe,” The Hymnal 1940, No. 249, has particularly been misused and abused in this way as a gradual hymn.

Modern computer technology now enables churches to record unfamiliar and new music that will be used in church services, and to burn it onto CDs for distribution to the congregation or to upload it to the church’s website where the congregation may download it to their home computers, laptops, and I-pods. Traditional churches need to take advantage of this technology to help their congregations to learn new music and to master unfamiliar music. Like congregational rehearsals, this application of computer technology conveys the message that the music of the church services and the role of the congregation in that music are an important priority. It also helps worship planners to become more intentional about the unfamiliar and new music that they use in church services. A CD or I-pod download of familiar music that members of the congregation can play on their way to church in their cars and to which they can sing along enables them to warm up their voices for the church service. It can also be a part of their spiritual preparation for the service, focusing their attention on God.

3. Use familiar hymn tunes to expand the congregation’s repertoire, substituting these tunes for those of unfamiliar or new hymns. While it is preferable to master unfamiliar tunes and learn new ones, this does permit worship planners to use a hymn that might otherwise not be used and which may be especially suitable for a particular Sunday. Care should be exercised to ensure that the mood, the emotional tone, of the familiar tune matches that of the unfamiliar or new hymn as well as its meter. It may be desirable to practice the hymn with the congregation before the service.

4. Ask the members of the congregation to sit closer together and not scattered around the room. The congregation will not only sound better but the effect of their combined voices will give them new confidence in their singing ability. This may require roping off a few pews.

5. Teach the congregation proper breathing for singing, dropping the “diaphragm” and breathing deeply rather than shallow breathing from the top of their lungs. This will increase both the projection and volume of their voices. The way of breathing is taught to choirs. It should be taught to congregations too.

6. If the hymn tune is familiar, a part of the melody of the tune should be played as an introduction to the hymn—enough to stimulate and refresh the memories of the congregation as to the tune. Some hymnals suggest how much of the melody may be used as an introduction. If the hymn tune is unfamiliar or new, the entire melody of the tune should be played. I recommend teaching the congregation the practice of humming or “poing” the tune to themselves as the introduction is played. By “poing” I mean singing each note of the tune to “po” quietly, under their breath. This helps to register the tune in the mind of each singer. In the choirs in which I have sung, it was a common practice for the choir director to have the choir sing the melody of an unfamiliar or new tune to “po” when teaching it to them. This simple method for registering a tune in the minds of the choir members works for congregations too. The tune is not quite as unfamiliar or new when it comes to singing the first stanza of the hymn. I personally do it with familiar tunes just in case I have forgotten the tune.

7. Limit the choir to singing parts only on one or two stanzas of congregational hymns. The first and last stanza should always be sung in unison to the melody. The choir should also practice familiar hymns as well as unfamiliar and new ones. The choir’s role is to provide musical leadership and support to the congregation, not to sing for the congregation.

Singing Churches. What I would like to see is that traditional churches, wherever they are, enjoy the reputation of being churches for whom the worship of God is important and its importance is reflected in their church music, but also that of being churches that cannot keep from singing. Singing is in their blood, in their DNA. They are churches that are known for their love of praising the name of God with a song and of magnifying Him with thanksgiving (Psalm 69:30). They are churches that bless God and let the sound of his praise be heard (Psalm 66:8). Their Sunday worship embodies this verse from the Venite, “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” (Psalm 95:2) They are singing churches that have taken to heart these words, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the Lord!” (Psalms 150:6)

Suggested Reading: James Rawling Sydnor, Hymns and Their Uses: A Guide to Improved Congregational Singing, (Carol Streams, Illinois: Agape, 1982.