Ever wonder why your congregation isn’t singing? Your songs may be the culprit.
Find a congregational praise song with a great melody and lyrics and you’re set, right? Not quite. Many new worship songs only sound good when sung by professional singers, not average congregations. I believe this is one of the biggest problems with today’s music, and why your congregation might not be singing like you think they should.
Right now, pick up a songbook with the latest cutting-edge worship songs. Just look at the typical melody — it’s a syncopated frenzy, and probably way out of your congregation’s vocal range. How can the average person sing that? They can’t, at least not with any confidence. And isn’t one of our goals as worship leaders to encourage our congregations to sing, and sing with all they’ve got?
The next time you sing one of these hot songs in your church, listen closely to the congregation (or record the service.) You’ll probably be shocked to hear your congregation struggling to keep up.
One time at my previous church I led worship from the keyboard for a small prayer meeting of about 20 people, and my eyes and ears were opened. One chorus in particular was a complete train wreck — no one could follow the melody because almost every note was on the off beat. I hadn’t noticed during church with the band blaring, but the problem was quite obvious in this casual setting. The song had great words and a nice melody, but the extreme syncopation was nearly impossible for the average person to sing. From then on I tried to select songs that were reasonably simple to sing and within a normal vocal range. Maybe that’s why hymns are making such a comeback – they’re full of quarter notes!
Size up your congregation, too. A church body filled with 20- and 30-year-olds can handle much more adventurous songs than an older congregation. If your congregation is rhythmically challenged, find songs that, while still contemporary, can bridge the gap. “Our God” and “Here I Am to Worship” are so popular because they come from the more contemporary world yet can cross over to more traditional settings – they’re simply singable.
Bottom Line: Choosing worship songs that are singable by normal mortals will create a more unified, participatory worship experience for your church.
15 Responses to “Singable Songs”
August 7, 2012
Robin ThompsonWe are a small rural church and cannot afford the in ear monitoring systems available. We have a full praise band (guitars, bass, drums, keyboards) and would love to have the monitors. Maybe one day!
August 7, 2012
Cyndy WarnierAmen is all I can say to this great directive. I love some of the new songs I hear on Christian radio but when they try to do them in our church, hardly anyone is singing and we are a good singing crowd with a diverse age population–but lots of young people too. It seems with many new songs it is not just syncopation but also a lack of a melody. One test to me as a worship leader is also “what song am I humming?” after worship (and others as I do ask them). With no small wonder, it is those that are truly singable! And the criticism goes both ways as there are many hymns which albeit the text is awesome, but the melody is unsingable and the meter is so weird you cannot adapt a singable hymn tune to the text. My solution: have a good dramatic reader with a powerful and moving power point supporting it–beating people up with trying to learn an unsingable song shuts down their heart of worship.
August 7, 2012
Pastor DanDo you have a list of your Top 20 “singable” contemporary songs you could share?
August 7, 2012
Don ChapmanLet’s look at this week’s top 25 CCLI and I’ll list the ones I think are the most singable. Most are except “How He Loves”
Our God
How Great Is Our God
Mighty To Save
Revelation Song
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Blessed Be Your Name Beth Redman, Matt Redman
Here I Am To Worship
Everlasting God
Jesus Messiah
In Christ Alone
Open The Eyes
Your Grace Is Enough
You Are My King
Holy Is The Lord
Hosanna
Shout To The Lord
The Heart Of Worship
Come Now Is The Time To Worship
We Fall Down
August 7, 2012
susanI absolutely agree. I am all about participatory worship. I’ve been frustrated trying to find ‘new songs’ especially upbeat songs. It seems the popular songwriters are writing more and more songs with an almost 2 octave range. Normal people can’t sing that!! As well, if I hear a song with a lot of ‘dead space’ between phrases I know that probably won’t work in church. sounds great with a professional band filling in, but us amateurs don’t have quite the same effect
. I’m leaning more and more to a multi-decade worship set. There are good songs out there, does it really matter what decade they are from? I don’t quite understand the obsession we get with having to have all new music??
August 21, 2012
Don ChapmanYep, the pop octave ranges of these songs are ridiculous – meant to showcase a hipster worship leader’s voice, not the congregation’s.
August 7, 2012
Philip RossI agree about the music. In fact I find that so many songs continue to be just a recurring musical theme and lyric theme. Musically it is pretty harsh and un-fulfilling (i.e. they all sound the same and say the same). I am at the upper end of age for a worship leader, and did not grow up on “modern/contemporary” Christian music. I too believe the use/rewrite of old hymns are really appreciated. The songs I have introduced done that way are readily accepted and enjoyed. Being rural, our church really enjoys some good gospel now and then. Easy to sing, and fun.
August 7, 2012
DanI agree. There are several current worship songs that have a forgettable or vague melody. And a couple of them are essentially a verse followed by a chorus which is exactly the same, but an octave higher. The verse is so low that it’s hard to sing, and then people have to strain to try to hit the high notes of the chorus. The purpose of a worship song is (guess what?) to worship God, and if the song itself is a distraction, how does it contribute to an atmosphere of worship and reverence for our Lord? I like Cyndy’s description: it “shuts down their heart of worship.”
August 7, 2012
Dorothy BensonThank you very much for broaching this subject. I receive many questions. I do not want to be critical but where has the message, melody and rythmn gone? You have been helpful to me.
Thank you.
August 7, 2012
DanDorothy, Don’s list (from the top CCLI songs) does illustrate that many of the most sung worship songs are the more singable ones. I agree with you that most do not have the same depth as hymns. I love the hymns and intentionally include one in every worship set I put together to make sure we as a congregation are singing more substantive words. As Don has written many times, it can be a challenge to make a hymn fit in a worship set — but with care, it can be done, and it brings an intentionality that enhances our goal of making our worship a meanginful and thoughful offering of praise to God.
August 8, 2012
TeresaIn my opinion, a blended service with a variety of music works well. Too much of any one style gets monotonous. If you look at any style, you will find things that are hard to sing, etc… I am alto, and some of the hymns are hard to lead in worship because the melody is in a high voice range. I love the combinations of hymns, and worship songs that are coming out!!
August 9, 2012
DanTeresa, good point about the voice range. This fits well with this topic of singable songs. A number of the prominent worship song writers/leaders are tenors, and sometimes the original key is too high for the typical congregation. “Set constructors” often make one of these two mistakes: either they will just use whatever lead sheets they can find (whatever the key), or they will put a song in a certain key to transition from the previous song — in either case, not considering the vocal range of the congregation. There are exceptions, but I use the general rule of making the high note of a song around a C (maybe D). Then a key change (which I tend to incorporate into one of the last songs in a set) can move the high note to a D (maybe even an E), providing more energy and brightness. This sometimes means that, for hymns, I have to lower the key from what’s in a hymnbook. I figured that this kind of process would be a no-brainer among people putting together worship sets, but I’m surprised at how seldom I see it when I visit other churches.
August 18, 2012
Susan UpdikeI have really enjoyed reading all the comments —our congregation ranges in ages up to 80. We do a variety of genres and it’s amazing to me when I hit on a song that is “tried and true” you can just sense the worship flowing. When I introduce a new song, I try to use it regularly, but also not beat the congregation over the head with it. Some songs that speak deeply to me may not always be the most singable song for a congregation. I have been leading worship for years and I appreciate the old and the new…one of my 80 year old members came up to me the other day and thanked us for the music…that spoke volumes to me that the olders enjoy the different styles as well. There definitely is a sensitivity that comes with selecting the music and I give all glory to God for the years He has allowed me to lead people into His presence.
November 18, 2012
MargaretI have played piano for congregational worship for over 20 years. The facination with tech gadgets and trying to out do the last over-the-top, super charged ‘emotion fest’ is NOT worship. Singable songs is a no-brainer.
We have taken what should be reverent, awe-filled admiration and worship of the One True Living God and turned it into a circus. I attended a friend’s church last year when her son was being ordained. They have the projector screens up with announcements scrolling, the whole garage band instrument collection arranged on the “stage”, complete with the 20/30-something age “praise team”, and speakers mounted everywhere blaring “pump up music” that I associate with football games. I probably looked like Elle Mae Clampet in the middle of this vogue church gathering but I felt sorry for these folks.
They were singing songs that Barbara Streisand would walk away from. The words were on the wall but nobody knew “where to put them” so I noticed most folks looking blank but swaying to the beat, trying to clap in time to the music. Then there were the other folks with their mouth moving, hands raised in the air….but the mouth didn’t match the song. Maybe they were lip syncing?
The point is with all the wires, gadgets, fog machines, print outs, and remote operated equipment….nobody thought about Jesus. It was obvious.
This phase is going to pass because we’re running out of things to do to one-up the last big thing we did or heard about. What’s next? Petting zoos? Solid Gold Dancers? Door prizes? Then the fad-hopping crowd will get bored and move on to the next thing. The people left that still want to worship better know some familiar tunes that the congregation can sing.
“Make a joyful noise” is what Jesus desires from us. He said so in his Word. He wants our worship and is worthy of our worship. We can sing along to the radio in our cars. Turn off the CDs, unplug all the eletrical do-dads, pray for Jesus to make our worship acceptable to Him. We don’t have to audition for Him…..we already got the part.
November 19, 2012
Don ChapmanSingable songs is a no-brainer to those who have a brain. Unfortunately hipster worship leaders are too concerned with being cool to perform un-hip music that a congregation could actually sing.