Monday, September 6, 2010

Change the Key boys

As many of you are aware I sometimes like to worship God through praise and worship songs. Now this is a reoccurring theme that keeps creeping up between the worship teams.Some songs that I do are too high for Brenda, and some songs Brenda does are too low for my team. I have also become aware of the fact that for some of you the key in which we sing is a hindrance to your vocal chords. So let me impart a few tips to make your praise and worship time in church more vocal, and and a little easier.

Now let me start way back when a lot of our old hymns were written.. I am thinking of Hymns by the gifted composers such as Fanny Crosby and Charles Wesley.

Did you know that the majority of tunes for these wonderful hymns were written by some of the most gifted men in history. Why? Well, because the men were the ones who were educated in the writing of music.
So why are these hymns and the modern hymns so difficult for men to sing in church..
Let me give you an example or two…
Blessed assurance Jesus is mine.. This wonderful hymn is so high to sing that men are standing on their toes to reach the high notes.  How Great thou Art.. now this stumps me at times and I sing pretty high.. SO. .. let me give you a few tips here my friends…

Men.. you are not intended to sing these hymns in the same octave as the women… you my brothers at times try to sing at exactly the same pitch as the women, but your voices are different .. therefore it cannot be done! So what do you do? Well, you sing the song an octave lower than the women. If you struggle, relax your voice and move down an octave. Now it is the same note, just an octave lower.
I am going to defend the music writer here my friends.. The worship music is not written for women’s voices. If you take the time to study some of the higher worship songs you will find they are written by men and originally sung by men.
I can only Imagine” A truly wonderful song of adoration sung by MercyMe… Now have you ever tried to sing this? It is almost impossible for a woman to sing this as it is written for a tenor voice, therefore for girls to sing it in the key in which it is written and in our octave, we would need a hot air balloon to get to the heights required.

Of course, there are times when the person in control of the team should consider lowering the music a key or two. I certainly don't want you to stand in church and feel robbed of the ability to worship through song because you just can’t reach the notes.
So my friends what I am really trying to say is this.. Music is NOT written for the female voice. It's not written for the Male voice.It is written for THE voice, what men and women need to do is forget how it sounds.. sing it high, sing it low,, start singing from your heart and not your head.

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