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.

Way to pick 'em

Today I’m listening to a bunch of worship cds and also browsing iTunes, listening to 30 second snippets of worship songs. There are so many things I look for to find a “good” song for Mac to worship with. Music in general is a topic that is plagued with baggage - styles, volume preferences, etc.

There has always been an honesty factor in music that we work with at the MAC. Back when I first started doing this, I determined that the music we do needs tyo be meaningful, and singable by everyone in the church. In the last few years, "church music" has gotten more diverse - it’s not as cut and dry as it used to be. The rock stations play so much more than rock music - the lines between genres themselves have blurred to a point where it’s hard to classify songs. The emphasis on genere has switched to an emphasis on reality, sincerity, and epic. today's worship music takes people on a musical journey. It is important to pick songs, that when tied together, reveal something of the charactor of our God.

So with that, here’s the general ideas around my song picking criteria:

• The song allows people to worship God by: -”Hooking” their hearts with the music - music that complements the lyrics, innovative, not cookie-cutter. -Intellectually connecting with God through the lyrics, which must be clear, relevant, and sincere. (Real!)
  The lyrics must be theologically sound.
• “God” focused songs, rather than “me” focused. I tend to agree with this quote:
  
  “If you doubt what I’m saying, listen next time you’re singing in worship. It’s about how Jesus forgives me, embraces me, makes me feel his presence, strengthens me, forgives me, holds me close, touches me, revives me, etc., etc. Now this is all fine. But if an extraterrestrial outsider from Mars were to observe us, I think he would say either a) that these people are all mildly dysfunctional and need a lot of hug therapy . . . or b) that they don’t give a rip about the rest of the world, that their religion/spirituality makes them as selfish as any non Christian, but just in spiritual things rather than material ones.” -Brian Mclaren
  Now, this isn’t a 100% rule, (there are MANY great “me” focused songs out there that really glorify God) but it’s a good guideline to follow, to help avoid that “consumerist-experiental” American trap we so often fall into.
  
• Songs about a mission have been taking off like crazy in our church, like “Take My Life” - songs that could get you “in trouble” if you really are sincere the words you are singing! Just think about what you’re giving God permission to do! He’ll probably do it. Side note - have you ever been in prayer before a service and invited God to humble you for that particular service? He will. You’ll break a string, or forget all the lyrics, something will fall out of the ceiling and break your equipment, or SOMETHING. Dangerous. I love it.
  
• Relevant lyrics. Words like “Zion,” “Israel,” “Jubilee,” “Ancient Of Days,” etc don’t mean much to our audience unless they’ve grown up in church. I’m not saying we should simplify our message or water it down, just keep current with today’s language - it’ll resonate with people’s hearts a LOT more.
  
• After a song gets picked, I listen to it and play it by myself a ton of times and think of new things to do with it musically, or whether it needs things added to the lyrics - then take it to the band. We practice it a few times, then think of ways to make it better as a group, and then bring it to the church. When we’ve done it three times or so at the church, we’ve got the “feel” of it, and can really fine tune it to a new standard. It’s a fun process to be a part of!
  

OR . . . you could skip the weeding out process and write your own worship songs. More on that later.