When I first began as a church musician, I was about 10 years old.  I was given the task of teaching the CCD students songs for mass.  I remember having a plastic template of upper case block letters and some brightly colored markers, and I painstakingly wrote out the lyrics of the songs onto large poster board in a mess of mis-matched colors and used these to teach the songs a cappella.  

Coming from a traveling family, I was confirmed in the Church later than most, when I was 16.  It was at this time that I led my first song at Mass:  Gift of Finest Wheat, which was NEW then!  The church musicians told me they could not play it so I led it a cappella.  

Good melodies do not require any instrumentation.  As I said in a previous post, if a melody requires the harmony to sound good, I avoid using that hymn.   However, a good accompaniment can lend beauty, energy and excitement.  And if you have a congregation that is still finding its voice, you can use instrumentation to lead them and allow them to hear the beauty of their singing without covering it up.  So here are a few pointers for accompanying a needs-to-sing-more congregation:

1)  When using a percussive instrument, like a piano, recruit a sustained instrument to double the melody.  Having that melody presented strongly makes the congregation feel more secure.  If you don't have a sustained instrument, you'll most likely need to sing along, but keep the volume such that they can clearly hear themselves sing.  Try for a balance so that they can hear you about as much as they can hear themselves.

2)  When using a sustained instrument like an organ, be careful of what stop settings you choose.

For starters, leave the celeste stops for instrumental pieces.  If you want a congregation to sing on pitch, the pitch needs to be obvious, not blurred.

I also avoid combining flutes with principles.  I realize I'm in the minority here, but go to the organ and experiment.  When you combine a flute with a principle, in general it creates a more "woody" or blurred sound.  It's beautiful, but I don't feel it provides the base needed to support hesitant singers.  I've had other organists tell me that they must do this for volume, but often there are work arounds with creative use of couplers.  For example, pull a string from the swell to the great using both the 4' and 8' couplers.

So I stick to either flutes by themselves, principles alone, flutes and strings, or strings and principles when leading congregational singing.  And I pull different octaves from the choir and swell to make it possible to have variety while still sticking to easy to follow solid tones.

3)  When your singers are unsure of the melody, play it in octaves and leave the rest out.  It can be very effective to play even the first part of a hymn line, and then finish the line with a cadence.  For example:

Melody                           Chord  Chord    Chord
Immortal, invisible, God on-       ly           wise

4) As an organist, you need to listen and adapt.  While I'm all for pre-sets, and do love to come up with fun registrations, I find I have to be adaptable.  When a congregation is singing strongly, I can add a trumpet descant to a final verse.  If they are barely singing, I switch to emphasizing the melody.  How loud the organ is varies according to how many people are in the church, how many are wearing coats, and how loud they sing.  If I play too quietly, they don't feel supported.  If I play too loudly, they cannot hear themselves sing.

I hope these few ideas inspire you to come up with your own list and share it in the comments!

The primary goal of most church musicians is to foster enthusiastic congregational singing.  For any group of people, be it an adult choir, a children's choir, a barbershop quartet, or a congregation, one of the most important steps is to choose music appropriate for the group.   While this has a subjective component, I'd like to briefly discuss three aspects of hymns that I consider.

1.  Text.

Before choosing hymns for a given Sunday I reflect on the readings for that day and sketch out a list of hymns that reflect themes or messages in the bible passages.  I think this is a fairly standard practice for any lectionary based parish.  Some music directors are given the theme of the pastor's sermon and go from there, or maybe they are only given a liturgical season.  But at any rate, the first consideration is the text.  I check to make sure the texts of all the music, including the choral anthems, reflects the theology of my Church and supports the readings for that day.

2.  Melody

I specifically choose melodies that I can easily sing a capella.  If singing the hymn requires the support of the harmonization of the accompaniment, I do not choose it for my parish.  Easy to sing melodies tend to make use of step-wise motion, small intervals otherwise, and musical sequences.  I look for a small melodic range of B3 to D4, although if a hymn is truly beautiful and does not linger too low or too high, I'll use it.   Children can have difficulty singing below B3 and older adults prefer lower ranges.  So if you want everyone to sing, you'll need to limit the range.  The exception is for much loved hymns that are motivating enough for people to make an effort to go outside their comfort zone.  I'm always amazed at how loudly people sing "I Am the Bread of Life" as it breaks most of my guidelines for a good melody!

3.  Depth

This last component is quite subjective:  Depth.  Does the text and melody combine to create a hymn that has beauty and inspires awe, joy, reverence.  If the hymn inspires a feeling that it is "cute" it does not make the cut.  I avoid the trite and the trivial whenever possible.

It would be nice if I could just list out songs and say, "These are the ones that work!"  But the selection of music is so very specific to the congregation under consideration that it's just not possible.  So much depends on the past history of the parish, the theology of the denomination, and the backgrounds of the participants.  So all I can offer on this front are the broad, subjective criteria I use for my own purposes.

In working with volunteers, family members, and children, I have found that if you want them to do something that is good for them, you need to make sure that their efforts matter.  If you are encouraging a child to learn to clean up their room, you have to get out of the way and not do it for them!   If you want to encourage people to volunteer in your programs, you need to create a space for them to work.  Far too often I see people who "lead" by stepping in and doing all the work themselves, and then they are surprised that it gets harder and harder to get people to volunteer: they know their efforts are not needed.

This same idea holds true in church music.  If you want the people to sing, you have to let their voices be heard.   If week after week you sing everything loudly through the sound system, the congregation knows that their voices are not needed.  If you are TOO loud, they cannot hear themselves sing at all, so why should they bother?  If you embellish too much when you sing, you are sending a message that you really want them to listen to YOU sing rather than sing themselves.

If your congregation currently does not sing, and you suddenly stop leading with a voice on a microphone and start leading with instruments, they will not know what to do.  But there is a simple solution that gives people a taste of how beautiful it can be when a congregation joins together in song.

In my faith tradition, there is a short sung "Alleluia" response right before the gospel reading.   It seems that every Catholic in every country of the world knows Christopher Walker's "Celtic Alleluia."  So that is where I recommend starting.  Begin by having the cantor sing the Alleluia once and then BE SILENT as the congregation echoes it back.  The cantor then sings the verse and then needs to be SILENT.

I know this idea will make some of you upset.  You have beautiful harmonies that you've been singing for ages on that piece, and now I'm suggesting you just be quiet.  Once your congregation begins singing, you can add the singing back in, only be careful not to overpower them.  The congregation should be louder than you!  Turn the mic down.

After I achieve getting the people to sing the Alleluia, my next step is to do the same for the Responsorial Psalm, but I am careful to use familiar ones that they knew fairly well.  For newer refrains, they really do need a voice to lead them.

If your worship service does not include a Gospel Acclamation or Responsorial Psalm, you can still use this technique by using any song with a well known short refrain.  Have the song leader drop out for the refrain.

The most difficult part of this process is having a volunteer cantor who is upset that you're asking him or her to sit something out.  I find even telling a cantor directly right before to step away from the microphone or not sing that bit can sometimes not work.  I have a solution:  I have the mixer right next to me and am able to continue playing while turning the volume to zero. 

After you have the congregation singing reliably on these two short refrains, then you do the same for any well known hymns accompanied on the organ or other sustained instrument.  In a later blog I will explain why piano or guitar alone is not the next step in the process, rather, the melody needs to be played with a sustained sound in order to encourage singing.  Gradually, after hearing themselves sing as a group, it will become the culture of your parish and they will sing no matter what you do!

One of the first things I did when hired at my current position in what was then a non-singing parish was to ask the pastor to allow me to talk to the congregation and ask them to sing.  I also published bulletin blurbs on the topic.  After I gave my talk, and for a few weeks that followed, I had long time parishioners tell me that they had never realized that it was important!  It's up to us as music directors to let them know how important their voices are.  Here are the reasons I gave:

1.  "He who sings once, prays twice."  St. Augustine's famous quote really does come in handy.  Most people have heard this before and can easily grasp the concept.  Putting a prayer to music can enhance and amplify the emotions associated with the text, and it is this emotional connection to God we are seeking with our communal prayer.

2.  Singing in a large group develops a sense of oneness with others in the group.  When we all breath at the same time and sing the words in unison, we are crying out to God as a community, not just as individuals.  We can attempt this with spoken prayer, but I usually hear some people rushing ahead, or lagging behind.  The beat of the music solves that problem and brings us all together.

3.  I often call to people's minds an image of a birthday party where no one sings "Happy Birthday."  What a dismal celebration that would be!  No, even those who have difficulty carrying a tune sing Happy Birthday with gusto at a party because they want to add to and be a part of the creation of feelings of good will for the person celebrating a birthday.   Our Church service is also a celebration!  

When you speak to your congregation, do so without reading from a script.  Speak from the heart.  These three points are easy to remember and motivating to hear.  If you currently have a non-singing congregation, I think just an occasional reminder of why we sing will make a difference.

There are many aspects of my job as a church musician.  Some of my job includes playing a supportive role to create a welcoming space for worship.  There is the behind-the-scenes careful selection of music and hours of practice that go into a weekend of liturgies--practice for myself individually, and with volunteers.  But the most important aspect of my job is to enable the congregation to sing.

When I first arrived at St. Martin of Tours nearly 20 years ago, the parish did not have a culture of singing.  Having volunteered as a guitarist years earlier, I knew that the songs chosen varied widely (good) but that there wasn't much repetition, and including very familiar hymns was not a priority (not helpful).   The congregation was very quiet.

The first thing I did upon arrival was to develop a step-by-step plan for changing the overall singing culture of the parish.  It did take several years, but while there is an occasional quiet mass, for the vast majority of celebrations the congregation sings with gusto, which brings joy to my heart.  When I evaluate how well I did on a particular weekend, my evaluation hinges not on how fancy the prelude and postlude were, or whether or not the vocal ensemble nailed the anthem, but rather on whether or not the congregation was empowered to sing.

In various chat groups with other church musicians, the question of how to achieve this is often discussed.  So I thought I'd share my step by step plan, and then in later posts elaborate on each step of the process.

1.  First I explained to my congregation why I was asking them to sing.
2.  Next, I found short responses and accustomed them to singing without someone singing their part on over the sound system.
3.  When choosing music, I omit any hymn that requires accompaniment in order to sound good.  If a melody is solid, it can be sung effectively a capella.
4.  I developed a parish repertoire list and made sure to repeat newer songs three times in any given year.  For very new songs, I made sure the repetitions fit into a span of five weeks.
5.  I researched organ accompaniment techniques that better support singing, and put them into practice.
6.  I noticed that the congregation sings better when the melody is played on a sustained instrument, and neither the piano nor the guitar are sustained.  
7.  I started occasionally teaching music to the congregation before mass.

These were not steps that I did sequentially--rather I was working on all of these concurrently.  But for clarity's sake, in future posts I will elaborate on them individually.  I do hope this gives newer church musicians a starting point to begin thinking about things that are within their control that can make it easier for the congregation to praise God in song!