Last evening I talked about the fact that at the end of Sunday's service the band cranked it up and did a repeat of Chris Tomlin's "You Lifted Me Out." The song rocked! David Watts cranked up the sound and our people sang like crazy!!! I loved it!
Some time ago, my friend and one of a2's worship team members, Mike Shaw, posted on the subject of loud music and church. Mike has one of the finest voices I've ever heard. Pure tenor. Spot on pitch. Heart for God. Attitude of humility. I thank God for this guy.
Mike shares some great thoughts on music and the reason it needs to be LOUD. That's right. Mike says, "Crank it up and worship!" Great post. Good stuff. Here's the post. You can check out Mike's blog by clicking here.
Loud Music and Church
May 6, 2008
OK, here’s a revelation from the wide wide world o’ churches. I’ve always thought this, now experience confirms it.
Loud music is good for worship.
Notice I didn’t say any particular style. Whatever style you play for worship, make it louder.
Whenever I tell people I sing…99% of the time the response is the same. It’s something along the lines of “well…you don’t want to hear ME sing”.
Personally, I think nearly everyone has a good singing voice. It’s primarily a function of practice and confidence. I also think that God would not tell us to sing without giving us some ability.
So…given this very scientific figure of a 99% Oh-no-I-can’t-sing ratio. it follows that 99% of the people out there don’t like to hear their own voice.
And it actually is scientific. One ‘fun’ thing about singing is that when you hear your own singing, it’s always whacked out. You’re hearing all sorts of phasing and resonance and audible ‘junk’ that goes on in your head. In fact, when you sing “right” you typically sound crappiest to yourself.
So to sing well, you have to develop a sense of what you sound like outside your head. You can’t make adjustments based on what you hear. You have to adjust based on what you know.
Thus: You practice to figure out what is right. You develop confidence to have the courage to sing in front of thousands of people even when you sound awful in your head.
(and you cushy singers with the in-ear monitors….you just better hope they always work right and the mix is good)
To the typical 99% congregational singer, who lacks practice and confidence, hearing their own voice will shut them down quicker than a punch in the gut.
So how do you get them to sing out like God wants them to?
Here’s what I’ve seen. When the music is loud, people sing. When the music is quiet, people don’t sing. Don’t argue with that. It’s true.
You know what the funny thing is? When the music suddenly gets quiet, people suddenly sing louder. I think it’s because they hear other people singing louder than themselves at that point.
Plus, they’re in the right mindset, They’ve been singing their hearts out in worship, not thinking “what do I sound like” or “am I embarrassing myself?”
So, regardless of what kind of music you’re playing, if you want people in your church to sing out, crank it up a notch. It will take a good sound engineer to pull this off without making it harsh….and you’ll have to deal with the “too loud crowd” (who really are not worshiping anyway and just want to complain about their self-centered experience), but you’ll have a worshiping congregation in no time.
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