Choosing Worship Music

I heard something unusual during a recent "Hymns & Hops" event - loud congregational singing. Some others in attendance suggested that beer tends to loosen inhibitions and vocal cords, but I also suspected other factors. Having been around for, in some cases, hundreds of years, old hymns are still very familiar to many churchgoers. But more importantly, they're easy to sing.

Listenability vs. Singability

Worship music is in a weird place right now. While I appreciate an occasional old hymn sung to piano accompaniment, I am glad to see most churches nowadays adopting contemporary music styles that contemporary worshippers find more familiar. Many contemporary worship songwriters, however, tend to focus on "listenability" (how good the song sounds) more than "singability" (how easy it is to sing), resulting in songs that bands love to perform but congregations struggle to sing. It's also hard to deny that, on average, the lyrics of contemporary worship songs lack the depth of the older hymns, but I'll leave that discussion for a future post.

The perceived singability and listenability of a particular song - or arrangement of a song - will undoubtedly cause raging debates, but perhaps a simple evaluation framework can drive us toward more consensus on songs that, from the perspective of the typical congregant, score high in both categories. In general, I would put most songs from artists like Bethel and Elevation in the category of high listenability/low singability. Conversely, most traditional hymns, done in classical arrangements, I would grade with low listenability/high singability. Most people would probably rate Hillsong's classic "Shout To The Lord" (as sung by Hillsong) pretty high in both categories. However, other arrangements of the same song (such as Shane & Shane's arrangement) may add dramatic crescendos and key changes to increase the listenability, but at the cost of lower singability. To be fair, I should note that both Hillsong and Shane & Shane produce plenty of songs in both categories.

Most Christians will agree that worship improves with increased participation in congregational singing. While most worship songwriters and worship leaders undoubtedly try to compose/select songs that meet both criteria, they too often lean toward prioritizing listenability over singability. We can't blame most songwriters for being influenced by the prospect of royalties in a listening-based business, but some brave artists, such as CityAlight, are finding a profitable way to shift toward singability. Too many worship leaders, on the other hand, are not sufficiently familiar with how to select singable music and simply default to songs with the best sound or lyrics.

Providentially, some Christian musicians have published helpful material on this subject. The best article I have encountered so far is on the SingWise blog. The author, Karyn O'Connor, draws on a significant base of experience and deep expertise to offer a flexible set of recommendations and criteria for choosing singable worship songs. One of my favorite recommendations of hers is to "think like an untrained singer" when choosing songs.

Beyond Singability

Some other criteria to consider are:

• Familiarity - Don't make your congregation learn too many new songs in a short period of time. Repetition may bore the band, but the congregation will appreciate experiencing less of the distracting impatience associated with excessive change.

• Fit - Whenever possible, choose songs that integrate well with the "tone" of the service or event. For example, choose quiet songs for more contemplative segments of a service and energetic songs for celebration. In addition, try to select songs with lyrics that reinforce the message of a sermon or scripture reading.

• Variations in dynamics - Untrained singers are more concerned about consistency and vocal "momentum" then they are about dynamics. My own observation in typical church settings is that songs/arrangements that make gradual changes in dynamics and maintain an audible track of consistent tempo throughout tend to really hook the congregation. Here's a great recent example by artist Brooke Ligertwood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw38lNKZQ_I

• Variations in style/genre - Surprisingly, most people are more tolerant of variations in style than dynamics. Worship bands inevitably migrate toward certain style habits, but it behooves them to gently resist this tendency. For example, the typical congregant will appreciate a change from electronic to acoustic sound or from rock to folk style in the course of a single service. An excessively wide variation, such as moving from a classical hymn accompanied by an organ to an energetic rock song with a full band, may take things too far, but you get my drift.

The ongoing debate about what defines appropriate worship music is a worthwhile, although at times frustrating, pursuit. The more we stick to debating the underlying criteria, the better our song selections will be.