Why Should We Fear Introducing Songs?
Something that has been nagging my mind as of late.
If you are a music minister, church organist, choir director or worship leader… how often do you blog?
And by blogging, I mean, how often do you use that platform as an opportunity to introduce new songs? Or, if inclined, reintroduce some of the classic, forgotten hymns in your repertoire? Or, introduce a new melody based on the psalms for the upcoming week?
And then, after you blog, how often do you ensure that your blog would be written up in your parish bulletin?
Perhaps you don’t see the necessity of blogging–and that’s cool. But then you are also constantly limiting your song selection each week, with only those songs that you are absolutely certain the congregation knows. The problem being, a great number of these songs have become tired or dated, simply from overuse of singing.
We live in extraordinary times. We can teach a song to the congregation before the congregation meets.
If the song is not under copyright (nearly every song–lyrics and music–written before 1922, and those which have no author attribution), or, if you are the owner of the song, you have permission to record yourself playing the song, either on video or through an MP3 recorder, and then publish it on soundcloud, or some other music file site, where people can have access to it.
If the song is under copyright, you can perhaps link to a YouTube clip, or a Spotify clip, or a sound clip from the copyright owner’s site, and have the song available to be heard there.
If done in this manner, should there be any more fear in teaching songs that are new to the congregation? And if this fear is removed, can we then have the ultimate freedom to discover as many songs as we are able (permissions notwithstanding)?
Furthermore, if you share your own personal thoughts, as to why you chose such a song, should there be any more confusion as to the thoughts that went behind choosing such a song? And if your comments section is open, could that lead to dialogue from congregants who wish to share their opinion on such a song, pro-or-con?
The whole music industry has been redesigned so as to best benefit the consumer. No matter your parish’s musical inclinations–traditional, contemporary, praise and worship–could not the music program leverage the power of the blog so as to more greatly increase the participation of the congregant?
What are your thoughts?
Amen! There’a balance between easy music people get bored of and hard music that people may like but not sing, and a balance between changing songs seldom (>boredom) and too often (>folks never learn) as well as balances between familiar and unfamiliar, traditional and contemporary (and other labels/attributes), and IMHO the challenge to navigate them all for your community can be rewarding. Music ministers’ communication with the assembly can not only introduce new stuff as Nick suggests but also reinforce that everyone is the real music ministry and that we care. But my inclination is that only a small fraction will pay attention. How do you expand that? Thanks.
Thank you Jim, for your kind comments.
To answer your question, I would think the biggest thing that needs to be done is simply to get started, and be consistent. Aim for a weekly post, and fight to have the blog mentioned in your bulletin, at least next to your name. Have occasional announcements alluding to this fact.
One thing I have done for the Prayer Meeting Podcast is occasionally craft up a survey of songs the community would like to hear, (and [shutter] what they would no longer want to hear). SurveyMonkey is a site I use frequently that, for simple questions, is free.
I believe that if congregants know they can have a forum where their voices can be heard (not just in regards to the music, but in anything), then they will feel a greater sense of belonging and community, which will be a win/win on all sides.
That is a darned good idea, Nick! I know our parish has a website, and seems to me we could get a page on it where we could post new songs for the congregation.
My problem lies in recording the new songs. I have a good Blue Yeti microphone, and I feel comfortable using Audacity music recording software (since I have contributed to the developers), but I need to get a laptop or other portable device to take to our choir practices to record our choir singing the songs. The thing is, I don’t know how to pick out a laptop that will give good recording quality. Have you any advice on that?
Thank you Laverne!
I highly recommend forgoing the laptop and just getting a portable MP3 recorder. I’ve been seeing sales for TASCAM units that range from $60 to $180. I myself have a Microtrak-II that I purchased used, off of eBay, for about $50. Works fine (most of the time). With that and a flashcard, you’ll be just fine.
I need to really emphasize this, tho: if the song you are covering is under copyright (which are the majority of songs in missallettes and hymnals, not to mention the current, trendy songs of today), then such a recording would warrant some form of compensation to the copyright owner. That’s because a recording for a group of friends, released online, is the same as recording professionally for a profit. There are exceptions to this, of course, like if you only record about 30 seconds of the song, and then provide some commentary on the song itself, that may fall under fair use. Check with your publishing house to see what options you have.
That is why I recommend doing this for public domain songs (which there are thousands freely available at your fingertips), or your own songs. Or, if you must do a copyrighted song, link to a site which already has this song sung (and presumably has the song cleared–and if a YouTube clip you link to was not cleared, and, for whatever reason, is hounded by the copyright police, you might be okay).
And–this too is terrible–but even if you do use a public domain hymn, make sure that the translation you use is in public domain, and has not been copyrighted. Or the arrangement. If so, find a public domain lyrics and sing THOSE in your recording.
I’m not kidding when I say that the copyright wars are the single greatest impediment towards evangelization using modern day song. But I also agree that songwriters deserve a just wage. It can go both ways, and until there is some better solution (not unlike how CCLI is a blanket solution for providing lyrics to congregations, or ASCAP for performing in non-church venues), better to play it safe.