On Musical Distractions in Worship - An adage in church media work says, “You know the sound man is doing his job when you do not realize he is there.”
I wonder if it'd be helpful to teach basic singing skills as part of adult and child instruction. My church tradition is used to going in depth with doctrine as it welcomes new adult members and trains its youth. But we kinda throw them to the wolves when it comes to singing on Sunday morning. It's like we expect them to learn by osmosis or something.
You are right, we should be teaching music instruction to our members. As for osmosis, Christians have learned by osmosis through history, but that is even harder to do in the 21st century because worship music is done less by the congregation and more by the praise leaders. Two hundred years ago if you were in church singing multiple psalms and hymns each week you would get a lot of practical knowledge of singing even if you didn't understand all the music terms and theory of it all.
Many churches publish sermon texts a week in advance so members can read during the week in preparation for the coming service. A similar thing can be done regarding the hymns to be sung next Sunday. A handy tool for such a thing is the Sing Your Part app. Churches can sign up for free to list their coming service’s hymns so its members can practice with the app - and even learn a part other than the melody - during the week. Even the musically untrained can pick up parts with a little time spent each week. We (should) spend time daily reading our Bibles. Why shouldn’t we spend time learning our hymns?
I wonder if it'd be helpful to teach basic singing skills as part of adult and child instruction. My church tradition is used to going in depth with doctrine as it welcomes new adult members and trains its youth. But we kinda throw them to the wolves when it comes to singing on Sunday morning. It's like we expect them to learn by osmosis or something.
You are right, we should be teaching music instruction to our members. As for osmosis, Christians have learned by osmosis through history, but that is even harder to do in the 21st century because worship music is done less by the congregation and more by the praise leaders. Two hundred years ago if you were in church singing multiple psalms and hymns each week you would get a lot of practical knowledge of singing even if you didn't understand all the music terms and theory of it all.
Many churches publish sermon texts a week in advance so members can read during the week in preparation for the coming service. A similar thing can be done regarding the hymns to be sung next Sunday. A handy tool for such a thing is the Sing Your Part app. Churches can sign up for free to list their coming service’s hymns so its members can practice with the app - and even learn a part other than the melody - during the week. Even the musically untrained can pick up parts with a little time spent each week. We (should) spend time daily reading our Bibles. Why shouldn’t we spend time learning our hymns?