All my life I have been involved in 2 things: music and church. As a “Cradle Catholic,” I have been to mass some 3000+ times in my 20 some years of life. For most of these I haven’t sat with my family in the pews, but instead been on the altar sitting behind the piano or holding a guitar. Everything from Easter, to Christmas, to weddings and funerals, I’ve done it all. For a while I even had a paid position at a local parish as Director of Music and Liturgy. I’ve been there. I’ve seen and experienced most everything there is to experience in the world of music liturgy, I think.
I’ve recently been looking for a way to both reflect on my experience in the church and also offer help to veteran and brand new music ministers alike. A blog seemed like the right way to go about doing this.
The first tip I’d like to begin this blog with is something I feel very strongly about.
1: Music should NEVER distract from the mass!
Music is a wonderful and necessary part of any service, but it should never detract. If quality is lacking, then your congregation will become frustrated, distracted, and discouraged to sing. On the other side of the coin, if music is too “performed” it can seem exclusive and discourage “full, conscious, and active participation”. There is a fine line between high quality and performance. After all, our main job as music ministers is to help others to pray through song. If we do our job right, we can help to bring people deeper into the mass and into prayer.
Paul Baloche, someone who I respect very much for educating church musicians, has a great video that touches on performance vs. prayer. He mentions “the posture of the heart” and I think that is the key aspect in driving our ministry. Imagine, if you will, a typical Sunday morning mass: You kneel silently in your favorite pew as you see acolytes and lectors scurrying with candles and books to the back of the church. You take your seat and thumb through the hymnal, previewing the songs posted on the number board (am I the only one who does this?). As you stand for the gathering song you hear the strum of the guitar and fumble to find the song in the book only to realize it’s not the number listed on the board. You hum along as best you can while rifling through pages and frantically checking the song index for any title that seems to fit what you hear. By the time you realize this song is nowhere to be found the music stops and the priest begins his welcome. Was the song well done? Yes, very. Was it appropriate for a gathering song? Maybe. Was it welcoming? Did it encourage participation? Did it prepare you for mass and the liturgy? You tell me. Where was your heart? Your mind?
Let’s look at another scenario:
The same Sunday morning, in a church miles away, a small group of lay people gather on the altar and welcome the congregation to mass and invite them to stand and join in singing number so and so in the hymnal. The pianist shuffles papers on the piano realizing she has the wrong music up. Quickly she begins to play and fumbles over the first few notes. She stops, starts again, and maybe even takes a third start – this time with all the right notes. A few members of the congregation begin to sing where they think they should but they’re not joined by the choir. The song leader missed the entrance and the choir followed. The congregation stops singing, unsure of themselves. Soon the pianist is frantically trying to find and follow the vocalists and just as she does… the priest reaches his place on the altar and the song is over.
Sound familiar? This could be any church on any given Sunday. In both cases the music was a distraction and excluded people from participating in the mass. Quality is important, but only if it serves the people in the congregation.
Look for next week’s blog post: Tip 2: PERFECT practice makes perfect (What is mass-quality music and how do we achieve it?)
Remember: “To sing is to pray twice.” – St. Augustine.
True Confessions of a Church Musician 