Has anybody done any research on what sorts of stage mixes elicit the best singing response from the congregation?
I know you have to hear your own voice, and some lead singer, and your neighbors. But do drums really help? Is it better for the lead singer to be a soprano or a baritone--or is it good to have a mix so every voice range has something to listen to? Lots of instruments? Only a piano?
You also want the Least Astonishment--the worshipper should be able to predict fairly well where the melodic line is going. People will sing the familiar more confidently. But that's a different issue.
4 comments:
This is one I should know but don't. I'll prattle on a bit with what I do know however:
• I attended a church which built a new fan-shaped sanctuary to replace the old shoebox one. The congregational singing suffered tremendously, because if one sang heartily or even anything other than meekly, it sounded to each person like they were singing louder than everyone else. So ability to hear one's neighbors is important. The new carpeted space with distant side-walls and a sloped ceiling (that directed the sound of the congregation away) was a problem.
• I don't have the study references to hand, but for choir services, having the choir and organ placed in a balcony at the rear is better for congregational participation than having the choir at the front. As I've moved around the world I've managed to fend of some requests to be worship-leader by saying "howabout I just sit at the back and sing heartily, that way everyone will have a solid version of the tune in their ear and can join in."
• The drums and bass are there to generate "haptic" sensation of the music, which contributes to creation of "feel good" hormones. If the music is loud and bassy enough, and the congregation are lifting their arms, and the big screens are are showing panning shots of other congregants with ecstatic expressions and closed eyes, then many people will get the same endorphin high as if they had just sung Handel's Messiah, even if they've just stood there like a log.
• Hyperacusis typically comes along with age-related hearing loss. Particularly with cymbals and high-pitched voices, those who are complaining that it is "too loud" are not doing so because they have different taste in music, but because it is physically discomforting.
Thanks unknown. I have been a worship leader, and it's a tough slog with hymnals these days. In the days when everyone knew most of the hymns anyway and they were just glancing at further verses, or maybe the harmony, you could get by with everyone having their head down in a book. I was an original opponent of screens, but at least people put their heads up and you get some volume.
I stand in the back and sing, mostly in harmony. I do it because I don't like sitting still, but have noticed that it seems to be an encouragement to some others. My drumming on the pew, not so much. BTW, closed hymnals are great percussion, too. Choir in the balcony - yep, that sounds correct to me. Most choirs don't like it, though. They feel like they are being hidden away and deemphasised.
I had not thought of the acoustic and haptic aspects, but this also rings true to me.
Re: Handel's Messiah. It is my thought that with multiple screens showing the various sections of the choir, plus a lyric and music line running the bottom of the screen, you could get a large congregation to do the Hallelujah Chorus well enough to excite everyone who participates. Maybe one rehearsal, and plenty of advance notice.
Praise songs are criticised for being repetitive in lyric, but so is the Hallelujah Chorus. I like to think of it as what every praise song wishes it could grow up to be.
A "conductor" helps too. When the band is about to vary the tempo, or repeat a verse, or change the rhythm, it helps if someone telegraphs that--even if only by holding the mike closer.
I'd like it if the pianist ran through the melody once or twice before we started singing. Our pastor is a trained opera singer, and doesn't seem to quite get it that the rest of us don't catch on to a new tune easily.
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