Sing! The Center For Congregational SongShannan Baker Archives - Sing! The Center For Congregational Song

This blog is a continuation of Part I. If you haven’t read Part I, click here. In Part I you’ll remember that we explored the cultural and practical dimensions of congregational singing, focusing on how harmonies are perceived as “showy” or essential across different church traditions. Emphasizing the role of melodies as the core of worship singing, we discussed how harmonies can facilitate participation or detract from communal worship, depending on their complexity and cultural context.

What is “showing off”?: The Musical Layers of Congregational Singing – PART II

Ad-libs

This third layer is often the divide between the traditional and contemporary church. As previously mentioned, hymnals provide congregations with the exact notes to sing both melody and harmony. Though achieved by rote instead of written music, contemporary worship songs have harmonies, too. This third layer is the ad-libs sung by the lead vocalist. It is important to note that this layer may not be present in every setting. However, many recordings from worship artists are from live settings where these sung ad-libs are included and then replicated by vocalists at the local level.

This is often the layer that is labeled “showy” in the United States. Since it is only sung by the lead vocalist, it draws attention to that person. However, these ad-libs are often serving some type of function. They operate as more than a vocal flourish. I have provided a typology of ad-libs elsewhere, but I want to summarize some of the main functions of ad-libs here.

Ad-libs can provide musical guidance or theological guidance.

A) Musical Guidance – Ad-libs can provide direction for the congregation to know what is coming next. For example, in the song “Living Hope” the chorus can be sung once or twice. A vocalist could sing the world “Hallelujah” after the end of the chorus to indicate a repetition of the chorus.” In doing so, the people know to go to the top of chorus instead of singing the tag at the end of the song.

B) Theological Guidance – Ad-libs can also provide theological depth for the congregation. This is achieved by singing words that enhance and shape the lyrics of the song. For example, the Passion version of the song, “Jesus Paid It All” includes a bridge with the line “O praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead.” At the end of the bridge, Kristian Stanfill continues to sing the words, “Jesus, Jesus, You’re the One, the Son of God, the Conqueror of death, the King of kings, the sacrificial Lamb.” After an extended version of singing of praise the “One,” Kristian Stanfill sings and elaborates on who that One is guiding the people into a deeper truth about to whom they are singing.

The line that often gets drawn between “showy” and not is whether these ad-libs are sung. Musical and theological guidance can be achieved through spoken ad-libs. These spontaneous moments can be spoken and are often received with their purpose in mind as opposed to when they are sung and people’s attention is drawn to the music being sung instead of the words. Most people would not think anything of someone saying, “Let’s sing that chorus again” but may be hesitant when someone sings, “Sing Hallelujah,” to indicate a chorus repetition. In some instances, the choice to sing the beginning lyrics of the section could even be practical when there isn’t enough time to say “sing that bridge again.” An example of this is found in a video of Brooke Ligertwood singing the bridge of “Jesus Paid It All,” where she sings, “O praise” to tell the people to keep singing the bridge.

Ad-libs do draw attention to the person who is singing; however, these ad-libs can be used in a way that provides guidance rather than highlighting vocal ability.

Lastly, these ad-libs can provide permission for the congregation to sing their own song to the Lord, which brings me to the final layer:

Free/Spontaneous Worship

Moments of free or spontaneous worship are common practice within Pentecostal/charismatic spaces. Often this time is introduced as singing your own song to the Lord. While originating from Pentecostal/charismatic spaces, this practice has migrated into the contemporary worship context. During instrumental breaks sometimes leading into a bridge or coming out of a bridge before a final chorus, a worship leader may encourage people to “lift up your voice to the Lord” or to “sing your own song to the Lord.” In these moments, the screens do not display any lyrics. In my experience, people who choose to participate in these moments will sing words from the song or expand on them like guiding ad-libs.

Like ad-libs, these moments could be considered showy when the microphones pick up what the vocalists are doing on stage and the congregation hear them. In contexts where the congregation is encouraged to join in and feels comfortable doing so, the congregation is focused on the song that they are singing to the Lord instead of what other people are singing.

Are We Asking the Right Question?

Have you ever been in a worship service and thought that what someone sang on stage was “showy”? Likely, the layer mentioned above that you thought was showy is different than what someone else might choose. Since my experience in Indonesia, I have been pondering what makes something considered showing off. Yet, at the same time, as I thought through each musical layer, I wondered if we are focusing on the wrong thing. Maybe the question should be “How is what they are doing glorifying God?” rather than “Is what they are doing glorifying God or is it just showy?” Maybe our conversations have been focusing on the negative instead recognizing the ways that what another church may decide to do in their singing practices is actually glorifying God and encouraging people to worship. Maybe what we do in church is a reflection of what we value. A church that only sings the melody could be a church that prioritizes unity and oneness within the body. A church that sings harmonies could be a church that prioritizes unity through diversity and combining different pitches into one sound. A church that lets vocalists sing ad-libs might be a church that prioritizes encouragement and guidance beyond the lyrics. A church that practices free worship may be a church that longs to reflect the biblical practice of raising a joyful noise to the Lord by singing different words and melodies at the same time.

As we think about how different churches sing in worship, perhaps what we should be asking is not whether something is “showy” but rather, how does this church’s congregational singing practices demonstrate their values and glorify God. So many things can be God glorifying if the heart behind it is also God glorifying.

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022).

What is “showing off”?: The Musical Layers of Congregational Singing – PART I

I recently came back from a mission trip with a group of Baylor students to Malaysia and Indonesia. The trip was an encouraging reminder of the vastness of the body of Christ. I heard stories of God’s faithfulness and had opportunities to equip and encourage them in their ministry. Because of the timing, I was only able to attend one church service on a Sunday. I realized later that what occurred at this one service was not exclusive to this church. In a conversation with some students later that day, one of them asked me if I knew why they didn’t sing harmonies. It took me a moment to realize that, though the students attended a different church that morning, the service that I attended also only sang the melody.

As a researcher and a generally curious person, I found one of our hosts and asked him. Two things occurred in his response. 1) He was surprised by the question. It was as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him that there would be another way. This signaled to me that only singing melody is the common practice whether in a hymn singing or contemporary worship singing church. 2) He did provide me with an answer. He stated that singing harmonies would be considered “showy,” meaning it would draw attention to those who were singing instead of God.

While I knew that what is considered “showing off” is subjective, his response really got me thinking about how subjective it really is. Culturally, singing harmonies is “showy” in Indonesia, but expected practice in the United States (at least for the churches I’ve attended). Again, as a researcher and overall curious person, I began to wonder how many layers of what we do in American congregational singing is considered “additional.” If we understand singing the melody as the essential act in worship, what else have we added?

Now, those who have studied music have taken the history courses that trace how music has developed over time. People have explained the process from Gregorian chant to the common era to atonal music to the plurality of styles we have now. What I hope to do in this short prose is to unpack all the layers to our congregational singing practices, many of which apply to both traditional and contemporary contexts (even if actually performed differently).

Culturally, singing harmonies is “showy” in Indonesia, but expected practice in the United States

The Layers of Singing in Worship

The Melody

The melody is the most memorable and, some would argue, most important element when it comes to congregational singing. This is the tune that everyone should, theoretically, be able to sing. However, that phrase “should be able to sing” has led to conversations about range. One of the roles of a worship pastor is to determine what key to use for each song. For contemporary worship songs, this can be challenging since many of the songs have a wide range, spanning an octave or more. While this decision is predetermined for the hymn singing church, in some cases, the key selected by the hymnal committee puts the melody in a higher placement. As an alto, I am singing high D’s, E’s or on occasion F’s. The solution I have found during the first verse (when the accepted practice is for everyone to sing the melody the first time through) is to sing an octave below when it gets too high, or to sing the entire melody in the lower octave. In contemporary worship contexts, one of the solutions (often reflected in the original recordings) is to have the person singing switch from the male vocalist to the female vocalist for different sections such as the bridge.

Now, if melody is the primary element for singing in worship, could this ever be “showy”? What comes to mind initially are impressive moments in secular songs. In spaces where the attention is intended to be drawn to the talent of the performer, I think of songs that have high notes and are placed in keys that place the melody higher. Some incredible vocalists that come to mind include Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and of course, Whitney Houston. These female vocalists are renowned for their ability to hit really high notes. If church songs were put in ranges where only a handful of the congregation could sing the top notes, that would probably also be considered “showy” (even though everyone may be singing the melody).

So, does “showy” indicate any time when the congregation is not able to sing the melody? Or rather, when the congregation is not able to join in the singing at all?

What most people would consider a solution to the problem would be to put the melody within a range for every voice part to sing. For a melody to be in a comfortable range for basses, tenors, altos, and sopranos it would need to be in a very small area of the staff. According to the New Harvard Dictionary of Music, these are the ranges for each voice part:

Immediately, the range for everyone to sing in the same octave is taken away because it’s too high for the basses or too low for the sopranos. If the tenors/basses and altos/sopranos sing in octaves, the range widens a bit from C4-C5. However, the closer it gets to C5, the higher it feels for the altos and the basses. The complexity of different voice ranges explains why some people have concluded to have a male vocalist and female vocalist sing the melody for different sections in a song.

In summary, finding a song that fits the range of every vocal part is difficult. This leads to one possible solution (and our next musical layer): harmonies.

While singing harmonies is considered “showy” in some cultures because it draws attention to those vocalists, it can serve a practical function in helping people join in singing.

Harmonies

If you enter a church on Sunday in the United States, you will likely hear people singing in harmonies. In hymnal churches, those harmonies are provided for the congregation. Each voice part will find their note on the staff and sing that. If we define “showy” as something that people cannot join in singing, then in this context, harmonies provide a way by which people can continue to sing even if the melody extends beyond their comfortable range.

In contemporary worship spaces, the words are displayed on the screen and people learn the melody by repetition and singing along. Often, these harmonies are created spontaneously, and the congregation learns by following someone who is singing that part on stage or in a recording. If “showy” is defined as the congregation not being able to sing, then contemporary worship spaces might initially be considered “showy.” However, after enough repetitions many people in the congregation can hear these parts and sing them instead of the melody.

While harmonies are offered as a solution to the melodic range problem, when they become more complex, they move back into the category of showing off. Many contemporary worship songs and hymns do not often include non-diatonic chords. They typically stick to the typical I, ii, iii, IV, V, and vi. In some instances, there might be a major II or III chord or a bVII chord that sneaks in; though, these chords are not that common. In other styles of music, other chords and additional notes in the harmonies are more complex. These complex chords lead to complex harmonies, since the harmony parts are drawn from the chords that accompany the melody. These complex chords are often considered more performative because they are difficult for untrained singers or choir members to figure out.

While singing harmonies is considered “showy” in some cultures because it draws attention to those vocalists, it can serve a practical function in helping people join in singing. Whether read in music or learned by ear, harmonies offer a way for people to continue singing when the melody may not be comfortable as long as the harmonies are not too complex.

PART II with topics “Ad-libs” and “Free/Spontaneous Worship” will drop next week! Stay Tuned…

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022).

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). She is a member of The Center for Congregational Song’s blog team.

Each year after Thanksgiving, Christmas songs inundate the ears of churchgoers and radio listeners. Some of these songs mention the “reason for the season,” and others sing about snow and other aspects of winter. A few songs have become the church Christmas staples, such as “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Away in a Manger,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” or “Joy to the World.” A few advent songs may also be sung, such as “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” or “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”

While I still love to sing the classics, a few other songs have established themselves in my regular Christmas listening. This post is to share some reflections on three of these songs from the artist Sovereign Grace Music. While this year’s services are likely already planned, maybe these reflections will provide you with some new options for the next Christmas season!

O Come All You Unfaithful

“O Come All You Unfaithful” is a riff on the Christmas classic “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Sovereign Grace has provided videos that discuss why they wrote the song and the depth of the lyrics that invite those who have not been faithful to come and behold what God has done for us. While each verse details different struggles and the brokenness and pain that go with them, the aspect of this song that is most powerful is the chorus. “Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you.” It’s a fairly simple chorus. One repeated phrase, but it leads to an ending that is a turn from other Christmas songs. Most Christmas songs focus on the different aspects of Christ’s birth: who was there, what was sung, where the birth happened. “O Come All You Unfaithful” shifts the focus. Why was Christ born? He was born for you. This phrase is not often heard. More commonly, we say, “Christ died for you.” The aspect of this song that is most meaningful for me is that after detailing the struggles that people go through, the reminder is that Christ chose to come into this world, into our pain, into our struggles. The cross does not happen without the birth of Christ. As much as Christ died for you, Christ was born for you. When we have nothing to give, Christ becomes our offering, and we find our hope in Him.

Who Would Have Dreamed

“Who Would Have Dreamed” is more like a typical Christmas song. It begins with detailing where the birth took place and the anticipation that Israel had for their coming Messiah. Yet the song takes a spin and emphasizes the unexpected nature and hope of the coming of Christ. The chorus starts with the question: “Who would have dreamed or ever foreseen that we could hold God in our hands?” What a mystery that God became incarnate, that Jesus took on flesh and became like one of us. How often do we stop to think about how incredible it is that not only did God have a plan to pay for all our sins but that this plan involved God physically coming into our broken world? Jesus is a person who was held and hugged and would grow up to touch and heal people. Verse 3 of the song provides more depth to the purpose of Jesus’ coming: “He will carry our curse and death He’ll reverse,” which concludes with what this means for us, “So we can be daughters and sons.” Jesus was born for us, died for us, and rose for us to have eternal life and to be adopted into God’s family. God’s plan is “to save the world,” and He fulfills His promise in the most unexpected way: Immanuel.

He Who is Mighty

“He Who is Mighty” interweaves different Scripture phrases with Mary’s Song from Luke 1:46-55. While it references Christ’s birth and uses Mary’s words specifically, I first heard this song not during the Christmas season but in the middle of the summer. The first verse includes the phrase “Born was the Cornerstone,” and I remember thinking, is this a Christmas song? Yet, as we continued singing the song, it provided a rich picture of the Gospel rooted in the beginning at Christmas with the birth of Christ. The chorus uses the words of Mary’s song, and it becomes our song: “He who is mighty has done a great thing / taken on flesh, conquered death’s sting.” While Mary may not have known how God’s promise would unfold through her child, we can sing her words with the cross in mind. The bridge then becomes her song in a different light: “My soul magnifies the Lord / I rejoice in the God who saves / I will trust His unfailing love / I will sing His praises all my days.” While we often only sing Christmas songs during the days leading up to Christmas, I wonder if Christmas would ring differently in our ears if we were reminded throughout the year of the incarnation. God’s plan of salvation in Christ begins at the birth of Jesus. God’s mighty acts are sung year-round, and Jesus coming into the world is one of those miraculous acts that led to the cross, the resurrection, and the hope we have while waiting for His return.

Maybe you already knew about these three songs, or perhaps they are new to you. Either way, I hope that through my reflections, you will find joy and hope in these non-classic Christmas songs. If you are interested in using these songs in your church, Sovereign Grace provides free music resources for all their songs on sovereigngracemusic.com.

Whether you use these songs in a worship service or cycle them into your regular listening, I pray that you will find peace and encouragement in the truths of the Gospel this Christmas season. Christ was born for you.

How Little We Know

I recently became aware of how little we know of what the church sings though recent work with the Worship Leader Research (WLR) team. WLR is a collaborative group that studies the contemporary worship music industry and church practice. Some of the feedback to our findings largely focused on what was missing. We identified the primary contributors of contemporary worship songs by looking at the Top lists from CCLI and PraiseCharts, but there were artists that are widely used that were not found on both lists. Many churches that sing songs from other artists, such as Sovereign Grace, City Alight, the Gettys, etc., noted that our research didn’t include songs from those artists. People commented on social media and in direct messages to our team about the songs that they sing regularly at their church that weren’t mentioned in our study because of our methodology for creating our list.

This made me wonder: what does the church sing? I mean more broadly than contemporary worship. Even what we know of the most used contemporary worship songs, there are gaps in the knowledge and powers at play that distort the data we do have.

Copyright

Contemporary worship churches use songs that are under copyright. Copyright allows songwriters to receive compensation for the use of their songs. To streamline this process, companies like One License, CCLI (Christian Copyright License International), and (recently) MultiTracks provide licensing subscriptions. This means that by churches signing up for their service they can use copyrighted songs in exchange for reporting the songs they use to those companies when asked. CCLI is one such company that publishes a list of the songs that are most reported. Many people, researchers especially, have wondered who those lists represent. For example, what denominations, church sizes, geographic locations, etc., are these lists representing? However, CCLI when asked will not provide demographic information about who reports. Therefore, we do not truly know who is singing the songs that are represented on the CCLI lists.

But the lack of knowledge expands. What hymns are being sung by the Church? Many churches either exclusively or occasionally will sing a traditional hymn. Many of these hymns are written before 1923 and are therefore no longer under copyright. So, the hymns that are selected for congregational singing do not have to be reported to anyone. Furthermore, the use of a hymnal instead of a projector instantly relieves the burden of any reporting since songs that are sung from a purchased book do not need to be reported.

The Hymnal

So how do we know what hymns are being sung by the Church? Well, the answer may seem simple—look at the hymnal. But which hymnal? There is a vast number of hymnals and many denominations have their own hymnals which contain a careful curated collection of songs that is different from other denominations. Even if one focused on a singular widely used hymnal, the Church does not simply start at #1 and go to the end of the book. Specific hymns are selected each week for worship. Again, churches are not required to report what hymns they are singing. So how do we know what the church is singing?

Gospel

Another common type of song used in church is gospel music. Gospel music is often the primary type of music used in predominately black churches. What gospel songs are sung every week? While gospel music is copyrighted, much of it is missing from CCLI’s list (for various reasons that should be explored further). Since it is not on CCLI, there is no way to report the songs that are used. Unfortunately, there isn’t a singular book that contains a collection of gospel songs from which to choose. If there is no requirement to report, how do we know which gospel songs are being used the most? How do we know what the church is singing?

Questions Remain

The different types of songs used in churches could continue, but the point remains. We do not know what the church sings. The feedback given to Worship Leader Research (WLR) has prompted this new conversation related to the gap in our knowledge of the Church’s song. While I’ve identified some of the problems about why we don’t know what the Church sings, the question remains:

So what does the church sing?

While we do not have the answers right now, Dr. Monique Ingalls and I are working to create a project that will discover what the church is singing. What hymns are sung most? What songs are sung in smaller churches that can’t afford a licensing subscription? What service music is used in various liturgies? The goal of this project is to provide people and researchers with a picture of what the church is actually singing across denominations and worship styles. The collection of songs that are sung will continue to change and expand over time; however, what we hope is that over time we will discover the richness of the variety of songs that are sung by the church in worship.

What is “showing off”? – PART II