I’ve been thinking about how to help our congregations sing more heartily. I find that if the congregation isn’t singing well, then I tend to blame them, the weather or general morale (as I did last month — oops!).
Here are some ideas that people often think are solutions to the problem:
Pump up the volume?
Volume can be good, but if the musicians overpower the congregation, then they can’t hear each other, so nothing is achieved apart from a few headaches and blown amps. I went to a meeting once where the band was ear-piercingly loud. There was no point in me singing, and the words were banal, so I did what everyone else was doing — gawp at the band. No one was singing.
