Monday, October 13, 2008

Singing High in Church

I'm attempting a Stuff Christians Like blog post. Tell me how you like it.
This post is all about singing high. This is an issue for a very small minority of women: sopranos who know they are sopranos who attend a church with a contemporary service. Now, I'm not knocking the contemporary service - I've chosen to attend one! But it's a little known fact that the lead singer, if a woman, always sings low. In fact, this is one of the attractions of the contemporary service: hymns get pretty high pitched, and without a little vocal training, a lot of women end up sounding, well, a bit screechy. Everyone's happier with the low voice. Except for the small few. You know who you are. None of you read my blog, but if you ever find this post you will feel secure that you aren't the only ones. There are some of us who are sopranos. We like to sing high. God gave us a bunch of high notes. And frankly, it's just a lot more comfortable to sing high. But singing high in a contemporary service, unless you attend a mega-church, just means that you sing noticeably. This is the opposite of "secret singing." Because when you sing high, your voice naturally pierces through and floats above all the other singing. Invariably, at least 1 person sitting within 3 rows of you will turn and look to find who is singing so dang high. If you are unlucky, like me, then the person sitting next to you will start to vibrate violently with suppressed laughter (you know who you are!!!!). So it's a dilemma. You're in the moment, loving the Lord, getting into the song, and as you raise volume, your voice gets a little scratchy. Are you gonna go high and sing as loud as possible, giving God all the glory She deserves and exulting in the moment? Or are you gonna sing low and reduce volume so you can still talk at the end of service? Because, see, if you sing high, you will get noticed. And then the focus on God is kind of lost. Clearly, the only good option is to become the worship leader and sing high into a mike...
(btw, this is all in good fun).

1 comment:

Kerry said...

Um... just ignore the laughing person. She must be on crack or something. And I have heard her sing, and it's not pleasant for anyone.
You sing as high as your little heart desires... God knows you mean well and that you are not trying to take the attention from Her.

I love you.