Coupled with their regular singing practice, it’s no wonder they are writing songs that are so high. These tend to be tenors rather than basses so have a naturally high range anyway. Remember too that many of the contemporary worship songs we struggle with are written by men (Tomlin, Wickham, Hughes etc) who sing professionally. That cultural shift also means that when we do sing (in the unfamiliar setting of a cold church building, in your best wedding clothes and the only time in recent memory that you can remember singing was either at a late night karaoke session or giving it some at a gig or football final) we tend to approach the singing self consciously and quietly – those high notes simply won’t work unless you belt them out. The voice is a muscle – if we don’t use it, it’s not going to work very well. What has happened since?Īgain, I’m guessing but we have moved from a singing culture to one that watches people sing. I’m guessing that back in the day that these hymn tunes were written (and many are taken from old folk tunes) that people could actually hit the high notes pretty well. Those old school hymn books seem to break all the rules on singability. And I’ve been astonished at how impossible they were to sing. As a result the song choice has tended towards the traditional hymn (Jerusalem, All Things Bright and Beautiful etc) with the resident organist. I’ve been to a number of weddings in the last few years of people that are not regular church goers. On the one hand you have the die-hards who are convinced that it is essential to use the original key ( we address that here) and on the other you have the (*coughs* diva-like) worship leaders who insist on an obscure key that makes their voice sound fabulous but the rest of us are hitting either the gravel or dolphin zones in an attempt to keep up. If there is one topic that we can guarantee lots of comments on, it’s the subject of song keys. Finding the right key for small church worship
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