“Modern” (maybe “contemporary”) songs often have too wide a range, and in many cases start in a low octave and then jump an octave higher to generate effect or excitement (possibly a bit of a copout…). I reckon our congregation can manage A below middle C up to D an octave above middle C. Maybe even a high E if it only occurs briefly and not often.
I've run into exactly this issue. Thankfully, both my wife and I are experienced singers, so if I think that a song is optimal for ONE of us, I will play with different keys until there's one that both of us can navigate. Another thing I consider is whether the song itself is "congregational". There are a lot of songs out there that are great for outreach or presentational, but are horrible for congregations. Also, to your point about harmony, I always emphasize harmonies (I do a lot of musical theater as well, so this is something I have a ton of experience with). So, on rare occasions where I can only really do a song either in a female key or a male key, I will choose an easy second part that the others can quickly pick up the harmony (some harmonies can be made to "feel like the melody").
I hear the argument all the time "Well at concerts the artist sings in their high/low key and all the people just sing right along at the top of their lungs. What's the problem?" My take is that at concerts you have thousands and thousands of fans. They know the songs by heart and if some of them are left behind by notes that are too high/low, nobody notices and nobody cares. Transfer that into a church of couple hundred or so with an age range of 8-88 and things change a bit. People might not listen to Christian music outside of church and might only sing for 20min on Sunday. Singability becomes much more critical. As a tenor I frequently have to key songs lower than I'd prefer to maximize engagement rather than put on a show.
Most of our women in the worship team are super low altos and can’t sing comfortably above an A- to contrast, we also have a very high tenor male singer who leads frequently - his chest voice barely gets down to a D. C to C is basically impossible for the whole group. I’ve found that a compromise that works for us is to pick a comfortable key for the leader that allows for each section to be sung by everyone in *an* octave- often this means the congregation is singing at pitch in the verses and an octave down in the choruses. As long as each entire section can be sung by the congregation without having to jump around to a different octave mid-section, I’ve found that it doesn’t impact congregational singing- our church still sings super loud.
Spencer! For the microphone issue, you could also suggest a different microphone. They might have supercardioid mics that have a very tight pickup pattern and require significantly more technique. A normal cardioid mic would be more broad in picking up sound around it. My band just switched over to supercardioid and it’s going to be quite the adjustment for some of them. Added bonus, if your sanctuary is not treated acoustically and you have a loud stage with drums I HIGHLY suggest supercardioid mics. The first few services with them our sound guy said it feels like he finally gets to have a mix he likes rather than fighting feedback and room EQ issues.
Sound tech here: If you instruct her to rest the capsule on her chin, with the mic more or less vertically oriented, it will accomplish three things: 1) maintain consistent distance between the mouth and the microphone, 2) minimize "plosives", which is air current that will blow across the capsule, not into it, and 3) and it will eliminate obscuring her mouth from the congregation. A lot of communication in worship is visual, and having a mic capsule covering one's mouth makes that communication (and connection) more difficult. There are a lot of folks with bad mic technique out there, so this is a difficult skill to master when it is seldom being modeled. But the results are significant when this develops into a discipline.
A difficult issue to tackle is "I heard this great song on the radio/stream/whatever I think we should sing it. Just like in "real life", artists (we'll stick with male, just for simplicity) are bass/baritones or tenors. Many successful songwriters and performers are tenors. Very few people in you congregation are tenors.... so a tune by say Mr. Tomlin is going to be hard to adapt because lowering the key often takes some of the "power" out of the songs. I've been a church musician for 35 years - everything from full traditional choir and pipe organ to some great bands and I've always used the same kind of "rule". Melodies can get to Eb on the high end, but only briefly, and B or A below middle C at the other. Something we rarely consider with a song that has a wide range is to "re-invent" that really low or high phrase. A slight change to the, here we go, big word, tessitura is perfectly acceptable if it makes the song accessible to all and creates real worship.
I use the high C method also, but some songs go to D or E for sopranos. A good soprano should be able to do this, I tell them if you don't use it you will lose it.
Re, the mic issue....consider a headset OR tape a square on the floor and instruct her to remain within the square. OR i would even go so far as to ask HER what would help her in resolving this issue.
I wonder if the mic issue is about a lack of confidence? Often, I'll pull away the mic at the beginning or end of phrases if I'm worried that I'm not on key. So maybe spending time as supporting vocals is what is needed
I am suspicious that the problem in the first inquiry is that the men and women are trying to sing in the same octave (that is, singing the same notes, in the same octave). His description of the difficulty seems to indicate this. Simple as it seems, they may not realize that the men and women sing the same melody notes, but an octave apart. The comfortable singing range of men's and women's voices are on average about an octave apart. So the comfortable men's range is from the C below middle C, up to middle C on the piano, and the women's range is from middle C, up to the C above middle C. If you choose a key that substantially keeps the melody notes in the C to C range, it is almost guaranteed to be comfortable for the majority of people. In most popular worship music you hear on radio, etc., men soloists are singing in a tenor range, that is, toward the high end and above in the male range. I mean, Phil Wickam and Chris Tomlin sound great, but they are singing out of most men's range. Conversely, many women soloists are singing toward the lower end of the female range. We just can't think that we can do many of these songs in the "radio version" keys, and expect that most people can heartily sing along. Some brief excursions above or below C to C are OK, but in general we'll lose people along the way outside of that range, and they'll just feel frustrated that they can't sing! Another problem is that in the last decade or so it has become very popular with leading worship song writers to extend the melody of a song way beyond and octave, often by taking a section of the song and simply jumping it up an octave for energy effect. Cool, but what usually happens is guys end up almost screaming, and ladies just drop an octave and sing the same notes as the men. OK if you have a large energetic gathering, but not conducive to most people being able to sing.
😊thank you! Newcomers don’t lead, we have them come to 8 practices before they can sing in a Sunday service. I am going to get choir microphone. Because we do not have an active sound man and yet I have 8 people who have microphones… 3 newbies, 2 oldies (meaning they have had a gospel groups, traveling the country), the piano player and my husband and I…. On another note, is there any classes for praise and worship leading???
Real talk is to just pick a key that’s comfortable for your main vocals for each song to perform in without having to strain and doing it in that key. At the end of the day literally nobody in the congregation wants to trade being able to sing along in exchange for having their ears subjected to a poor vocal performance coming through the speakers because the people holding the microphones are out of their comfort zone. There’s no perfect key that will fit in everyone’s ability and people will just naturally flow back and forth between octaves to keep themselves comfortable while they’re singing along anyway. If you’re playing worship music from bands like Bethel, Hillsong, Elevation, Passion, Marantha, Integrity, etc. as tons of churches do, you can also pretty safely just match the keys they’re playing in their recordings (particularly their live albums) because those songs are basically designed for millions of people around the world are able to sing along with them in the first place. No real need to reinvent the wheel in that case since those groups are already doing a ton of the legwork on that front.
Im in college and i work part time so I can’t really play minecraft every time, except during breaks and vacation from work…not just in minecraft btw other games too
Let us all learn how to sing and play at least one instrument skillfully for the glory of God. Singers must learn the fundamental of good vocal techniques and musicians must learn to play the instrument skillfully. Choosing the right key is important, it cannot be too low or too high depending on the song. The lead singers has to sing the melody on the right key while others can sing in harmony or parts. The key sets the right worship atmosphere if done correctly. I normally choose my songs where the melody falls within the range C4 - C5 like you said in this video. Example Joy to the World - Key D but try singing it in A B C D E F G to see the effects. The starting melody "Joy to the world the Lord is come" follows the major scale e.g. key C - C5 B A G F E D C4. I preferred to sing in the original key unless it to high or too low for the singers. Some of the Christian Top Worship leaders have suffered vocal damages due to constant singing out of their comfort range. Thanks for sharing what key to sing for worship leaders choosing their songs to sing in church for the glory of God.
If you're talking about famous singers, they get vocal damage from overuse, not singing outside their range. Many of them lower the key of their song to perform it live.
“Modern” (maybe “contemporary”) songs often have too wide a range, and in many cases start in a low octave and then jump an octave higher to generate effect or excitement (possibly a bit of a copout…). I reckon our congregation can manage A below middle C up to D an octave above middle C. Maybe even a high E if it only occurs briefly and not often.
I've run into exactly this issue. Thankfully, both my wife and I are experienced singers, so if I think that a song is optimal for ONE of us, I will play with different keys until there's one that both of us can navigate. Another thing I consider is whether the song itself is "congregational". There are a lot of songs out there that are great for outreach or presentational, but are horrible for congregations. Also, to your point about harmony, I always emphasize harmonies (I do a lot of musical theater as well, so this is something I have a ton of experience with). So, on rare occasions where I can only really do a song either in a female key or a male key, I will choose an easy second part that the others can quickly pick up the harmony (some harmonies can be made to "feel like the melody").
I hear the argument all the time "Well at concerts the artist sings in their high/low key and all the people just sing right along at the top of their lungs. What's the problem?" My take is that at concerts you have thousands and thousands of fans. They know the songs by heart and if some of them are left behind by notes that are too high/low, nobody notices and nobody cares. Transfer that into a church of couple hundred or so with an age range of 8-88 and things change a bit. People might not listen to Christian music outside of church and might only sing for 20min on Sunday. Singability becomes much more critical. As a tenor I frequently have to key songs lower than I'd prefer to maximize engagement rather than put on a show.
Most of our women in the worship team are super low altos and can’t sing comfortably above an A- to contrast, we also have a very high tenor male singer who leads frequently - his chest voice barely gets down to a D. C to C is basically impossible for the whole group.
I’ve found that a compromise that works for us is to pick a comfortable key for the leader that allows for each section to be sung by everyone in *an* octave- often this means the congregation is singing at pitch in the verses and an octave down in the choruses. As long as each entire section can be sung by the congregation without having to jump around to a different octave mid-section, I’ve found that it doesn’t impact congregational singing- our church still sings super loud.
Spencer! For the microphone issue, you could also suggest a different microphone. They might have supercardioid mics that have a very tight pickup pattern and require significantly more technique. A normal cardioid mic would be more broad in picking up sound around it. My band just switched over to supercardioid and it’s going to be quite the adjustment for some of them.
Added bonus, if your sanctuary is not treated acoustically and you have a loud stage with drums I HIGHLY suggest supercardioid mics. The first few services with them our sound guy said it feels like he finally gets to have a mix he likes rather than fighting feedback and room EQ issues.
Sound tech here: If you instruct her to rest the capsule on her chin, with the mic more or less vertically oriented, it will accomplish three things: 1) maintain consistent distance between the mouth and the microphone, 2) minimize "plosives", which is air current that will blow across the capsule, not into it, and 3) and it will eliminate obscuring her mouth from the congregation. A lot of communication in worship is visual, and having a mic capsule covering one's mouth makes that communication (and connection) more difficult. There are a lot of folks with bad mic technique out there, so this is a difficult skill to master when it is seldom being modeled. But the results are significant when this develops into a discipline.
A difficult issue to tackle is "I heard this great song on the radio/stream/whatever I think we should sing it. Just like in "real life", artists (we'll stick with male, just for simplicity) are bass/baritones or tenors. Many successful songwriters and performers are tenors. Very few people in you congregation are tenors.... so a tune by say Mr. Tomlin is going to be hard to adapt because lowering the key often takes some of the "power" out of the songs. I've been a church musician for 35 years - everything from full traditional choir and pipe organ to some great bands and I've always used the same kind of "rule". Melodies can get to Eb on the high end, but only briefly, and B or A below middle C at the other. Something we rarely consider with a song that has a wide range is to "re-invent" that really low or high phrase. A slight change to the, here we go, big word, tessitura is perfectly acceptable if it makes the song accessible to all and creates real worship.
I use the high C method also, but some songs go to D or E for sopranos. A good soprano should be able to do this, I tell them if you don't use it you will lose it.
Re, the mic issue....consider a headset OR tape a square on the floor and instruct her to remain within the square. OR i would even go so far as to ask HER what would help her in resolving this issue.
I wonder if the mic issue is about a lack of confidence? Often, I'll pull away the mic at the beginning or end of phrases if I'm worried that I'm not on key. So maybe spending time as supporting vocals is what is needed
I am suspicious that the problem in the first inquiry is that the men and women are trying to sing in the same octave (that is, singing the same notes, in the same octave). His description of the difficulty seems to indicate this.
Simple as it seems, they may not realize that the men and women sing the same melody notes, but an octave apart. The comfortable singing range of men's and women's voices are on average about an octave apart. So the comfortable men's range is from the C below middle C, up to middle C on the piano, and the women's range is from middle C, up to the C above middle C. If you choose a key that substantially keeps the melody notes in the C to C range, it is almost guaranteed to be comfortable for the majority of people.
In most popular worship music you hear on radio, etc., men soloists are singing in a tenor range, that is, toward the high end and above in the male range. I mean, Phil Wickam and Chris Tomlin sound great, but they are singing out of most men's range. Conversely, many women soloists are singing toward the lower end of the female range. We just can't think that we can do many of these songs in the "radio version" keys, and expect that most people can heartily sing along. Some brief excursions above or below C to C are OK, but in general we'll lose people along the way outside of that range, and they'll just feel frustrated that they can't sing!
Another problem is that in the last decade or so it has become very popular with leading worship song writers to extend the melody of a song way beyond and octave, often by taking a section of the song and simply jumping it up an octave for energy effect. Cool, but what usually happens is guys end up almost screaming, and ladies just drop an octave and sing the same notes as the men. OK if you have a large energetic gathering, but not conducive to most people being able to sing.
You should ask why she does it and see if it’s a confidence issue or she was taught bad technique or she thinks it’s what’s she’s supposed to do
One word: Headset.
A real comment ❤
😊thank you!
Newcomers don’t lead, we have them come to 8 practices before they can sing in a Sunday service.
I am going to get choir microphone. Because we do not have an active sound man and yet I have 8 people who have microphones… 3 newbies, 2 oldies (meaning they have had a gospel groups, traveling the country), the piano player and my husband and I….
On another note, is there any classes for praise and worship leading???
Real talk is to just pick a key that’s comfortable for your main vocals for each song to perform in without having to strain and doing it in that key. At the end of the day literally nobody in the congregation wants to trade being able to sing along in exchange for having their ears subjected to a poor vocal performance coming through the speakers because the people holding the microphones are out of their comfort zone.
There’s no perfect key that will fit in everyone’s ability and people will just naturally flow back and forth between octaves to keep themselves comfortable while they’re singing along anyway.
If you’re playing worship music from bands like Bethel, Hillsong, Elevation, Passion, Marantha, Integrity, etc. as tons of churches do, you can also pretty safely just match the keys they’re playing in their recordings (particularly their live albums) because those songs are basically designed for millions of people around the world are able to sing along with them in the first place. No real need to reinvent the wheel in that case since those groups are already doing a ton of the legwork on that front.
Im in college and i work part time so I can’t really play minecraft every time, except during breaks and vacation from work…not just in minecraft btw other games too
???
Let us all learn how to sing and play at least one instrument skillfully for the glory of God. Singers must learn the fundamental of good vocal techniques and musicians must learn to play the instrument skillfully. Choosing the right key is important, it cannot be too low or too high depending on the song. The lead singers has to sing the melody on the right key while others can sing in harmony or parts. The key sets the right worship atmosphere if done correctly. I normally choose my songs where the melody falls within the range C4 - C5 like you said in this video. Example Joy to the World - Key D but try singing it in A B C D E F G to see the effects. The starting melody "Joy to the world the Lord is come" follows the major scale e.g. key C - C5 B A G F E D C4. I preferred to sing in the original key unless it to high or too low for the singers. Some of the Christian Top Worship leaders have suffered vocal damages due to constant singing out of their comfort range. Thanks for sharing what key to sing for worship leaders choosing their songs to sing in church for the glory of God.
If you're talking about famous singers, they get vocal damage from overuse, not singing outside their range. Many of them lower the key of their song to perform it live.
'D' is always the best key for group singing.
That makes no sense. It all depends on the melody, and on melody only.