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(This post was written prior to 2016, in a blog entitled “Jubal’s Jottings.”)
I’m still getting some thoughts from the Worship Leader magazine letters to the editor! Blogfodder! I wrote a blog some time ago about the range of congregational songs being too high! Every time I say something about that, I get every kind of defensive reason thrown back at me. So, some guy writes it in Worship Leader, so now I have an ally…and we’re both right! The range that these tenor worship leaders chose for everyone to sing is horrible! Why are all of the leaders tenors? We need a few more baritones to become leaders! We can never find enough tenors for choirs. It must be because they’re all modern worship leaders…and quit the choir long ago! Amazing!
Anyway, in the letters to the editor it says…”Two weeks ago I visited a church with a younger tenor as a worship leader. It was obvious that he was a tenor, and it was also obvious that very few of the congregation could sing in his range. My wife is a soprano, and I am a baritone. I had to sing everything an octave down or come up with a harmony. My wife felt fatigued to sing in the upper range where the leader was leading…songs should be placed from C to shining C where possible with an occasional upper D and a very rare E.”
Now, my first thoughts are that if I had said that, I’d be full of wounds from all the shots I would take…but oh well. At some point, however, you have to ask, “Why?” The answers may be several. It may be the only key they can do it in…musical limitations. Maybe they didn’t even think about it…shame on them. Maybe they do it because it’s comfortable for their range…how selfish is that? At any rate, I’m glad I’m not the only one who speaks to this problem. It is a HUGE problem – bad stewardship of the human voice. It is NOT an aid to the unifying song of the Church. Please find the C to shining C…with an occasional D or E. It’s where most people…and kids…can sing well!
Jubal, what range did you make your first instruments? Were you a tenor, too?