I just read this great article about the volume of music in our church worship services. This article is super informative and shows that the author is tastefully experienced. It was written by
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to read it in it's original location. Enjoy.
It was nearly time to begin the service. The congregation was
gathering in the building, some clustering in the aisles and halls,
others dutifully making their way to the space inside the large
auditorium. At five minutes 'til, the musicians took their places,
running through an instrumental version of one of the tunes we'd all be
singing later in the meeting, and I winced in pain. A sinking feeling
ran from head to toe: this was going to be a LOUD service.
As a musician who spends a lot of time recording, I'm nervous around
loud sounds. I cover my ears when sirens pass. I rarely sit in the front
rows of concerts. I don't like playing with loud drummers. So as the
volume swelled, I reached for my trusty iPhone, opening up the
Sound-Pressure-Level meter app. The peaks were around 110 or 112
decibels, which is loud---near the damage threshold, in fact. I put the
phone away, determined to do my best in participating without wincing,
praying that they would turn it down.
The irony of this story is that the music was as traditional as it
gets. The only instrument playing as I took SPL readings was a pipe
organ.
Volume is a source of regular frustration and conflict around worship
services. I was only about 10 years old when I witnessed one of my
first church wars. Our music minister had just resigned, and a church
musician was asked to coordinate the worship services until a new
minister was hired. On about his third Sunday, he rolled out "The Great
Adventure" by Steven Curtis Chapman, a move that thrilled half the
audience and offended the rest. While portions of the room clapped
along, others literally stood covering their ears. (As I recall,
electronic drums were purchased days later.)
I've been playing electric guitar in worship bands since I was 15,
and the battle over volume has been part of that journey since day one.
By no stretch of the imagination do I claim to have perfected this, nor
do I claim innocence in all the volume wars I've been a part of. But
over the years I have learned some valuable lessons, and I offer a few
of them here.
All Music Is (at Times) Loud . . . and Should Be
Many assume only contemporary music is loud. This is simply untrue.
While a rock ensemble is capable of painfully loud volumes (and it's
often easy to get to these levels), so is traditional or classical
instrumentation. Symphonic music and pipe organs can peak at the same
decibel levels as rock music, with the same potential for lasting
damage. You encounter similar risks to your hearing at a performance of
Handel's
Messiah as you do at a Matt Redman concert.
Most hearing damage happens when someone has sustained exposure to
loud volumes. Every church should buy a decent, inexpensive SPL meter
and check levels periodically from different places in the room. You'll
be surprised to see how much variation there is from spot to spot.
There should be no doubt that, in the gathering of God's people,
there's an appropriate time for loud volume. Gather 500 souls in a room,
get them all singing in harmony, and you'll see that they can get
incredibly loud---and they should. The psalmist says, "Shout to God with
loud songs of joy!" (
Psalm 47:1) and, "Praise him with loud crashing cymbals!" (
Psalm 150:5).
Worship should invoke the kind of celebratory volume that flows
naturally from a crowd. We cheer on athleticism at sporting events, we
cheer on skill in the performing arts, we cheer on political speeches
when they ring true to us. Likewise, we should respond to God's
revelation of himself with culturally appropriate, loud celebrations. In
North America, the language of celebration in music is often led by
some sort of rock ensemble. You can even see it in national politics,
when Bill Clinton pulls out his saxophone and Mike Huckabee pulls out
his electric bass. It's not surprising, then, that this arrangement has
become the standard for how many celebrate in our worship gatherings.
Discerning Volume
Music that's described as "too loud" is often more of an issue with
harshness than volume. Imagine the sound of your worship band as though
they're running through your car stereo. Turn the bass down. Turn the
treble all the way up. Now listen at a normal volume level for four or
five minutes. It's will make you feel like your ears are going to bleed.
In reality, it's probably not dangerously loud. It's just dangerously
bad. Music regarded as loud, especially in the church where musicians
and techs work desperately to tame volume levels, is often simply harsh,
imbalanced sound.
Unfortunately, the problems related to bad sound are often heaped at
the feet of musical style. The problem, it's said, isn't a particular
application of sound; it's the decision to play contemporary music.
That's simply not the case. While the challenges abound, if we pay
attention to the details, good sound is most certainly possible with a
rock ensemble.
Bad sound can be sparked at any one of a hundred directions. Each
step in the process of making music introduces opportunities to get
something into the speakers that just sounds bad. Here's a simplified
way of thinking about it. All music gets sent through your church's PA
along these steps:
- Musician
- Instrument
- Sound equipment
- Sound engineer
- Room
Let's examine each of these steps.
Musicians
No amount of money spent on gear can make a bad singer sound good, or
a bad drummer play in time, or turn an unskilled guitarist into Stevie
Ray Vaughn. Your sound is only going to be as good as your players. I've
seen great players pick up nightmarishly bad gear and instantly sound
amazing, because good players pay attention to their sound, pay
attention to their room, and work really hard as a band at building a
cohesive overall sound.
It's worth considering how you might develop your musicians. This
might mean investing in master classes or private lessons. It might also
mean narrowing the number of musicians who perform to feature only
those with the ability to create cohesive and pleasant-sounding
arrangements. That may sound like a harsh choice, but Sunday isn't about
giving people an opportunity to play music together. It's about
providing an opportunity for the congregation to gather and sing with
one voice.
Instruments
In my parents' generation, churches spent massive sums of money on
pipe organs and Steinway pianos. The investment was worth it on a number
of levels. First, a quality instrument attracts quality musicians.
Second, a quality instrument puts a tool in the hands of a musician that
enables a wide range of dynamic expression. For instance, an
inexpensive piano has a narrow difference between its quietest, darkest
sounds and its loudest, brightest sounds. Fine pianos have a much wider
range, enabling the player with more precision to dial in the emotional
mood of the song.
This metaphor extends across the musical spectrum. We're often
tempted to piece together equipment for the church band as cheaply as
possible. Then we're surprised when the cymbals are unbearably harsh and
the bass is never in tune.
The investment in quality is worth it. Good instruments make the musicians' job that much easier and more pleasurable.
In particular, let me advocate for two things: First, buy good
cymbals. Cheap cymbals sound like trash-can lids, and they ring with
harsh, high-pitched overtones that dominate the sound of an ensemble. If
a band sounds harsh, often it's because of the cymbals.
Second, buy some decent, low-wattage tube guitar amplifiers. Look for
stuff that's about 15 watts or less. Any guitarist who thinks he needs
more is deluded, unless he's playing stadiums four nights a week. Put
the amps on kickback stands pointed away from the audience (at the
guitar player's head) and mic them. This will give guitarists a sound
they'll enjoy, an amp they can hear, and an overall volume level that
will be tolerable for the rest of the church.
Sound Equipment
I'll keep this simple, because there's a lot that could be said about
sound equipment. If you make the investment in the first two items
above (good players, good instruments) then the sound equipment becomes a
much smaller issue. Your goal, at that point, is simply to support what
the band is doing. So you need speakers with a good, full range of
sound (lows, midrange, highs) and with enough power to run clean.
That second point is quite important. Churches often want to buy the
fewest and smallest possible speakers for aesthetic reasons, but good,
clear sound requires speakers running below their limitations. A rock
ensemble usually requires subwoofers to balance out the low end. (Think
of this like using the pedals on your pipe organ.) The more you push a
sound system to its limit, the harsher everything becomes and the more
distortion you introduce. Invest in a sound system that's bigger and
louder than you need. You'll be able to get a full range of sound
without pushing it to the limit and distorting. (But you'll need to
train your sound engineers not to turn things all the way up.)
Sound Engineers
You can't say enough about the importance of good sound engineers.
The person behind the board can make a good band sound bad, and a bad
band sound worse. Invest in training your volunteer sound techs and
consider stipending professionals who attend your church. A good
engineer will prevent distractions like feedback and keep the overall
levels under control.
Room
Every room has a sound. Cathedral spaces were designed to carry a few
voices from front to back. Smack a snare drum in that room and it
echoes for eternity. Music venues and movie theaters are heavily treated
with sound absorption and dispersion materials, creating a space with
just the right amount of resonance. Too much resonance and echo, and the
sound becomes chaos. Too little and the sound becomes unnatural.
If you're going to use a rock ensemble in worship, it's wise to treat
the room in such a way that it hinders reflections, absorbing sound in
chairs, bodies, floors, and walls. Without giving attention to the room,
you'll perpetually be fitting a round peg in a square hole.
The Goal
The goal of music in the gathering isn't great sound or even great
music. It's a church gathered and united in song. Pastors, consider the
dynamic range of your service. Churches often lock themselves into a
particular stylistic vein and work it for an entire service. Years ago I
served at a church where consistently, week in and week out, the
worship leader would pick four songs for the opening of the service. All
would be in the key of G. All would be about the same tempo. All would
essentially have the same four-on-the-floor pop rhythm that plagues
contemporary worship. The band was a wall of sound from the beginning of
the music until its merciful end.
Worship should be much more diverse, and that includes creating
dynamic diversity in the sound of the band. Many who lament the advent
of the rock ensemble in the local church point to the loss of beautiful A
cappella singing. We have replaced it with the pervasive, quasi-U2
sounds of contemporary praise. It's a good critique. Miles Davis is
supposed to have said that the most important notes are the ones you
don't play. The decision to minimize, to pull the band out of a song,
for musicians to limit themselves and serve the song, is of utmost
importance in a worship band. Playing tastefully and discerningly will
go a long way to encouraging the congregation to participate. It will
also make room for them to be heard.
Good pastoral decisions related to sound will include wise decisions
about songs and dynamics, ensuring that services create space for the
congregation to hear themselves, to hear one another, and to join their
voices in song. The psalms manage to describe an enormous diversity in
emotions and energy, and with appropriate planning and care, our
gatherings should reflect that. Even if they're accompanied by a rock
band.
Mike Cosper is pastor of worship and arts at
Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He writes on the
gospel and the arts for The Gospel Coalition.
