I've been a volunteer musician in churches for most of my life. I've sung in church choirs since I was nine years old. Where I come from, we refer to our musicianship as an offering to God, not as a "way to give back to the church." And, as an offering, it should be the very best one has to offer. Not music thrown together on Sunday morning with no rehearsal. Not a cantor who can't get the words of the Psalm right because he never even bothered to look at them before Mass. Not guitars played without any regard to at least TRYING to get them in tune. Not the same bloody processional and recessional for two weeks because one set of musicians won't communicate with the other.missy wrote:ok - I have to post, since I'm one of "those" musicians at Mass.
Our "contemporary" group consists of 2 - 12 string guitars, 1 - 6 string, 1 - electric bass, me on dulcimer (and whistle or bodhran if appropriate), an electric keyboard, some drums, and at least 4 other singers besides those playing. We have two excellent sopranos.
We have practice once a week for the following Sunday.
BUT -
all of us do this on a volunteer basis, no pay. It's our way of giving back to the Church. So - if you don't like the music at YOUR church, see about starting a group up. But be advised that you'll have to work "within" the existing sound system (which is usually NOT set up for acoustic instruments, much less a whistle) you'll have to play whatever is in the hymnal set that your church has purchased (and you'll probably not have a say it that, either), and, of course, you need to stick to what's appropriate for the calendar at that time.
I mean, common, this is a MUSIC board! Who better to help with the music than someone posting on here???!
Missy
And...hello...you don't just walk into a congregation and say "I'm here to help you fix your music" either.
I'm not interested in playing whistle in church, and if I had my say, we wouldn't use a sound system either. There's no need for it. Heck, this is the first time I've attended a church in my life that even HAD a microphone. I'm a chorister and a cantor, and what I was bemoaning was the throwing away of the Catholic Church's marvelous musical tradition which, at least out here in California, is now only preserved in Episcopal Churches and traditionalist Latin Rite Churches...despite the expression on the part of the Second Vatican Council that "Gregorian Chant should be given pride of place." Try to form a proper choir out here to sing Palestrina or Bach and see how far you get. Try even suggesting that the parts of the Mass should be chanted. At this point, however, I'd settle for a folk group that was willing to rehearse and to give of their best to God.
I'm totally in favor of "making a joyful noise." In my NC parish, two of my favorite people...the two who ALWAYS sang during Mass...were deaf. They sang from their hearts, and their singing was beautiful because of that, even if they were lucky if they hit one correct note in 10. But what I'm hearing now doesn't come from the heart. The "musicians" evidently don't even have enough passion to bother to practice or tune their instruments (helpful hint...until you can tune it properly, don't play it in public). It's not a "joyful noise," it's just plain noise.
Redwolf