Re: [Worship] putting songs in singable keys

["Fred Kohn" <fkohn@columbus.rr.com>]

Back when I started doing "praise and worship music" (as we called it way
back in late 70's) the typical song was very singable. Most were within a
one octave range... or even less. The harmonies were simple...
instrumentation was usually really, really simple. People were still getting
used to the idea that guitars in church were OK and drums in church were a
radical idea in many if not most circles.

Lots of us felt back then that such "simple" music wasn't really serving the
purpose. Not only did it fail to express the full range of emotions that we
felt, it didn't really express Christ to the outside world in a very good
way. The awesome, wonderful, and beautiful Jesus was being expressed in very
narrow terms musically. For better (and I DO believe that it is better) or
worse, church "worship music" has followed the path of becoming more
expressive and rich. Part of this has involved introducing larger and larger
numbers of songs with larger and larger ranges.

> Another way to aproach the question is what is a good range to shoot for?
> The old adage 'from c to shining c' is too high in my wife's opinion.
> She feels that a to a is more reasonable.

Look at it this way: songs that stretch the basic range are a reality for
the church. Take Hillsong's "Shout to the Lord". Very popular song... very
powerful... but very challenging in terms of range. If we use a one octave
"basic range" we are going to have to stretch that range on both ends. If we
use the "c to c" basic range, we should put this song in either Bb or B.
This would produce a singing range of either A to d... or A# to d#. If we
used an "a to a" basic range, this song should be either in G or Ab. This
yields ranges of either F# to b or G to c.

So then... is it more reasonable to expect the average voice to reach up to
d or d#... or more reasonable to expect the average voice to reach down to
F# or G?

Of course I have my prejudices here... so it might be reasonable to enlist
the aid of somebody who teaches voice professionally to answer this
question.

Blessings!
Fred Kohn
http://www.pianomoods.com
\o/


**************************************************
       Looking for praise and worship music resources?
                      Visit our list sponsor at:
                  http://www.worshipmusic.com

      Any questions about your subscription or the list? 
                Contact worship-help@praise.net
**************************************************