Is Guitar mass okay

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Me and my girlfriend have been “debating” the moral validity of guitar mass. I basically just say it’s not the time and place and the mass should be different from everything else you experience. I was wondering if anyone has good objections to guitar mass and what doctors of the church have said on the matter.
 
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What exactly do you mean by guitar Mass? As far as I know, the mere use of a guitar, especially if in conjunction with other instruments, to accompany singing of hymns is not intrinsically irreverent or a liturgical abuse. Some may object on aesthetic grounds, and that could be a valid criticism, but unless the guitar playing rather than God becomes the focus of the Mass I don’t believe it is inherently wrong.
 
‘Guitar mass’ reminds me of masses I used to attend at a now-defunct parish in my downtown which had a lot of Filipino parishioners and a resident guitarist who supplied the music. I used to watch him and try to guage whether I could play the same part (I think I usually could though as he appeared to be an experienced musician he never got flustered or missed a note, which I can’t guarantee would be the case with me).

As for whether it’s ‘okay’, yes I think so, though some people might prefer an organ or piano. In the Middle Ages, I’ve read, the Church believed that as man was made in the image of God, the human voice must therefore be the most pleasing to Him, and that it would resemble the singing of angels, and that therefore no instruments were allowed at mass (or at the very least they were discouraged). These instruments were the province of folk music. So following that you could say any instrumentation is profane, or was once regarded as such.
 
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Of course guitar Mass is cringey at this point. I love to hear people in their 60s and 70s talk about how great it was to hear their first guitar mass in 1970 when they were a kid. Great, so we have to live with music that appeals to ten-year-olds indefinitely? And said 60-year-olds themselves quit going to Mass decades ago…
Sounds like a great reason to get rid of centuries of liturgical music and tradition…
 
Jragzz123 said:
I was wondering if anyone has good objections to guitar mass and what doctors of the church have said on the matter.
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I know of no church teaching condemning the use of guitars in Mass. It is a matter of taste and preference.

It is a popular instrument largely because it’s cost-effective.
 
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blackforest said:
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Jragzz123:
I was wondering if anyone has good objections to guitar mass and what doctors of the church have said on the matter.
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I know of no church teaching condemning the use of guitars in Mass. It is a matter of taste and preference.
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Yeah, there’s no Church teaching on music at Mass! It’s all taste and preference! 🤣🤣🤣
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Instruments to be used at mass Liturgy and Sacraments
There are no instruments that are “banned” (though that might not be a bad idea). John Calvin (one of the main inventors of protestantism) prohibited any musical instruments that were not specifically mentioned in the Bible. Interestingly, this would exclude the organ, but allow drums and guitars (well, lyres, anyway, which are stringed instruments).
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I think what you’re reacting to isn’t simply the guitar here but the folk arrangements played on guitar. A guitar can be used to play classical music too (in fact I play classical guitar - not well though!). There’s no reason why hymns can’t be played on a guitar just as well as on a piano (or an organ, xylophone, etc.).
 
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tomarin said:
I think what you’re reacting to isn’t simply the guitar here but the folk arrangements played on guitar. A guitar can be used to play classical music too (in fact I play classical guitar - not well though!).
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Yeah well, when have you heard classical guitar at Mass? And why would it be replacing the organ? Because it can’t.
 
Technically, it could. You have to distinguish between the instrument and the musical arrangement.
 
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I personally have heard several non-practicing Catholics express these very sentiments.
 
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Well, since it’s not true, no. Average attendees at Mass are the group you’re saying stopped attending years ago.

Edited for clarity: To avoid this post appearing to be a non sequitur, I’m noting that the post to which I’m responding has been substantially edited from its original “Truth hurts, don’t it”
 
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Loud-living-dogma said:
It’s all taste and preference!
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You’re expressing yours quite vehemently here.
Loud-living-dogma said:
Yeah well, when have you heard classical guitar at Mass?
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In her tiny parish, my sister plays classical guitar as a prelude before Mass.
Loud-living-dogma said:
And why would it be replacing the organ? Because it can’t.
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That is your opinion.

It replaces the organ because A) people like it and (usually) B) most parishes can’t afford much more than a cheap organ.
 
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tomarin said:
Technically, it could. You have to distinguish between the instrument and the musical arrangement.
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Guitar does not have a sustained tone that supports singing. The gentle plucking of a classical guitar is not going to lead or support congregational singing. That’s why organ is the premier instrument of the Catholic Church.
 
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Which instrument came first, the organ or the guitar ?

BTW, I played a guitar at Mass, usually finger style picking as I also play a classical guitar.

We did many hymns by John Michael Talbot, who is a master classical guitarist

Also, the Monks of the Weston Priory, their songs were written by Gregory Norbot, who also used a classical guitar.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Which instrument came first, the organ or the guitar ?

BTW, I played a guitar at Mass, usually finger style picking as I also play a classical guitar.

We did many hymns by John Michael Talbot, who is a master classical guitarist

Also, the Monks of the Weston Priory, their songs were written by Gregory Norbot, who also used a classical guitar.
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Doesn’t matter which came first, and it doesn’t matter that some people can use their guitar effectively and tastefully.
What matters is what the Church teaches.
 
The congregation sang vibrantly when I played in the parish music group at Mass.

We had two guitars, and upright bass and flute.

The congregation always gave us a round of applause at the end of each Mass, which would surely upset you.
 
Never mind!

This subject comes up at least once a year in this forum and it’s always heated by those who hate guitar music at Mass.

Conversations like his are not spiritually edifying, so I’m not going to participate anymore
 
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