Need your advice on attending Mass

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jesusmademe said:
I know that learning to sing isn’t always that easy as people might think.
I often find that people who are untrained singers can attend Mass and try to sing.
Why should untrained singers sing at Mass? As a person who take singing seriously I find that Mass is not a time for practicing singing.
Also, who can it be that it is supposed to be easy to find out the correct key? It is actually too low at Mass (something that organists should be aware of but probably aren’t). Lift up your hearts are too low.
I cannot attend Mass if they have music as I don’t agree with how badly things are. I do like the technical quality of the organist.
How should I deal with it?
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The psalms literally say “make a joyful noise unto the LORD”. Note they don’t go far as to say “music”, nor do they state that anything needs to be of professional (or even particularly musically competent) standard.
 
There was an Ordination for a Bishop recently. Lots of people, dignitaries from the Diocese, clergy from the Vatican and local. Packed church, live streamed and also able to be watched later.
The Priest being Ordained Bishop is a wonderful man, very accomplished in all tasks undertaken.

A wonderful joyous, holy event, answering a call from God and His Pope.

The ArchBishop had been presiding. Great singing voice. The Choir were all dressed up in ‘we are singing at an Ordination’ gear and looking good, singing ok, holding a tune.

Then it came time for the new Bishop to continue with the Mass. Sung of course. He did a fine job, brave, clear, loud, only…He cannot hold a tune, pitch to him means sports.

And the new Bishop has a lifetime to look forward to singing the Mass in worship of God.

May God bless the new Bishop
 
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I guess my attitude is “I just don’t sing for fun”.
I have a deep interest. Maybe most people at Mass are people whose attitudes are “I sing for fun”.
I talked with a organist who told me he had to be flexible and not always deal with choir members as “people who just don’t sing for fun”.
I think I have to find another attitude than my own when singing at Mass, right?
 
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I am confused.
Is it the people’s singing that bothers you or that the people are allowed to sing and it is not professional/trained singers that are doing the music?
 
jesusmademe said:
I guess my attitude is “I just don’t sing for fun”.
I have a deep interest. Maybe most people at Mass are people whose attitudes are “I sing for fun”.
I talked with a organist who told me he had to be flexible and not always deal with choir members as “people who just don’t sing for fun”.
I think I have to find another attitude than my own when singing at Mass, right?
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The Mass is not entertainment. Who cares if some of the singers are not good. You should not be paying attention to them.
If you are saying you need to change your attitude I would agree with that.
 
One of the first Catholic Masses in Sweden that I went to, I was surprised that singing sounded so horribly bad. I come from protestant background parish were most people knew the 200 most common hymns by heart singing in base, tenor, alto and soprano. I think the major problem is that Catholics in our parishes come from 50-100 different countries/languages in Sweden and there are very few who are three generations Catholics born in Sweden. Learning a new language, ie Swedish as well as Latin, takes time. It takes time to learn how to pronounce when speaking and also singing in a rhythm that changes depending upon the tune.

When I have been to some of the Eastern Liturgies celebrated in Gees, Arabic, Armenian, Hungarian, Malayalam they sing beautifully together. Catholics in Sweden can sing. It is just the problem of singing together in a language/s that is new to the greater majority of them. Some parishes are doing a great job at singing together while others need a lot of help. I have seen the same problem in one of the evangelical parishes with a majority of immigrants from several different countries. People were singing in 5 different places and the organ played the sixth.
 
Good point.
Det är svårt med mångkultur som man brukar säga.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Please, try singing for fun. It is good for us!
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You know what. I find it not fun when people choose harder keys. I am a tenor with a higher voice. So to make it fun you must sing in higher keys or give me a line maybe a third higher that I can sing, ie singing the kyriale with a line third above.
All I can say is this: it is hard being different. People seldom take the person who are different into consideration. I think some of the melodies should be sung higher as well so that the higher voices don’t have to sing in keys made for old men and women above 50 years of age.
I tried to sing happy birthday with my parent and my father jusy couldn’t sing. Why? I sang like a natural tenor and he is an untrained older man.
When people sing together peopoe always complain when I want to sing in a natural key.
Tenors seem rare at church, right?
 
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Many years ago there was a priest preaching on the importance of the people sininging during mass. He said, “St Ambrose said, He who sings prays twice.” Then he looked right at me and said, “Poche, in your case silence is still golden.”
 
Exactly!

“Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; cry out to the rock of our salvation.”
Psalm 95:1
 
jesusmademe said:
Or they just choose a better higher key!!
It is easy! Just transpose it from D to F.
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Well, the higher key may be ‘better’ for you, but not for a lot of the rest of us. If anything, music at most churches is too high for me. I just muddle on the best I can and remember that we are to make a “joyful” noise unto the Lord, not necessarily a professionally tuned noise.
 
Not being critical. Saying this with all love. Seeing a lot of myself - way too much of myself - in what you have posted. Find a mass that has no music whatsoever. I go to Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. No singing of any kind and no organist. I truly dread when I have to go to High Mass. Worse yet: Suffering through the warbling “Cantors” in a Novus Ordo Mass.
Yes, I was a musician. I reached the conclusion that “Music Ministry” was most often for people who thought they were musicians and wanted to show off.
We had a monastery in town. The Brothers sang simply and reverently. None were trained opera singers. None saw themselves as singers. But that was real music.
 
jesusmademe said:
You know what. I find it not fun when people choose harder keys. I am a tenor with a higher voice. So to make it fun you must sing in higher keys or give me a line maybe a third higher that I can sing, ie singing the kyriale with a line third above.
All I can say is this: it is hard being different. People seldom take the person who are different into consideration. I think some of the melodies should be sung higher as well so that the higher voices don’t have to sing in keys made for old men and women above 50 years of age.
I tried to sing happy birthday with my parent and my father jusy couldn’t sing. Why? I sang like a natural tenor and he is an untrained older man.
When people sing together peopoe always complain when I want to sing in a natural key.
Tenors seem rare at church, right?
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We can all sng at the samepitch as our speaking voice. Practice that.
Even Pavarotti sang for fun. When we sing at Mass we give ourselves over to the hymn so it can take over, we decrease, it increases so to speak.

You may have been gifted with a beautiful voice but do not forget everyone, even you, can sing at the range of a speaking voice
 
ez3714 said:
I reached the conclusion that “Music Ministry” was most often for people who thought they were musicians and wanted to show off.
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No, music ministry is for really foolish silly weak-brained people like me who are willing to give up their weekends and weekdays to prepare and practice to play at Masses and worship services knowing that people are out there thinking that we “think we are musicians and want to show off.”

Your post makes me feel like an idiot for saying “yes” whenever I am free to play at Mass.

Take care, sir or madam–because of a recent (last week) series of various family crises (dear father-in-law having emergency heart surgery, dear mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s has lost her caregiver as long as her hubby is in the rehab unit, beloved daughter had surgery to try to heal Stage 3 endometriosis, husband living in constant fear of losing a job because of a supervisor who seems committed to seeing him get fired, short-staffing at my workplace requiring me work longer hours, the onset of cold snowy weather after a too-short summer and fall, the approach of the “holidays,” the disgusting and disgraceful behavior of the Democrats who apparently were not elected to make laws but to rid themselves of the President that they hate, and my struggles to continue eating healthy and stop binge-eating–plus all the various music events that I am involved with in my city)–I am truly considering chucking it all and being like all the other pew-warmers and going home and enjoying myself in front of the TV or with a good book.

I hope you re-think your opinion of church musicians. In the meantime, no matter what you think of me, I sing (and play) for I cannot be silent–His Love is the theme of my song. (That’s from one of my favorite hymns, by the way.) But I definitely do NOT play to “show off.”
 
Peeps said:
I hope you re-think your opinion of church musicians. In the meantime, no matter what you think of me, I sing (and play) for I cannot be silent
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If you count Children’s Choir in Baptist Church I grew up in, I was a “Church Musician” for more than 50-years. Hymns, Southern Gospel, P/W, I played bass in a Christian blues band. Most recently I developed a passion for Palestrina, then for Gregorian Chant. My latest stint had me practicing at least one hour a day to prepare for Mass, and I truly loved it. Since I worked Saturday nights, I most often got no sleep before performing at Mass. But then, recounting to strangers how much I suffered for my music, my God, and for all the little people in the pews who didn’t understand my sacrifice would be a dead giveaway that I had a problem.

With all love, you need to quit. Be one of the pew warmers. Sing in the car. Musicians pride is deadly.
 
ez3714 said:
With all love, you need to quit. Be one of the pew warmers. Sing in the car. Musicians pride is deadly
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ez3714 said:
Yes, I was a musician. I reached the conclusion that “Music Ministry” was most often for people who thought they were musicians and wanted to show off.
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Peeps said:
No, music ministry is for really foolish silly weak-brained people like me who are willing to give up their weekends and weekdays to prepare and practice to play at Masses and worship services knowing that people are out there thinking that we “think we are musicians and want to show off.”
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! It is like any other ministry. We do it to the service, glory and worship of God.

The OP is young, I think, and struggling to find the water level in regards to music and Mass. We all find the water level.
 
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