P O L L Your Church Singing Style Songs

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Seagull

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  • I hold the hymnal while singing meekly.
  • I don’t sing but just stand there with the hymnal
  • I don’t sing. No hymnal.
  • People around me hear me singing and kinda like it.
  • Pavarotti proud singer when the hymn is right
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I think there could be a couple other choices, such as:

sing certain songs with or without hymnal

sing without hymnal.
 
I don’t see a choice for singing everything. When I’m not playing my flute I sing everything. Interestingly, our community uses worship aids instead of hymnals. For songs with verse/refrain format only the refrain is printed. Most of the congregation is able to sing by rote, and don’t need the hymnal/worship aid for many songs.
 
That’s a joke, but on serious note I have problems singing along because I rarely find the hymn is being sung in my key. So I veer from sounding like Barry White to Michael Jackson, kind of. That’s why I try to sit at the back but there can be some jostling! Our back pews fill up fast. Ha ha.

Overall though I do enjoy the hymns which are traditional ones in my church.
 
Key is the biggest limiting factor. If I’m lucky, I’ve got a range of about one-and-a-half octaves. 🙂 So if a song has any significant range to it, where we start off has an enormous impact on how much of it I contribute to. 😛
 
Yes, I figured as much that it was a joke. 🙂

I thought the extra two choices could be added because sometimes I know the song, if it is played alot and then I don’t need to open the hymnal.

Sometimes, similar to what you said, I can’t sing it, usually because of the tune or something else, so many times I don’t sing.
 
I don’t wish to labour the point but I think I read somewhere that it’s a good idea for an organist to test out the congregation and find the optimal key. Thinking about It i can’t quite see how that would work that well considering the wide age range and genders. I did actually suggest this to my organist once…he smiled.
 
We don’t use a hymnal, but a song sheet. Every Sunday there’s a new one with all of the hymns and chants printed on it, so there’s no frantic flipping through the pages of a hymnal for us.
 
Lee1 said:
That’s a joke, but on serious note I have problems singing along because I rarely find the hymn is being sung in my key
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Ditto. Most all the songs sung before, during and after Mass are way too high for me.
 
Sometimes I must sing so low that my shoelaces untie! Then so high that I could back for the beegees!

But why? It must be something to do with the composers obviously, perhaps they try singing it themselves before they were published?
 
Haha, funny. 🤣 Really, I think a lot of people have the same problem. It would be nice if we could have the music rewritten, present day, to be compatible with everyone’s voices/ranges.
 
That’s probably a good idea but I have a strong feeling that there might be some resistance to that from traditionalists. I do like the traditional hymns myself. I probably shouldn’t say this but I did witness a small group of musicians once who accompanied during the mass and it reminded me of the band on Sesame Street. Complete with drummer. It was a memorable mass but perhaps for the wrong reasons.

Bless them.
 
As an old school former Baptist, our hymnals were always written for four-part harmony, bass and treble clef. We learned how to read music in choir and in school choir. The songs had a verse and a chorus. My observation is that our Catholic Hymnal shows only the melody, and the verses and choruses are irregular. I find it hard to follow. Is it just our particular hymnal that doesn’t show bass clef?
 
Depends. If I’m ushering, I’m singing along to the parts I know while looking out for anything that requires my attention. If I’m just going to Mass, I sing along with the help of the hymnal.
 
It drives me crazy when I’m not given the notes. Worship aids without music notation are a personal pet peeve of mine.
 
It is. In the choir. If the music is too low, sing the alto or bass parts in your choir.
 
Most Catholic hymnals only show a melody on most hymns. It is unfortunate. You might look to see if there is a choir addition for your hymnal, if you want want.

Oh, I sing if I know the song, or after I kind of get it, with a hymnal if I am not real sure of the words. And there are some I like the harmony or bass lines to, I will sometimes sing. No one ever says anything to me because my wife is a much better singer and hogs all the compliments.

Oh, and old school Baptist here as well. I still have a couple of older hymnals I use from time to time.
 
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