Parish Dos and Don'ts from Millennials

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Padres1969 said:
Interestig take by the Bishop that Polka and Rock lack something intrinsic that presumably other types of music have in his opinion.
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Polka and rock have never been deemed to be liturgical music. It is dance music. It is not that it is bad music, but that it is inappropriate for worship.
 
PetraG said:
it also remains true that the Catholic Church is not the only denomination that proposes to offer a “real” relationship with Our Lord.
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Before I was Catholic, I was a Christian and I had a relationship with Christ, but, I did not have the fullness of relationship with His Holy Church and the Eucharist. It is something that you really have to be a Convert coming from a “denomination” to understand.
PetraG said:
why people who have a “real” relationship with the Almighty are willing to offer Him music that essentially everyone in the building knows is not the best they can do?
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I’ve worked with many parishes. Never once has the goal been to be “offer music that is not the best we can do”… People, parishes, do the very best they can.

Not every parish can afford to hire musicians, not every parish has access to hire-able musicians (rural parishes, etc.) Not every parish has volunteers who are especially gifted.

If you have musical gifts, please do volunteer for your parish!
 
TheLittleLady said:
Not every parish can afford to hire musicians, not every parish has access to hire-able musicians (rural parishes, etc.) Not every parish has volunteers who are especially gifted.
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Especially gifted and have the time. I could do some pretty impressive piano work if I had the dedicated practice time and access that a professional musician has. But that’s not likely to happen, and I can hardly do the 2h a day of practice now that I did as a student!
 
TheLittleLady said:
Not every parish can afford to hire musicians, not every parish has access to hire-able musicians (rural parishes, etc.) Not every parish has volunteers who are especially gifted.
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Sometimes it’s not the lack of training so much as the selection of music. Some of the most beautiful music has versions friendly to the amateurs.
 
In the southern US, someone who can read music and play the organ is rare, the basics of reading music and playing piano is seen as exceptionally gifted. Someone who is willing to sing who can read music is like a unicorn.

Every parish I know has scads of accompaniment books gathering dust, so, selection is not a problem. The problem is finding humans to bring those printed notes to life.
 
I’m dancing around the issue of Oregon Catholic Press stuff. I’m not an Eagles-Wings kinda gal. That’s the most I’ll say on the topic. 😳
 
Keep listening ALLLLLLLLL the way to the end, after the music ends:

 
Millennial here, all I would like to have is Adoration more than once a year, a Saturday vigil Mass that is after 6pm somewhere nearby, and some kind of class or group study.
 
Youtube can solve all those problems. Except for the singing parts. That might take more work and better resources to develop a good timbre and range. The Internet has plenty of resources.
 
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Learning to play a musical instrument takes more than watching YouTube. It takes practice and time to develop this talent. In today’s instant world, it can be frustrating to know that learning a new language (reading music is learning to fluently read a new language) and mastering a musical instrument takes time.
 
My husband has absolute perfect pitch.

He was born with it. He fails to understand why everyone cannot tell that their engine has a ping that is a C sharp, says that to him it is as easy as knowing the difference of colors. That those of us who do not have perfect pitch must be like he’d imagine color blindness to be.

It is easy for some to memorize staff notes, those are like the alphabet.

To know how to turn those staff notes into chords and then to string them together at the correct tempo is learning to fluently speak music with one’s hands.

Sort of like the way I know how to finger spell, but, I cannot communicate fluently in ASL
 
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I can read music just enough to know a mistake when I hear one. This is also somewhat of a problem because when the choir is comprised mostly of people who don’t read music they often sing what they heard back in the 70s and it’s not always the notes that are on the page. Perhaps those notes are part of the harmony sheet music but we sing in unison.
 
TheLittleLady said:
To know how to turn those staff notes into chords and then to string them together at the correct tempo is learning to fluently speak music with one’s hands.
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An amateur can suffice if they do some research and practice. It might take some time to completely master it, but they can probably do a satisfactory job if they just do the melody with a simple harmony.
 
That is the challenge, finding people who are willing to put in the time and the work and then be willing to volunteer.
 
Worse, my parish has daily Mass at 8:30 am the entire work week (except Wednesday which is at 5:30 pm) and my school starts at 8:50, close though they geographically are, with traffic and daily mass usually taking ~30 min, that’s literally impossible unless I miss school.
 
Drums at Mass can be reverent and beautiful if properly done, and it’s not only millennials for whom that is added for. Under a proper application I have heard drums used in ways that add without detracting.
 
Wow - what is the “proper application”, I wonder…
Beautiful, maybe?
Reverent, maybe?
Authentic Catholic liturgical music? Doubt it…
 
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The only thing I can think of, I have heard Bach’s Mass in B Minor preformed by an orchestra and there were kettledrums.
 
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