Why Catholics Can't Sing

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My parish is great at it. We even have an artist that comes around to liven things up…Okay so she does it with a guitar but its still very respectful and reverent.
 
I tried to answe the poll but couldn’t.At our parish it seems to depend on what song it is at what point in the Mass. Also it depends on which Priest we have. I’ve noticed just, like the Congregation, some Priest belt it out others do not, but that if the Priest is singing loudly more people will sing.
 
Ray Marshall:
I’ve actually suggested that I would attend a class on “How to sing in Church” which might include a bit about reading music and maybe some simple exercises to get the ol’ vocal pipes ready before Mass. :o
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That’s actually a really good idea! A little confidence would go a long way I think.
 
This is a little long but a good and valid reason, so please read on.

Good Friday before mass
Priest practices response to “This is the wood of the cross on which hung the savior of the world”. Everybody goes off in
different musical directions. So he has us practice again.

Good Friday during the mass
Priest sings “This is the wood of the cross on which hung the savior of the world”. Everybody sings with heart, but, unfortunately, heart does not a professional singer make. The priest stops the mass and has us all practice.

At that point everybody realizes Father would not continue until it sounded good. I could see wives elbowing tone deaf husbands & husbands shushing musically illiterate wives and parents clasping their hands over their children’s mouths. “Now let’s try again”, said the priest. And, what do you know, we were perfect. Quieter but perfect!

Do people sing in this parish. Well, what do you think?
 
When I was a child, pre-VII, it was said that Catholic didn’t sing because the choir did all the singing. So, for a time they de-emphasized choirs and let the burden fall on the people in the pews. Far too often that led to terible music, badly sung. In my current parish the choir leads the sining, much up it in Latin or in traditional, sometimes difficult English hymns. Most of us try to sing every note.
 
I haven’t read through this long thread, but I will say for me I can’t sing the more modern hymns. they have weird rhythms and chord changes. I never know what they’re gonna do next.
 
In our parish, most people sing. The ones that don’t tend to be men. Are men just more afraid to sing in public, to publicly pronounce their faith in song? I know that’s a generalization, some of the best voices in our choir are men, but in the congregation, they are the most reticent.
 
I am a ham of William Shatneresque proportions and I will bellow forth if I actually know the song, but I admit I know the old time Protestant hymns more than the modern “Up With People” Catholic ones…
 
The priest at my high school used to say “God gave you your voice as a gift; torture Him with it!”

I’m just now starting to get over the insecurity of singing.
 
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