WORSHIP LEADERS
PUB CHOIR VS CHURCH : LESS IS MORE | Grant Norsworthy
The beautiful paradox “ Less is More ” is certainly ( almost always ) true with music . Doubly so for music that is intended to encourage a Church congregation to sing as an expression of worship to God .
Yet I find that many well-meaning teams of church singers , instrumentalists , and technicians produce a sound that is more - often WAY more - than is needed in their context , for their congregation . Their sound overfills the room to such an extent that the congregation may feel discouraged from singing , rather than encouraged .
The congregation is more likely to sing if the sound produced from the platform , through the PA and into the room is an “ embrace ” of sound , rather than a “ tsunami ” of sound . We must leave a sonic gap - a hollowness - to our sound that is only complete when our congregation adds their “ voice ”. arranger , conductor and YouTuber Astrid Jorgensen . She fills venues with paying members of the public and makes videos of them singing well-known pop songs .
Pub Choir could teach the Christian Church a thing or two to about how to get a group of regular people - most of whom do not consider themselves actual “ singers ” - to actually sing . And sing with some volume , joy , energy , and passion !
For one thing , Pub Choir clearly demonstrates that you don ’ t need a big wall of sound from the instrumental accompaniment to get a crowd singing . It ’ s intentional - I am quite certain - that the instrumental ensembles used for Pub Choir are usually quite small ( often just one acoustic guitar ) and never produce a sound that would compete with the “ voice ” of the choir .
Check out the Pub Choir rendition of the Bee Gees ’ ” How Deep Is Your Love ”.
The only instrumental accompaniment you ’ re hearing ( and seeing ) is an acoustic guitar . That ’ s all that ’ s needed !
In our regular , Sunday morning Church service situation , we do not need to copy ( or try to copy ) the often massive sounds we might hear on Spotify , YouTube , and Christian Radio
In this area ( and several others ) we could learn from Pub Choir . For those of us tasked with producing music so that our Church congregation will worship God through corporate singing , this supporting “ embrace ” of sound is beautifully demonstrated in the various Pub Choir YouTube videos .
“ What is Pub Choir ?” you might be asking . I introduced Pub Choir to my readers in
last month ’ s article . It ’ s the brainchild of Australian