Instruments Befitting a Congregation

Issue 8

In this article I will stack some additional theories on top of the presumptions made within the last article about the importance of congregational worship. Here I will give my two cents on how instruments—and specifically, which types of instruments—fit best with the congregational corporate worship model. I have fortunately had the privilege to observe a wide array of styles in this arena, so much (though not all) of what I will present is the result of firsthand experience.

Maybe the most important presupposition to first obtain before tackling the subject of how to apply instruments to congregational worship is that while there is no single correct way to accomplish our goal, it is not a purely relativistic problem. To an extent, the instruments a church chooses can and should look different based on the size and skill level of the church. The fact that we have a wide array of instruments to choose from is not a curse at all, but at the same time a healthy dose of caution must be taken when choosing instruments. Every church is different, so I will refrain from making sweeping statements regarding details and stick to offering basic principles and examples of these principles. At the end of the day, our worship must be done by the congregation, and the style and instrumentation choices we make will determine how well we achieve this.

  A point made in the last article was that the classical style of metered psalms and hymns implemented by the protestant reformation is a vastly superior style when it comes to producing actual congregational worship. This may seem like a culturally exclusive statement, given that the protestant reformation sprung up amongst white people, but remember that this is not a relativistic topic. Some styles are superior to others, regardless of who came up with them. The protestant reformation was built upon hundreds of years of church history, and as we would expect, such a legacy has good fruit—including its style of music. Therefore, we should not ask ourselves how we might shape our worship to be accessible to our own culture, but rather how we should meld our culture around how we should properly worship God.

Until we learn to love what God loves, this can be a difficult thing. I grew up deep within our modern worship style, and I have since rejected it as less than ideal. This was not because I was discontented and bitter, but rather because I found something far better than what I was accustomed to. Similarly, it is not impossible for other people and other cultures to find joy in worshipping God with greater ability.

Singing with metrical Psalms and hymns set to the style we primarily used before the 1900s is about the best tool we currently have to implement congregational singing. It is highly applicable to a vast array of settings, and it can be as simple or complex as necessary depending on the skill level of the singer. The same can be said for how instruments fit into this style—a hymn, properly sung, will sound good whether it has accompanying instruments or not. Of course, it would sound better with them. But at the very least it would not be an awkward train wreck. So what makes a good instrument?

This is where we begin to step on people’s toes with a pair of heavy boots, but let us begin with some basic ground rules and work our way to specifics.

1. Instruments may be present in a congregation assuming that the congregation is already singing. In other words, playing instruments is not the prerequisite to singing. We do not start singing only if instruments are being played.

2. Prominent instruments need to help, and not interfere with, congregational singing. They should follow the same notes that the congregation sings without adding in unwritten, frilly surprises like odd pauses and showy tags and different harmonies composers use to entertain themselves. It confuses everyone, does little to enhance the effect, and generally varies depending on what church you happen to land at. Less prominent instruments have more liberty in this area, since with less prominence they have less ability to confuse.

3. Instruments need to stand in a supportive role—not a leading role. A well-applied instrument will help the congregation stay on key and on time. Think of it as a traffic sign and not as your hands on the wheel. If there were no traffic signs, we could still drive, albeit less well. Similarly, the instruments should not overpower or lead the voices, but they should help the voices to stay on track.

As insensitive as it sounds, there are some instruments which perform these tasks better than others. Some instruments are good across the board, while others are best suited for specific roles or specific sizes of congregations. Others, being designed for a completely different model of musical composition, simply do not fit well into congregational worship.

I will now begin to cover various types of instruments, including what I think they are good for and what I think they are not good for. For each of them, I will assign different categories. These are not necessarily ideals, but rather an explanation for what the instrument is designed for, how it is typically used, and how it should be used. The categories I’ll use are as follows:

Leading vs. Supporting Instruments. Some instruments have a tendency to lead the congregation, taking precedence over it. Using instruments in a leading role results in the congregation being an afterthought which can join in if it likes. On the other hand, supporting instruments simply help it along. Eventually, if a supporting instrument does its job, it will become less and less easy to hear over the congregation.

Primary vs. Secondary Instruments. Ideally, both of these would  fall under the supporting category mentioned directly above, but they are still very distinct subcategories. Primary instruments exactly follow the as-written melodies and harmonies, which greatly assist the congregation in singing their proper notes. Secondary instruments play something completely different, usually in the form of chord progressions. They are best suited for background ambience and noise, supporting the primary instruments. They are not designed to help the congregation sing, but rather are solely designed to enhance the musical effect. Since they do not play the as-written melodies and harmonies, when secondary instruments are used as the only type of instrument played, the congregation has nothing instrumental to draw from. Instead, the lead vocal is the only stabilizing force, resulting in a reliance upon the stage—moving the instruments into a lead role instead of a supporting role.

Congregation Size and Skill. Assuming a congregation with an average level of skill, once a congregation hits about 100-300 people it can begin to add secondary instruments not specifically designed to carry a tune or harmonies. Once a congregation has hit the 300 mark or thereabouts, louder instruments which otherwise would have drowned out the voices may be added in. This last point is far less objective and requires much more consideration for how exactly the implementation of instruments will occur and what the results will be. Of course, it never hurts to tell the trumpet player that, after further consideration, his instrument doesn’t quite fit in yet and that for now he needs to retire from the stage. It’s just a matter of good communication.

This is all rather complex since there is a fair amount of overlap (for instance, leading instruments are almost always secondary instruments used improperly). But we’ll stick with this method for the time being. Before we get started on our instrument evaluation, one last quick summary of the instrument categories to keep in mind as we proceed is in order:

Leading Instruments: Take an unfortunate precedence over the congregation. Typically the result of the sole instrument in use playing ad-lib or other-than-written music.

Supporting Instruments: Assist the congregation similar to traffic signs, helping the congregation do what it is already doing.

Primary Instruments: Typically supporting instruments, following the written musical notes right out of the psalter or hymnbook.

Secondary Instruments: Usually play other-than-written music. If used in a quiet background role along primary instruments, they also play a supportive role. By themselves in a prominent position, they switch to a leading role.

Clear as mud? Here we go.

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Piano

Leading or Supporting Instrument

Primary or Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 0-1,000

The piano is an excellent instrument because, like the classical style, it has the ability to be used with as much simplicity or complexity as desired. Whether the player wants to bang away at the alto line with his right index finger or whether he plays all four parts at once is dependent only on his level of skill. Whatever the range between this would at least not sound bad and could enhance the worship regardless by providing harmonies for the congregants to follow.

In every congregation I have visited which adheres to the classical style, the piano is played as an instrument which supports the congregation in a primary role—that is, it helps rather than leads and it plays only those notes which the congregation actually sings. If you have a piano playing all four parts, anyone in the congregation can harmonize by listening closely. Those who have more skill will find their lines from what is written as well as from what they hear from the piano, and these people tend to help everyone else find their parts.

As a highly adaptable instrument, the piano can also be played in a secondary role, where it does not play the exact notes sung by the congregation. Instead, it follows chord progressions much like a guitar, and the player simply bangs away at these chords until the measures are adequately filled up and the beat of the music is maintained. Playing it this way, a piano is best suited as a secondary instrument providing background sound, but it is also often played in this manner by worship leaders with not enough skill to play the actual song with four part harmonies. Unfortunately, although this is meant to simply provide background support, playing a secondary instrument by itself in a primary role will completely change the dynamic away from supporting the congregation in its singing and towards a leading role, where the piano and the lead singer are the stars of the show. In this case, the congregation can sing along if it wants to. But it sings along as an afterthought.

Here we see a consistent phenomenon: if a secondary instrument is elevated to play a primary role, it also becomes a leading instrument instead of a supporting instrument. This is because by changing the song to a chord progression, it becomes impossible for the congregation to learn the melody or harmonies from whatever is being played—they key solely off of the lead singer. With this in mind, it is interesting to note that practically all modern worship songs possess this style, as well as anything which plays on the radio—Christian or secular. It is the choice of style for our day and age across the board.

Stringed Instruments Rubbed with Catgut

Supporting Instrument

Primary or Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 50-1,000

Violins, violas, cellos, and similar stringed instruments which play one note at a time are excellent applications due to their design and how they are played. But while the piano can play all four parts at once, a congregation will generally need four average players to produce a four part harmony on stringed instruments. Similar to the piano, they have about the perfect volume level to project across a sanctuary and yet not overpower a congregation. Unlike the piano, they are less adaptable to modern styles of worship. Sometimes violins are added to modern worship songs in a secondary role to enhance frilly tags and extra bits, but apart from that they are not used frequently.

It is uncommon for these instruments to be misapplied even in today’s worship—they are either properly used as supportive primary instruments in the classical style of worship, or they are used in supportive secondary roles in the modern style.

While stringed instruments are excellent choices for the classical style, they are very difficult to play accurately and well. But they are certainly not impossible to play.

Woodwind Instruments

Supporting Instrument

Primary or Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 100-800

Woodwind instruments are good for the same reason stringed instruments are—put together, they can play one of four harmonies. Get four of these together and you have four part harmonies. In smaller groups, they tend to get a little piercing and therefore might slide into the lead role we’re trying to avoid with instruments, especially if the player doesn’t stick to the sheet music well. The secondary role, where frilly extras can be added, would do better in larger congregations.

Brass Instruments

Supporting Instrument

Primary or Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 500-1,000

Brass instruments are similar in style to woodwind and strings, but they are much louder and can easily become piercing and obnoxious much more quickly than woodwind does, making them less adept at a supportive role. While some of the deeper instruments can make it work, the higher ones tend to cross into the overpowering section. Take the trumpet, for instance. As a rule, I dislike the trumpet for its tendency to steal the show and get into a leading role whenever it can by dancing its way into oblivion at the end of every verse in a showy, cheesy fashion. You have a perfectly normal song, followed suddenly by trumpet, Trumpet, TRUMPET!!

Perhaps this is why trumpets have been the typical instrument of choice for leading men to battle—not so much used for making music as much as producing certain calls in a commanding, instructive fashion. Less like the supportive, assisting role we want our instruments to have.

A good point has been made to me that brass and woodwind instruments do not allow the player to sing, and therefore are poor choices since they prohibit the players from performing the most important aspect of congregational worship. But since we see these types of instruments lauded in the Bible, I am quite frankly not very concerned. I do not possess the skill to sing while I play the piano, but I would still choose to play it if it meant that by doing so I could help the rest of the congregation sing better as a whole.

Drums and Cymbals

Supporting Instrument

Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 200-1,000

Drums are naturally supportive secondary instruments, and it’s rather difficult to have them anywhere else. They generally enhance the style produced by the other primary instruments, and because of this they have a wide range of applications. Modern worship has a certain type of beat and classical another. Even the design of the drum follows the style of music they are meant to support.

In the modern style, drums follow the pattern set by the guitar. Since the guitar tends to blend chords together to best make use of its musical design, the drums are a good way to apply a consistent beat, keeping the congregation in time. However, in this style, drums tend to do one of two things—put you to sleep or make you dance. In their proper contexts, sleeping is not bad and neither is dancing. I have already addressed the pagan consequences and origins of sleepy music. As far as bouncy, catchy music goes, it is not bad (look at the many examples of righteous dancing in Scripture)—but it is also not befitting the reverence we should possess as we approach the throne of God with fear and trembling. Because the industry of musical entertainment has made its way into our corporate worship, we have come to expect happy-clappy lively party music on Sunday mornings. The current style we play fits this quite well—we certainly know how to make party music. But lighthearted entertainment with party music is not what God calls us to on the Lord’s day worship.

However, drums are not themselves bad—following the established classical style of worship, drums and cymbals can be used very similarly as they would in a classical symphony. The effect of this when coupled with an entire church singing loud, rousing battle Psalms is something you would be fortunate to experience.

Organ

Leading or Supporting Instrument

Primary or Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 300-1,000

This has been used frequently in congregational worship for a long, long time. While it has a majestic sound and pragmatically mostly fits the requirements, I dislike it for its lack of musical dynamic. Electric organs, on the other hand, are adjustable for lower volumes and smaller congregation sizes. But if it’s electrical…is it a real organ? You be the judge.

Real full-blooded organs have an unfortunate tendency to overpower the congregation in an obnoxious fashion rather similar to the trumpet. Unlike the trumpet, there is no escape anywhere. All you hear is a roaring organ. It is one of those rare cases where a primary instrument can also be a leading instrument—simply by how loud it is.

Harp

Supporting Instrument

Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 150-400

This beautiful sounding instrument, having been in use for thousands of years (including numerous Old Testament references) has a rather difficult time with congregational worship. There are two reasons for this. One is that it is simply too quiet. The other is within its design. Plucking out the melody line one string at a time to match the role of a primary instrument gives a rather boring sensation, and plucking many strings in the traditional way a harp is played gives the instrument a secondary role—not something the congregation specifically follows, but rather something which creates extra background ambience and depth.

This means that a harp needs to stay in the background, and it needs a primary supportive instrument to give guidance to the congregation. In this way, it can be played to its fullest extent as it was designed to be played. Most people will not specifically hear the majority of the notes except when they occasionally match what is played on the piano, but they’ll vaguely hear undertones which will give the song some extra support. Therefore, it makes an excellent secondary supportive instrument when played alongside another more powerful instrument which can carry the tune.

Bass Guitar

Supporting Instrument

Primary or Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 50-150

I think I most appreciate the bass guitar out of all the typical modern instrument choices. It plays one line and one line only—bass, rather unsurprisingly. But it is generally unhelpful if not used in conjunction with other instruments, and it only helps the bass singers. That said, I have learned the bass line to almost every modern contemporary song because of this instrument. Likewise, I have learned really cheesy bass parts superimposed over the original harmonies found in popular hymns, and this wasn’t as appreciated. But it wasn’t the instrument’s fault of course.

Can this instrument take part in the classical style? I would say that it can. By its nature it is rather quiet, so it would work well for smaller gatherings. It might seem a little out of place, and the player would have to step up the pace in terms of how many notes he could play in a single measure. But I would say this instrument could still be used.

The Guitar

Leading or Supporting Instrument

Secondary Role

Congregation Size: 100-500

It is an unfortunate fact that the most popular instrument in contemporary worship has proved itself to be very difficult, if not impossible, to apply to the older classical style. There are a couple reasons for this, primarily stemming from the fact that a guitar plays specific chord progressions as opposed to the more accessible platform available from a piano. Not being a guitar player, I am not well-versed in the exact terminology here, but a description of what I mean is due anyway.

To play a hymn or metered Psalm on a guitar in the contemporary style, it is first converted from the straight chords assigned to each syllable to a broader across-the-board summary chord assigned to each measure (or thereabouts). It is simply too difficult to change the hand positions fast enough to play the one-chord-per-syllable style as written in a hymnbook, and in any case the guitar sounds better played with slower chord progressions. In its nature, it is not designed to match the old classical hymn style—it doesn’t play the melody line or any of the original harmonies—and therefore is inadequate to lead a congregation which desires to make full use of harmonization. Since the guitar cannot physically play the old classical style as written, it is better suited to a secondary role as a supportive instrument, like the harp, without extra microphones and sound amplification systems. When it is played as a lead instrument, it steamrolls over the congregational singing.

Since modern versions of old songs are modified to fit our style featuring the guitar as first chair, many versions of the same song have come to exist. Admittedly, many hymns suffer the same fate—across the hundreds of hymnbooks which have been produced, there are slightly different harmonies. But the melody stays the same, and the musical phrases resolve the same—as opposed to our modern worship style which comparatively speaking throws caution to the wind, adding tags and fancy dissonance and extra confusing bits which will be different depending on which church you go to. Even if the average person possessed the skill to make up a harmony on the spot (which they don’t) the rather liberal way of composing the modern style is full of confusion.

The difficulty with trying to harmonize with a modern band has led to frustrated congregants. They have largely given up teaching their children to harmonize, and this has exacerbated our situation of being musically illiterate. As a result, most people will sing the main melody line—which is all a guitar and lead singer offer. Some women sing a very high soprano as the melody taken an octave higher, some men will sing the melody, and some men will sing the melody an octave lower, or two octaves if the song has gone on the high side. The worst part is that some women will also sing the main melody along with the men. This often occurs in the modern style. In fact, some songs intentionally play with this, causing the men to stretch their voices higher than normal and singing the same notes along with the women. The effect is horribly, sickeningly androgynous and should not be encouraged, especially since we live in an age which loves to blur the distinctions between male and female. I will get into this subject in more detail in the next article. But suffice it to say here that elevating the guitar to the place it holds has been very detrimental to our congregational worship—not that it is inherently evil by any means. But it has been unfortunately misapplied.

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This is by no means an all-encompassing list of instruments, but our evaluation for any instrument should be along the same lines. Every congregation will be of different sizes, levels of skill, and available resources. Therefore, much care and discernment should be taken to ensure that the instruments which are selected enhance rather than discourage the singing of the congregation. For instance, if there is only one musically inclined person, and he only plays a secondary instrument, it would likely be better if he did not play at all during the service. However, if someone else joined who could play a primary instrument prominent enough to hold its own alongside a secondary instrument, the guitarist or harpist would have a chance.

Our energy should be put towards seeking out instruments which enhance congregational worship, learning how to play them, and then using them. With our vast selection of choices available to us, why would we continue to use instruments inferior to congregational applications? Much of the pushback I’ve received centers around the fact that “nobody knows how to play your preferred instruments”. But that does not objectively change whether the instrument was a good choice to learn in the first place or not. What I am saying is that some instruments are better choices than others, that we have chosen wrongly, and that we should strive to learn different ones, putting the effort in and investing our time to do so. Difficult? Most certainly, yes. Good things take time and effort. A tree takes a long time to grow, but once it is grown it provides shade and fruit for many generations. So let us grasp this long-term view, and let us plant the seeds of the trees our grandchildren will climb about in. They’ll thank us later.