All About That Bass?

Keith Lancaster Recently there have been articles written about why men don't sing in church. It's true that quite a number of men refuse to sing in worship settings. Different reasons are offered. But I would like to suggest another reason. And it's all about that bass. Or rather, it's about the marginalization of the bass voice. Hear me out. Hi, I'm Keith Lancaster with Acappella Ministries. We're involved with many events from coast to coast, and the easiest way to keep up with this is to sign up for our free newsletter so you'll know our calendar when we're going to be in your area. The reason why I say it's about that bass, I think it's pretty obvious. Listen to the overwhelmingly popular worship songs on the radio, and those sung in many churches today, and you won't hear bass singers. The bass part is non-existent or irrelevant. Think about churches that have musical instruments. And you have the pianos with the low notes and the wide dynamic range. And you have drums, bass drums, and the lower percussion sounds. And you have organs with those low notes that can rattle. And you have the low dynamic range, especially with the bass guitar. And there seems to be no desire to compose bass voice parts to be included in our music. So if you think about it, in most settings, the bass voice has been totally marginalized. Who doesn't like a gospel choir that you hear often on television and movies? Again, when you hear the pulsating drum set, the Hammond B3 organ, the piano, guitars, especially the bass guitar, most choirs totally eliminate and leave out the bass voices. Their sound is based upon the soprano, alto, tenor, those higher voices and the bass voice is omitted. However, in contrast, in four-part a cappella, hymn-style congregational singing, the bass is not only needed, it is foundational. And beyond just being the foundation of four-part harmony, we love that creative, melodic role that bass voices can contribute to the overall arrangement and consequently to the interactive worship. At this point, we've recorded well over 700 songs of our PraiseAndHarmony.TV I can't help but think about the very first song and video we arranged for Praise And Harmony ministry, the song, Awesome God. The entire uniqueness of our arrangement of Awesome God is based upon a melodic bass vocal line that is totally dependent upon having strong bass voices. Listen to this. There are so many songs and hymns that would not have been written if it were not for an extraordinary and essential bass part. Here are some examples. With a cappella singing, often the bass propels the song forward. Listen to this arrangement of Goodness of God by Shane Coffman and Mark Simmons as the bass is setting up the chorus. Recently I shared the concept from 1 Peter 2:9 that says believers should declare his praises. Through singing we get to declare the praises of God and not just go through a musical exercise. Hear how the basses declare and celebrate the existence of God. You should have been there when we chose that song as a flash mob during a recent singing cruise. In fact, our next singing cruise, we're going to use the song, Awesome God for the flash mob, which starts off with the God is an awesome God... We believe that the human voice is the greatest instrument of music ever created. God made our voices and all of us have potential -- a specific vocal range. Some of us sing very high (sopranos). Lower than that are altos. Some of us are tenors. But there are millions of men who are basses. We celebrate a cappella congregational singing because it only works well when everybody sings! With this, you have the diversity of wide vocal range built upon the foundation of strong basses. So we say, let all men sing! Don't leave out the basses. Write and arrange songs that include the bass part. Don't insist on letting the sopranos, altos and tenors have all the fun in singing the harmony. Which part is missing on the radio for the most part? Which part is missing in the worship band? Which part is totally missing in many, many churches? And which part has the potential of making the musical contribution complete? It's all about those basses. I will praise the Lord all my life. will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Blessings!