Episode Transcript
Keith Lancaster
There is nothing sweeter this side of heaven than joining in the midst of a congregation of people who are joyfully singing together in harmony! It's a foretaste of glory divine. If you haven't experienced this, I hope you get the opportunity. However, there's one thing I hear regularly from people who say, "Our song leader overpowers the congregation, dominates in volume," thus degrading the experience. How can that be avoided? How can that be remedied? I have a suggestion.
I'm Keith Lancaster of Acappella Ministries. If you haven't already, I hope you'll sign up for our newsletter to keep up with our calendar, various events, training, singing opportunities. I often say the song leader is the key to the atmosphere of congregational singing. We should not underestimate the influence of the person who leads singing.
Before I address this issue, it's important that I not make assumptions about what people think is the role and the goal of a song leader. Instead of just trying to sound good, choose his favorite songs, I like to approach the song leader's role as the facilitator. The one who does everything to empower and encourage everyone to join in, participate, regardless of ability. The goal is simply for everyone to sing.
Someone may ask, if a song leader overpowers and dominates the singing, wouldn't we be better off without a leader? My answer is a resounding no. The leader is important for many reasons. Consider these two important purposes of an effective leader:
1. The leader should choose an appropriate key to make it easy for people to sing. Some keys don't work for particular songs. For example, if I sing, Happy birthday to you, it may be too high, or Happy birthday (too low). So if your goal is for everyone to join in the singing and make it easy, we should intentionally and carefully choose a key that works best for everyone.
2. Another important reason among many is an appropriate tempo. A skilled leader can keep the tempo consistent by choosing and maintaining an appropriate tempo. The experience is elevated for everyone. The fact is, without a leader, there is an immutable law that takes effect. The tempo will degrade, going slower and slower and slower, and thus the energy and expression and sometimes the relatability is lost. That's where a skilled leader can make a difference in the interpretation. We believe that a well-trained leader can be a blessing and encouragement to facilitate everyone singing.
However, as many people have told me, a song leader who dominates and continually overpowers the congregation actually can discourage participation. So what's the solution? I believe the answer comes with a technique we call self-mixing. What I mean by that is the leader instinctively knows when to be louder and when to be softer. For example, there have been many times I was leading singing for, (what a blessing), for thousands of people in a large gathering. And my favorite time was when you could not hear me at all, but you only heard the summation of thousands of voices. Well, how did that happen? It was through self-mixing with a handheld microphone. It would be next impossible to delegate that duty to an audio engineer to know instinctively when to turn me up, when to turn me down, many, many times throughout the songs and throughout the set list, so to speak. That should be determined by the leader, which is why I use a handheld microphone. With a handheld microphone, I can quickly and easily hold the microphone close to my mouth so that the congregation can clearly hear the key, the tempo, the lyrics, the emotion of the song. But once the song has launched and is in progress and going well, the leader can constantly analyze the trajectory of the tempo and the key and the dynamics and so many other elements and make an extraordinary interactive experience. When analyzing how well the congregation is singing, the leader can pull the microphone partially or fully away while continuing to sing, lead, and direct. That is called the self-mixing technique.
And this cannot be done with a lapel mic. It needs to be a handheld mic with a leader who practiced the art of seamlessly and smoothly controlling his own volume up or down based upon the needs of the congregation.
Here is an example of a video clip that I recently posted on the podcast. My least favorite parts are when you can hear me, but I'm trying to balance singing with the congregation.
Yes, the leader is needed to establish the key and the tempo and the dynamics, but if things are going well, the volume of the song leader does not need to be consistently loud and overpowering. I will admit that learning how to do this is not easy. That's another reason why we started the Worship Leader Institute, our annual men's boot camp for song leaders.
In summary, I repeat that the song leader is the key for setting the tone for singing in the assembly. And if the song leader does not want to overpower and dominate the singing, I suggest using a handheld microphone to vary the volume depending upon the needs of the community where everyone is synchronizing their hearts and their voices together. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
I believe that congregational singing has been overlooked and underdeveloped in many Christian settings. As I mentioned in the beginning, I believe it is the greatest experience this side of heaven and is the one activity where all of us equally participate. Singing is a wonderful, God-given way to encourage one another and spur one another to love and good works.
I will praise the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live!
Blessings.
