As music ministers we all struggle with participation of our congregations. Given the various locations of choir in the church, interests in different kinds music and musical ability, anyone trying to lead worship seems to have their hands full. There was a discussion started in the forum recently that really got me thinking about the challenge of participation from a different angle. I’m going to repost the entire entry here because I think there’s a lot of important context that would be lost by quoting, and I will also keep the forum discussion open and hope that others join in.  Thank you to Joette for her very personal and thought provoking post.

I’ll admit that I was taken aback initially when I first read the post – while I’m not against the idea of percussion in the congregation – the thought of instruments playing from the pews along really gave me pause.  It might be natural for a director to automatically dismiss ideas like this, but the more I reflect on Joette’s story, the more I realize that a knee jerk reaction is not adequate.  Her points about our role as music ministers being to lead all people in prayer are accurate.  I will be thinking about this for a while and I encourage others to carefully consider the thoughts posted below.

From Joette:
What has happened to liturgy being the prayer of the people of the parish? Why are we so often relegated to just singing in the pew? When I have asked about the emphasis on singing at an NPM convention, I was referred to the church document, Sing to the Lord, where it says: “Of all the sounds of which human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, are capable, voice is the most privileged and fundamental. Musical instruments in the liturgy are best understood as an extension of and support for the primary liturgical instrument, which is the human voice.”

Whoever wrote the above statement does not know what it is like to have difficulty singing. I have experienced a paralyzed vocal cord which left me unable to sing at all. It was repaired with surgery, but then I developed a tremor on my larynx from Parkinson’s disease. And someone is trying to tell me that the best way for me to pray is with my voice, when I know that the sound of my classical guitar playing a hymn is far more pleasing to anyone to hear than the sound of my voice trying to sing notes that are always too high? Why should everyone be expected to pray with a singing voice? I would like to see a parish where everyone is welcome to pray musically however they feel fit. That would include people bringing egg shakers or a small hand drum to mass with them. (Did you ever try to clap your hands when you have arthritis?) That also would include people joining the choir with whatever instrument they play. No one would be asked to sit out on any song, they would only be asked to adapt the sound of their instrument to the song. Trumpets can play softly with a mute. Guitars can strum softly or fingerpick and not be any louder than a singing voice.

Back in the 70’s, everyone who could play 4 or 5 chords on guitar was encouraged to join the music group at church. Sometimes the music was not the best, but people were participating in liturgy. Now we have gone from the extreme of letting everyone play an instrument at mass, to only letting the very best musicians play and telling everyone else to sing. I heard music directors at an NPM convention complain about the guitarists who want to play every song. The answer to this complaint by the leader of the workshop was to say the music ensemble at church should be compared to the school band, where not all the instruments play all the time. No, the instruments in a school concert band do not play all the time, but they do play every song.

I have been involved in music ministry consistently since 1971. In 2009 I moved to Florida’s Treasure Coast and music ministry is very different here. The pastors look for music directors that are great performers rather than ones with knowledge of liturgy or good ability to lead the congregation in sung prayer. My opinion is that they are trying to impress rich snowbirds. The pastors will argue that their very good professional musicians do lead the people in prayer, but I do not see it and I have found others to agree with me.

When you are used to playing guitar at mass every Sunday and holy day and now you are sometimes told to come to church without your guitar, it is very hard. I am used to praying with my guitar. I have done so since high school. Now that my singing voice has greatly declined due to medical problems, my guitar is even more important. Even if the arthritis in my hand is acting up, I can still get a pleasing sound from my guitar, unlike my singing voice that causes me to choke and cough when Parkinson’s disease makes my neck stiff. One holy day, I sat in the empty crying room and played along on the hymns from there. I am trying to get the nerve to play my guitar from a back pew whenever I am at a mass where I am not in the choir or music group.

At my old parish in Pennsylvania, where I played guitar at mass several times a week, someone once asked me if my guitar was an appendage, because I seemed to always have it with me. I like thinking of my guitar as an appendage. My guitar is a part of me. I think I should be just as welcome to softly pick on my guitar as to sing at any mass I go to, and I would like to see everyone made more welcome to pray with more than a singing voice.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn and your faithfulness throughout the night, With 10 stringed instrument and lyre, with melody upon the harp. Psalm 92:2-4