Why your church doesn’t sing on Sunday. (And how to fix it) 

Middle C is C4. So if we aren't supposed to pick keys that have a lot of notes above middle C, then the range should be C3 to C4. I bring this up because C4 to C5 starts to favor high range singers. I was thinking I was going to be disqualified to lead in the C4 to C5 range. 😆

Our congregation often drowns us out. It’s one of the most beautiful things to witness this side of heaven, and we are very blessed.

Awesome reminder brother - worship is responding to God's revelation in our hearts

A former worship leader once said, “The most important choir is made up of the men and women with untrained voices who sit in the pews.”

When I started leading worship at my church 9 months ago, about 25% of people would sing. I lowered the keys, cut our song list down from 450+ to 80, stopped doing more than 1 repeat of a chorus or bridge, and very rarely do an instrumental interlude. Now about 90% of people sing 😊. Good video thank you!

I have 34 songs in my set list for the next year - 17 contemporary, 17 hymns. It would have been 30, but I just couldn't pare it down any more without being sad. Each song still only has 5-ish plays in the whole year (because Christmas and Easter have their own music that is extra, but people still know).

Good points you raised. I take issue with point 4. Our main worship leader must watch your videos because he thinks very similarly to you about everything. He takes same view about having a smaller repertoire. I disagree with that 100% because many will remember songs we sung in the 80s, 90s, 2000s etc as well as some newer ones today. It’s good to have many songs so you have variety that can adapt to differing themes, keys and styles.

Thanx ssebo (sir) this is very useful

This is so good awesome...

6:00 ❤❤❤ yes!!!

The church that I was just worship leader at in my fourth year they sit there and they stare at you like bumps on a log. No matter how much I would try to encourage them to sing they wouldn't do it. It makes you worship better, it makes you want to perform better when people are singing along. Fortunately they then got a vacancy pastor who would sing and one or two other people. The other problem with not singing is ig the singers are out in the worship team then what are we doing just playing music in the background. I like to be in churches when people open up their mouths and sing, it's what I'm used to from where I grew up is what I now have in my new church where I'm worship leader and that's one of the reasons why I'm glad that I left there, among other problems from the new person that took over the congregation. You've got to be kidding me coming and just standing like a bump on a log, really? The person that led the Saturday service she doesn't have a team just herself and her keyboard and so basically she's doing a concert for them every Saturday night singing and playing, is it a concert or is it church? Sing people to the Lord!

My top five: 1: Too much new music I have never heard until the music service. I can’t sing a song I do not know. 2: Too many changes and embellishments to songs that I do know. Worship leading is not American Idol or time to show off your amazing vocal abilities. Just sing the song as written! 3: Please don’t make me lie by singing songs that make me out to be a super Christian. Or a lower than low miserable wretch. Story songs like much of todays CCM glorify the singer and not God. Many tell a story that is not my story. An example that would be a lie is singing I was so miserable, the devil had me down, I was ready to kill myself. Related to this would be the songs where I am singing as if I were Jesus or God the father. 4: The band is so loud I have no idea what I am singing or if I am even close to the right note. I could be shouting the Gettysburg address and nobody would know. Related to this is when the mix is so heavy on drums and instruments that I can barely hear the lead singers or follow them. If your snare and kick are louder than anything else they are too loud. 5: I’ve already repeated the same chorus eighty nine times and I’m tired!!😂 And a bonus number six for churches using videos instead of a worship team: All the above plus: No lyrics to follow! I’d much rather see the lyrics to a song on the screen than a music video. And some of these videos that put up a word at a time instead of a full sentence before it is sung…stop it! By the time I can read the word on the screen its already been sung and we are moving on to guessing the next word!! Great video, lots of solid truth shared! Thank you.

I’m not sure you can define a range that works best for a congregation due to the large variety in human voices. I think people mostly will change octaves as needed. It can be nice when the leader’s key matches your own, but that will only ever happen for a fraction of the congregation at a time. That’s one advantage to rotating lead vocalists.

Your idea about why people do not sing is not what you think.

Are you saying women sing below middle C?

That vocal range you stated was extreeemely low, if that is normal for men, I'm pretty sure that at least half an octave up is normal for older women and a whole octave up for young women.

The so called worship team is not all that great when it comes to singing.