Chunk it

If you don't chunk it, they'll choke on it.

This week I saw an amazing, talented singer and songleader look in thinly-veiled frustration upon a congregation because they weren't enthusiastically joining him in a song. What happened?

The leader had introduced a song which was new to most of the congregation. The song was just a little more complex than the average congregational song. And he sang straight through a verse or two and the chorus before repeating anything. This was just too much for people to remember all at once. To make it worse, just as people were getting the hang of it, he started inserting variations, making it impossible to tell which was the "right" note to be singing.

The leaders of long ago had it right: they would "line" the song, singing just one line at a time, which would be repeated immediately by the people. When music became "literate" and hymn books were introduced, this time-tested technique for teaching a song was lost. Now, with SongShow and Powerpoint, people don't need to learn the words, but they do need to learn the melody and harmonies.

What can a worship leader do? Remember that people need to learn a new song before they can sing it. And remember that most people learn in small chunks—one or two lines at a time, maybe four lines at a time if they're an unusually talented bunch or if the music is incredibly simple. Any new "data" introduced after that will cause them to forget what came before.

What can a church violinist do? Playing the melody before the singing begins (as an introduction to the song, as an interlude during the song, or even as a prelude or special music) will help people become familiar with the music, reducing the effort required to learn the melody and allowing the congregation to focus more on the words.