There is an ongoing debate about music in churches — religious music. The debate centers around rock music and older, more traditional style of music found in the hymns of yesteryear. I have pointed out elsewhere that the trouble is there are no standards by which to make the decision. In language you have grammar and syntax rules that help you determine what is “good” literature. But in music, the older grammar and syntax rules have long gone. Hardly anyone knows what they are, and so the music debate is now about how I “feel” about music, or what I just happen to like or dislike and not about “rules” of grammar and syntax.

But here’s something I have not seen included in the discussion. It has nothing to do with music, but it does have something to do with acoustics.

I’m reading the book, Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal. It’s a good read on the problem of religious music today, and offers some relevant suggestions.

But in my observation it is not the fact that Johnny can’t sing — it’s the fact that he doesn’t sing. Or if he does, he does not do it very well.

Read the rest of this entry »