Barry Cooper

Okay... I'm going to sound like real-life @ChrchCurmudgeon here, but here goes... If you are a church musician, and you honestly want to "lead people in worship" through music, you may want to do the following: 1) Pick a singable key for the median person who doesn't sing all the time. Don't pick a key to highlight your voice. 2) Lower the volume so people can hear the voices of those around them, and themselves. 3) Let people sing the melodies that are familiar to them. While you may want to jazz up or do the latest CCM twist of "Hark the Herald" or "Silent Night"--people can't follow you. They just want to sing the song. Picking keys to highlight your voice; playing at concert volume; doing creative rearrangements to make the familiar suddenly unfamiliar... all discourage us from singing. There's NOTHING wrong with highlighting your voice, or playing at concert volume, or doing creative rearrangements of songs... if you are a performer. Book a gig somewhere! Play out! Be great! Build a following! But please, when we all get together and sing, don't put up barriers to stop us.

@suzania Even if we refuse to listen to Biblical wisdom, we should at least listen to Elton John.