On Sunday, Newspring worship leader Tom Pellerin read us an email from the old man I mentioned in the previous post, the guy who approached the stage and wanted the music turned down seconds before the service started.
He was indeed a visitor from another (presumably traditional) church in town, and the email wasn't too bad. He enjoyed the service but was just worried that the music was at a level that could damage hearing. I wrote an article about this at WorshipIdeas.
However, I think the problem here is that the typical non-musician can't always comprehend what they're hearing, especially a visitor with traditional tastes. The drums and bass are very well mixed and punchy at Newspring and this probably alarms a traditionalists, causing them to think the music is louder than it actually is simply because they can feel the low end.
In the aforementioned article I have a link to a gadget you can get at your local Radio Shack for around $50 that lets you measure the decibels in your room. It's good protection against pesky deacons and elders who are constantly harping on the sound levels.
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- Arranger/composer Don Chapman is the creative energy behind several websites devoted to contemporary worship: HymnCharts, WorshipFlow, and WorshipIdeas.com. He's the editor of the weekly WorshipIdeas newsletter that is read by over 50,000 worship leaders across the world.
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11 comments:
"If it's too loud, you're too old"
Funny, I thought most older people suffer from hearing loss :)
FYI, I use some full range in-ear monitors that I purchased off of www.e47.org
Alex Ruge
Pesky deacons and elders who are always harping on the sound levels?!? Wow. Pretty disrespectful, Don. Sometimes it is the arrogant, self-centered worship leader who has forgotten that they are there to serve the body of Christ, not themselves. Your characterization of leadership is a sad commentary on your view of authority. As a worship leader, I understand the balance of what is needed for the team to function at the highest level possible and what the needs of the body of Christ are, but, it can be done while loving and respecting others. This is a character issue, not a sound issue, my friend.
Don, I always get a chuckle out of the comments to your blogs. Here's some related commentary on 'loud music' and the church. Enjoy.
http://adamlaynefisher.blogspot.com/2008/08/generation-y-and-church.html
@anonymous #2
You are apparently new here. The author of the blog frequently uses humor in various ways to express his ideas. It's unlikely that he was implying that we all just throw scripture out the window and begin disrespecting elders and deacons. You can go read "The Shack" if your tired of what scripture teaches.
The subject matter of this blog is mainly geared toward dealing with the problems and issues surrounding church worship, and the author tries to do this in a lighthearted way. As a long time follower of the Hearts to God ministry I can assure you that these comments are purely tongue-in-cheek.
we like to use the term "full" when describing the level of sound in our church auditorium."Full" does not mean ear piercing, but the sound engulfs the room.you can't please everybody.To me really upbeat praise and worship music needs high impact volume to accomplish what the song was written to accomplish,to be a vehicle to help extract praise from the heart.If you can hear yourself sing, its to low...jack it up!!
If you come to Branson MO to see a show, the odds are 96% that you're retired. The odds are 100% that there will be a dB meter at the board in the back of the room, trying to hold the SPL to 95 dB SPL. As long as you're not in the room for 5 hours or more (my guess) you'll be fine. Funny thing is, when you pay for it you expect to hear it ALL!
Jim C SW MO
We have had volume complaints off and on for years and the dB (SPL) is fairly closely monitored. Of late, we have had quite a few complaints. Good sound engineers can certainly help these situations. We don't have any right now.
We currently have a tech lead who was a cell phone salesman. He believes he knows everything there is to know about sound engineering and music. Therefore, we twice suffer: once from his lack of experience and again when he denies his need to learn and grow. I know, this is sort of off topic, but it's just all very frustrating.
When my dad lost his hearing, his audiologist explained that the range of comfortable sound decreases both for soft and loud sounds. You lose the ability to distinguish soft sounds and louder sounds that were once tolerable become painful. Older members who complain about the volume may literally feel pain at decible levels that are okay for those with normal hearing. These situations need to handled with love and compassion for our older brothers and sisters while allowing the church to worship as it feels led.
Having led worship at several churches, and having researched this at even more churches, I have come up with a question..."How loud IS too loud?" I totally understand the issue of older folks and hearing aids. When my father-in-law got one several years ago, he could never get it adjusted just right. The hearing aid amplifies every sound to the same level. He would go nuts when he'd walk into a room with several people talking (and perhaps music in the background). Every sound was the same level. This is an area though, that I think the individual with the hearing aid needs to recognize that the volume issue belongs to them, and not to everyone else. (But I do feel for them.)
At one church where I used to lead worhip, one of the "pesky elders" (I understand your humor, Don) actually came into the service with his own DB reader and then told us that we were "breaking osha regulations! What?! Osha has sound regulations for churches?!! Maybe they do. I don't know. Someone help me on this one.
I used to work at Toyota Mfg. in Georgetown, KY and Osha regulations were a big deal, but come on, this is church. But I digress...
So, does anyone have a rule of thumb for what DB should be the max in a service?
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