The Choir Room Podcast
This podcast exists to promote and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling…The Choir and Corporate Singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing, and all things choir related.
A weekly podcast featuring discussion and interviews with choir directors, choir members, and other guests representing church choirs, college and university choirs, community choirs, show and theatre choirs, composer of choir music, and other.
Segments include tips and instruction from skilled and professional disciplines within the choir community covering topics such as choir culture and community, choir directing, vocal training, ear training, sight reading, and more. A monthly virtual live audience episode allows the listener to engage with hosts and guests during instructional and Q&A segments via the live recording, chat, email, on various social media platforms.
A production of Metromusic & Arts, Inc.
- www.metromusic-arts.com
- thechoirroom@metromusic-arts.com
- mail@mmertomusic-arts.cm
The Choir Room Podcast
Igniting Christmas Joy Through Song: Unwrapping the Significance of Singing, Diving into "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel", and Harnessing Technology in Modern Choir Rehearsals
Are you ready to ignite the joy of the holiday season through song? Join us, hosts Greg Thomas, Dorian Johnson and Mietta Stancil-Farrar, as we unwrap the significance of singing during the Christmas holiday, community singing and the hymn of the week, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". We dive deep into the biblical references of this beautiful hymn, unearthing its rich connections to Old Testament prophecies. This beautiful hymn isn't just for Christmas - its timeless message brings comfort and hope all year round.
Our CRQ prompts a length offering on the role of technology in choir rehearsals. You might be surprised by the power of simple tools like MP3's, YouTube, and today's digital technology. We share our own experiences, successes and challenges, and offer advice on how to incorporate these tools into your own choir practices. From familiarizing your choir with new hymns, to fostering a sense of community, technology offers a wealth of benefits. We also discuss a variety of software and apps that can bring your choir rehearsals into the modern age - offering everything from digital songbooks to rehearsal scheduling.
In the final segment of our podcast, we challenge you to think about the power of technology and song in engaging the younger generation in the church. Greg then takes us to the "Thought of the Week" as he reflects on the role of singing in the Christmas season and how our worship should be shaped by the life of Christ - His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection and His return. We explore biblical passages that command us to praise God through song, and encourage listeners to keep Christ at the center of their Christmas celebrations. So, forget about the hustle and bustle of the season, and join us in a celebration of joy and song. Let's make this Christmas about the true reason for our worship - Christ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyRxyu1YzhA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6biETgTBo
https://www.ronimusic.com
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anytune/id415365180
http://www.deepdishdesigns.com
https://www.easyworship.com
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https://www.planningcenter.com
Perpetuating and Promoting the Christian and Positive Idea Through the Medium of Music and Other Arts.
Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 2:Season 1, episode 29 of the Choir Room Podcast.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 2:I'm Greg Thomas, your host, and I'll soon be joined by my co-host, dorian Johnson. Welcome to the choir room, be it a stance of farar, and whom we like to call the fourth wheel, coleman Smart. This podcast is a production of Metro Music and Arts, whose purpose is to perpetuate and promote the Christian and positive idea through the medium of music and other arts, and this podcast exists to advance and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling away, and that is choir and corporate singing, and we hope to revive the excitement and joy experience with singing in a choir and corporate singing, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing and all things choir. If you haven't already subscribed to the podcast, we encourage you to do so. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we ask you to give us a fair and honest review of the content that you're receiving here. Join the choir room Facebook page and engage in conversation there, and then finally stay up to date with what's happening with Metro Music and Arts by sending the words subscribe in the subject field to mail at MetroMusicDashArtscom.
Speaker 2:It is the holiday season and everybody wants to be chipper and cheerful, and many are trying to do so, but it is a difficult time for a lot of people for different reasons, and so we'd like to believe here in the choir room that singing is just one outlet and opportunity for you to embrace the joy of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, and not get into the discussion on whether this is actually the Christ's birthday. We all understand that, but if ever there was a time when people needed to smile, needed to rejoice, needed to sing, needed to express some joy and feel good about something or even themselves, this is the season, with multiple wars around the world, conflict here on the homeland, protests, people in disagreement and fighting crime on the uprise inflation. Listen, there's enough to bring you down to the pit. Let's choose to celebrate the birth of Christ together. Let's choose to encourage one another, to bring joy to the hearts of minimum and boys and girls, and we just believe here in the choir room that singing is one way to do that.
Speaker 2:In the background, you've been listening to my composition Carol of the Christ, which is sandwiched between Carol of the Bells and oh Holy Night, sang by my dear friend, carla Christine. Enjoy the rest of it and sing along while you are driving in your car or walking down the street, or maybe you have to jam, I don't know. I don't know where you listen to this podcast, but if you're listening, enjoy, sing along. Get somebody else to sing with you, I tell you.
Speaker 3:When Christ was born. Oh night, oh night divine. Oh night divine, oh night divine.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the choir room. Dorian has our hymn of the week. Thanks, Greg.
Speaker 1:After the fall, god pronounces judgment on Adam and Eve and a curse upon the serpent, and we read in Genesis 315. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel". So, even in the midst of man's sin, the grace of God is shown, and not only is not instantly destroying Adam and Eve for their disobedience, but he also gives the promise of a redeemer, one who would come and who would crush the head and destroy the power of the serpent. This promise of a redeemer would further develop throughout the Old Testament, and that is what we see in this week's hymn of the week. O come, o come, emmanuel. Some time ago, coleman's thought of the week pointed us to the Advent season, and this classic hymn, written and believed to be the 12th century, is a standard hymn of expectation sung at the beginning of the Christmas season. The hymn has been modified many times throughout history, and the version that is traditionally sung is attributed to the 1861 translation of a German manuscript from 1710. Each of the five verses points to Old Testament references to the Messiah. In verse 1, we see O come, o come, emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear, pointing us to that prophecy in Isaiah 7 and 14, where the prophets says therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And then this prophecy is pointed to in Matthew, chapter 1, verses 22 and 23, where we read all this took place. All of the events surrounding Jesus' birth took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. In verse 2, we read O come, o come, great Lord of might, who to your tribes on Sinai's height in ancient times did give the law in cloud and majesty and awe. This verse points us to Exodus 19, where the Lord from Mount Sinai gave the law to Israel. We read in Exodus 19, verse 16, on the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blasts, so that all the people in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now my Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.
Speaker 1:In verse 3, we sing O come, o rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny, from the depths of hell, your people, save and give them victory or the grace. Now, speaking of the origin, the earthly origin of Christ from the rod of Jesse other translations say from the branch of Jesse and points us to Isaiah 11-1, where it says there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his root shall bear fruit. Verse 4, o, come, thou dayspring, from on high and cheer us by thy drawing night, disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows put to flight. We read in Malachi 4, verses 1 and 2, for behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stone.
Speaker 1:And then, upon the birth of John the Baptist, zachariah's father says this in Luke 1, 78-79, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sun rise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And then the last verse says so come, o key of David, come and open wide our heavenly home, make safe for us the heavenward road and bar the way to death. Above Key of David, once again referring to Jesus' lineage in Isaiah 22, 22, we read and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open and none shall shut. And he shall shut and none shall shut.
Speaker 1:And each one of these verses are followed by the chorus which simply says rejoice, rejoice, emmanuel shall come to you, o Israel. And indeed we rejoice because, in the fullness of time, christ did come and if Christ's incarnation John 1, 14 tells us and the word became flesh and wealth among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, and as Christ has come, as died, as resurrected and ascended, we also look forward to that day when we will rejoice, when Christ will come again, not in weakness and humility but in glory and power, and in that second coming we will be brought into the blessed presence of our God, who will be fully with us and we will be fully with him for all eternity. Welcome to the fire.
Speaker 2:And he has been in high gear in preparing that ministry for the Christmas holiday and you know how important that is to a lot of churches. We welcome and need his perspective and can't wait for him to get back here after the holiday. In the meantime, us old cats will hold it down. Ah, mia, that's going to come with our CRQ.
Speaker 3:Thanks, greg. Here we are this evening with our CRQ, and our CRQ this evening is very interesting. Question is tonight in what ways do you use technology in your choir rehearsals? In what ways do you use technology in your choir rehearsals? Well, here we go. I come from a different era. Let's just start there. I come from a different era. Now, maybe Greg or Dorian I'm certain that they have a different perspective of this. The most technology I've ever really used in a rehearsal was a CD player, really, and that's.
Speaker 2:Now what's that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that little thing it was. It looks like a little small record, a little small record that you put inside a little surround apparatus and it plates music for you, and I can even say tape. We use tapes at that time as well. So I wasn't very, or I have not been very, explorative when it comes to technology. I'm somewhat of a purist and I just depend on the organ, the keyboard, if that's available, and that's pretty much all I did. But I am smart enough to know that we have evolved quite a bit yeah, quite a bit, in music now, and I noticed that there are a lot of directors, choir directors, musicians, that are really using a lot of technology.
Speaker 3:I'm not opposed to it, as a matter of fact, I love all of it and I think it has its place. It's very, very helpful For me. It's challenging because and this is not an excuse, but it is an excuse because I'm not a musician, okay, I don't play an instrument. I don't often deem it necessary to use a whole bunch of technology. I just pretty much rely on my ear and being able to convey what I hear to the vocals, much to my shame. I need to do better. I need to do better. So I think that it has its place. It is very useful and it would help, of course, enhance, I believe, any music ministry. If you have those tools available to you, I don't think it much of it should not be off limits. Use as much as you can. You talk with someone to find out what best suits or what's best fitted for your particular group, and then you work for them there. What say you, fellas?
Speaker 1:Well, I don't have a choir, but I will say, from time to time, as a congregation, we'll sing a hymn that we haven't sung before, that's less familiar, or we'll sing like a contemporary hymn that just people may not know, and so sometimes we'll like send a link to YouTube. But sometimes I will actually take a recording and I'll sing over it and then I'll send it out to the congregation and tell them we're going to sing this on Sunday. Just familiarize yourself with it and we'll praise the Lord with it. On.
Speaker 2:Sunday. So you send it to the entire congregation, wow.
Speaker 1:Interesting To the members at least that are on our email list. Yeah, just to say this is a hymn we haven't sung before. It's going to be unfamiliar, but familiarize yourself with it, at least with the tune before Sunday and it'll be part of the worship service.
Speaker 2:You know, I never would have thought to send it to the entire congregation and I guess, again, context is everything, but I think that also solidifies. It speaks to the whole idea of community and corporate worship, corporate singing, causing the individual to feel like they're part of something bigger than just themselves. It may not be going to the choir, but then it is the choir. The congregation is that choir. They are that aggregation of singers.
Speaker 3:And so are you. When you do that, Dorian, I do have a question for that. You do that. How many? Do you know how many people actually listen? Do you get a? Can you tell if they?
Speaker 1:I can tell sometimes, because it's interesting there are certain hymns that people just shy away from. But yesterday we saying how great they are in the service and the people almost blew the roof off the place. So you can tell, like certain hymns that people feel more comfortable with versus those that they feel less comfortable with, and so that's why we take that extra step sometimes and we don't do it often, but we will take that extra step and we'll just send out an email saying look, we're seeing this hymn. These are the lyrics. There's a recording of it if you'd like to listen to it, and there have been times where you can tell that that folks have actually listened to it and have come ready to, ready to sing it.
Speaker 3:That's something because I've always I now I do that I'll send music to musicians when it comes to, because I serve at two churches, and so I serve at two churches. At my, at the first church that I serve at, it really is basically congregational singing. For the most part, they don't have a choir. There's no praise, so it's just me and the people in the audience, so I'm having a ball doing that. That's new for me. I had to learn how to do that, because I've never had to do it like that, but I have sent the music to the musicians that are there but never thought to send it to, because they are choir, choir people in the audience, believe it or not. So they singers in the audience to send it to them. I will now, though. Thank you, dory.
Speaker 1:So hey so tech.
Speaker 2:Technically, the technology is it's email, it's a computer, it's email and a link to YouTube.
Speaker 1:Maybe, and it may be a recording from my phone, if I'm recording on my phone and that's that's really it. It's real low, it's real low tech, but it's still tech. It's still tech.
Speaker 2:Technology in it.
Speaker 3:I'm finding musicians now there, the musicians that I work with. They say, ok, this is a song, I need a reference, and I'm thinking you mean to tell me you've never heard this before. Never heard. And so I have to sit, find a reference, which is now YouTube. Our old faithful go to YouTube, send that out and then, oh, ok, and I have. But I will say I have them learn it in its original form before we gospelize it, and you know we do with our hands, right. So, and I send them the most obscure I guess I'll use that word because they've never heard that version. They usually hear it in church and we have double-clapped it and we have run it, you know, four or five times. And so when they get it in its original, they're like oh, so that's what it sounds like.
Speaker 3:This is what I say. Learn it this way before we put our spin on. That's my thing. Okay, got it, got it. I got it now.
Speaker 2:Well, there you have it. You have cassette players and CD players. All right, for those of you who don't know what those are, you can go online and look it up. But I can concur with Miata. I've used CD players and cassette players, and many disc recorders as well, to teach the choir. Well, to give the choir a reference, to give the musicians a reference, especially if it was something a little more complicated for the choir. They did better when they had a reference, when they got a chance to hear what it was supposed to sound like. That made the teaching a lot easier a little later. Now this is in the absence of sheet music. If we didn't have it, which was usually the case in gospel music, if you were doing gospel choir Hymns very different. So today we can go online and pull up just about any song and in fact, probably find some of the sheet music for free out there.
Speaker 2:I think the person asking the question is using technology in more ways than they probably realize. If you're learning songs and listening to them in your car or at home, you're using technology. You're using a computer, the internet, some device to play it on. Now I think the question is likely referring to how we use technology for teaching and or learning in a rehearsal setting. And so, again, like Mien alluded to CDs and cassette players back in the day. Today we've got the, you know the internet. We've got YouTube. You can download files that you or purchase music, and you should purchase it. And let's be clear If you're sending MP3s or sending files out to your choir members without permission, you are in violation of copyright law. Now you can send a link from YouTube and tell people to listen to that. That's fine, but you should not be sharing files and that's a whole nother podcast right there. But let's make it clear that on this podcast we like to do things right. So don't send MP3 files to your choir members or your church members and tell them to learn songs through this file. Now, now you can.
Speaker 2:There are ways in which we use technology and you get licenses. You know you can go through CCLIO, you can use CCS or some of the other copyright licensing organizations that are out there and get permission for your church or your organization or your choir to distribute rehearsal files. You can, we can. You know we probably should cover that sometime later, but I don't want to get too far into that right now.
Speaker 2:Now before the iPad or before the Windows Surface and some of the other tablets that are out there, we used to use a pad called the Music Pad Pro I believe it was called I can't remember the name of the company who came out with them, but these were about 12 by eight and a half, 12 by nine inch tablets, pretty thick, before the technology changed and they became slimmer and smaller. But that technology is advanced today with the tablets and you can now download lyrics sheets, you can download charts, you can download MP3s and attach those to the charts and use those in rehearsals as well. For learning and because this technology can be used on multiple platforms PC and Mac, your Android or your iPhone choir members can now use their devices to sit there with charts in front of them or lyrics in front of them. Now that in and of itself has reduced the amount of time necessary to teach new songs that have a lot of lyrics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, now you've got the lyrics in front of you. Now choir members looking, you know, with their heads down looking at their phones. It's not always beneficial either, especially when they're supposed to be looking at you and learning. I think when you use properly, it is a great time saver. Oh yeah, miata, you mentioned the band, the musicians, and we've got technology now where the band doesn't even have to show up.
Speaker 2:I mean, you can almost replace them and it's sad with pre-recorded tracks and a lot of people are using tracks and rehearsals because they can't get musicians to come to the same rehearsal as the choir is in, and sometimes that's not always feasible, I understand, but at some point they need to come together. Now, having said that, the technology by itself is nothing without software. Now, having said that, I'm going to mention some software that I've used over the years that people can download on their devices their phones, their tablets and I'm not going to go into the details of what the software actually does, but you can go check them out. This software has completely replaced songbooks. That means paper and copies. You'd never have to do that again. Everybody's got a phone, everybody's got some kind of device in. This software works on it. So this is free advertisement. We're not getting paid for this, nor are we endorsed by any of these companies.
Speaker 2:Deep Dish Gigbook is one of them that you can get on the App Store. I've used it to completely replace all paper copies. It allows me to set up binders and the individuals to set up binders on their own devices. Lyrics for songs. All we did is provide a central location for all of the PDF files of lyrics and the choir members were able to go there and download those into Gigbook. Now you can use Gigbook to set up binders for each choir or set up binders for specific services or events, special occasions, etc. Great application, inexpensive, no subscription. Okay, I try not to use software that requires me to have a subscription and pay for it over and over and over again. So that's not a learning application as much as it is a file-aid application.
Speaker 2:But if you want to learn music and sometimes you have to slow things down to learn them, this is both for musicians and singers. There are two of them that I've used over the years. One is called Easy Slowdowner and that's by Ronnie Music, r-o-n-i Musiccom. I think it's still available. In fact, I saw an update for it recently. Ronnie Music has an application called Amazing Slowdowner which allows you to slow down the music and change the pitch if you need to in order to hear certain parts. Rehears slower, rehearse faster, and it does that without changing the pitch of the song. Now there is a pitch control in that application, should you want to change the key to a song, but this allows you to rehearse it, slow it down, learn it a lot faster. It does introduce a little bit of digital artifacts when you slow it down or speed it up, but not terrible, all right.
Speaker 2:So amazing slow down is one another one that does a similar thing and more is Called any tune. I think it's called yes, it's any tune, and you can find that again at the Apple store any tune. It also works on Android, I believe. Check that one out. That one does probably twice as much in terms of features, then the amazing slow down on one, but those two are Really good for learning new music by ear. If that's what you're doing now while teaching the choir, if everybody is looking down at their phones Because they're reading the lyrics, that's not gonna work out well for you.
Speaker 2:And so if you're wondering if they're playing Angry Birds or if they're reading the lyrics. This other option is One that I suggest, and that is that you project the lyrics on something, whether that's on a wall or a portable screen, depending on where you're rehearsing, and or if you're in a choir room and you've got you know screens there, then you can project them on there. A lot of churches today you use two different applications. One is called easy worship and another one is called pro presenter. You can choose one, each one of those, either one of those. Now they are a lot more glorified than just, you know, presenting lyrics. Most of these applications are used during church services and other events, but if you have it for your church, that means you likely have a site license or a license for your church to use it, so you might as well use it. Use it in rehearsal. The challenge with this is that you're gonna have to assign somebody to run that computer during rehearsals, but it certainly takes the strain off of the choir director, who's got to tell people to look up, or they're singing into their laps and so you're not fully hearing them in rehearsal. So those two applications are much more involved than just lyrics. But again, if you have it, that means you have a site license. You might as well use it now.
Speaker 2:The application that is being used the most and I had to think about it, I couldn't remember the title, that's why I didn't mention it earlier, and I probably should have is planning center. Planning center is where all roads meet In terms of scheduling singers, scheduling musicians. If you do song lists, planning center is used for that. There are other apps out there as well, but planning center is the most popular one. I do suggest you do some study, do some research and check out some other ones, but planning center is by far the most used. It is subscription based and it allows you to schedule singers, your musicians, your song lists. If you're into that, you can schedule your technical team. I mean, it's a scheduling beast Specifically designed for churches, and so that's planning center. You can go check that out. Now again, we are not paid or endorsed by any of these applications, but we will put that information in the show notes and you can do your own research and find out what works for you in your context.
Speaker 2:Now, the other way that you can use technology and rehearsal and this is the easiest way is that there are apps that come with your device if you have an iPhone, or the notes application or the Pages application if you're on an Android. I'm sure there's a note taker of some type of recorder as well on both these devices some kind of note taker or some type of recording application. And so I encourage people to.
Speaker 2:If you can't write the lyrics and you can't get the lyrics to the choir members, certainly have them record rehearsals so that they can go back and rehearse on their own time. But take advantage of the technology, because everybody has it. They've got a mobile phone, they've got some type of tablet that they can use. That makes the teaching easy and the learning easy. Now, keep in mind this is the most important part about implementing technology into your choir rehearsals Is that the more technology you introduce into rehearsal, the more technical support You're gonna have to provide, and so make sure that you've got people who are technologically savvy and can help the ones that are not. It's the last thing you want in rehearsal to have to stop and help somebody with their phone.
Speaker 1:My, my flip phone. It won't flip.
Speaker 3:That's interesting because I'm thinking, I'm listening to you, greg, and I'm thinking, okay, now that all of that stuff sounds that's awesome and I guess in the the more tech savvy churches that works Like that's a beautiful thing. But then I'm thinking about the small church that don't have half of what you're talking about, not even.
Speaker 2:I understand what?
Speaker 3:where does that leave them now? Do they do they? Are they now? Or should they now be Forced or pushed prompt into seeking out some of those apps and some of those avenues to enhance? And it doesn't have to be a lot of money, but at least inquire and take some time and research it out and invest a little bit, because I think sometimes and some of our churches, especially the smaller churches and I don't know who the listening audience is tonight but in our smaller churches they don't wanna pay for nothing. I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you it tickles me really bad it's been in a situation where you're working in these churches and sometimes and I love pastors sometimes pastors don't understand what is needed, what can be better for their music ministries or music departments. If they would just invest two, three more dollars and they're in the top of that.
Speaker 2:You know, in a lot of cases that's really all of these.
Speaker 2:It's three more dollars. I think if the church doesn't plan to invest in technology, it's gonna be behind and you'll start to see the young people dwindle away, and not just because it's not technologically savvy, but churches who don't move and invest in technology really ultimately begin to shun the young people who are, because they're the ones sitting there in the pews with their iPhones or their iPads, their Bible applications, etc. And so you gotta remember that this generation is the most technologically savvy generation in the history of the world. They have access to more technology than we've ever had, and those are gonna be the ones who are gonna know how to get those lyrics on the screen and download those apps and get your phone working right and empty your cash and clear your memory and all these other things. So utilize that, because then that's a road in for even that generation to get involved in the ministry of the church. And so, for technology, we're not going backwards, we're only moving forward and it's going to advance and it's advancing very quickly.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Kwaya Room.
Speaker 2:As we're in the beginning of the Abbot season, leading to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the gift to the world, the reason for the season, during all of the hustle and bustle that comes with this season, I want to challenge you to take several moments out of your day to remind yourself why you should be singing during this season in particular. Now, singing in general requires thought. You don't just open your mouth, but you think about what you're singing and you think upon that which you are singing. You have to think about your notes, you have to think about pitch, you have to think about timing. And singing also requires practice. You know the old adage if you want to get to Carnegie Hall, you've got to practice, practice, practice. And so it requires thought, it requires practice, but it also awakens feelings. You know the feeling you get when you hear your favorite Christmas carol, your favorite Christmas song, or you smell your favorite Christmas smell. There's a feeling that comes. Well, singing does the same thing. It awakens feelings and sometimes you'll feel the bass, you'll feel the strings, you'll feel the chord progression. It awakens feelings. And then, lastly, sometimes singing will produce emotions. It'll produce emotions that perhaps you weren't feeling before you started singing.
Speaker 2:See, in the life of a believer, singing is a direct response to the faithfulness of God, to the work of Jesus Christ. Our song, therefore, is a response to God for what he's done. It is a response to God for what he's doing. It is a response to God for what we hope and believe that he will do. That's called praise and advance. And this kind of singing involves your physical, your psychological, your emotional and your spiritual being. We are, by nature, spiritual beings, and so singing is our innate response to God. Now, if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know that we often speak from a Christian and biblical perspective as it relates to singing. Now you may be singing around the Christmas tree or rocking around the Christmas tree. For you it may be frosty tales and jingle bells, it may be shopping lists and Christmas gifts and Friday sales and chestnuts' males. Now, I'm not knocking any of that, but I can tell you that if any of that comes before the true reason for this season, you will be left depleted at the end of this season and longing for another Christmas holiday, because things are going to go back to your normal around January 2nd and for many it'll happen December 26th.
Speaker 2:In our previous episode, our friend keep getting reminded us that we were created to sing, commanded to sing, and we sing because of Christ. Look at it this way Christ is the who of this season, and His birth, life, death, resurrection and second coming is the why we sing. The who and the why directly determine how we sing or how we worship. In Exodus 15-1, I will sing unto the Lord, I'll sing unto Jehovah, for he hath triumph gloriously the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea. That's what he's done. 1 Chronicles 16-9 says Sing unto him, sing praises unto him, talk ye of all his marvelous works. That's what he's done. That's what he's doing.
Speaker 2:Psalm 33-2, praise the Lord with the heart, sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten streams. That's your how. And verse 3 in that same Psalm. Psalm 33 says Sing unto him a new song, place skillfully with the loud noise. There you have more of your how we should sing. And so Christ is the object of our celebration, he is the object of our singing, he is the object of our worship, and so we sing in worship unto him because of his finished work. That is our why. And so how should we do it? We should do it with the loud noise. We should do it daily. We should do it consistently. We should do it intentionally. We should do it skillfully. Do you have to be a professional? Absolutely not, but give it the best that you have and make this season about the true reason. Join us again next week as we continue this thought and remember, if ever we put the messenger before the message, we have failed to present an unblemished gospel.
