Music and Religion/Philosophy
- Hannah Cheatham
- Jan 9, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 27, 2020
The brief for this blog post is to talk about music and religion in a way I've never thought about. Personally, I don't really think about my faith in these big, philosophical questions so I'm going to try my best.
I haven't experienced much in the way of other religions. My family was Lutheran until I was about 3 and then we found Calvary Chapel: a non-denominational church that just taught the bible verse by verse with contemporary worship. I only went back to the Lutheran church once in 7th grade for my cousin's confirmation and to be honest, my favorite part was sight-reading the hymns I didn't know from the hymnal. I've also been to a few funerals from a few different denominations but nothing too radically different then what I'm used to. In summer 2005, I gave my life to Christ at VBS. I've been going to Calvary Chapel since then.
For me personally, music and worship are intertwined to create very personal experience. Something that is only between your heart and God to form a relationship. It opens you up so that you can be real with yourself and with God. And in that way, I agree with the Native American idea that music and your voice are sacred things and that song and prayer can be used interchangeably. It's always something that has resonated with me, but I felt was lost with other people when I wanted to sing a prayer over someone who was struggling instead of speaking. I guess I've just always have that heart for music and for worship.
While I enjoy the aspects most modern contemporary worship like electric guitar, drum kit, and electric bass (I love me a good bass line!), I truly love the more acoustic settings of songs with indie/folk influence. Worship for a smaller, more intimate setting. It should flow out of you and be real, so the less planned, the better. My worship leader mentor enjoyed that type of music and it kind of rubbed off on me not only in the kind of worship music I prefer, but the overall sound I enjoy for pop music and my ideas when it comes to worship. I feel like in that smaller setting and with the instruments stripped back to their barest form, I'm really able to lock in to what I'm doing.
Some songs are more fit to the larger, modern band sound. They make use of a lot of different instruments, as I mentioned before. My favorite is the electric bass because my dad plays bass a lot with the worship team and he can come up with some pretty mean bass lines! But I feel like a may be a bit biased :D. With these more powerful instruments and equipment, you can ramp up the umph in these songs. You have lots of options when it comes to effects like reverb, loops, and pads on a synthesizer, to add another level to songs. If done right, it can be very effective. Even though this kind of contemporary worship has grown in popularity since the 60's (with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa's Maranatha! Music becoming the first Christian Contemporary music label), I understand that this kind of sound is not for everyone. Here are a few of my favorite examples of songs that benefits from a mostly electric ensemble.
So my preferred style of worship is the more relaxed, house worship style or coffee house style. The setting is usually more intimate and the equipment is slim to none because guess what: some house worship is in an actual house! There could be a stage or not, doesn't really matter. I feel that it's a whole lot more free form and relaxed, which was quite a switch when I started youth worship. Our youth worship is in a cafe on the back of the property and fits the "hipster coffee house" vibe. This is where I first started on worship team under my mentor. I enjoy the relaxed nature of it all and the freedom to improvise and feel the music when lead to.
Your normal house worship starter kit includes a guitarist, a singer, and a djembe or a cahone. That's it! Most of the instruments added to this basic trio are stringed, like a banjo, mandolin, or a singular violin/viola. They could also be percussive, like a tambourine or shakers. There is a lot of indie/folk/backwoods influence to these songs, but you can also take a song performed by another artist and strip it back to an acoustic setting. But just because it's stripped back doesn't mean we can't jam! You can always jazz up a song with a good oom pah pah or a boom chick! Another reason I love this style is because the groups/bands are normally smaller and less known, which means I can get to know them and support them, which is pretty cool! This kind of music is a majority of my worship playlist, so I have plenty of examples! Some of these are my all time favorite artists as well like As Isaac, Matt and Katie Middleton, and Deep South Worship! The only problem with them being smaller band is that they all aren't on YouTube, but you can find all of them on Spotify!
I hope you learned a little something from this post. I certainly enjoyed talking about it, but I enjoy talking in general sooo....
Please keep in mind that I am currently a sophomore music major looking at a very American-ized art-form through very classical lenses, and this genre is still relatively new, so many people will have many different analyzations of these styles. Put shortly: these are not official genres or terms of the business, but loose categories to give you an idea of what these different types of music sound like.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
It so cool that you sight read the hymns! I too love the more contemporary sound that Christian music has begun to have.
Wow, that's a lot of music! Churches using Contemporary Christian Music were still relatively new when I was growing up, and I'm amazed at all the sub-genres that have emerged over the years.
My church have a youth and teen group. The youth group meets every Wednesday and Sunday, but the teen group only meets on Wednesday.
I absolutely love the modern band sound. One of my favorite parts about church was the music but I got so much more into it when they had a good bass bass line and a nice drum beat. I still appreciated the more traditional songs too though!
Your use of onomatopoeia honestly made me smile! Despite your saying that you haven't thought about music in your faith much, I can tell you are very passionate about it. I am personally not very religious anymore, but reading your enthusiasm makes me want to go back to my old church; they had a very similar style of music and worship. It seems so relaxed and genuine.