dan’s question: song introductions
a few days (maybe weeks) ago one of my college friends left a great question here:
whenever I would lead worship with the youth that I worked with before starting seminary, I would always find introducing songs to be awkward or either just repeating a line of a song. What are some tips for introducing songs? How often? How do you do it (if at all)?
any thoughts? how do you introduce songs?
thanks!
You know, things have changed. It used to be that introducing a new song meant that no one in the congregation had ever heard it before. Now, most of the time, I find that they’ve heard new worship songs on Christian radio before we introduce them in church. So I find a decent percentage of our folks are familiar with new songs before we introduce them in worship. And it’s not like we’re introducing songs that are 6 years old, either. Christian media used to respond to what was gaining currency in the church, but now it’s kind of the other way around.
The last few times we’ve introduced a new song, we actually play the song about 5 minutes before the service starts, as people are coming in. Then we immediately kick into it for the first congregational song.
That works well for up-tempo stuff. Ballads, we’ll usually just instruct people to listen. Then we’ll bring it back the next week or two for them to sing.
Honestly, I do nothing. I see it as I have something to share with them. Something I am excited to share with them. I do purposefully pick songs that I think the congregation will feel comfortable in learning, but I am not worried whether or not they feel comfortable with it at first. I have tried to lead them into God’s presence whether they are singing or not. I want our congregation to feel comfortable listening as well as singing. Listening is as much or sometimes even more valuable.
Now, if I see that they are not getting the song after 1 or 2 times of singing it, I may choose then not to do the song again. I don’t want to purposefully keep them in a place where they can not participate by singing.
I also do nothing. At The Summit, we do a new song every 3 weeks, and we play it every week for 3 weeks. On the first week, we open with it (if it’s an upbeat song), on the second week we put it mid-set, and on the third week we close with it. Then we start all over again.
I find that the congregation is more than capable of learning a song without being taught it.
Hey,
We try to introduce new songs as “walk in” songs, and/or as a “special Music” feature, and then bring it back frequently for a few weeks.
I think there is a great danger in doing too many new songs, though – keep in mind, by the time a worship leader, band, and singers have heard it, rehearsed it the week before (maybe 2-3 4 weeks in a row, depending on how long it takes you to learn it), rehearse it at sound check …. you are already so familiar w/ the song that you start getting tired of it before your congregation has even heard it 2-3 times.
I have learned that cutting our repetoire BACK has INCREASED congregant participation.
For the Kingdom
Fred
i think sometimes worship leaders talk too much when introducing new songs because they want the congregration to like it as much as they do. but it’s already been said, if it’s a good, powerful song, it will speak for itself!
if playing the song live as people come in doesn’t really fit the venue, you can arrange for the new song to be a part of whatever music is playing in the room as people come in (on CD or mp3 or whatever). I’ve purposefully had the song playing like that for a couple weeks before I introduce it, and while I have no statistical evidence, it seems like people find the song more familiar when we actually start singing it.
These are all great tips! I haven’t mastered the technique yet, but because I write new songs and arrangements all the time, I am constantly facing this challenge. I do very little in the way of “teaching” the song. I kind of just barrel ahead, and it’s been my experience that people just kind of jump in when they feel comfortable.
I will often do a myriad of things to introduce a new song. First, I’ll make sure it’s in the pre-service mp3 rotation a week or two before I want to introduce that song. Subliminal messages do work at times.
About once every three or four weeks, it’s the worship team’s turn to do the “offertory” song, and I’ll often use that as an opportunity to introduce a new song in a situation where the congregation feels no obligation to sing along. Sometimes, when it’s my turn to sing the “special music,” I’ll choose a song I want the congregation to learn.
Later on, we’ll intro the song during the congregational singing, and then sing it again two weeks later. I’ll usually bring the song up again at least twice during the next 2 months, and then I consider it a member of our “moderately familiar” tunes.
In the past, I’ve done a “Song of the Month,” where the new song will show up in some form for four week in a row (offertory, solo, chorus only, entire song, reprise, etc.).
thanks for all the good advice!
I guess I differ a little from the dominant theme I’m reading in these replies. No personal offense intended to those who’ve stated they do nothing but play the song, but I think you are missing an excellent opportunity to teach something if you don’t introduce a new song. Why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to explain why the congregation should be singing this lyric at that particular time for that particular series or sermon or whatever? One of the big surprises for me as a worship pastor has been how infrequently people (even the brightest people in the room) will connect the dots or put the puzzle pieces together.
Now I guess if a song is so simple and the lyric is so obvious, maybe, MAYBE you don’t have to introduce it. But you should at least acknowledge that it is new and sort of take the pressure off of people to know it already.
Now, as far as a tip on how to introduce new songs, I confess up front that I have probably missed more than I’ve hit the target. But what I’ve landed on is Scripture. Your new song, whatever it is, should be carrying some message attested to in Scripture, and if it isn’t you shouldn’t be singing it, imho. So let Scripture introduce your song. I think this helps because I think bamboosong’s reply was accurate. Worship leaders tend to talk too much, which really means we’re not really saying anything at all. But reading Scripture to introduce your song does at least a couple important things:
1) It shows where our authority is, in song selection, song writing, worship leading and otherwise.
2) It grounds our singing in biblical truth.
3) It helps expose people to Scripture and shows in a very basic sense the important of exegesis and study. Now the key here is to make sure you are faithfully exegeting and studying, but I’m assuming here that it will happen that way.
To just plow ahead into the song without some acknowledgment of its newness and some explanation regarding its purpose/intent is akin to dodging our call to lead people in some direction. We have to be careful not let our music do our leading for us.