I believe I have become an official curmudgeon. A curmudgeon needs to have certain characteristics, including being crabby about something. I am crabby about how modern male musicians appear to have forgotten about notes.
You remember notes. They are easy to draw and normally appear on a musical page either on or just above or below a line. They tell us what the sound is supposed to be. Singers learn (or used to learn) how to sing these notes. The better you can sing the notes, the better a singer you were considered to be. By using notes, you can make music a group activity. You can "tune" an orchestra to an "A" and everyone can make beautiful music together.
In churches, the notes allowed us to sing in harmony together (whether in parts or in unison), because we all had an idea what to do. The music leaders sang notes. The choir sang notes. Musicians sang notes. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby hit notes (to consider my parents' generation). Even the Monkees hit notes. The Beatles hit notes. Disco involved notes.
Now, it is all gone.
I listen to very little of what is called "modern music," so I don't care a lot, but it has come into the churches. People don't want to sing notes anymore. When I hear young male Christian musicians, they sing as if their intestines were cramping. Women still seem to hit notes, but the young men just cannot do so. They do not learn to hit notes. Their goal, in fact, is not musical at all. Their goal is to be "authentic," which means they are supposed to sound pained or something.
So, instead of beautiful music that inspires the hearer and accompanies singers who care about their craft enough to practice, we get guitars and wailing, because it is sincere.
It is also really easy to do. It is like someone cloned Kenny Rogers, who was the most obvious singer of this type when I was young. Every song sounded like his heart was breaking and he hit his usual three tones (low, medium, high). There were no notes.
I think the lack of singing talent is primarily the result of people not being willing to work at their craft enough to be good at it. Celine Dion can sing notes, but not everyone can be Celine Dion. We need lots of singers to feed our current media mania and young men who love Christ can succeed by just being sincere. Why learn about notes?
I suppose this is fine. People can buy what they want to buy and I have no problem with people buying these recordings. It does not bother me that young Christians listen to people who will not sing notes (although you wonder if notes will ever come back).
What bothers me is that this does not work for leading singing. I cannot sing along with someone who is primarily emoting rather than singing. I cannot sing along if I do not have any idea where he is going. If he scats and wails and draws out some lines and shortens other lines, I cannot sing along.
And I like to sing along.
So, a curmudgeon I shall be. And I will keep listening to symphonies.
You remember notes. They are easy to draw and normally appear on a musical page either on or just above or below a line. They tell us what the sound is supposed to be. Singers learn (or used to learn) how to sing these notes. The better you can sing the notes, the better a singer you were considered to be. By using notes, you can make music a group activity. You can "tune" an orchestra to an "A" and everyone can make beautiful music together.
In churches, the notes allowed us to sing in harmony together (whether in parts or in unison), because we all had an idea what to do. The music leaders sang notes. The choir sang notes. Musicians sang notes. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby hit notes (to consider my parents' generation). Even the Monkees hit notes. The Beatles hit notes. Disco involved notes.
Now, it is all gone.
I listen to very little of what is called "modern music," so I don't care a lot, but it has come into the churches. People don't want to sing notes anymore. When I hear young male Christian musicians, they sing as if their intestines were cramping. Women still seem to hit notes, but the young men just cannot do so. They do not learn to hit notes. Their goal, in fact, is not musical at all. Their goal is to be "authentic," which means they are supposed to sound pained or something.
So, instead of beautiful music that inspires the hearer and accompanies singers who care about their craft enough to practice, we get guitars and wailing, because it is sincere.
It is also really easy to do. It is like someone cloned Kenny Rogers, who was the most obvious singer of this type when I was young. Every song sounded like his heart was breaking and he hit his usual three tones (low, medium, high). There were no notes.
I think the lack of singing talent is primarily the result of people not being willing to work at their craft enough to be good at it. Celine Dion can sing notes, but not everyone can be Celine Dion. We need lots of singers to feed our current media mania and young men who love Christ can succeed by just being sincere. Why learn about notes?
I suppose this is fine. People can buy what they want to buy and I have no problem with people buying these recordings. It does not bother me that young Christians listen to people who will not sing notes (although you wonder if notes will ever come back).
What bothers me is that this does not work for leading singing. I cannot sing along with someone who is primarily emoting rather than singing. I cannot sing along if I do not have any idea where he is going. If he scats and wails and draws out some lines and shortens other lines, I cannot sing along.
And I like to sing along.
So, a curmudgeon I shall be. And I will keep listening to symphonies.