How was the singing in your congro?

by karter 29 Replies latest jw experiences

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  stillstuckcruz

  Since the new song book came out, the word is yes.....abysmal. Something funny happened last year at our meeting. We were still in transition of the new songs. The song cut off halfway through the song. I though we could keep it going. And we did for the next two sentences. But after that, everyone abruptly stopped and it went downhill because no one knew the tone of the song. ....You kinda had to be there, but it was hilarious.

  Overall, the singing is so-so. You have sister-who-sings-louder-than-everyone-else. Brother Opera. Brother and Sister-Off-Key.
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  watersprout

  It was awful! In the last cong I was in there was one sister who thought she was an opera singer..... It was a fingers in the ears whilst screaming STFU!

  Peace
• 

  diana netherton

  Everyone sang the soprano line and it was dreadful. I used to particularly hate it when a

  long syllable word was compacted to fit the sentence. Thr'out instead of throughout~
• 

  LoneWolf

  LOL! Actually, I'm a true baritone, and the lead was just too high for me. It would make my throat ache.

  I fixed that by remembering when I was in highschool and took choir where we became familiar with all the parts. Therefore, I'd sing the bass line (it was a little low, but I could usually reach them) and all went well. I'd get a lot of strange looks, but I didn't care. I was actually hoping that some dingbat elder would object, but I think they knew I was laying for them Hehehehe!!! A few people would come up and express how pretty it was, but they seemed to be careful about it.

  Finally they came out with newer songbooks that didn't carry the four parts, so I became creative. What got me is that I can't remember anyone else in any of the congregations that I attended that sang harmony!

  Tom
• 

  BroMac

  LoneWolf - that's quite a skill. to pickout the harmony while everyone else is on the melody.

  i was one of those who tried to put the big baritone notes into the ( ): Forward Goooooo! (forward go) Fearlessly Gooo (fearlessly go).... and really i go for it too!

  usually on my own or bro oddball would pick it up on the next verse and join in.

  no longer in the the new songbook which is mostly condensed lyric alltered fds praising rubbish. many are just un-singable.

  BroMac
• 

  tenyearsafter

  Overall, terrible...but there always was the or two in the hall that were great singers. Unfortunately, that made the rest of the crew sound even worse! The fact that the pre-recorded music was dreary to begin with, didn't give the joyous noise much of a chance to begin with.
• 

  breakfast of champions

  Honestly, the singing at our hall had always been quite good- enthusiastic, at least. I think this was helped by the good acoustics of our hall,as it's not the typical "box" variety. But, since the advent of the "new and improved" songbook, with it's mechanical, plinky-plink quantitzed electronic piano accompaniment, signing has gone downhill fast. Definitely a NOTICEABLE change in our hall, which had been one of the best singing halls.
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  dogisgod

  If you are as ancient as me the old green songbook was okay. Actually written in 4 part harmony (there used to be choirs at the assemblies). then the Brown songbook came out. Keys that most people would never be able to sing in. Don't know anything about anything newer. The society is not about any "feeling". It's dead, remote, legalistic and that is not what music is about.
• 

  lilbluekitty

  It depended...and this sounds weird but there's a really noticible difference between congregations with mostly black (they sing well in my experience) and white people (they sing like crap in my experience.) The last few congs I was in had pretty bad singing, and I noticed it doesn't seem to matter whether I was way up north or way down here but if the cong lacks black people, the singing sucks, no clue why. My last congregation was almost completely Hispanic people and the singing was very soft and almost monotone, the congregation before had a very diverse mix of people (Nigerians, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, white, etc.) so some people sang really well while others sang crappily. Probably the worst was the same cong. that shares a hall with my mom because there had been some very strange older people that would sing the complete wrong words or the right words but the wrong tune (how in the world they did that with the music playing the correct tune is beyond me) and so on.

  When I was really in I loved to sing the songs fairly loudly, espescially at conventions or if I was with someone else who sang loud. I'd get weird looks if I tried to harmonize with people though =(

  As a side note, I really like my church's music, there's a woman who leads the group in song and who plays acoustic guitar and her husband (I'm guessing) plays the bongo drums. Even the big screen that shows the lyrics has pretty graphics, the background they used today looked like it was snowing!
• 

  AvocadoJake

  With the advent of the new song book, it's quite strange indeed, nobody knows the songs. The music is outright horrible, very dreadful and I am still confused why they changed the song book? JWs look at each other, giggle they can't follow the lyrics, and laugh few can keep a note. The new book and music was suppose to be refreshing? Am I the only one who thinks the music is not joyfull or devoid of any nice melody? Why did they change songs we knew, songs that sounded pretty and songs that had a rythm? Just my humble opinion.