Music Matters

April 2008
How Can I Help My Congregation Learn New Hymns?

There are three aspects to learning a new hymn: familiarity, encounter, and endowment. Another way of saying this is that first, there is a period when the hymn becomes familiar to a group of persons. Then there is a point when that group actually sings the hymn for the first time. Finally there is a period during which the hymn is used often enough for it to become endowed with those qualities that change it from a “new” hymn to a “familiar” hymn.

How can the congregation become familiar with the hymn? The text might appear as part of the order of worship as a call to worship, a responsive reading, poetry included on the printed order of service for personal meditation (if copyright allows), and as spoken devotionals. The tune can be used as part of the service music (prelude or offering). The hymn might be sung by a soloist or ensemble. The important thing is that the congregation is presented with both text and tune in non-threatening ways that allow them to become familiar before they are asked to sing it for the first time.

In order to help the congregation encounter the hymn effectively, i.e., sing it with understanding, the following process may be helpful. (There are more things suggested than would be used in any of the four steps, so the one who introduces the hymn needs to pick and choose which would be most helpful to their congregation.)

1. Begin the introductory process with an informal statement about the hymn.
   What kind of services will this hymn be used for?
   Are there any of the congregation’s favorite hymns by the same composer or author?
   What, if anything, is familiar about the hymn?
   Can anything be shared about the origin of the hymn?
    
2. Announce the hymn name and number.
   Summarize the message of the hymn in two or three sentences.
   Review the text with the congregation.
   Read each verse aloud with the congregation as you would speak it, focusing attention on the text, reading for continuity of thought and properly observing punctuation.
   Clarify the meaning of unfamiliar words.
    
3. Introduce the music.
   Ask a soloist or small ensemble to sing the first verse to help the congregation feel more familiar with the melody.
   At a “learning tempo”—and asking the organist or pianist to play the melody in octaves—sing through each verse with the congregation.
   Stop between verses to improve obvious mistakes.
   Make sure that any suggestions for improvement are impersonal.
    
4. Review the entire hymn.
   Sing it through without stopping, before the congregation tires.
   Work with only one new hymn at a time.
   End with a positive comment.

Singing the hymn once does not automatically make it familiar. The third step of the learning process—endowment—means investing enough time in the hymn to encourage its becoming well known. As soon as possible after the “encounter” step, review the hymn in another service or worship activity. Then the music director and worship planner need to coordinate further use of the hymn.

As appropriate places are found to use the hymn, it takes on more meaning in the lives of individuals. When the hymn becomes a personal or corporate expression of worship, it is endowed with intangible qualities that make it a “good old hymn”—one that is loved and used.

—adapted from "Learning New Hymns" in Hymns in Worship by Roger Revell
(Independence, Missouri: Herald Publishing House, 1981).

If you have suggestions or ideas for future columns, please contact:
Jan Kraybill
Principal Organist and Director of Music
Community of Christ Headquarters
Independence, MO, USA

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