In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of compound timing in music. He demonstrates a four-point pattern of beats, emphasizing the importance of leading the congregation with both hand and voice. The speaker also emphasizes the need for song leaders to not overpower the congregation or be distracted by technical issues. He then goes on to explain different time signatures, specifically focusing on the three-four and six-eight patterns.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, AFPA, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Good afternoon, everyone. Let's bow our heads. Dear Father in Heaven, we want you to fill us. We want you to lead us. We want you to use us, Father. That is our heart. So God, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We ask that you would just be with us this afternoon as we share. God, I just pray that you would bless it as it comes forth, Lord. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. The title of the session this afternoon is Becoming an Effective Worship Leader. Singing is a wonderful experience that combines the spiritual, emotional, and physical parts of man. With singing, we worship God. We express our thoughts and feelings and enjoy the almost indefinable relationship of body, soul, and spirit. As we sing, as I observe, and as I experience, it is with our whole being that we sing. Psalmist David says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Combination of body, soul, and spirit. Our whole being is involved in our worship and praise to our God. I don't believe you and I, at least I, have not scratched the surface in expressing worship to my God. I believe we're only scratching the surface right now. But wait until we get to glory. We can praise him in perfect praise, in a perfect body, in a perfect voice, in a perfect environment. It's going to be awesome. It is my desire just to know God better so I can praise him in that more perfect way. You know, we think of God and who he is. I just had to think of last night. As we drew near to God last night, and Brother Zach was speaking, we were drawing nigh to God, I believe. The truth was coming forth. Our spirits were with God. We were open to truth. You know, the closer we get to God, the more we realize, of course, how God is. In his majesty, in his glory, in his holiness. You know, the more we see ourselves, I see myself as bankrupt. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. I see my own unworthiness. I see my own undone-ness. I see my own wretchedness. I see the deceit of my own heart. I see my pride as we draw nigh to God. And that is the response that we have. If you draw nigh to God, you will see yourself as you are. It's impossible to draw nigh to God and not see ourselves. I really believe that. If we truly see God, who he is, we will also see who we are. Like I said, suddenly our heart cries out when we are in the presence of almighty God. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. File I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. And God says, I love you. It's for people like you that I died. It's for people like me. It's people that realize their wretchedness, their undone-ness, their sin, their bankruptcy, their utter failure in trying to be a Christian. It's not God. God says, it's for you that I died. And then we respond and say, like the hymn writer, I yield my powers to thy command. To thee I consecrate my days. Perpetual blessings from thy hand demand perpetual songs of praise. My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. For thee all the follies of sin I resign. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. You know, one of the most precious times, or some of the most precious times that I have with God, you know, when I'm all alone, and perhaps not even in my own time, regular time of devotion, when I was driving down the road, I particularly remember one time I was struggling. I used to struggle with assurance of salvation. Time I was going down the road, and this song came across the tape that I had on. And that song said, I hear the Savior say thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. I just broke down. I pulled off the highway and I wept. In the next verse, For nothing good have I whereby thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lambs. And when before the throne I stand in him complete, Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin has left the crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Praise God. Praise God. Worship, brothers, worship. Seeing God, what he has done for me, and the response of my heart, gazing on God and his goodness and his greatness, that is worship, brothers. And we're talking about becoming effective worship leaders. I believe it all needs to start right there, brothers. Our vision of God, our concept of God, and our relationship with him all starts right there. Going into the second part here. Switching gears a little. Music is powerful. I mentioned that yesterday, and we want to talk about that a little bit. Music is tremendously powerful, and we want to look at why it's powerful and what it does. Music has tremendous power to affect feeling, belief, action, and destiny. Let's look at feeling. Have you ever come to church and you were sad, you were depressed, you were discouraged, but when the singing began, they sang songs of praise, they sang songs of encouragement, of blessing, and guess what? Those feelings left you. And so you totally changed your outlook, your perspective, your feelings have changed. They have the ability to change feelings. Music does. It has the ability to change, or pardon me, to affect belief, very definitely. The songs that are sung, whether good or bad, have tremendous power to affect our belief, or society's belief. You take the music of the 60s and the rebellion here during that time. The songs that were sung there by the popular groups were songs of rebellion and of disrespect, of man being an island and not part of a brotherhood. I'm a rock, I'm an island, and no man can touch me. That was the message of the 60s and 70s and that affected, that swayed our society, that totally changed our society, I believe. I believe we can go back to that point. So, music has a tremendous ability to affect our belief. It has the ability to affect our actions as well. Think of the songs, Into Our Hands, the gospel is given, we sing sometimes, Into Our Hands is given the light. Haste, let us carry God's precious message, guiding the erring back to the right end. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them from hell and the grave, and so forth. It moves us to action. And now, of course, it has the tremendous power to affect our destiny. Ultimately, music is moving. Music is powerful. There is none of us, there is no human being that is not affected by music. The music that I listen to definitely has effect on me, definitely influences me, either for the good or bad, and it will ultimately affect my destiny. What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. Someday your heart will be asking, what will he do with me? It brings us to that realization that yes, what I do will affect my destiny. Music brings that out, has the power to do that. I believe another reason why music is powerful is because we are attracted to it. We are naturally, like I mentioned yesterday, we're naturally attracted to music. Therefore, we are drawn to it, and so we respond to it naturally. And God knows that, but Satan also knows that, and he plays havoc in the lives of people because he knows that it's true. The words that are set to music are much easier to remember and memorize than when they are just said in words. Definitely. When I was a little boy, when I was a preschooler, I still remember learning the ABCs, and I learned it to a tune. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and so forth. I learned it to a tune so I could remember it. I picked it up fast. And even as I was in first grade, I remember what came after the letter F. I'd go A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, you know. And I hummed the tune until I found, oh yeah, there it is. I found myself doing that. Music, the power of music. As we relate music to words, has a tremendous power on our minds. It does. The advertising people know this. Over radio and TV. They do it all the time. They put their little jingles, their little advertisements to music. It's why it sticks to you. So music is powerful because it does that. It just sticks in your mind. Another reason why music is powerful is because it has the ability to affect the subconscious mind. And I'm not sure what all that means. But I'll give you an example. If we indoctrinate our children, we indoctrinate them with songs like Oh be careful little feet where you go. Oh be careful little feet. And we say, Oh be careful little eyes what you see. Oh be careful little hands what you do. And we drill this into them. We drill into them songs like Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. All those songs like that are also in the subconscious mind then. And when they get to a situation where they have to decide where their feet are going to take them, subconsciously, they won't necessarily maybe even think of that song. But it will affect them. On their responses. It affects us subconsciously. It's also used subconsciously in the shopping malls. They tell me that the music that is played at Walmart or wherever, your hometown mall, is music that will cause you to buy more. To purchase more. They guarantee it. They guarantee that if they play their music over the PA system in the store, it will increase your sales by whatever. Music is also used to minimize shoplifting. And that was a new one. I didn't realize that. And it's not words. This is just music. I'm saying music has the ability to affect us subconsciously. So the shopping malls or the people that are doing this music are saying that we guarantee if you use our music in your store that the shoplifting rate will drop. It's incredible. I don't understand all that. It's almost scary. So, music is used to relieve pain. They tell me some dentists are using, putting headphones on you when they're drilling your teeth and it starts hurting, you crank up the music. This music is supposed to... I never tried it. But they say they're doing that. So we're concluding that music has the ability to bypass the conscious and affect us subconsciously. I believe we'd all have to agree. Music is like gasoline. Now, we all need gasoline. I mean, that's a good thing, right? We need gasoline in our cars to propel them. It's a fuel. But the gasoline needs to be contained. It needs to be used properly. It needs to be used carefully. You don't just use gasoline haphazardly. I wouldn't have gasoline up here. I don't allow my workmen to bring gasoline in an open container in our shop at work. It's dangerous. But it's not dangerous if it's used properly. If it's contained properly, then it's not. And that's the way music is. Music, if it's used improperly, is explosive. It can do damage. Music has the power to unify. It unites families. It unites children with their parents. Parents, that's a wonderful way to relate to your children. It's a wonderful way for you to connect with them through song. Teach them singing. Singing with them. Teaching them songs. Memorizing music together. It's a family thing. It unites. Music reinforces sound teaching and theology. Many of our hymns talk about theology, of who God is and what he has done, and the various aspects of God and doctrine. It brings encouragement. It helps us to remember. It develops godly character in children. I did mention that. And the last one I have listed, I really like this one. It moves the heart of God. That is awesome. I think that music, what we sing, can move the heart of God. Let me give you an example. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling. Do not pass me by, moving the heart of God. God is moving the heart of God. When God sees and hears that coming from a sincere heart, God is moved. I think that's awesome. O Lord, I am fondly, earnestly longing into thy holy likeness to grow. God is moved. God wants to do that. He wants to fill us. He wants those streams to come flooding into our lives. That's God. That's wonderful. Now we'll go on more directly into our topic talking about effective worship leaders. First point I have here is every effective worship leader must have a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it all starts there in what I talked about. Seeing God for who He is, seeing myself for who I am, and then responding properly to that. It all begins right there, brothers. How is a worship leader able to lead the people in worship if he himself doesn't have that in his heart? It's a must, I really believe. If the song leader is in touch with God, I believe the people will catch on. He must realize the importance that spirit-filled singing has in the worship service in uniting the hearts of people. I think we need to realize, song leaders, the importance of that. What the singing does to a worship service, the thing that it adds to it is tremendous. Take singing. Imagine what singing would be, or what our services would be like, or what our lives would be like without singing. It's hard to imagine. But we see the importance of it. We know what it does. We have experienced it. We know it's God's will. I believe the worship leader must sense his calling as a calling from God. I believe it is a calling, really. He senses his call from God to lead people in worship, through the church or however. But I believe it is a calling. It's a high calling to corporately unite the congregation and lead them in worship is a calling. I think we need to see it as that. We take our calling seriously. We should take our calling with seriousness and carefulness, realizing that I am responsible to help lead these people into worship. It's an aid to help them to come to worship. It's also important that he prepares his own heart before he leads. Before a Sunday morning service or Sunday evening or whenever the service is, I think it's important that we prepare our hearts. We come before God and just ask Him to show us any need in our life. Make sure our relationship is clear with Him. And then to ask Him, Lord, what did we sing this morning? I do that. Lord, this is your service. You direct it. So spend time in prayer. Spend time before God and worship yourself. That will go a long way in your own spirit. And I know I don't always do that. Sometimes I fail to do that properly. And I just don't have it within my being. I got to kind of work it up. It doesn't flow naturally. But I know when I prepare my heart, it's a natural thing. It just comes out and flows. I'm sure you've experienced that. You all experienced that. You all need to be a song leader to experience that. Prepare your hearts when you come to worship for God. Come before His presence with singing this worship. Next thing we want to look at is for the song leader, getting a little more practical here now, is a hymn selection. Hymn selection, like I mentioned, is done prayerfully. What songs do I choose? What songs are proper for the worship service? Depending on the nature of the service, if it's a communion service, you have songs related to the death and suffering of our Lord Jesus. If there's baptism, then you want songs on the Christian life. If it's a worship service, you've got to pick out songs that are appropriate for the occasion. In general, just let me give you some general guidelines that I go by that I think are good and you can evaluate them. Probably the most important song in the service is the first one. If you get the first song off to a bad start, it takes a little bit to get it up and going again. I think the first song is important. The first song I like to choose when I lead is a song of worship to God. A direct song addressing God and who He is and His holiness. Such as, Eternal Father, when to Thee beyond all worlds by faith I soar, before Thy boundless majesty I stand in silence and adore. But Savior, Thou art by my side. And so on it goes. Beautiful. Raises our thoughts and our hearts up to the Almighty God. The first song. I think that's important. Rather than picking a song like Years I've Spent in Vanity and Pride, talks about who I am and my experience. And it's good to sing those types of songs sometimes. But I think it is most noble and proper and right to sing songs that are directly and direct worship and praise to our God. So that's a suggestion that I would have. Many songs like that. Like Eternal Father. Jesus, Thou mighty Lord, great is Thy name. And so forth. Thy name we glorify. Thy name adore. That's another good one. O God, our help in ages past. Our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast in our eternal home. Talks about God. Talking directly to God and what He is to us. And what He means. Those songs I think are very necessary in the beginning of a service. Then the, maybe after the second or so songs, you can pick maybe just general songs, Christian life songs. Maybe the Lord will direct you to lead in an area of let's say, faithfulness. Songs encouraging the congregation and us to be faithful. Or maybe it's on the grace of God. Any subject that the Lord might lead you to. I think that is powerful. And then as you choose the songs and as they progress from one song to the other, maybe you can make comments about how one song relates to the other one. And kind of build from one song to the other. It's also very good. Helps in worship. And then when we get to the end of the service, while the minister is speaking, while the sermon is being preached, songs are flashing through my mind of what would be appropriate now to sing. I think every sermon, when truth is presented to you and I from God, it needs a response. When the truth is presented, then we need to respond to that truth by saying, yes Lord. And we do that through singing. If the preacher is preaching on consecration, we need to dedicate our lives to God and we say, take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Songs like that, that just clinch what the message was about. That is very important. So think about that song leaders as you are during the service. You can't pick that song at home. You need to do that while the service is unfolding. In general, I would pick songs of depth. There are some very light songs, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah songs. And they are okay on occasions. But it's usually the songs that are light, that will appeal to your emotions, appeal to your soul. But you probably would get tired of them if we sing them every Sunday. Those light songs, those songs that are kind of catchy and catch on right away, they don't last long. But the songs that are solid, loaded with doctrine, loaded with truth, and maybe don't jump out at you right away as being really a nice song, but they grow on you, absolutely. They will grow on you if I may use that term. You will become to love and appreciate that song in a deep way. It doesn't have the emotional appeal, but it sure has the spiritual appeal. So I would challenge you on that in evaluating your singing. Don't evaluate it by just if it's really upty-upty. But evaluate it on content and on depth. Because the Bible says, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, psalms meaning, I believe, like singing out of the psalms, like, I'm to thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul? That would be a psalm. And hymns are like, Eternal Father, when to thee, before Jehovah's awful throne, when I survey the wondrous cross, are hymns and the spiritual songs talking about our Christian life. Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, talking about our experience in life, and so forth. All those songs have a place, but I think the songs of worship directed to God should be in foremost. That's my opinion. The song leader, when he comes up to the, I don't know if your song leaders come up to the front or not, in your church, or if you, how you arrange it, but anyway, be enthusiastic, okay? Because you are enthusiastic, right? If we're full of God, we're enthusiastic. So approach the congregation with enthusiasm, not like you're, you know, half dead. That goes a long ways. And there's nothing that matters with smiling. You know, get up there and just smile. Everybody smile back at you. Announce the number, and so forth. So approach the congregation like you have something to offer, or like there's excitement in the air, and there should be. When we worship our God, my! We should be doing our best. We should be sitting on the front edge of our seat. We are worshiping God. Not in a haphazard way. We're not slouched back there and, you know. I think we need to give God our best. So we approach it that way. We approach it with enthusiasm. We approach it with anticipation, and worship, and reverence. So we announce the number. Song leader gets up. He approaches the congregation enthusiastically. Announce the number clearly, distinctly, that everybody can hear. And he's good to announce it twice. I like to hold the book. I don't always, but I think it's best. The song leader holds the book when he leads. That way he can look at the music and look out at his audience without looking down and then up again. If he has the song book down on the pulpit, he needs to look down and then up. If you hold the book in your hand, you can readily glance at the words and then up at your people. You're directing. You're leading in worship. Okay. He announces the song number. Gives them adequate time, the congregation, to find the song in the book. Don't start out too soon while the people are still leafing through their pages. Give them adequate time to find the number. And when they have found the number, you blow the pitch. And we're going to talk about how to do that in case you don't know what to blow. Blow the proper pitch. Hum the pitch. And by the way, I would train, I think as congregations, maybe you want to do it on a Wednesday night. I just give them a few pointers for congregational singing. And one would be to hum the pitch with the song leader like this. Doh. And you would hum doh. Now you are all ready. But for me to blow a pitch, it's much harder for me to start on key. I can probably do it. Doh. But it's much harder if I first hum the pitch. Now I got that tone, that sound in my mind. And we can start right together. Be a blessing to everyone. Rather than nobody hums the pitch, everybody will probably start on the second or third word. But if we hum the pitch together and your congregation is looking at you and you're looking at the congregation, then you can all start together and be a blessing. So that's another point for you. Tell your congregation to watch the song leader, even if you're not up front. Maybe you sit in a circle or however you do in your church. Be aware of the song leader. Watch him. So you can start together, you can stop together. There's orderliness. That's all a blessing. It takes some discipline. It takes some reminders sometimes. But I try and get our congregation here at Charity to hum the pitch. I mentioned it already. I didn't for a while, but I think they're doing pretty good. Blow the pitch and I hum. I go like this if they forget. So I know they're with me. I don't want to sing a solo. We're here to worship together. So they hum the pitch. And then you get your hand ready and then you start to lead and be a blessing. Another thing I would like to recommend to you is maintain eye contact with your audience as much as possible when you are leading song leaders, if you're up front especially. It's not good for the song leader to be up here and have his nose in the book. It doesn't communicate. I think it's good. Song leaders, you don't have the whole book memorized. That's a big order. I don't. But it should be our goal, this song book that you have, memorize songs so you don't have to have your nose in the book. As a youngster, I memorized, I don't know, maybe hundreds, I don't know, a lot of songs. So if you're young, even if you're old, memorize songs so you don't have to have your nose in the book. It can be really a blessing to sing songs by memory. So song leaders, watch your audience. Keep in contact with them. Another reason why you want to be in contact, eye contact, is make sure they're singing with you. Maybe you start on a different tempo than what your congregation thought. You can kind of see and also hear. And you need to stay together. Another thing I would suggest for the song leaders is observe the punctuation throughout the song. Our job is to to lead these people in worship. And so, certain phrases of the song will have a comma or maybe there's no punctuation at all where it's a normal spot to take a breath but the message is going on. So to take a breath there would break up the thought. So keep that in mind too and try and direct the congregation through that phrase to continue the thought so you don't lose the thought. Let me give you an example. Number 51 in your books. Take a second verse. I'll Praise My Maker is the title of the song. Second verse is Happy the man whose hopes rely. Now right there would be a normal spot to take a breath. Happy the man whose hopes rely on Israel's God. But there is no comma after rely. The comma is after Israel's God. So happy the man whose hopes rely on Israel's God. There you take a breath. He made the sky and earth and sea with all their train. See? Get what I'm saying? So you break the music at the same place that you would break when you speak. You don't stop in the middle of a sentence but you continue the sentence to the end and then you stop. It's a normal way of speaking. And so it is with singing I believe. In order to follow through with a thought song leaders you need to lead with your hand and your voice. Okay? Don't be afraid to sing out. Don't be afraid to be heard. Like Brother Denny we talked about. Lead your congregation with your hand and also with your voice. Don't overpower. I've been in services already with song leaders so overpowering or the man back at the PA system had it turned up too high or whatever. And that can be distracting too. All you can hear is the song leader. You can hardly hear the congregation. But you can kind of judge that. Don't be overpowering and yet if you feel the congregation is lagging on behind you maybe lean into the mic a little bit to the sense that they are on behind a little bit. And that brings it right with the thought of song leaders it's your job to set the tempo of a song. It's your job to to interpret the song. I strongly recommend song leaders that you that you look over the text of the song that you're going to lead and you become familiar with the message of that song so you know how to interpret that song. Like you would when you talk. If you're telling your wife you don't say, I love you! No, you say, I love you. You say the same words but it's not proper. So we need to interpret to him. See what I'm saying? And we need to sense and try and sense what the song is saying and then adapt that to the song to what it's saying. Songs of prayer to God like Nearer still nearer close to thy heart draw me my savior so precious thou art that shouldn't be sung you know, real loud. That's a prayer. That's sung tenderly. And we can put emotion in it. We can still put feeling in it, brothers. And sing it softly. Nothing I bring not as an offering to Jesus my King. And then we tend to it's just a natural thing and it's a good thing and I think we do it is as the music goes higher as the melody goes higher and the chords are higher then our volume increases and then as it goes back down again it's a natural thing just to relax also in your volume. It makes music beautiful and it expresses the meaning in the song but if everything is sung at one level I don't think it expresses it nearly as well. Really what that hymn writer had in mind there's many ways to express a song and each song has it's own interpretation each song has it's own message so song leaders it's up to you to interpret that message. So we talked about setting the tempo we talked about interpreting a song like Be Silent, Be Silent A Whisper Is Heard Be Silent and Listen What spirit is coming out of that song? One of what? Quietness and reverence and awe so that should not be sung like Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee there's totally two different songs that should be sung in totally different ways brothers because it's two different songs Be Silent, The Master Is Here we can put a little emphasis on that Be Silent and Listen who treasure each word I think you get the idea song leaders that's your job Man of Sorrows, we sung it last night what a name for the Son of God who came ruined sinners to reclaim Hallelujah, what a Savior that is the feeling and expression of that song right there and we need to do that and oftentimes in the hymn books they help us to interpret it the P, if there's a P there above the staff that means soft if there's a PM it means moderate or an M means moderate F means loud if there's two F's in a row it means very loud so oftentimes there's markings in the book that we can observe maybe you have a suggestion that I missed helps for the song leader or the congregation yes Amen, that's a good idea any other ones quickly, yes good idea, I had that written down I forgot to say it now hold your book up yes yes, Amen the brother was saying that it's also very helpful to give the history behind the song that is sung helps you enter into the meaning of the song okay, we need to move on turn to your hymn book it's the page after the song 1000 number 1000, it's right next to that before the indexes right after the last song it's introduction to rudiments of music go on to the second page where it says exercise four number one, are you with me there? exercise four it says accidentals accidentals are sharps, flats, naturals used other than in the key signature and continue their effect of raising or lowering the pitch without the measure in which throughout the measure in which they occur now let's turn to number oh, let's turn to number one hundred great is thy faithfulness we all know that a a sharp looks like this a flat looks like this so if there is a a sharp before a note you know that that sharp means that that note is being raised one half step if there is a flat before the note it means the note is being lowered a half step okay, sharp is raised, flat is lower now let's look at number one hundred let me also mention a natural which looks like this something like that that is a natural and what a natural does is if that line is flatted the natural brings it back to its natural position so if the song is flatted, that line is flatted and there is a natural there that means it's cancelling out that flat and now it's bringing it up a half if the key signature is sharp and there is a natural there now the natural will bring it back down to its original position it does opposite of what the key signature is if the key signature is flatted the natural will bring it back up again if the key signature is sharp it will bring it back down okay now we're looking at number one hundred the last line in the bass all I have needed thy hand hath provided now there is a natural there what does that do? it raises it up a half step because the song is in flats there are three flats there you see the three flats that look like this that song is flatted so now the natural means that it's going to cancel out that flat it's going to take it up and hath provided great is thy faithfulness see what it's doing? it's taking it up a half it's also in the alto the alto notes are sharp there on great is thy faithfulness the last line there tenor has a natural on the third note in the song great is thy great is thy it goes up a half great is thy it's natural and because it's sharp it raises it okay let's go into determining the pitch of a song I'm going to just give you a real shortcut on how you can get the pitch pipe get the pitch of a song okay starting with if the song has a sharp one sharp is G if the song has two sharps is D if it has three sharps is A four sharps I'll just okay four is E B and F okay five is B and six sharps is F so if there's one sharp in the hymn book let's take like number 92 do you see these sharps? do you see the key signature on the left hand of the staff how many sharps are there? four come down here to four is in the key of what? E no, not E sharp but E two sharps is G and so forth and a good way to remember that that I remember is I put words to it there are also words I'll get to that in a minute is good disciples all enter by faith that's how I remember it so I'm up here and I always do it three sharps good disciples all A one sharp good G do you understand how to do that? look at the song count how many sharps there are one sharp is good two is all and so forth it's also in the rudiment part of your book with a different rhyme I didn't learn it that way good deeds are ever bearing fruit that's a good rhyme too to remember if you can associate those letters with a saying, it's easy to remember do you see where that is written in your book? it's right after the page 1000 you open it up to introduction to rudiments and music and you'll see on the second page on the right hand side from the bottom, you will see that now the flat the flat looks like this, one flat the jingle is this friends be early and do good friends be early and do good this would be two this is three four, five and six so if there's four flats it is now a flat over here it's just the letters, you don't flat it or sharp it but now when you come to flat it's always F F B flat E flat A flat D flat and G flat is that simple? so you can go to any song book go into any song and count the sharps or the flats and blow and what you blow by the way, it's always DO it's always DO let me give you an example let's turn to number 35 we all know that song now this doesn't have any sharps or flats and what do you do about that? if it doesn't have any sharps or flats it's written in the key of C there's reasons for that and I'm not going to try and explain that to you but there's no sharps or flats like in number 35 let's use that now it's in the key of C you know if there aren't any sharps or flats in the key of C I'm going to blow C and that's going to be DO now what is the first note in the soprano line? SO so I'm going to go like this if you know the DO RE MI this is what you do DO now I'm going to go up to a SO O God our help in do you understand what I did? the key signature this is always DO ok and if the first note of the song is not DO then you need to find the first note of the song and hum that ok ok alright let's go across the page above the trembling element let's see let's write on though you don't have to go down there 36 would be a good one what key is that song written in? A flat because there are 4 flats 4 flats is A flat ok I'm blowing A and that is DO DO DO now what do I do? SO now you know you wouldn't go DO DO MI SO FATHER I it would be too high so you know you have to go down DO SO FATHER I STRETCH MY HANDS TO THEE and so on I want to make that real clear is there any questions on how to get the pitch? all you need to do is remember remember this association and remember that what you are blowing is always DO here F sharp you're probably right yes yes that's right see I don't know everything I did know that any other questions? yes ok so I would blow B flat HO HO HO MI LA TI DO TI LA just go to the first note blow the B flat which is DO go down to the MI ok we need to move on we should have another hour let's talk about measure bars briefly turn to number 29 every song has measure bars you have X amount of pulses I'll just say now a song with 3 pulses it's 1 2 3 and there's a measure bar it's that vertical bar on the staff you see that? HOLY HOLY between the second and third HOLY there is a vertical bar on the staff you see that? HOLY well there might be more than 3 there's 4 beats there just as an example in any given song there's X amount of beats whether it's 3 or 4 I'm going to guess it's 4 now you have 4 pulses 1 2 3 4 there's a measure bar 1 2 3 4 measure bar 1 2 3 4 measure bar 1 2 3 4 measure bar 1 2 3 4 measure bar 1 2 3 4 measure bar you see what I'm saying? it's metered out like that there's many different time signatures it's called time signatures let's first of all talk about a 3 4 pattern go to number 5 it's 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 3 beats and there's a measure bar the 3 did you see the 3 4 where's my eraser 3 4 timing that means there is 3 pulses in each measure between each of those bars there's 3 pulses and the quarter note is the one that gets the pulse or the beat or the motion of the hand so in a 3 point pattern we beat it like this down I should have went up like this down right up down right up 1 2 3 I'll stand like this so you can 1 2 3 1 2 3 come thou almighty king ok do you understand that let's stand give yourself a little elbow room you're going to all lead now starting with the down beat ok your arm is up ok 1 2 3 ok let me explain something come thou all there's 3 quarter notes now my there's 3 but now we get to the word king look at that in your books there's a half note there how many beats how many quarters are there in a half 2 quarters so how many beats does it get 2 beats but I thought there was going to be 3 beats there's a rest there come thou almighty king help us you see that do you see the principle 1 2 3 so it's 3 beats 3 quarter notes or if it's equivalent it can be a dotted it can be a dotted half note you have a note here that's a half note if there's a dot there in 4 4 timing how many beats does that get 3 why because this gets 2 beats there's 2 quarter notes in a half note and the dot does what it adds half the value again so half of a half note is what a quarter so you have 2 quarter notes and another quarter that gives you 3 so you have 3 beats right there on that let's go to a 4 point pattern song oh god our help number 35 you may be seated now this song starts with an up beat you see the the measure bar is after the first note so it's like this oh god our oh god our help in ages past there's 4 pulses there in that it's 4 4 timing so there's 4 pulses between each measure it's 1 2 3 4 oh god our help there's 4 pulses between each measure ok but you need to start with an up beat because there's only one note before the measure my dad used to say it's like jumping over the fence whenever you see the measure bar approaching you need to be on the upward swing to go up over that measure bar ok as you approach the measure bar it needs to go up so it's oh 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and so on now you look they're all quarter notes until we get to the end of the first line years to come is a dotted half that gets 3 beats we talked about that quarter note gets the beat gets the pulse so the half note would get 3 pulses because there's 3 equivalent of 3 one quarter notes in a dotted half ok let's turn to number 769 now we're moving from simple timing into compound timing oh the beating pattern of 4 4 I'm sorry beating pattern is down left right up y'all stand let's do it the 4 point pattern I'm going to turn my back so you can do the same we're going to start at the top it's down left right up ok down left right up down left right up down left right oh god our help in down right left right up here did you see what I mean in fact let's sing it let's sing it I'm going to beat it backwards so you can just watch me we're going to start on the upward beat oh god our help in ages past hope for years to come our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home alright y'all did it number 769 our time is getting away here we have 6 8 timing there are now 6 pulses between each measure and every 8th note will get a pulse come 1 2 4 5 6 ok come we that love the lord there are 3 pulses to each motion of the hand ok every time I move my hand so it starts on an upward beat it's a quick note it's a 8th note come we that love the lord it's a dotted quarter now how many 8th notes are in a quarter note 2, 2 8th notes and the quarter note is dotted so we add another equivalent of an 8th note so we have an equivalent of 3 8th notes so we that each of them gets 3 pulses come 1 2 3 that is also 1 2 3 understand so that is a 2 point pattern it's called compound timing there are 3 pulses per measure number 210 2 2 timing there are 2 pulses per measure and the half note would get the pulse break thou the now thou and the are quarter notes so with each motion of the hand that's the equivalent to a half note so I say break thou the bread of and life gets 1 beat because it's a half note dear lord to me me is a whole note so it gets 2 beats break thou the bread of life dear lord to me it's not that's in 4 4 timing it's break break thou the bread of life number 319 here we have 9 pulses for every measure so it's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 with each motion of the hand there is 3 pulses blessed all 3 sure if you do it that way Jesus is mine oh what a 4 taste and it's beat in a 3 point pattern time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 just like you beat 3 4 timing but there is now 3 pulses per motion of the hand ok and every 8th note gets a pulse so there's 3 notes 3 8th notes in the first measure but it's a part of a measure blessed all because it's an upper you have to start with an upper beat because it's not a full measure and sure it's on the downward beat I'm probably confusing you thoroughly but I'll be glad to discuss it with you after I think we must close but I think you get the gist of it just remember that the top number means the number of pulses in the measure the bottom number means which of the notes gets the pulse ok in 4 4 timing there is 4 quarter notes in 3 8th timing there is 3 1 8th notes in 9 8th timing there is 9 8th notes in every measure ok never take me too long to explain that's probably a chant it's kind of difficult yes pulse is relevant we determine it by the text of the song we don't sing this song like come we that love the Lord but it's a march come we that love the Lord and let our joys be known join in a song it's majestic and it's moving yes that's right it's like a brother like a brother told me use this illustration original with me in your car sometimes you don't get in your car and let it idle put it in drive let it idle barely get up over the hill let it idle when you go down over the side it might go a little faster enough of this I'm going to hold it flat you put it down there and you are around the corners now that's not right either either extreme is not right so you need to find some balance in that now some songs when you are driving in your car there is some scene where you want to slow down you want to look at it want to contemplate the beauty of this. Same way in singing, you slow down. I can't think of a song like Fairest Lord Jesus. Fairest Lord Jesus. Contemplative. Not real robust and lively like Come We That Love the Lord. It's a different song. So you don't always use the same speed. You need to, you know, if the road is rough or if it's a 35 mile an hour speed limit, you need to slow down. If you want to go some places and you're on a march, then you go 65. Same way with singing. It's arbitrary. A bit arbitrary. Okay. That's good. Right. Okay. I didn't realize what the numbers were. He's suggesting that the numbers right above the song or right below the title, right above the staff, right in the center is indicated the beats per minute. And I would have thought about it if I brought my metronome along with the metronome. Okay. Good. I learned something. Thank you. Any announcements before we dismiss? Oh, yes. If there's somebody that wants copies of my outline of the notes of the Do Re Mi's, we can do that and make them available. Is anybody interested in having them? Good. We'll make about 100 copies. Okay. Thank you. You're dismissed.