- Jul 3, 2011
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I've been asked to play a 'patriotic' instrumental song for the offertory in church coming up soon. No specific details were given me other than that. I'm working on trying to get more information. In the mean time.....
Since it's instrumental, no lyrics will be heard. It's difficult narrowing down ANY sacred songs of any type to find something that I think will sound good instrumentally, even year round in the easiest of circumstances, much less something 'patriotic' that could potentially be more controversial by not having Christian lyrics and focusing on God. A typical hymn book just isn't filled with American patriotism. Some other discussion boards I've read include comments "that songs about 'America' shouldn't be attempted in worship." But I guess some churches just want to go with a July 4th theme if possible. I'm assuming the desire to do something instrumental when someone could just get up and sing something is due to a desire for variety, i.e. something besides singers all the time, or maybe they just want one less praise and worship number, or vocal number, for the usual cast of musicians to prepare. Maybe a combination of both reasons.
I've searched high and low on the Internet using 'Top 10 patriotic songs' etc and each list I find is very different, so I've looked over lots of songs. I only found two songs from all the lists whose style might work instrumentally. One is called "America" by Paul Simon but doesn't mention anything Christian in the lyrics. Another very old song, which people would be even less likely to recognize (if that's possible) is called The House I Live In from the 1940s.
Should I even consider doing these or something like them? Pros and cons? It would probably be with piano only, but again, I haven't confirmed this. They may just want me to stand up and play alone, which works OK with some tunes that are recognizable and would likely be appreciated, but that eliminates the contributions of good harmonies that any song I might do would have, which are especially useful if no one knows the song.
My other consideration was 'Independence Day' by Martina McBride, (powerful chorus) but I've pretty much ruled that out, cause there won't be the back-up musicians to pull it off, IMHO. Plus, anyone who pays attention to the lyrics knows that it's really a song about wife-beating, not America or the flag.
I'm very particular and try to take into consideration EVERY factor imaginable, possibly to a fault. The last thing I want is a disaster on stage, musically. Any suggestions?
Should I just pass on the opportunity altogether, and hope they find someone else to maybe sing 'America the Beautiful' or 'God Bless America' or some other well-known 'patriotic' song that everyone would recognize? Even the Paul Simon tune is so old, (1960s) I doubt anyone would even recognize it from the music alone, but they'd surely recognize the classic songs, or more recent songs that well-know artists have done. (Most of the recent secular patriotic songs I don't like, cause they're mainly by country music singers who are more known for their aura than for their songwriting ability, and I refuse to perform a BAD song under any circumstances, and I consider most of them to be bad songs. HELP! What would you do? WWJD? I hate to take a pass cause I've been wanting to get involved in a music ministry somewhere and if I don't do it, especially on Biblical grounds or principal, I may not get asked again. I'm not saying that to do songs like that is unprincipled necessarily, but I don't want negative thoughts in people's heads such as "what does that song have to do with God?" They wouldn't say that during the service, just after they got home and looked it up, assuming anyone would bother. I don't know if programs are printed or not. I was asked to play on referral. It's a contemporary-service-only church, with no 'traditional' service. I'm sure there are other contemporary style churches, and even traditional churches who wouldn't even consider it, especially traditional.
Check out both songs on youtube and listen if you need to. Or pull up the lyrics if you want.
Since it's instrumental, no lyrics will be heard. It's difficult narrowing down ANY sacred songs of any type to find something that I think will sound good instrumentally, even year round in the easiest of circumstances, much less something 'patriotic' that could potentially be more controversial by not having Christian lyrics and focusing on God. A typical hymn book just isn't filled with American patriotism. Some other discussion boards I've read include comments "that songs about 'America' shouldn't be attempted in worship." But I guess some churches just want to go with a July 4th theme if possible. I'm assuming the desire to do something instrumental when someone could just get up and sing something is due to a desire for variety, i.e. something besides singers all the time, or maybe they just want one less praise and worship number, or vocal number, for the usual cast of musicians to prepare. Maybe a combination of both reasons.
I've searched high and low on the Internet using 'Top 10 patriotic songs' etc and each list I find is very different, so I've looked over lots of songs. I only found two songs from all the lists whose style might work instrumentally. One is called "America" by Paul Simon but doesn't mention anything Christian in the lyrics. Another very old song, which people would be even less likely to recognize (if that's possible) is called The House I Live In from the 1940s.
Should I even consider doing these or something like them? Pros and cons? It would probably be with piano only, but again, I haven't confirmed this. They may just want me to stand up and play alone, which works OK with some tunes that are recognizable and would likely be appreciated, but that eliminates the contributions of good harmonies that any song I might do would have, which are especially useful if no one knows the song.
My other consideration was 'Independence Day' by Martina McBride, (powerful chorus) but I've pretty much ruled that out, cause there won't be the back-up musicians to pull it off, IMHO. Plus, anyone who pays attention to the lyrics knows that it's really a song about wife-beating, not America or the flag.
I'm very particular and try to take into consideration EVERY factor imaginable, possibly to a fault. The last thing I want is a disaster on stage, musically. Any suggestions?
Should I just pass on the opportunity altogether, and hope they find someone else to maybe sing 'America the Beautiful' or 'God Bless America' or some other well-known 'patriotic' song that everyone would recognize? Even the Paul Simon tune is so old, (1960s) I doubt anyone would even recognize it from the music alone, but they'd surely recognize the classic songs, or more recent songs that well-know artists have done. (Most of the recent secular patriotic songs I don't like, cause they're mainly by country music singers who are more known for their aura than for their songwriting ability, and I refuse to perform a BAD song under any circumstances, and I consider most of them to be bad songs. HELP! What would you do? WWJD? I hate to take a pass cause I've been wanting to get involved in a music ministry somewhere and if I don't do it, especially on Biblical grounds or principal, I may not get asked again. I'm not saying that to do songs like that is unprincipled necessarily, but I don't want negative thoughts in people's heads such as "what does that song have to do with God?" They wouldn't say that during the service, just after they got home and looked it up, assuming anyone would bother. I don't know if programs are printed or not. I was asked to play on referral. It's a contemporary-service-only church, with no 'traditional' service. I'm sure there are other contemporary style churches, and even traditional churches who wouldn't even consider it, especially traditional.
Check out both songs on youtube and listen if you need to. Or pull up the lyrics if you want.
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