Horrible Hymns
I love going to my Unitarian church services - we’ve got great ministers, the sermons are thought-provoking, we welcome all faiths and types of people, and the guest musicians are, if not always polished, enthusiatic. But, then there are the hymns. I hate those. We all stand (sigh) and mumble/fumble along, butchering what might otherwise be a beautiful piece.
Now, I know it’s about participation and joining together. But wouldn’t it be great if we could actually sing the songs? I can read music, was in a youth choir back in the day, and I give up getting from an alto to a soprano note in the space of a half beat and one word. Sure, we’re not all Barbara Streisand, but we don’t have to be awful either. (Hello? Seems to me there’s a market opportunity out there for somebody to tackle.)
In struggling through #84 yesterday, I also got to thinking about marketing in general (see, you knew I’d get there, didn’t you?) Companies try to so hard to connect, get us to participate, that they put way too many notes and words in the mix.
Give us a strong, easy to follow tune with simple words about something we care about. We’d be singing along at the top of our lungs.
Read More: When (in music as in life and business)
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April 4th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Mary - as a former church worship leader, I feel your pain. Hymns were especially taxing. Then I discovered the Acoustic Hymns CDs and life got a lot more bearable. Leaders set the tempo, in worship, in life, in business (see my blog post on this topic on 3-27). If you have a strong worship leader who gets everyone on board, even hymns can be great. If you’re letting 85-year-old Gladys at theh pipe organ set the tempo, you’re screwed. I’ve actually had a turnaround on hymns after a few years of “praise choruses” - the words and meaning are so much richer and deeper for me now as an adult. Great post.
April 4th, 2006 at 10:54 am
[…] Then there’s Mary’s advice. It’s really, really good advice. But coming up with a strong, simple message about something microbusiness owners care about often has me stumped. I can do the strong, simple message part. The “something microbusiness owners care about” part is tricky. Do we really only care about time and money? […]