| Music Minister,
I’ve spoken with many music leaders in many different
churches. The comments they have seem to be very much the same
at the end of the day. Everyone wants their music program to
be enjoyable and sound great. In addition, they don’t
want the congregation to be simply watching a performance of
music, they want the congregation to be actively involved in
the service.
A church sanctuary is an instrument. If the instrument has
been well designed and built, a well-trained musician can make
it sound great. If the instrument isn’t very good, even
a master can’t make it sound good. (At the same time,
a good instrument played by someone who doesn’t know how
to play it won’t sound that great either.) Someone who
owns a quality instrument takes care of it and is proud to use
it on a regular basis. Such an instrument makes rehearsing and
playing music with it enjoyable and even beautiful. A poor instrument
limits what the musician can do, regardless of the person’s
talent.
Having a church sanctuary that simply shields the congregation
from the outside noise and weather is nice, but wouldn’t
it be nice if the room made your congregation of 150 people
sound like 300? Wouldn’t it be nice if your 50-person
choir sounded like 100? What if the congregation were able to
learn a new chorus or hymn in only one or two weeks rather than
over the course of a couple months?
A proper acoustical environment can do these things and more.
It can make congregational singing full and alive, with good
intelligibility it can help people learn songs faster. The choir
and small groups of singers and soloists can sound vibrant and
alive!
Whether you’ve lived with the poor acoustics in your
church sanctuary for a few weeks, months, or 30, 40, even 50
or more years, there’s no reason to continue living with
it that way.
Echoes produced from strong reflections, storage of sound energy,
the wrong reverberation time, and poor frequency response of
the room will all degrade both your ability and the congregations
ability to sing or make music that actually sounds musical and
is enjoyable to do.
With proper acoustics and the proper audio system design and
installation, your audio system will be a creative tool you
can use, rather than just a bunch of electronics that makes
noise.
Are you aware that if your church sets back the thermostat
in winter or advances it in summer that you’re actually
reducing the life of your piano, organ, and sound system? Not
only that, but if you don’t have a humidifier and dehumidifier,
the effects are worse and can actually reduce your gain before
feedback 15 or 20 minutes into your worship service.
Sincerely,
A concerned Christian and church audio/acoustics professional
-Blake Engel,
All Church Sound |
