Reading music is not difficult and I think every worship pastor should learn it just for the benefits that they would get out of it.

http://www.sgmsurvivors.com

http://www.sgmrefuge.com

Hope this helps.

Keep up the good work!

Psalm 150 NLT
1 Praise the LORD!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heaven!
2 Praise him for his mighty works;
praise his unequaled greatness!
3 Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn;
praise him with the lyre and harp!
4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing;
praise him with strings and flutes!
5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals;
praise him with loud clanging cymbals.
6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD!
Praise the LORD!
Although the topic of volume in church music has been a hotly contested conflict in the church since I can remember, it honestly wasn’t even on my radar until I left the secular music scene and began to use my gifts as God intended, for His glory and for the expanding of His kingdom. Many people have written on the subject, and many of them have great perspectives. So why would I write something else? Because I want to remind those of us that have taken the step to serve in this way what our duties are. When we present songs of praise and worship to God’s people and those seeking Jesus, we need to create an environment where there’s a connection to God, where people feel comfortable praising God. After all, worship isn’t about us, it’s about him. If we do something hindering that connection, we are failing at our duty. Music can be both, an amazing compliment or a lasting detriment to that cause. He created something in us as humans that responds uniquely to music like nothing else can, and we are to be good stewards when handling that “something.”
Rick Muchow wrote that music is too loud when it distracts from worship, when it is no longer musical, and when it causes hearing loss. Each one of these points is completely accurate and in line with God’s plan. Nowhere are we commanded to distract from worship, not be musical or cause physical damage to those seeking Him. That does a great job discussing “what is too loud” and while I may disagree with him on actual SPL levels, as I have visited Saddleback (and was totally and utterly blessed by Rick and his team to experience their praise and worship), this is where I would like to discuss the alternative perspective of “What is too quiet?”
In order to do that, I would like to reference Rick’s points; Distracting from worship, no longer being musical and causing hearing loss. The second and third point do not come into play as the musical part of music is largely discernible even at low volumes and a lack of sound pressure doesn’t have an adverse affect on the physical condition of the human ear (unless I’m ignorant of some new findings). So let’s discuss, what’s too quiet?
One of my favorite chapters in the Bible tells us how we are to praise God. That chapter is Psalm 150. I began this discussion with it because it tells us so much about how we are to praise God. Paraphrased it says, “Praise God wherever you are in this world, that God has made, praise Him for His works and who He is. Praise Him with every instrument and with dancing. Clash the cymbals loudly and let everything that is alive sing praises to God!”
Psalm 150:5 tells us to praise Him loudly. It says nothing of praise Him loudly, as long as nobody is offended. Praising Him loudly in church, I have found, can offend people. These are often reasonable people that just aren’t used to praising as we are taught. It is possible to offend faithful followers of Christ through playing music as God has instructed us. This is where the core issue of volume comes up in churches today. The problem persists however because the conflict is not being addressed according to God’s word. It’s a matter of communication and a matter of convenience. I’ll get to that point in a moment but first let’s look at how Jesus taught us how we are to address conflict between believers in Matthew 18:15-17.

Matthew18:15-17 NLT
15 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. 16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. 17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.”

Jesus tells us that we are to go to another believer in private if someone sins against us, or if I sinned against someone, that they come to me. The proper way for someone to inform me that I have offended them with the music being too loud then, is for them to come to me in private and then tell me, (communication) not write it in a complaint on a card and have someone else complain to me. (convenience) The frustration that arises from worship leaders and musicians in the church comes from this incorrect method of communication by means of convenience. The answer to this problem is not fun or easy. It requires leaders and worship leaders really doing some ministry one on one with people. It requires people that will open up to leaders and worship leaders. With regards to time, it is easier for a smaller church and next to impossible for a large church. Those are the excuses. That’s why we give in to using “anonymous complaint cards” and why we harbor frustration as leaders. I can honestly say that God gave me peace the day I took those verses in Matthew 18, to heart. I no longer give weight to anonymous complaints and happily request any feedback from someone who is willing to meet me to discuss how I’ve sinned against them. I will also seek out those who I notice are offended by my actions, as we as believers need to be proactive in this communication as well. So now, how quiet is to quiet?!

The music is too quiet when it distracts from worship. When I can hear the person next to me as loud as I can hear the un-mic’ed shaker, in one of the vocalist’s hands, forty feet away from me, it’s uncomfortable for me to sing openly to God. This wasn’t because I’m uncomfortable with my voice, but rather because when I sang openly, half the congregation of 80 people looked at me. This honestly happened. In an attempt to appease the anonymous complaint cards that stated we were too loud, our worship team went to an electric drum set and set levels based on it at a peak SPL of 88. That day was considered a success by the leadership because there were no complaints that it was too loud. The act of musical worship however was sacrificed because the environment created, was one where the overall congregation was focused on other people and not on God. It felt like I was standing by myself in front of everyone singing. I am a worship leader and I’ve been a lead singer in a rock band. I am very comfortable with myself and my singing ability and I can say that singing in that environment was one of the most uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had. I can only imagine how it would have been for the church member who wasn’t as confident. Connecting with God in that environment is difficult at best. When the environment is easy for people to let go of focusing on themselves and focus on God, our jobs are done well. My research and experience has led me to state, that while taking into account the leaders relationship with Jesus is healthy and their gifts well developed, a dark and suitably loud worship service will bring an environment conducive to openly worship God.

Here’s why. When it’s reasonably loud, people aren’t worrying about whether or not the person next to them can hear them. When it’s reasonably dark, people aren’t worried about the person next to them seeing them. When these worries are eliminated, people can open up and focus on God. Whether or not they choose to open up to God is still up to them, but at least we’ve created an environment where it is “safe” to sing praises to the Lord, just as we are told in Psalm 150. The end result is the maturing of the congregation to sing without any sound. If you’ve ever been in a church like that, where the music stops and all that’s heard is the giant chorus of praises being sung to God, it’s absolutely astonishing. I still get goose bumps even thinking about those musical worship experiences.

You’ll notice something I stated previously, that the services are to be reasonably loud, not just loud and reasonably dark, not just dark. I said it that way for a reason. Each service is looking to appeal to a specific demographic, if it’s not, then the ministry isn’t focused and will generally have a small mix of all demographics or unwittingly appeal to a demographic and have a majority by default. That being said, your sound and light levels will want to match your demographic for the service.

The optimal decibel level for each congregation will be different. If you’re service is geared towards the elderly, a peak level of 88db during music might be optimal. If your service is geared towards the youth, your service might offer peak decibel levels of up to 120db. You’ll notice that grandma has no problem belting out Amazing grace from the front row, no matter how quiet the sound is, but that a 13 year old kid with his friends from school, tends to only open up and sing when it’s cranked. Volume is needed.
Rock concerts, for instance, are often measured at 130-140db. A clearly noticeable difference in sound happens at a change of 5db, with a 10db change being approximately twice as loud. With a decibel level of 110db, you’re still four times quieter than a rock concert. It doesn’t have to be a rock concert, but it should match the demographic. Dangerous volume levels have been another item of contention with regards to music in the church.
OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure states that at 105db, the permissible level of exposure is 1 hour per day. You will not hear me say in this discussion that OSHA’s recommendations are overkill. What I will say is that OSHA rates the SPL for a power lawn mower at 107db. That means that it’s more dangerous for you to mow your lawn than to go to church with a peak SPL of 105db. Most churches limit their SPL to 96db.

There are also sound equalization and mixing attributes that are more or less noticeable to the human ear. For instance, the SPL created from my old truck sound system reached a sustained 142db. I felt that more than I heard it because it was a low frequency created by subwoofers and was tolerable, but a higher frequency at the same SPL would be deafening. I bring it up but these issues speak more to the development of the gifts your sound man has and aren’t something worth getting into too deep at this point.

So when I say that the volume is too quiet when it distracts from the worship of God, if we aren’t making it loud enough for the majority of the congregation to worship without worry, we should turn it up.

It is too quiet when the music is no longer musical. This point like the third isn’t really of a concern as music is noticed at very low volumes. Performing music though, is different than leading worship. The one point I do want to add to this is that certain acoustic instruments are naturally loud and the musicality isn’t lost as much the natural musical tone and sound. Anyone who’s ever run sound or been a part of a modern worship team knows what I’m talking about. That’s right, drums. Rarely have I ever heard of a sound man complaining that the stage volume was too loud because of that pesky acoustic guitar or obnoxious piano. The drums and cymbals are naturally loud and are meant to be played as such. I will again refer to Psalm 150 where it even tells us how to play them. “Loud clanging cymbals” don’t tend to go over too well with the anonymous complaint card writers though.

The ideal setting for us to play the cymbals, as we are instructed, is in an open environment. Large churches will fight stage volume issues with musicians but the FOH is usually capable of evening out that sound issue in large churches. Sound dampening movable walls and plexi-glass only make it that much easier. In smaller churches without such luxuries however, the issue gets compounded and often sacrificed is the energy, volume, tone and dynamics of the drums and cymbals. One thing you can do to help avoid this issue is with the sound check. The order you sound check in changes everything. Coming from a secular club and concert environment, I found that churches don’t always sound check properly and it can negatively affect the sound. Please sound check in this order or in a way that prioritizes the instruments in this way. Drums first, core lead instruments followed by superlative instruments with vocals last. And as with everything else, there’s a reason for this.

Because drums and cymbals are acoustic, they utilize a higher degree of dynamics than a guitar signal which is often compressed and changed by the fader of a mixing board. When the drums are forced to sacrifice dynamics, the musical aspect of the instrument is also sacrificed. It’s like asking a guitarist not to strum, only pick. Because the drums are loud, everything else needs to be mixed around them. The alternative is a mixing nightmare and sound checks can go on for 2-3 times as long as needed.

I do not believe we should sacrifice the quality of the musical worship we bring by being too quiet. I do not believe we should sacrifice the energy we bring that is lost when we are quiet.

We get the opportunity to sing praises to our Lord loudly, I am grateful for psalm 150 and I am grateful for all of those who have heard their calling to lead others in an offering of musical worship. We must remember that the true act of Love is to serve and that serving doesn’t always result in being asked to fix things right away. It most often is a test in patience but with benefits far beyond that which we can see as God uses us to work in others. I’ll be praying for you and your ministry that God will be praised and that the lines of communication be opened so that you can show others God’s love for you through how you interact with them.
Psalm 150 NLT
1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heaven!
2 Praise him for his mighty works;
praise his unequaled greatness!
3 Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn;
praise him with the lyre and harp!
4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing;
praise him with strings and flutes!
5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals;
praise him with loud clanging cymbals.
6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD! Praise the LORD!