we do not use them anymore except on rare occassions. we do use power pt. when teaching a new song i like to hand out the music . i havent tried the p.pt. with notes yet. the drawback is that we may lose the ability to harmonize well without music unless we make extra effort to keep teaching parts. i do like people looking up to sing and not having their head buried in a book. a lot of our small groups or house churches do use hymnals so there is a place and benefit for having them. Let's keep the people singing!
mike kellett

OH MY GOODNESS! I feel strongly about this question. I would NOT want to be a member of a Church that didn't utilize either printed music in a hymnal or projected on a screen. As someone who is a music reader (and teacher), I rely on the harmonies that the composer intended.
Robin

Sometimes
Sometimes
Sometimes

We use the lyrics projected with the hymnal number at the top of the screen as well if anyone wants or needs to see the music.
For praise choruses there is only the lyrics since they are usually easy to pick up.

Our congregation still uses hymnals, while the choir utilizes both sheet music and hymnals. Recently, we have had a couple instances where our music director has had lyrics for the congregation projected through power point. Personally, I cannot read music, but I can follow the flow of the song by seeing the notes. I am intrested in learning to read music, and am trying to learn to sing parts (our choir until recently has been a "melody only" choir until our new music director started pushing us to learn parts).

I do prefer the traditional style of using hymnals. Some of our congregation are elderly and may not be able to see the projections very well due to the distance of the seating to the front of the church. But, I do feel that different experiences help our church grow as a whole, so I'm not totally opposed to trying new things.

Note to Keith: I thoroughly enjoy your work and the works you started with Acappella... when first listening to some tapes I received a "few" years ago, is when I really started getting into pushing myself to sing more and become active with a choir and small groups. Keep up the great work through Him!

Robin- as a skilled musician and music reader I have had similar feelings, but-

the church I attends doesn't use hymnals, sheet music, projected musical notation. just simple lyrics. it can change the face of worship- you just have to see beyond your "skills"

Do you use hymnals?
Song numbers are provided (if they are songs in the books), and hymnals are in the pew racks. However, I rarely see people use them. Our traditional service has a few people who use them. I don't know if I ever see anyone use them in our more contemporary (blended?) service.

Do you use a screen/projection of lyrics only?
Do you use a screen/projection of music notation?
I've played around with music notation, but it looks kinda funny on our screen. I've even made some slides from some of my personal music arrangements, but I've found that few enough people in my congregation actually read music. Well-chosen graphics and videos help keep their focus and attention better than
music notes. So we only project lyrics (well, and graphics and video). No music notes for us. Just doesn't make sense for my congregation.

We use a hymnal to sing with. Recently we changed to "Song of Faith and Praise" and you would have thought we put an organ in the corner of the building. A book is just a book, just like a church building is just a building. Praise comes from the heart not a hymnal or overhead screen or anything else. It amazes me to see tradition used as scripture sometimes. Sorry, I didn't mean to vent but to quote AVB, "You can't judge worship by a dance or groove, to Him it's praising when the hearts in tune." And no, I am not saying we should start dancing....just kidding.

When I was in Florida, our church moved to an overhead screen and there were some people who didn't like it. However, I still found that the songs we sang, whether they were golden oldies or new ones, were only as powerful as we would let them be. And to help those who didn't like the screen, we put the numbers at the bottom of the lyrics to songs that were in the book.

I don't care if I sing out of a book or off an overhead screen, the song service is a very personal, and special time for me to let God know just how much I love Him.

Jeremy

We use the song slides by avow.com ... very high quality. We've found the singing so much better with people looking up rather into their laps. The song service can be crafted so easily with slides that can't be done with hymnals. Using the notated slides allows us to not only learn new songs quickly (with the praise team's help), but to retain the beautiful four-part harmony. I've noticed churches that use only the lyrics seem to quickly lose almost any harmonies ... not that harmony is necessary to worship.

Hi Andrew, I understand how you can enjoy congregational music worship without printed music. And I'm sure there are lots of people who agree with you. I personally prefer the harmonies to go along with it. God gave me the gift of being able to harmonize without printed music, but there are lots of folks who are unable to do that and if they try it doesn't sound pretty, which detracts from my focus of worshiping our Lord. I have experienced both types of congregations. It's just a personal preference.
Robin

Powerpoint is the main worship tool used. Hymnals are available for those who prefer them. Lyrics only on Powerpoint. I like it so much better because it gets everyone's noses out of the books and their voices project 1000 times better.

We keep hymnals and sheet music for the more contemporary songs available to those that want to use them. We use powerpoint to project the lyrics onto a screen. The biggest thing we get our praise team to work on is to memorize as much of the music as possible. It has helped us immensely to be able to get our faces out of the music.

Morgan

We use The Paperless Hymnal during morning services for the songs before the sermon and usually regular hymnals after the sermon. I never know what is going to happen during the invitation, so do not want to be locked and I nearly always change my mind on the closing song after anyway. On Sunday evenings, we use the regular hymnal. I open the floor for request and sing what the audience wants except for maybe the song before the lesson.

We still have the old green hymnals in the racks but pretty much only use them at funerals when the wishes of the family or deceased is for congregational singing.

Since 1998 I've projected music on the screens. Almost everything we sing has notation on the screens unless it's a special worship team song then there will be relavent pictures with the lyrics. Some songs that are very well known do not have music. We have a lot of good music readers on our worship team as well as in the congregation. I mostly make all my own slides so that the arrangement, size and layout is what I want.

Benefits of no song book: heads up, hands free
Benefits of notation on screen: encourages part singing (certainly not necessary, but perhaps God gave us different sized vocals cords for a reason) I'll not idolize 4 part harmony, but neither can I dismiss it as a human design. Music in all its variety was and is God's good idea.

Drawbacks to no notation: Many who want to sing harmony parts are less confident in doing so without notation. I don't expect everyone has all the harmonies memorized. If those who sing well siing less confidently because they have no music then those who don't sing well won't sing out as much because others are not singing out.

Drawbacks to notation in any form: Might make some who don't read music feel intimidated.

We use both hymnals and the lyrics on the screen and have done so for over a year now. I would prefer using the lyrics and music on the screen. What I see happening when you just use the lyrics, is that the 4 part harmony becomes whatever people make up. If we are going to make our singing the best it can be, continue to sing in 4 part harmony, and make it easier for visitors, then we need the music on the screen. If we have the music on the screen and not just the lyrics, then we can toss the songbooks!

We use Hymnals, Projection of music and lyrics and special printouts of new songs. Hymnals for those who just can't see the screen very well. Speical print outs of new songs for the same reason.

I wish there was a better format than 2 systems of 4 measures at a time for projection. But that is the limitation we face in our auditiorium.

Has anyone seen a good way to do music notation on screen *as well as* photos/videos as backgrounds?

I think that's what I ultimately want to do, but haven't found a good way yet. Would doing something like a chroma key on the white background of the notation slides work to add in video?

Well, okay, maybe ideally I have 3 screens. One bigger one in the middle with notation, then the two on the sides with lyrics and backgrounds. However, that requires at least two projectionists, and a lot of money sunk into video equipment to do it right.

Thoughts?

We still use hymnals. We also use a Power Point presentation with The Paperless Hymnal. It is the members choice whether or not to use either one. It's a bit of a struggle because some of the songs in TPH are not in Songs of Faith and Praise, and sometimes the key signature is different and the arraingments are also different.
We are incorporating some of the Awesome God CD songs into our Lord's assembly and the church has taken to them quite well.
The transition has been challenging especially for me being of limited talent in my singing abilities. My tone quality leaves a lot to be desired, but I hope to find a good voice instructor to teach me to sing better.
It is good using the big screen because the members faces are not stuck in the books and it makes it easier to direct. Of course there is more work involved, we meet on Monday evening to plan the song service, rehearse it on Wednesday with "supporting singers" and by the grace of God, everything goes well.