[James Tackett] This is one of those Ephesians 3:20 situations. It isn’t because of us that The Paperless Hymnal has done well. Over 800 churches have bought some of our songs. Almost 300 have all that we have produced so far. Most are churches of Christ but some are a’cappella Baptist and other churches whose members demand that music be shown as well as the lyrics during their services.
It is interesting that this is not a liberal/progressive vs. traditional/conservative issue, since our users come from all over the spectrum. It seems to be the natural progression as technology has become available. When the preacher wants to use slides, the church gets a PC, projector and screen. People want to sing songs that are not yet in the song books, so they start projecting the lyrics since they don’t have the means of displaying the music. We have come along and supplied the latter.
How many songs are in the Paperless Hymnal format and are there more on the way?
[James Tackett] We have about 890 songs in our seven volumes. We intend to publish another volume every year for a while. Each volume contains new as well as old songs. Our customers request songs and we do our best to find suitable congregational arrangements and then secure contracts from copyright administrators. We spend more time creating the artwork than anything else, but dealing with the copyright issue is the hardest. Every contract is different.
James Tackett
Why do you feel that churches need to project musical notation?
[James Tackett] It is interesting that having music notation is only an issue when projecting songs. There isn’t one when making printed copies for a congregation. In those cases, the music is usually included. Copying machines do a great job of reproducing both music and lyrics on paper. Churches have seen the need for the music and have been happy making songs available that way.
But more to the point of why is it needed? Songs are thoughts, written down in our language of choice and wrapped in beautiful sounds called music. One of the markers of a given civilization is its written language which records those thoughts for distribution and posterity. For over a thousand years we have had a method of also writing down the music to our songs. No one would suggest that we should display the music without the lyrics – so why would we want to forgo the music and leave only the lyrics? I know that some people can’t read the music. I also know that some can’t read the lyrics also, but we find a way to take care of that. It’s called education and it starts at an age of about five years.
Let’s face it, people who can read music want the music. Even many people who say they can’t read music want the music because that is how they are used to seeing their songs. The latter can at least see the notes going up and down and get an idea of pitch and know that flags mean short and hollow note heads mean long and thus get an idea of length.
Then there is the whole idea of what we consider to be good singing. I know several people who walked into a church of Christ assembly and heard good singing and decided, on that criteria alone, to come back a second time. I think singing voice parts is a major contributor to making our singing sound good. If we don’t allow our folks to see the music, how can they sing their part well? Do we expect them to pick up their part from hearing someone in the praise team WHO HAS THE MUSIC? Many churches do. Why should the praise team have the music and not the rest of us? When I visit a church that does that, I wonder how many other selfish things they do. Before long, those congregations seem to sing melody only except for the praise team. Then to hear the voice parts, they turn up the praise team. Then why sing at all? Just listen to the praise team. It becomes a performance instead of a participatory event. I don’t think praise teams are the cause of the decline of part singing, just a misguided attempt to correct the real problem.
Why shaped notes?
I can walk up to nearly anyone and ask them sing the notes of E D C D E E E and 999 times out of 1000 they cannot sing those notes on pitch, but if I can ask those same people to sing “Mary had a little lamb”, they can do it. Why is that! The answer is in how we perceive music. Most of us cannot tell an “E” from a “D” unless they are sounded one after the other, then we still probably will not know what pitches they actually are, but we would know that one was lower than the other. We hear notes in relation to other notes. I can ask those same folks to sing “Mary had a little lamb” a little lower and they can do it. Higher? Yes, they can do that also. Once they sing the first note, they instinctively know how far up and how far down to sing each note. While the notes on the lines and spaces of a staff display absolute pitches, the shapes of the note heads with shaped notes shows the relative pitches – the pitches that we hear. That is how we know how far up or down to go once we hear the first note.
If you have a piano to play E D C D E E E, you don’t need shaped notes. But if you sing a’cappella, shaped notes are a fantastic aid to reading music. Once the singer becomes proficient in associating the note head shape to the different pitches of the scale, it makes reading new songs much easier. Why would anyone be against shaped notes!? Well, imagine an individual who went to college and spent years learning about every aspect of music and was handed a piece of paper saying they were certified to teach music. Now imagine someone else coming along without a music degree that learned to sing by shaped notes. Which of the two will be given a chance to teach others? Most likely the one with the degree, of course. Which of the two can sight read the best? Given a song written in shaped notes, the one who knows shaped notes will start to sing while the one with the degree will probably look for a piano.
Any other versions of The Paperless Hymnal coming?
[James Tackett] We are so into shaped notes that my heart just isn’t into creating a version with conventional notes. But I realize that the round note community is much larger than the shaped note community, so we have hired a contractor to take our files and convert them into conventional notes. We are looking at the second quarter of 2008 in having that ready. We have done some national advertising outside the churches of Christ and responses show that we need the round notes. That said, our first priority is a’cappella congregations. They are the ones who want the music most.
Tell us about the singing school at ACU.
[James Tackett] The Texas Normal Singing School moved to Abilene Christian University from Sabinal, TX by way of Trinity University in San Antonio in 1988. Our 2007 summer session was our 61st and to answer your next question: no, I didn’t attend all those sessions. Shame on you. Five of our six days of classes start at 7:30 AM and continue until 9:30 PM with an hour off for lunch and two hours off for dinner. We stay and eat on campus and use the beautiful facilities of the Bible building. Theory classes take up most of the morning then we divide into the different disciplines for the afternoon. Song leaders, song writers, singers, those working on certificates in Worship Leading and Women in Church Music, all go into classes designed specifically for them. In the afternoon and evening there are two hours of sight reading – yes with shaped notes. In the evening the song leaders direct songs they have prepared and are video taped for their review the next day. Student instigated groups end the evening with their songs. We have a full four-year program mapped out for most individuals. You can surf www.singingschool.org.
What should churches do to improve their singing and music skills?
[James Tackett] Up until about twenty years ago, we relied on our public school system for music education. Because of refocused priorities, music isn’t taught the way it used to be, if at all. Before public schools got into the act of teaching music, we relied on community singing conventions and traveling music teachers. We may be back at that point again if we expect to maintain musically educated congregations. I would like to think that our Christian colleges would be turning out individuals who would step into the gap but that has never seemed to be the case. It might be worth noting that it is the Bible Department at ACU who sponsors our school there.
Churches need to provide the necessary music training to those in the pews with classes on music and singing. It isn’t an easy task, but there is help. The first year music theory book that we use at ACU is available for download at: http://www.paperlesshymnal.com/textbooks/fundamentals/index.html. It is free in most cases. In the near future, we hope to have the lessons available in PowerPoint®. But some skills can’t be learned from a book, they have to be experienced and practiced.
Congregations need to use whatever means they can for training, be it Keith and his Praise and Harmony Workshops, sending their youth to singing camps, or enrolling their worship leaders in a school like The Singing School at ACU. I am sure that as time goes by, there will be more choices. I might also point here that the Certification for Women in Church Music at the Singing School at ACU focuses on music education at an early age and how to incorporate it into our Sunday school programs.
But here is one sad note, pun intended. I heard a worship leader at a rather large congregation lamenting the fact that his congregation no longer sang as well as they had in the past. When asked, he admitted that they have for a couple of years only projected the lyrics to their songs. Well, duh!! But it was those who favored aesthetics more than function that had won out on what was shown on the screen.
Tell us about your affiliation with ACAfest.
[James Tackett] Keith asked me to teach the beginning music class for the first 10 years of ACAFest starting in 1986. Instead of having to teach all day like I do at many other places, the rest of my time was spent going to other classes. Gary Moyer’s voice and men’s chorus and Randy Gill’s mixed chorus classes were outstanding. That exposure has helped me immensely with my chorus. The devotionals always spoke to my heart. The legal classes spoke to my logic while the song writing classes spoke to my creativity - AND the concerts, every night, different groups, different styles. ACAFest has always been a wonderful opportunity for singing groups to attend, study, learn together, and seek an honest assessment of their talent and needs. This is where I went to fill my cup. I am very glad that Keith has started ACAFest up again. The situation at Lipscomb seems to be a perfect fit and I feel the first year there (the summer of 2007) proved that people are interested in what Keith and Acappella Ministries has to offer. I think it has the potential to grow into a major opportunity for continuing music education for just about everyone involved in church music.
James Tackett has been a friend of Acappella Ministries for over two decades. He has attended every ACAFEST and has been the primary instructor for introduction to music theory, as well as other classes. James has been associated with singing schools since 1968, has been a song leader and music minister at the Hyde Park Church of Christ in Austin, TX since 1977, has directed The Sweet Expressions, a mixed a’cappella chorus composed of members from Austin area churches of Christ since 1979. James and his wife Wally, who have been married for 38 years, reside in Austin, Texas. Their son, Mike and daughter-in-law Jeanette served with Acappella in the '90's. James started The Paperless Hymnal in 1999 and recently started a publishing company called Austin Christian A cappella Music. He is retired after working 34 years for NCR on large computer systems.
