Singing At Home: Music for Family Fun and Worship

Thanks to Crescendo North America, and a personal request from our friend Brian Reichenbach, my husband, Steve, and I were privileged to present an interactive session on Monday about singing at home. If you don’t know, Steve is also a musician and as well as a pastor. You can watch the replay here. Fair warning: Steve and I voice many opinions and step on many soapboxes!

We cover topics such as

• vision and philosophy of corporate worship and how singing is a form of discipleship - “take melody with you” (click here for Steve’s rant about vocal range)

• development of the human ear and impact for singing in young children — 12:10

• what worship looks like at home in a pandemic and with live-stream church services — 19:40

• what we have done with our own children (if you would like to read my previous post about teaching piano to my own children, please click here) — 26:15

• my strong opinion that piano should be the first instrument taught and our opinions on choir versus voice lessons — 36:19

• we love refrains — 41:44

I realized after the fact that we did not offer specific examples of hymns that include refrains, and that might be helpful to some. Examples that I’ve thought of after our presentation include:

• All Creatures of Our God and King (not exactly a refrain, but it does have the repeated “Alleluia” that is catchy)

• All Glory, Laud and Honor

• Angels We Have Heard On High (in general, kids do learn the most popular Christmas hymns more quickly than others)

• Christ Arose (Up From the Grave He Arose)

• Great Is Thy Faithfulness

• It Is Well With My Soul

• Lift High the Cross

• Nothing but the Blood of Jesus

• Thine Be the Glory

If you would like a copy of the handout we created with some general music suggestions, please fill out the form below.