Welcome to the forum! Were I in your shoes, I would take this opportunity to slowly guide the kids toward truly sacral music. The guidelines for liturgical music as put forth by the Church for the past century put a heavy emphasis on Gregorian chant and music which is similar to it. Likewise, the relevant Church documents caution against allowing profane (secular) instruments and styles to be used for liturgical functions. Take this as an opportunity to do a deep dive into what the Church has to say about sacred music, and apply it in little ways as you work! Sacrosanctum Concilium, Tra Le Sollecitudini, and Musician Sacram are good places to start. The wonderful thing about chant is that it doesn't even need accompaniment so, in that way, it's highly versatile. Maybe not the answer you're looking for, but I hope that it provides some things to think about and consider.

If you're classically trained, Renaissance and Baroque lute repertoire could be appropriate and fitting. My experience with Catholic teenagers (years of teaching in a parochial school) has been that they're largely starved of authentic sacred music, and that they want more of it when they hear it!

As to the general premise of your post, I hate to be the fly in the ointment, but in my limited experience, guitar masses tend to not attract (and certainly do not keep) teens. There seems to be a bit of a generational phenomenon surrounding ‘guitar masses’, but most younger people I’ve encountered tend to not be very interested in such masses, as they view them démodé and something their parents (or grandparents) were in to once upon a time. And even if they are open to the idea generically, having the older generation be the ones to offer said music is no different than dad wanting to listen to the oldies in the car. It’s not their music. In any case, it’s not sacred music that draws them into deeper mystery. It’s ho-hum, daily music with religious words.

At a deeper level, while I think your desire to offer mass in a way that speaks to teens is absolutely wonderful (we all strive for as much in our own ways), I think the premise of how you wish to achieve it is flawed. Mass isn’t about excitement. It’s about sacred mystery. Trying to excite teens means trying to entertain them. They need to be intrigued and invited into something deeper and transcendental. The proof of this pudding is the explosion of chant, and the swaths of young people attending Latin masses.

With all of that said, as I suspect you are going to offer such a mass regardless since it was asked of you, I would humbly plead that you offer music that is meditative, and in particular, choose things that have profound texts, not the dribble of the last 40-50 years. Also, keep amplification to a minimum, and offer the music from the loft, or back of church; don’t stand up front or in the sanctuary and make it feel like a concert. If you need to be seen, mass is serving you, and not the other way around. No drum sets (these are technically verboten according to the principles outlined in the documents mentioned by Trenton above).

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating here, and this is seriously worth pondering:

The world will always do the world better than the church can.

Translation: the world will always do worldly music better than poor imitations of it during mass. Let secular music be secular, and sacred music be sacred.

If you use your instruments to provide music at mass, think about how you can adapt your style of playing and presentation to be sacred, and not just normal hum and strum but with religious words. And again, consider if this is a generational attachment, rather than something that actually serves teens. Fundamentally, their needs for mass shouldn’t be too different from normal adults.

Nice bait mate.

In the same spirit, if there is going to be vintage guitar music, let this be the model for how they should be used:

https://youtu.be/hVOKjnDjTC4?si=-6sAywjLeIMgdFIj&t=8

This is a joke, right? Was this written by The Onion?

Assuming this isn't a troll post...

1. Don't change anything for some time. When you do change things, change things with a liturgical season.

2. Introduce new material one piece at a time.

3. Don't change anything at all unless you have a clear mandate from your pastor.

From here, I'm making a bunch of assumptions. These are my assumptions:
- most of the current literature is Hillsong-adjacent P&W music
- the situation is currently a band with keyboard, guitar(s), bass, drum set, and vocals
- the teens are somewhat satisfied with the music but not particularly enthusiastic about it
- traditional sacred music (either Gregorian chant / polyphony or congregational hymns) has not been found wanting but rather not tried at all and the teens are mostly unfamiliar with it, rather than actively antagonistic
- the grownups, especially the older folks, are somewhat antagonistic to traditional music

With those assumptions in mind, here is more or less what I would do, in more or less the order I would do it.

4. The first change to make is to remove stuff that is lyrically bad. Read the texts of each piece you are programming and if something is theologically unsound, stupid, meaningless, or otherwise terrible, stop programming it. Shred all copies. Never mention it again.

5. Introduce some well-loved and extremely singable classic hymnody, with folkish guitar accompaniment. Do this first at the Offertory. Try real hard to align the text with the readings. People love it when they notice this. All the hard feelings of having to sing a new song they didn't know and like already melt away when they realize, "Oh, wow, the Gospel was all about Jesus as the good shepherd and then we sang that song about God being a shepherd."

6. Try singing a few things unaccompanied, with harmony if possible. Post-communion is a good place for this. Short songs like Taize and Iona community work well here.

7. There's really no need to try to get the congregation to sing during communion. Great opportunity to remove one awful piece from your set list every week. Set a more solemn tone with some classical guitar. If you can do instrumental arrangements of traditional Catholic eucharistic hymns, that would be a great thing.

8. Introduce a chant-based setting or the Ordinary. The one in the Roman Missal is a good start. Psallite is also quite good if you can muster the singers for it.

9. Find some really sturdy processional hymns that are rousing and easy to sing. Program them at the beginning of Mass.

10. If you have a handful of P&W songs that are theologically sound and not terrible, and the kids express a desire to continue rocking out, program these at the Dismissal. Otherwise, move your sturdy processional hymns to the dismissal and try some Introits.

Take all your sacro-pop music to the parking lot. Set it on fire. Throw in the guitar for good measure. Now doesn't that warm your heart - and toes if you get too close?

Oregon Catholic Press published a collection of Traditional Hymns for Guitar in 1983, but it's out of print. Anyhow, the accompaniment books for many hymnals and missalettes include guitar chords even for traditional hymns. IMO, guitar sounds better with slower, quieter tunes like Slane or Unde et memore, rather than with more boisterous tunes.

Take all your sacro-pop music to the parking lot. Set it on fire. Throw in the guitar for good measure. Now doesn't that warm your heart - and toes if you get too close?

An older thread on this allows for organs to be included……

I’m under 40. I don’t even want to hear the classical guitar setting on the electric piano at Mass. I’m done with guitars at Mass. I heard too much guitar growing up on the prairies and going to Mass in small towns. Between the sound of a 12 string guitar being strummed, a very pedestrian walking bass line, and the sound of wire brushes lightly dusting the drums, and the accordion, oh the accordion. Nope. Sat through too many polka Masses growing up. Pipe Organ or bust from now on.

I am not aware of any church documents promoting guitars at mass. Have I missed something? Pianos, either, for that matter.

I never claimed the Church “promotes” the use of guitar over a pipe organ. There are plenty of church documents that allow its use.

We are in that time scripture mentions when they want their ears tickled.

I agree with the sentiment. In -my- case, there are 5 masses at my parish, and of the 5, the one I serve, the hymns I choose are far closer to pre-V2 and more traditional norms than the other 4 masses. And that includes the 11AM mass where our recently rebuilt pipe organ is in use.

This article is helpful:

https://saintmichaelcalhan.diocs.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=6jRf99NL7RQ=&portalid=1#:~:text="The use of other instruments,chant prayers with musical accompaniment].

Yea, the organ is def the instrument of the liturgy. And I can speak from experience as one who owns three guitars and who has played them at liturgies for years. Please ditch the guitars at Mass.

I'm not fond of the piano in church either, for that matter.

One of my first acts at my current post was to remove the keyboard from the loft. Nothing but the organ. I would honestly benefit from having a piano for rehearsals at times, but I've foregone that in the interest of a very cut-and-dry arrangement. This served me well when we had a family specifically request for the organ to not be used at a funeral because they only wanted piano, but we were able to happily reply that the organ was the only option.

If this was the type of motet sung at a guitar mass, I could go to one quite cheerfully.
https://youtu.be/D6sVqgJhtQg?si=Pob4Eqxm_7DU1UWN

@Chaswjd how about this:
https://youtu.be/XAMdUpcT5p0?si=yjYwSsuhqOhrVDr5

My preferred method is to simply not do music that cannot be done properly with an organ.

If it does not go well on the organ it is most likely not appropriate for the Mass. It may just be 'religious' music, but not 'sacred' music, which is music composed for the Mass with approved texts and in the proper style... chant or polyphony. It's quite simple, really.

Lovely music...but strictly speaking, lutes and vihuelas are NOT modern guitars and it's a lot harder to find players of those wonderful period plucked strings.

yea

It doesn't help that music publishers in conjunction with the largest archdiocese in the United States continue to promote music like this as suitable for Mass in 2025:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJKVm8Da31I

Using a political allusion that not all might appreciate, I believe that what the recent change in US government leadership and power is demonstrating is that unless and until you get a determined chief executive in charge of an organization who is willing to break a lot of glass, then institutionalized fraud, cronyism, bad practice, corruption, and inertia are almost impossible to be opposed and broken at the grass roots, ground level.

Leaders do make a big difference.

Unless and until the bishops make it a point to rid Catholic liturgy of contemporary-styled OCP and GIA music, it's not going to happen except in rare, small parish enclaves, and many people will continue to believe that terrible music such as in the video link above is suitable for Catholic liturgy.

Lutes….as wonderful as they are, there are good and practical reasons why they faded out in the evolution of stringed instruments.

As far as traditional lute playing goes, Julian Bream got TORCHED in the community for using metal frets and plucking with his fingernails.

Drop the 3rd string to F# and capo the 3rd fret on any standard classical guitar and one can read straight off the tablature the majority of Renaissance lute repertoire.

Don’t care what anyone says…..Dowland’s “Come Heavy Sleep” is a great prelude and/or postlude for Good Friday service.

My baseline (rebuttable, not conclusive) presumption: if music doesn't sound good unaccompanied, it's probably less suitable for Mass.

The organ is silent from the Gloria of Holy Thursday to the Gloria of the Easter Vigil.

You are correct. I don’t care what anyone says with the exception of my head pastor.

unfortunately this is the case for so many of us when it comes to following what the Church requires.

I apologize in advance because I'm sure this will come across as offensive and philistine to a lutist, but the difference in plucked sound does not seem large enough to me to classify the lute one way and the guitar another.

The visual (and therefore associative) difference is more pronounced, I think. But if it helps, in this thought experiment I'm not picturing the player up front but in the loft, and playing in a classical guitar style (which to me is fairly dignified).

I get your point, and indeed when I was playing guitar in church under our previous pastor, I used a classical guitar and plucked it in that style, and in the choir loft. If a new pastor comes along and forces a return to guitar and piano music, I suppose I'll have to go back to that.

Even so, I much prefer the organ.

has a rock drum set right behind the altar. .... I've had to push back many'a time on his selections, since they cannot be rendered suitable with organ, which is a tacit signal that they are inappropriate for Mass.

Before I played organ in church, I played it in rock bands, along with electric guitars and basses. This was also during a time when I was unfortunately not practicing my faith, which I now regret. Although I agree with in principle, I'm pretty sure I could use my rock band organ techniques to play any of those modern pieces.

That said, I would not want to do so.

Bells are likewise supposed to be silent/silenced, but not wooden clappers.
So ;-) is a xylophone forbidden ?

https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2023/04/the-wooden-clapper-of-holy-week-crotalus.html

The crotalus does not play melodies, unlike a xylophone, which is a melodic percussion instrument. It merely makes a dry sound that replaces the bells.

If in doubt, ask the pastor. If still in doubt, the pastor is always right.

He may get the final say, but that doesn’t mean he’s always right, unfortunately. I’ve met many priests who don’t know very much about liturgy or music, who make it up as they go.

We had a priest who was fairly adamantly opposed to the full propers but especially the melismatic propers in between the readings. He loved Mozart, but he found those chants boring and projected it on to the people. Only one Mass per month had the full propers by the end of his time with us, and although they moved to three full propers on most Sundays or feasts, the gradual etc. were sung with a Rossini tone…Meanwhile, in 2022, I convinced our lead volunteer (who was not of this opinion, thankfully, and who has always pressed for improvement and doing more with the propers) to sing the full verses at the beginning and end of the tracts of the I Sunday of Lent and of Palm Sunday. We migrated to the full tract of the I Sunday of Lent in 2023 and in 2024. Looking forward to that in a month. Palm Sunday…one of these days. Maybe we have the right mix this year.