...and offer the music from the loft, or back of church; don't stand up front or in the Sanctuary and make it feel [and look! like a concert!!!
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.
You can play guitar and apply it to hymns in the missal in a manner which is reverent to existing church praxis, and the very presence of the guitar will appeal to the younger element, the laid back nature will appeal to the adults who may typically come to an earlier mass to avoid the pomp of a pipe organ or grand piano and full choir.
I am not aware of any church documents promoting guitars at mass. Have I missed something? Pianos, either, for that matter.
We are in that time scripture mentions when they want their ears tickled.
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
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.I'm not fond of the piano in church either, for that matter.
My preferred method is to simply not do music that cannot be done properly with an organ. There are a few pieces you can never rid yourself of… Like damned zombies… but there are many more pieces that you can happily cull this way.and for accompaniments that could not be played well on organ.
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