{"id":1196,"date":"2013-04-17T07:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=1196"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:50:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:50:35","slug":"how-loud-should-our-church-music-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/how-loud-should-our-church-music-be\/","title":{"rendered":"How Loud Should Our Church Music Be?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Jordan Richmond<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you have any semblance of modern, band-driven worship, I guarantee you\u2019ve had complaints about volume. I had a guy who would stick toilet paper in his ears every week and obnoxiously pace the foyer during the music set.<\/p>\n<p>Conventional wisdom tells us that more volume equals more energy. After all people don\u2019t want to hear themselves sing right?<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the perfect volume? In this case, Disney has the answer. Disney seems to have a knack for managing expectations and providing the best user experience on the planet. They can teach us a thing or two about worship. So during my last visit to Disney World I decided to conduct an experiment. Every show I attended I would take out my iPhone and fire up the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/au\/app\/rta-lite\/id337536333?mt=8\">RTA Lite<\/a>\u00a0app. This handy (and free) little tool let\u2019s me measure the decibel level at certain frequencies. I can see the level of the bass, mids, and trebles. The results shocked me.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Decibel Level &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>At every show and concert, the average level was about 75 db. That\u2019s pretty soft\u2014about the same as a dial tone with the phone up to your ear. Occasionally it might pop up to 85 db (city traffic), but not much more (hearing damage occurs at 90-95 db with sustained exposure). It was amazing how an explosion or kick drum had incredible intensity when everything else was at a pleasant level.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Frequencies &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>The frequency spectrum was linear (as opposed to flat or the typical \u201csmiley face\u201d with enhanced lows and highs, and reduced mids). Bass was the loudest, and it would evenly taper off as it headed toward the higher frequencies. So the sound I heard was ultimately smooth. It had impact when it needed to, and was never shrill or brassy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Other Factors &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>Admittedly the shows I attended were family friendly\u2014inviting young and old. EPCOT did have more concert\/dance adult-oriented venues later in the evening. These were significantly louder (too loud for my taste). Also, every Disney venue featured\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.meyersound.com\/\">Meyer<\/a>\u00a0arrays and trained sound men, so the end product was excellent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what did I learn from Disney?<\/p>\n<p>I observed everyone, babies to grandmas, enjoying their experience. They participated. I also realized that sound is something we cannot escape. We cannot turn off our ears. We can look at something else if a light is too bright, but we cannot divert our hearing.<\/p>\n<p>I attended a church service that weekend and felt almost assaulted by the sound (around 90-95 db). Admittedly I\u2019ve subjected my church to that numerous times and wondered why they didn\u2019t participate as actively. By all means pump the volume for youth groups. But for the large corporate service featuring all age groups (or children\u2019s worship), it might be a good idea to bring the volume down.<\/p>\n<p>More volume does not necessarily equal more energy. It insults your listeners, and robs you of the head room you need to emphasize dynamics and impacts when you need to. Turn it down. Smooth it out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How loud is your church? Would you respond differently if the volume were different?<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jordanrichmond.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/11\/the-perfect-volume-for-worship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Richmond<\/a> is a worship pastor at Idlewild in Tampa, FL. He has also served other local churches in Florida, Kentucky, and the Cayman Islands.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you have any semblance of modern, band-driven worship, I guarantee you\u2019ve had complaints about volume. I had a guy who would stick toilet paper in his ears every week and obnoxiously pace the foyer during the music set.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-grow","category-worship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Loud Should Our Church Music Be? | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/how-loud-should-our-church-music-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Loud Should Our Church Music Be? | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you have any semblance of modern, band-driven worship, I guarantee you\u2019ve had complaints about volume. 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