28 March, 2024

The Half-Inch Solution

Features

by | 25 August, 2012 | 4 comments

By Daniel Schantz

One of my Bible college students came flying out of chapel, shielding her eyes with her hand.

“Are you OK?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It”s the music””it”s so loud it gives me headaches.”

I can”t tell you how many times I have heard church members say, “Sometimes I just hate going to church because the music is so loud.”

It”s not the type of music they are objecting to so much as the volume. Solve the volume problem and I strongly suspect the worship wars would soon die down.

Music ministers seem to think that volume is entirely a matter of opinion or just a generational thing, and therefore something that cannot be fixed, but it”s not so. Thankfully, many churches have resolved this problem””proof that it can be done.

 

Who Cares?

The Sensitive””Extroverts tend to enjoy loud music. It refreshes them and actually calms them. Since the extroverts are usually the leaders, it”s easy for them to assume that everyone likes what they like, but it”s not true.

Introverts make up more than a third of the population. Loud music scrambles their nervous systems, making them feel irritated, even angry. Often their only good alternative is to leave the services and stand in the foyer until the noise is over. I used to find a half-dozen professors standing in the hallway, unwilling to go into the loud chapel services until the “music” was over. I joined them. I am not a masochist. I couldn”t think of a single reason why I should deliberately subject myself to that level of auditory assault.

Women are more finely tuned than men. They make up the majority (60 percent) of the typical church audience, but a lot of our music is clearly masculine: rough, muscular, booming””perfect for a football game, out-of-doors, but overpowering indoors. Women have little say in our churches, so they just grit their teeth and endure the noise . . . or they decide not to come back.

Isn”t there a sound level that will satisfy all these types? Yes, I think so.

Special Needs””In every service there are a few children, even newborns, who are not equipped to deal with sound levels that adults might be able to tolerate. My 8-year-old granddaughter sat with me in a chapel service. She held her hands over her ears through the entire service and kept looking up at me as if to say, “Grandpa, isn”t there something you can do?”

Ironically, the people in the audience who are hard of hearing are affected by loud noise because it makes their hearing aids squeal. They have to turn them off and sit in silence. With our rapidly aging population, it”s more important than ever to show respect for the elderly. Sometimes I envy those with hearing aids! At least they can turn the noise off, but the rest of us can”t turn our ears off.

The Weary””All week long we are assaulted by stress, including the “invisible” stress of loud machines, traffic, and the neighbor”s music. It would be nice if church services gave us a relief from the clamor, but often worship is just “more of the same.” The physical effects of loud noise are not someone”s opinion. The effects are well studied and documented. Loud noises can trigger or aggravate problems like hypertension, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), migraines, anger, poor concentration, even antisocial feelings. Who needs this on Sunday, the day of rest?

The Lonely””Many people come to church for fellowship, but some church musicians fill every spare minute with loud music, making it impossible for members even to carry on a conversation.

I was in a church where the music minister said, “Now, take time to say hello to each other and shake hands with five people.” As soon as we began to shake hands, the music went up to thunderstorm levels. We shook hands and tried to read lips. It was a poor substitute for real fellowship, an exercise in mime.

In some services the musicians start playing loudly while people are still coming into the auditorium, trying to find a seat and say hello to each other. As soon as the services are over, the music roars back up. Maybe the musicians think they are somehow “serving” us with this wall-to-wall sound, but they are really just making it hard to have any relationships at all.

 

Finding a Solution

The Numbers””The best way to eliminate emotions and opinion from the noise issue is to use a sound level meter. Lots of churches use these with great success. Some iPhones have an app for measuring sound levels, but they are not as accurate as a dedicated sound meter, available from music stores and tech stores for as little as $50.

OSHA and other health and safety organizations agree that the threshold of hearing injury is 85 decibels, but the damage is subtle and occurs over a period of time. At 95 decibels, the noise becomes painful and can cause slight hearing loss in as little as an hour. At 105 decibels, protection is needed all the time. Without such protection, damage to the ears can occur in as little as eight minutes.

Worship leaders themselves know this and they often wear something to protect themselves. (An Episcopal church that offers rock concert levels of “worship” music advertises that it will provide members with free earplugs! What irony! Why not just turn down the volume?)

Hearing loss is no small matter. It is the third most common health problem in the U.S., and it is increasingly a problem among young people, not just the elderly.

Online charts show the exact decibel levels of some 1,700 sounds. For example, a level of 100 decibels is like starting up your power mower in the living room or standing about 50 feet from a jackhammer. Rock concerts usually range from 95 to 120 decibels. Noise levels that are fine in the outdoors can be devastating indoors.

I put a sound level meter on worship services at five locations and got the following decibel readings:

l. 88, 89

2. 95, 97

3. 98, 99

4. 100, 106 (a college chapel)

5. 84, 87

The last one (84 and 87) seemed like the perfect level to me and my wife, measured at a medium-sized church with piano, organ, drums, and four singers on stage. The music leader said that he trains his worship team to keep the sound in that range.

Church leaders need to decide on an acceptable upper limit to sound, say 85 to 90 decibels, and appoint a technician to monitor it. For extra measure, some churches get feedback from the congregation by providing a tear-off tag on the church bulletin that allows members to tell the team how the music sounds to them.

There are other solutions to the sound problem, such as limiting the number of instruments on stage. Do we really need five amplified guitars? How about one? How about a month with no instruments at all? I can”t remember the last time I heard good congregational singing. Originally instruments were called accompaniment to the congregation, but now they have become dominant.

 

Half an Inch

I preach in a different church every Sunday, and I am gratified to see that many churches are getting control of the volume problem.

On our vacation, my wife and I stopped to worship at a large church in Illinois. On stage were quite a number of instruments and singers, and I braced myself for a rock concert, but to my surprise the sound was well-modulated and the service was a pleasure to attend.

We have made the noise problem too hard. How many problems do you know that can be solved as easily as turning a knob one-half inch to the left?

 

Daniel Schantz is professor emeritus at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, Missouri.

________

For Further Reading

dangerousdecibels.org

hearingaidknow.com

nhca.affiniscape.com

“How Loud Is Your Church?” at experiencingworship.com

 “The Seductive (and Destructive) Appeal of Loud Music” at blesser.net

“Is Your Worship Music Too Loud?” at dennyburk.com

tfwm.com (sound level meters)

________
Eric Radecki has written a response to this article entitled “Stewards of Audio Volume.” 

4 Comments

  1. Ray Downen

    Dan Schantz has written many superb articles in recent years. This is among the best. Singing is a joy when done well. We receive no favor when musicians take over congregational singing and make it a concert. Musicians should always accompany the congregation in singing. They are not hired to perform, or should not be, but to help the congregation sing. And almost always there IS someone at the control box who COULD control the volume. At Ozark Christian College, the “music” is almost always now too loud, with too many performers on stage. Must it be so? When I was a student (many years ago), you could hear the words of the songs, and you could hear the voices joined together, and it was good. At that time we had one piano or a piano and organ accompanying the singing. Those were good days.

  2. K L

    Thank you very much for printing this article. After being driven out of the auditorium by the loud volume of the praise band instruments several years ago, I am one of those believers still missing the days when everyone was welcome in the musical part of a worship service. It would make a world of difference to people like me if this “half-inch solution” were adopted by more congregations and we were all able to sing God”™s praises together in the same room once again. I hope many more churches will try this plan! 🙂

  3. Bob Perrey

    In Mr. Schantz’s article, he quotes various decibel levels. Unfortunately he did not say whether he was using “A” or “C” weighting scales, nor did he go into what frequency bands he was referencing.

    This is very important to the heart of the article because our hearing reacts differently to low (bass) sounds as compared to higher (treble) sounds. For instance, 90 db of C weighted low frequency can be warm and very pleasant. 80 db (again C weighted) of high frequency can be VERY painful.

    Sound db numbers have meaning and are a function of several variables. Whether he was measuring “A’ or “C” weighting, the same music/sound can EASILY differ by 20+ db.

    Sound is a mixture of frequencies and by properly adjusting, there is NO reason to have a painful experience.

    I would suggest that next time, Mr. Schantz needs “get a little more technical” and just not quote numbers.

    Thank You!

  4. Pierre Naggiar

    Excellent article!

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Features

Follow Us