Rogersdna15
Puritan Board Freshman
I will start with the question for those that would prefer to skip its context below:
How would you advise a person new to Psalmody (specifically 1650 SMV) on how to begin learning to use the Psalter (when they aren’t able to attend an EP church) with his family and in private?
Below you’ll find more context for those who want more detail to guide their answer.
I am currently living/serving overseas with my family. We are Baptist (SBC to be exact) and I had never heard of singing psalms until I came across “Sing a New Song” edited by Joel R. Beeke and Anthony T. Selvaggio about a year ago. Since then I’ve attempted singing the Psalms on and off. I am not entirely EP, but I have come to the conviction that they should be the primary songs my family and I should sing. The past 2-3 weeks we’ve begun singing the psalms (SMV 1650). As a family, we sing one to two in the morning and one in the evening during our family worship. Then in my private worship, I sing two.
A problem we are having is that we don’t know most of the tunes. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home so I didn’t even grow up with the traditional tunes of hymns, so much of the music is foreign to me. Therefore we have been using the 1650 app on the iPad to sing along with as we seek to learn the tunes. We sing along with the comprehensive psalter directions and usually along with the congregational recording provided.
When we were starting I tried to do some research on how to begin implementing psalm singing into our private/family worship. However, I couldn’t find much direction besides getting the 1650 app and simply start (Honestly any advice I found seemed geared towards people either in a Psalm singing church or with Psalm singing history, so it wasn’t very helpful given my context). I took that and decided we would start with picking 5 psalms (we picked Ps. 16, 23, 93, 103:1-12, 119:1-8) and stick with them for a week or two. So throughout the week, we rotate through those 5 psalms and then on the Sabbath we sing all 5 throughout the day.
However, it has been three weeks and we still haven’t been able to move past these 5 yet. We are still having trouble keeping track of the tunes that go to what. We also struggle to remember the tunes without first hearing the tunes a bit. However, I would prefer for our family to be able to sing them a capella. I know there is a steep learning curve ahead of us, but since I couldn’t find any tips for someone in my shoes I thought I would ask for some help/pastorally direction.
Given my circumstance and context, how would you advise someone like me to begin learning to use the Psalter in family and private worship? Am I starting with too many psalms? Are there more basic/beginner ones we should be starting with (All the tunes seem simple enough)? Is there a better plan I should follow? Any advice for the transition?*
*The question regarding transition is due to in part my wife’s Hispanic background. She grew up with very lively and more uptempo beats in church, so for her, this transition has been slightly more difficult. She enjoys the words but the beats are so very foreign to her that it has thus far impeded her ability to focus on the words as she tries to sing. So the advice about transition is simply any advice on how to lovingly lead and encourage my wife during this time as we both are trying to learn this together.
For those of you who read all the way down to here, thank you for your patience! I felt these details might help some in forming more appropriate and directive advice.
How would you advise a person new to Psalmody (specifically 1650 SMV) on how to begin learning to use the Psalter (when they aren’t able to attend an EP church) with his family and in private?
Below you’ll find more context for those who want more detail to guide their answer.
I am currently living/serving overseas with my family. We are Baptist (SBC to be exact) and I had never heard of singing psalms until I came across “Sing a New Song” edited by Joel R. Beeke and Anthony T. Selvaggio about a year ago. Since then I’ve attempted singing the Psalms on and off. I am not entirely EP, but I have come to the conviction that they should be the primary songs my family and I should sing. The past 2-3 weeks we’ve begun singing the psalms (SMV 1650). As a family, we sing one to two in the morning and one in the evening during our family worship. Then in my private worship, I sing two.
A problem we are having is that we don’t know most of the tunes. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home so I didn’t even grow up with the traditional tunes of hymns, so much of the music is foreign to me. Therefore we have been using the 1650 app on the iPad to sing along with as we seek to learn the tunes. We sing along with the comprehensive psalter directions and usually along with the congregational recording provided.
When we were starting I tried to do some research on how to begin implementing psalm singing into our private/family worship. However, I couldn’t find much direction besides getting the 1650 app and simply start (Honestly any advice I found seemed geared towards people either in a Psalm singing church or with Psalm singing history, so it wasn’t very helpful given my context). I took that and decided we would start with picking 5 psalms (we picked Ps. 16, 23, 93, 103:1-12, 119:1-8) and stick with them for a week or two. So throughout the week, we rotate through those 5 psalms and then on the Sabbath we sing all 5 throughout the day.
However, it has been three weeks and we still haven’t been able to move past these 5 yet. We are still having trouble keeping track of the tunes that go to what. We also struggle to remember the tunes without first hearing the tunes a bit. However, I would prefer for our family to be able to sing them a capella. I know there is a steep learning curve ahead of us, but since I couldn’t find any tips for someone in my shoes I thought I would ask for some help/pastorally direction.
Given my circumstance and context, how would you advise someone like me to begin learning to use the Psalter in family and private worship? Am I starting with too many psalms? Are there more basic/beginner ones we should be starting with (All the tunes seem simple enough)? Is there a better plan I should follow? Any advice for the transition?*
*The question regarding transition is due to in part my wife’s Hispanic background. She grew up with very lively and more uptempo beats in church, so for her, this transition has been slightly more difficult. She enjoys the words but the beats are so very foreign to her that it has thus far impeded her ability to focus on the words as she tries to sing. So the advice about transition is simply any advice on how to lovingly lead and encourage my wife during this time as we both are trying to learn this together.
For those of you who read all the way down to here, thank you for your patience! I felt these details might help some in forming more appropriate and directive advice.