I regularly complained, “I’m going to be a pastor not a musician. I don’t need this. What a waste of time.” It saddens me to say, those were really my words.
But nothing changed. I still had to learn to read music (All Cows Eat Grass / Every Good Boy Does Fine), key signatures, note values, where these notes were on the piano, how to lead music. Oh, and sitting in the library with a cassette player and headphones listening to Mr. Clark play notes on the piano, trying to determine if the note was a third or a fifth or a seventh higher. That never did help me and I still can't tell!
But this was the best class I took. I mean the most practical.
I still remember candidating at Brent Alliance Church in Pensacola, FL. I preached in the morning service and as we were all leaving for dinner, Mr. Huffman handed me a hymn book and told me to pick out songs for the night. And it was obvious I was expected to lead the singing. I don’t remember what I preached or the songs I picked, but I do remember being shocked and scared! But I was able to do it because of that class.And I might add, even though this was an Alliance hymnal, it was one I had never seen!
Once I actually began pastoring I discovered that while I couldn't play the piano, I always knew more about music than most every pianist in every church I pastored. This actually came in handy from time to time.
By teaching me to read music, they taught me how to sight sing, which means I can look at a piece of music and sort of figure it out. I am also able to sit at the piano and teach myself a new chorus or hymn. This proved helpful over the years as I taught myself many new songs and then introduced them to the church. The class I hated the most was one of the most helpful classes I ever took.
After I was out of college my music education continued. My brother-in-law showed me the metrical index. He revealed a wonderful secret - if there is a hymn I like but don't know the tune, I can turn to this index, find the meter of the hymn, and then look for a tune I do know that matches the meter.
Meter is actually a poetry term. It refers to the number of syllables in each line. As you can see, the meter of this hymn is C.M., also known as Common Meter. The numerical value of Common Meter is 8.6.8.6. That means there are 8 syllables in the first line, followed by 6 in the second line, which is repeated in the third and fourth lines. (You actually studied poetry in school in the old days and meter was an important part of poetry back then.)
If you like this hymn but are not familiar with this tune, you can go to the back of the hymnal and look for the “Metrical Index of Tunes.”
Find the meter the song is written in, in this case, Common Meter, and under that you will see all the different tunes in this book that match. When you see a tune you know (one that also matches the tone of the hymn), you're in business. What a blessing! (If you don't have all the tunes memorized, it tells you where they are so you can experiment.) This also came in quite helpful because there are many great hymns in the hymnal with tunes we didn't know that we could sing to tunes that we did know.
Unfortunately, the churches I've attended in the last several years don't use a hymn book, so this is merely historical trivia, but it sure came in handy in the day!
What brought this on? Well, the pastor sent a text the other day with a Bible verse that reminded me of this hymn. I could work through the tune but it was awkward, so when I saw the meter was C.M. I immediately started singing it to the tune, Amazing Grace. Then for fun, I sang it to the tune, Azmon. You say, "Azmon?" Yeah, "Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing." What a blessing!!
And it all started with a class I hated. Even though I thought I knew everything back then, looks like I was wrong!
