‘Let’s honour church singers’

Lovemore Chikova Christian Entertainment
I would have wanted to close the debate on whether or not musicians in the churches’ praise and worship teams should be paid.

But it seems the issue is simply refusing to be pushed away.

What is most interesting on the matter is that it is the church musicians and the singers themselves who are making their contributions on the subject.

Most of them are writing from their personal experiences.

This week, I bring you the opinion of veteran bassist Carven Gumbanjera who has played for various gospel music bands and church choirs.

Read on.

I have been a musician for the last 16 years and I wish to respond to the ongoing debate raised by your article on this column on whether or not musicians in church should be paid.

Let me go straight to the point: My answer to this is YES and I will explain why.

The fact that one is called a musician means it’s a profession. As musicians we have been labelled as social misfits by the very people who benefit from our services, but do not feel we deserve to be paid for that.

One cannot see the need to pay a musician because they feel that our serving time in a normal church service set up is barely an hour or still it’s a few days in a week.

My argument is that though music is inherent in almost every human being, it takes a special skill to produce commercially and expertly done church music.

Praise and worship is one, if not the only department, that requires rehearsals before performance. Believe it or not, what we do is performance, but we incorporate our hearts and meaning to it.

Now, in art every skill should be thoroughly practised, hence it is for this practice time that musicians should be paid.

Do not say that not paying me is to safeguard my service so that I do it wholeheartedly, as if to say money reduces one’s seriousness on the work they do.

Millions are doing the jobs they love and still are putting their hearts in it.

As a musician who has a family and who is needed at church almost every day, I deserve to be appreciated for my service because I put time into it.

If paying anyone reduces efficiency, then no one should be paid, including church pastors.

In my church set-up, we have a huge choir with almost 1 000 members.

In such a case, definitely, the church cannot pay everyone.

Paying everyone will entice claims from other church departments who also have thousands of members and it will be impossible to pay them all.

The problem is that most churches do not have the money and their poverty has caused them to reduce costs and musicians have fallen victims not because they are irrelevant, but the church cannot afford it. This is one of the reasons why churches have to have the money.

Some churches with money in this day and age are paying their musicians and they have no hustles looking after them because they feel indebted.

Such churches are paying the musicians’ rentals and put food on their tables.

Though a church choir might be made up of thousands of musicians, still music retains its vital components.

Major instruments for a church choir in a particular service are only four — the bass guitar, drums, the guitar and the keyboards.

You can have additionals like saxophones, percussion and others which the choir can do without.

For vocals, there is the lead vocals and the three party harmony.

So, you can make good church music using only eight people — four instrumentalists and four vocalists.

These are the ones thinking music the whole week, composing, arranging, practising and improving it before they meet with the whole choir and this can be once in a week.

So, the music you hear for 30 minutes or so on Sunday or during any other church service can be perfected by those few people. For their time, these people who head the musical structure of the choir should be paid.

Paying church musicians ensures standardisation of music in the church.

In cases where some church sermons are put on DVDs and beamed on satellite television and are accompanied by music, there is an element of commercialisation, so there is need to perfect the work.

It is only practising for enough time which makes the music perfect.

The standard of church music in most churches in Zimbabwe fluctuates in its quality because of failure to maintain and attract the same producers.

You find that in most of the churches, musicians are available when they are still young and they do not have many responsibilities.

In most cases they will be doing music in the church as a hobby.

As they accumulate more responsibilities and realise they cannot be paid in church they normally change and move on to secular music which pays for services rendered.

In most cases, such musicians are accused of backsliding once they play for such secular bands.

For your own information, I have played on several secular songs and prefer anonymity for fear of segregation from the church.

Church musicians are suffering because they are needed everywhere, and in many churches for that matter, but no one is ready to pay them.

I do not want to go into the Bible because clearly its being ignored in many churches when it comes to treating musicians because the same verses that talk about Levites (pastors) being appreciated also talks about musicians being paid too.

We put a lot into music and we expect to get a lot out of music.

Personally, I do not want to be paid for playing the bass guitar at my mother church, but once invited elsewhere I need to be paid.

At my church, I might not be paid, but I need to be constantly reminded how appreciated I am.

Let it be me to refuse payment when approached to play at other churches, not for someone to say I do not deserve it.

Thank you.