For those of you who like me are trying your best to bring music into nursing home ministry here are a few practical suggestions that have helped in encouraging residents to sing. First, we need to remind ourselves that hearing and voice change over time. None of us still has the vocal range we had as a kid and that goes for our ear’s range as well. We naturally begin to lose the upper notes in our hearing and voice as we age. Lowering the keys we use for our songs will not only encourage our people to sing, it will also enable them to hear more of the lyrics.

Practice still matters! Most of us expect that our worship team or in more traditional churches, our choir, will learn some new songs and practice regularly. In the same way we need to continue to avoid getting lazy and just singing the same songs on every visit. Though we do need to use some of the same songs regularly, it is good to change things up once in a while in an effort to touch people’s hearts for Jesus Christ. Consider spending a little time looking through the hymn books or listening to older praise and worship songs. Time spent looking for and then practicing new material is a great investment in the lives of those we are called to serve and it yields the dividend of their voices joining yours in praise. The rule I have used for myself with when picking songs is that the best ones to sing are the ones that we sing together…