How Can I Make the Most of Musical Worship If I’m Not Musical?
November 19, 2025
November 19, 2025
My mom is a lifelong singer, as are her parents and my brother, but the family member who taught me the most about musical worship is my dad. While the other members of my family joined confidently in musical worship, my dad sang steadily through his shyness. His voice wasn’t the strongest or most skillful, but it was the sweetest to my ears, and I know that his obedient singing was doubly pleasing to our Lord, who exults in selfless worship even more than in excellent music.11 . “Every Saint a Singer,” Ryanne Molinari, December 14, 2022, https://ryannemolinari.com/2022/12/14/every-saint-a-singer/.
Singing with other people can be awkward and even terrifying for those who lack a musical background. But while not all Christians are vocational musicians, every saint is called to sing (Eph. 5:19). If you don’t consider yourself musical, I pray that the following suggestions will help you participate in congregational singing with courage and joy.
Even the most beautiful music, without the right heart, is nothing more than noise (1 Cor. 13:1). Nobody can doubt from reading Scripture that God delights in skillful music-making (Ps. 33:3). And yet, the worship that glorifies him the most is characterized, first and foremost, by spiritual fruitfulness. In John 15:8, Jesus does not say, “By this my Father is glorified, that you sing with perfect pitch,” but rather, “that you bear much fruit.”
Not all Christians sing with natural talent, but by the power of the Spirit, we can all worship with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23).
Gathering for worship is a bit like going to the gym. It can be intimidating, but in reality, everyone is too focused on their workout to worry about how much you bench. Similarly, it is unlikely that others are paying you any negative attention during musical worship. If they are, it likely says more about their hearts than your voice. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “It is the struggle of the natural man for self-justification. He finds it only in comparing himself with others, in condemning and judging others. Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.”Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, trans. John W. Doberstein (HarperCollins Publishers, n.d.), 91. Notice how Bonhoeffer connects self-justification with comparison and justification by grace with charity. If someone is critical of you as you struggle to sing, he or she may not grasp the gospel-shaped heart of our worship, which is not based on how great we are in comparison to others, but on how gracious our God is.
It’s helpful to remember, too, that self-consciousness often springs from the same prideful root as comparison. Both indicate a heart focused on making much of itself—either by puffing up or by putting down. But the goal of worship is to make much of our all-worthy God (John 3:30). Not wanting to be heard as less-than-pitch-perfect by others may not come from the humility of self-forgetfulness but from the counterintuitive hubris of self-consciousness. When we gather for worship, our job is not to be overly concerned with ourselves or critical of others, but to “turn [our] eyes upon Jesus.”Helen Howarth Lemmel, “Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus | Hymnary.Org,” 1922, https://hymnary.org/text/o_soul_are_you_weary_and_troubled.
My favorite coffee mug as a college music major was emblazoned with the words, “Practice, Practice, Practice.” But you do not need to be a trained musician to practice singing. You might not be honing your vocal technique or studying with a master teacher, but you can apply these basic principles of musical practice: listening well, asking for help, stewarding your time, and preparing diligently.
The first step toward better music-making is listening well. If you do not feel ready to join in an unfamiliar song, commit to active listening. Hold its lyrics in your mind. Note where the tune drops and rises, when it is subdued and when it builds. Keep a list of songs so you can look them up later or ask your worship leader to share his or her go-to playlist with you. Throughout the week, make time to “practice.” Whether on your drive to work, while you do chores, or with your family in the evenings, prioritize listening and singing. The more you engage in musical worship throughout the week, the more comfortable you will be on Sunday. Then, on Sunday mornings, don’t just roll out of bed and into the pews: listen to your playlist while you get ready, talk or hum to warm up your voice, and pray that God would encourage your heart as you exalt his name.
When we feel self-conscious, we tend to slouch our shoulders, fold our arms, or hang our heads, but these positions are antithetical to comfortable vocalizing. You are called to sing, so you might as well stand like a singer. Roll your shoulders back, untangle your arms, and plant your feet hip-width apart—but keep your knees loose! Such posture prevents vocal tension and allows for deeper breathing, the first ingredient for strong singing. It may also be helpful to add subtle movements to further reduce tension, such as bending your knees slightly as the notes move higher.
Besides affecting our singing, how we sit or stand directly influences our mental and emotional state. When we sit hunched over and folded in on ourselves, our outward posture reflects and reinforces our internal feelings of awkwardness. But standing tall—as simple as it sounds—generates a sense of courage.Shwetha Nair et al., “Do Slumped and Upright Postures Affect Stress Responses? A Randomized Trial,” Health Psychology: Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association 34, no. 6 (2015): 632–41, https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000146. Stand with confidence; sing with confidence!
I am a lifelong musician. My husband is a lifelong athlete. I am exceedingly thankful that God calls his church to congregational singing rather than shooting hoops, but there is something profoundly beautiful in my husband’s worship. Singing is an activity that I understand and enjoy, but it is well outside my husband’s comfort zone. I invite you to consider whose worship most honors God: the musician who sings with complete ease or the nonmusician who sings dutifully through discomfort. God is certainly glorified by the giftedness of the one, but isn’t he also magnified by the selfless obedience of people like my dad and husband? Absolutely.
Take heart, struggling singer: you are offering our Lord a double portion in your obedient singing, so rejoice with whatever voice you have been given!
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Editor’s note: For more on this topic, see Ryanne J. Molinari’s book Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together (Crossway, 2025).
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