Looking for fresh musical arrangments

for Christmas carols.
Any ideas?
Thanks

The bane of every worship leader - "Do we have to do these straight again this year?" - especially when you're a guitar driven group.

We've messed with classic carols in the past and had some work out really well with the band ("O Come, O Come Emmanuel" done in a rockabilly/secret agent man fashion, for example) only to have the Pastor say to the congregation, "I hope I never have to hear that one that way again" (we're a very diverse congregation and folks seemed to be split 50/50 on it - we've kept it straight since). What I've found is that, with my congregation at least, after 7 years of trying to put our mark on songs it's best to do them as straight as possible for times when the congregation is singing along and save special music times for the newer songs and funky arrangements. We've taken the typically organ led carols and given them a little more edge and drive, but the arrangement has been straight because if you mess with it too much then people can't sing it, and people want to sing Christmas carols.

So now we may speed things up a little, "countrify" a song like "Go Tell It On The Mountain" one week and then do it with a bluesy soul feel ala The Blind Boys of Alabama the next, but it's still fairly straight and with a feel that folks are used to singing to.

Christmas song church sing-a-long. Play it straight get the piano player to play the parts out of the hymn book.

New arrangement? Get the kids to sing more. Never underestimate the cute factor.

Bob

I put my mark on almost everything I do as special music, and no one expects me to play anything straight by the book, but I agree if you want the whole crowd to sing along there are limits on how far you can take it.

You can get away with swinging up the beat to a certian extent, and can also get away with some fresh sounding chord substitutions, but the cadence of the phrasing and the melody itself sort of needs to be preserved or you will start losing people.

Sometimes all it takes is a change of meter to shake up the arrangement a little. If a song is normally a straight 4/4, try it as a shuffle. Or if it's normally in 6/8 or 12/8, try a straight 2/4 or 4/4. Of course, it doesn't make sense to get too carried away re-arranging a song you'll only play once a year.

One of the old school things you can do with a stock arrangement in a more modern environment is add a sort of descant trumpet like lead guitar part to play over the top.

I have a few pet descants I have used over the years, but I have a bud with book after book of descants for almost every published classical or sacred melody out there. He's really into this and is always looking for chances to do it, when it works it can really be cool.

Bob's right; make those slacker keyboard players carry it once in a while!!
Christmas is an excellent opportunity for keyboard players to shine, and kids and those "special" singers to sing.