The Peak of Inspiration

Times have changed.  When I was young, all the boys wanted to sing bass.  A low voice confirmed your masculinity.  Bass was in abundant supply.  Maybe it was just my perception which was skewed because of my own desires.  Maybe it was specific to the location I grew up in.  But it seems to me, then and now, that a bass voice was more desirable than, say, a lead or tenor one.

For the last fifteen or twenty years though, it seems like the tables have turned.  Everyone wants to lead.  Get a group together, maybe a wedding choir or some other group song, and you have to ask for everyone that can possibly sing bass to raise their hand, and even then it will be just barely enough.  No problem with lead, everyone would prefer that.  Have times changed?  Have the bass genes been sorted out and discarded?  Where did the bass singers go?  Deep questions…

Bass does something for a song that, well, nothing else can.  Listening to a firm, strong bass will cause your soul to start beating time when it otherwise would remain still.  Bass gives the song a foundation.  It gives it contrast.  And depth.  Find a strong bass singer and your options open up tremendously.  Without that, half your songs have to be revised, or eliminated. 

Solo singing is like a bouncy house.  Just one good wind away from disaster.  Any distraction or misstep and everything collapses.  Duet is a step better, but it’s tough to find the right partner for that.  You gotta get it about right to make it work.  Trio is nicer still.  Compare it to a pretty cottage.  Soft harmony, gentle notes, easy rhythm.  But add bass, and you have a castle.  You’ve got substance.  You’ve got a song that can stand a few distractions.  It’ll last.  It’s solid.  Bass singers do that.  The contribute confidence and strength.

Please don’t misunderstand me.  I love trio singing and even the odd duet.  Some songs just aren’t built for bass.  In some instances, bass would ruin a song.  But usually that’s the exception, not the rule. 

I’ve known a few bass singers in my life.  Men that fit and defined the role.  Whose lives were a demonstration of what bass does for a song.  I was privileged to call one of them Uncle.  Another I called Dad. 

One thing about these bass singers, they aren’t the ones that take home the compliments.  People don’t notice a bass singer until he’s not there.  Then they wonder what is missing.  Why didn’t the song touch the deep places?  Where was the throb?  Show me a bass singer, and I’ll show you a man that is ok with being on the bottom, almost out of sight.  Unnoticed and many times unappreciated.  Just being the foundation that others can build on.  Establishing a reference, a bottom.  Not loud.  It’s hard to sing bass with a lot of volume.  Leading where necessary, but preferring to support and hold up everyone above them. 

And maybe that says everything that needs saying about the times we live in.  We don’t want to be on the bottom.  We want to be in the front, at the lead.  Doing the visible work.  Singing with the loudest voice.  We want to be the supported, not the supporter.  Being the one with the coveted talent.  And speaking of talents, maybe God gives the bass gift to the ones that earn it.  Bestows that on them because of their humble spirit and willingness to sing the bottom line.  And then He turns around and used that gift to show us how they add depth to our lives, and how their presence gives us a foundation. 

And maybe that is why, when they are gone, we struggle for a while to find our notes.  Our song is gone.  When it does come, it’s a little off pitch.  It sounds like something is missing.  Because something is.  It’s the Bass.  The rich, mellow, soft, deep, quiet, resonating bass. 

So for the bass singers out there, Thank You for singing your line.  For taking the low notes.  You add a valuable dimension to our singing.  Please don’t leave.  But if you do, know this.  We miss you. 

But I suppose Heaven likes bass too…