Harmony

"Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth."
-Psalm 96:1
      As you all already know, I love music. Music is one of those things that everyone can appreciate, regardless of who you are. Music is everywhere; it's in theater, movies, tv, grocery stores, elevators, and many other places as well. I already written extensively about music before, but today I want to focus on a particular style- acapella. For those of you who don't know what acapella is, it is a style of music where there are no instruments, just voices. Acapella music can be one melody, multiple harmonies, or when the voice replicates the sound of an instrument. In this post, I want to talk about acapella music where there are multiple harmonies.
      Why am I talking about acapella music? Recently our church has created an "official" vocal team, where a group of people sing acapella songs every now and then. As you may have guessed, I am a part of this team. Last Sunday we sang our first song together as this new group. If you have not heard acapella music before, I would highly recommend that you take a listen, because it is really special. After we sang that song on Sunday, I got a lot compliments regarding our song. The absence of instruments really emphasizes the harmony between voices, and it's something really special.
      Despite what it may seem, I am not writing this post just to praise how amazing acapella music is. I want to talk about harmony. What is harmony? In musical terms, it means a combination of notes that creates a specific arrangement called a chord. I could go on and on about the various kinds of harmonies, but that is not the point of this post. I want to talk about the other kind of harmony. Harmony's non-musical definition means agreement or concord.
       You may have noticed that the two definitions of harmony are actually similar in some regards. The way harmony is created in music, especially acapella music, is when two or more people work together to create a chord. A chord has a very pleasing sound, especially when it is sung well and together. The way harmony is created outside of music is when two or more people work together to create agreement between each other. In both cases, people must work together in order to create something that could not be created alone. They work together to create something greater than what they can do themselves.
      Many things in life are easier to accomplish if you work with someone else. The reason many people struggle with working with others is because they lack harmony. The just assume that harmony should be created, but they forget that it takes work. Everyone has to work together in order to create harmony. In music, if even one person sings the wrong note, the harmony is broken. I realized that the hardest thing to overcome when trying to achieve musical harmony is to do your part. If you do not practice your part, you will not be able to achieve harmony in the group. Many times, if you do not do your part, you will end up following someone else's part. However, everyone has to learn their own part, and contribute to the group's harmony.
      The same is true outside of music. Everyone has certain talents that God has given them, and they differ from each other. If people start following other people, they will waste their own talent. Everyone should contribute to the group in the way that God enables them. Creating something greater than yourself requires you to work together with others. The Bible speaks often of the importance of working together. This is because if everyone contributes in their own way, greater things can be accomplished. We are not called to live on our own, but to work together and create harmony.
-Smart