Oh, how I shudder at the thought...

Not too long ago, Jeffrey Tucker over at the Chant Café blog wrote a bit on those terrible teenage bands who make a loud noise each Sunday and seem to be scattered all around the world. To my great embarrassment, I can recall my own involvement in such a group. Firstly, here's a snip of what Mr Tucker says:

Of course they have no idea what they are doing. No one has ever discussed with them anything about the musical demands of the Roman Rite. They know nothing about the proper orientation for making music at Mass. The liturgical calender is an abstraction. Terms like propers or dialogues are gibberish to them. Most of the players can’t even read music. To them it is an opportunity to see and be seen, a weekly talent gig, and they probably don’t mind it that people give them credit for their service to the parish.

The pastor and celebrant don’t like it any more than anyone else. But the parents of these kids are important people in the parish. The band doesn’t charge any money for their services, such as they are.

Sadly, this somewhat describes my own experience. I played keyboard, so I was the one who had to learn the actual tune. The other two just needed to either learn the chord sequence (i.e. super easy) or the drum beat (cringe!!). The whole experience was awful and, as you may have gathered, had a traumatic psychological effect on me.

This man seems to be happy playing the guitar. No such joy for me or my two friends, or the congregation, for that matter.

 
There were other reasons why the whole thing was terrible, not just the fact that the music was atrocious and messed up the whole thing. Mass no longer seemed about God - we were too preoccupied with ourselves and whether the amp was at the right settings. The (justified) disapproving looks from the congregation one Sunday upset me so much that I thankfully refused to carry on with it. I also protested that I had all the work to do (in my mind learning a chord sequence or a simple drum beat was much easier than learning a tune).
We were trying to fit a jigsaw piece from a Disney jigsaw puzzle for 5 year olds into a 5000-piece puzzle of the Sistine Chapel. It just didn't fit and was totally inappropriate.
I like to think this was God's way of making a point to me, namely that keyboards, drums and guitars are NOT suited to Catholic liturgy and that music should lift people to God. Somehow, I don't imagine singing Gregorian chant is nearly as distracting for the choir as strumming a guitar or playing drums is for those who play them at Mass. I can't even remember praying at those Masses I played at.