Gospel music in Northern Ghana for some time now has not been valued as much as it should. Our gospel music needs to win the attention of Ghanaians not for our own fame but for impact. Not for money but to liberate many. We produce music for people to hear and feel the impact but if we do not get this right, people will not have the urge to listen to our gospel music and harvest the impact. Northpraise outline 5 core actions to be considered by northern gospel musicians to improve our gospel music.
1. Rehearse much.
It is not everyone that is a good musician or even a musician. Some people argue that singing or playing an instrument is a gift. That might be true but the gift needs to be polished. Singing/playing an instrument can really be a gift but the elements of music are practiced. Moreover, gospel musicians mostly perform with a band and this band needs to coordinate to produce something pleasant. Rehearsal will put the singer, backing vocalists and instrumentalists on the same level. Rehearsals will increase your vocal range a singer and make you sound nicer. If everyone will bear with me, we do not give quality time for rehearsals. We feel content with what we already know and do not want to learn more. As a recording artist, it is necessary you rehearse thoroughly to spice up your songs to make people crave for them. Rehearsal will build your confidence when you are ministering because you would have become conversant with what you are coming to do on stage.
2. Invest in what they do.
Gospel is the music genre that suffers most when it comes to finances especially in Northern Ghana. People feel they should not pay to listen to gospel music forgetting that you do not go to a studio to record a song and pay the engineer with “GOD BLESS YOU” or you do not organize a program and get free gadgets because it’s gospel music. This deductively does not mean gospel musicians should get paid but men in God’s kingdom should always cushion these musicians by helping the out of dept. These musicians live in societies that if they become poor because of the gospel, people will question their faith and the power of their God.
For the fear of these occurrences, musicians fail to invest into our gospel music. We invest little time in rehearsals, little money in the production of songs and videos so we come out with a lot of substandard songs and videos, little energy in creativity when it comes to composing songs, developing concepts for our videos and organizing live programs and these are the reasons why our own people do not want to patronize our songs.
Hereof, all gospel musicians should try and invest ample time, money and energy into what they are do. I assure musicians, if you are able to come out with just 3 standard projects/contents, you will have people loving your music and requesting to support you. Northerners believe that, the child climbing the good tree is the one that is pushed to climb. In time past, Northern Ghana gospel musicians were not consistent in their endeavor so people had fears of helping them. Give people the reason to believe that you have come to stay and they will support you.
3. Do more collaborations.
We have not realized Northern gospel musician doing a lot of collaborations. It is better when it comes to live programs but so abysmal when it comes to studio recorded songs. To be able to get our music to other regions in Northern Ghana, we should feature musicians that are doing well in those regions. It will help sell our music in those regions too and at large make God’s kingdom great. We are yet to identify the power of collaboration.
4. Get more active on social media.
The main tool of promoting music nowadays is social media. All musicians are supposed to have social media handles and consistently update them with activities. The promotion of gospel music is quite different from secular music therefore, Northern gospel musicians should be skeptical in how they will be managing their social media handle. We need to promoting one another on social media by liking, commenting and sharing post of other musicians to let the public know that we are united.
5. Reading the word of God and praying.
Every type of song has a message it carries. Our type of songs is Gospel because it carries the message of Jesus, salvation and spirituality (the word of God). Fellow musicians, you cannot give what you do not have. If you do not have the message (word) of God, you cannot give it to people who will listen to your songs. This message of God will be acquired through reading the word of God. Reading the word of God will help you compose songs that conform to scripture.
Prayers will help you break barriers and keep your spirit actively tune to God. Your songs will carry the power it requires to have and perform what is require of them.
Let all gospel musicians practice this to see our gospel music take its rightful place.
Author: Northpraise
