Worship leaders, have you ever realized in the middle of a song that you were taking an invisible set of pliers to your congregation's vocal cords? Well, I've been meaning to link to this post by writer/worship leader Bob Kauflin, which has some very practical suggestions for finding singing-friendly keys for your worship set.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

Slower songs with a narrow range (less than an octave) can work fine in lower keys because they don't require as much energy. So "Here I am to Worship" (range of a 5th) could be done in C, D, or E. On the other hand, uptempo songs naturally require more energy and people can often belt out the higher notes without a problem.

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The widest range a song will go is usually an octave and a fifth, the same range as The Star Spangled Banner. In those cases, I opt for a range of G to D or A to E. Shout to the Lord is an octave and a fourth, so A is a good key, although it can also be done in Bb.

One of Kauflin's readers pitches in the term ...