What Makes an Excellent Orthodox Church Musician?

It might not be what you expect.

by Katya Ermolaeva, Ph.D.

August 27, 2025

Photo description: A group of Orthodox church musicians singing in the nave (body) of the church.

I have sung in many, many Orthodox church choirs. I began singing in church at the age of eleven and became our choir director at sixteen. I earned my Certificate in Russian Orthodox Liturgical Music Conducting from the Synodal School of Liturgical Music in 2003 and I have served as an Orthodox music director for more than twenty-five years in three jurisdictions: the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Orthodox Church in America.

My formal musical training began with the flute, but in college I devoted more time to choral singing, earning my B.A. in Music and English. Inspired by the music history courses I took at the at the Synodal School, I went on to train as a musicologist in graduate school, where I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in Musicology.

I am a hybrid of two worlds: Western art music and Eastern Orthodox liturgical music.

Since April 2022, I have served as the Music Director at Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Church in Princeton, NJ, where I have been fostering the rare and distinctive practice of Orthodox congregational singing.

This ministry has made me reflect deeply on what church singing is, what makes a good church musician, and how I can encourage more people to participate in congregational singing.

Church Singing Is An Amateur Art

The first thing to understand about Orthodox church singing in the average North American suburban parish is this: it is, by and large, an amateur art.

By "amateur," I don't mean "unskilled" or "second-rate." It is "amateur" in the sense that one does not need formal musical training to be an excellent church musician. Some of the best church musicians I know have had no formal musical training at all—that is, no piano lessons, no voice lessons, no music theory lessons.

So what makes these "amateur" church musicians so good? In my experience, they share three essential qualities:

1. They Know the Tradition

The foundation of excellent church musicianship is simple: immersion in tradition. The best singers have attended many, many church services where the singing is done well. They understand the rhythm and flow of the service. They internalize the hymns and the 8-Tone System through consistent exposure to ritual.

If you attend church regularly, you are half way there.

2. They Have a Good Ear

Excellent church musicians can match pitch and sing along with a melody. With practice, they are able to pick out their starting pitch from the choir director. They are able to sing in tune with the person standing next to them on the same part. Eventually, they are able to sing in harmony with their neighbors who are singing a different part. This can take years of practice.

The best church musicians possess the invaluable skill of relative pitch. Relative pitch (as opposed to perfect pitch) is when a musician can sing in consistent intervals (e.g., a third above or a fifth below) with another singer, no matter the key. (In contrast, perfect pitch is when a singer can accurately reproduce a pitch exactly as it appears on the page: if they see an A written on the page, they will sing an A perfectly, etc.) Basic Orthodox church music follows a consistent patterns of four-part harmony, inherited from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century conventions of four-part writing in the Russian Orthodox Church:

• Bass part: sings the foundation (tonic)

• Tenor part: sings the fifth (dominant)

• Alto part: usually sings the melody/chant (on the tonic)

• Soprano part: usually sings a third above the alto (on the submediant)

Experienced church musicians instinctively navigate this structure and are able to find their place in the harmony because they have superb relative pitch.

3. They Stay Humble

Last but not least, excellent church musicians have humility. They know when to sing and when to stay silent and let others sing (if they don't know the music). They know that their obedience is to the choir director, whose obedience is to the priest, whose obedience is to God. Good choir members will sing quietly and imitate others until they learn the music better themselves and can sing more confidently. They are willing to hear criticism and they work hard to fix their mistakes.

A Note on Formal Musical Training

Does formal music training help? Absolutely. Understanding a little bit about music theory––how rhythm, pitches, chords and harmony work––will improve your church musicianship substantially. But it is not essential.

In fact, strict adherence to Western musical training can actually be a hindrance to church singing, because many rules of Western music are broken in traditional Orthodox church singing. Quite often, the music is not sung exactly how it is written on the page: it is not always sung in the key written on the page (rather, the director will pitch it in a range that is comfortable for the singers that he/she has on hand). Note values are not always executed exactly as they are written––a half note is not always equivalent to two quarter notes. Much of the tradition depends on memorization: knowledge of how it is always sung or how the chant tone is structured.

This leads me to my last point:

Orthodox Church Singing is primarily an oral tradition.

Ultimately, Orthodox church singing is best understood as an oral tradition––passed down through experience and repeated exposure to the ritual rather than through formal musical training. You do not need to read music to be an excellent church musician. What matters most is attending church regularly, singing alongside those who know the tradition well, and receiving guidance and mentorship from bearers of the tradition.

This is why a choir member who has attended services faithfully for years is a much more competent Orthodox church musician than the conservatory-trained vocalist who steps into your kliros (church choir) for the first time.

I have witnessed this many times: professional musicians with little exposure to Orthodox singing often struggle when joining an Orthodox church choir because the the practice of liturgical singing differs quite dramatically from how Western art music operates. We often don't sing in the key written on the page (much to the irritation of musicians with perfect pitch); note values are not always sung as written (a lot of Orthodox music is unmetered); and so much of church singing is done by ear, based on the pitch of the intoning priest or deacon, or on the pitches of those standing around you.

Final Encouragement

So if you have never studied music formally but feel drawn to join an Orthodox church choir––don't be intimidated. What you need most is exposure to tradition. Attend as many services as possible. Develop your ear by listening closely. Work on singing in tune with a competent church musician standing next to you. If possible, take music theory lessons or church music lessons with trained professionals. Formal music training will certainly improve your skills and competency, but immersion in the tradition is the true key to becoming an excellent Orthodox church musician.