Lomax has made the case that the African-American influences in music stress participation as opposed to the Anglo penchant for solo singing. Growing up in jazz,
I like the idea of participation in music. I also see that sometimes it gets in the way of
an individual expressing themselves for an audience.

The question is not when "not" to sing but when to sing. I think that if you went to a Shakespeare play, even if you knew it from the beginning to the end you would not mumble along unless you were Winston Churchill. (See Burton's Hamlet and the backstage appearance of Churchill). On the other hand, how can you not want to participate in a rousing spiritual that everyone knows?

"To everything there is a season....a time to sing and a time to not sing" to paraphrase Pete and Ecclesiastes.

Frank