Songwriting

Should Worship Songwriters Be As Inspired By Creation As By God’s Word?

April 23, 2013 by Editor 5 Comments

canyon

Bobby Gilles from My Song In The Night and Sojourn Music shares this insightful post.

Since all of creation declares the glory of God, everywhere you go can inspire a song. And our churches are full of songs that praise the God of beautiful sunrises, waterfalls, snowcapped mountains and other natural wonders. Perhaps the most famous current worship song of this nature is the anthem “Indescribable,” which Laura Story wrote after being inspired while driving her car through a mountain range: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting, Worship Arts

How To Write A Worship Song In 5 Minutes (Humor)

February 4, 2013 by Editor 7 Comments

The siblings over at BlimeyCow.com put together this video and we think you’ll find it entertaining. Especially if you write songs for worship! You’ll learn the magic chord progression and how to create memorable lyrics that folks can sing along to! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting, Worship Arts, Worship Leadership Tagged With: humor, songwriting, worship

Songwriting: What Rhetorical Device Can Martin Luther King Jr Teach Songwriters?

January 21, 2013 by Editor 21 Comments

Originally published by Bobby Gilles at MySongInTheNight.com (republished with permission).

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the great figures in U.S. history: a skilled orator, passionate preacher and principled civil rights advocate. He should also be required reading (and listening) for all poets, songwriters and hymnodists. Rich poetic and rhetorical devices fill his speeches and sermons, stamping them indelibly on our collective conscious. Let’s look at one technique today, from his “I Have A Dream” speech.

Songwriting: Three False Reasons To Label Your Song A Hymn

October 8, 2012 by Editor 9 Comments

Thanks to Bobby Giles of My Song In The Night, for sharing these great insights about writing hymns. You can view another great article titled, What Makes A Worship Song A Hymn, for more detailed information on what actually indeed makes a hymn a hymn.

1) Inversion

Inversion happens when you invert the natural grammatical order of a phrase or sentence (subject-verb-object). The Stars Wars character Yoda does this, as do many poets and hymn writers. It’s an accepted poetic construct, and when used in moderation it can give your lyrics a timeless, classic, beautiful feel. But it’s ridiculous when overused. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting, Worship Arts Tagged With: hymns, songwriting

10 Tips for Co-writing

August 9, 2012 by Editor 18 Comments

Thanks to Matthew Reed & Becki Ryan for sharing these tips with The Worship Community!

1. Be Prepared

There are many steps to be prepared for a co-write. Bringing an idea is definitely one of them, but I believe the best asset you can bring to a co-write is hours of writing on your own. Yes, you can practice writing. There are tons of exercises out there and simply writing a certain number of songs per week will help bring a regiment to your skill.

I heard Tony Wood say one time, “I don’t write when I am inspired, I write to be inspired.” More importantly, a lifestyle of prayer and being in the Word will help prepare you with ideas and inspiration to draw from.

3 Guidelines For Developing A Musical Sound For Your Worship Team

July 2, 2012 by Editor 10 Comments

Photo above courtesy Chuck Heeke: Kristen Gilles & Brooks Ritter leading worship at Sojourn Church, Midtown campus

Gospel, country, rock, bluegrass … modern churches have a big palette of musical styles from which to choose. Which one is right for your church? Should you restrict yourself to one? How do you decide?

A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work because churches are all different, with different histories, locales, congregants and musicians. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting Tagged With: genres, musical sound, style

Practical Resource: Planning For A Successful Record

May 4, 2012 by Editor 14 Comments

Thanks to Matthew Reed for sharing this insight with us at TWC.

This is my short and condensed version of how to make a successful record from the planning stages to the release date! Take everything I say as my opinion only and not the rule. These steps are just practical steps to help you in the process of recording your first or next record. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting, Worship Arts, Worship Leadership, Worship Planning Tagged With: album, matthew reed, planning, record, Writing

5 Reasons To Use Liturgical Music In Your Contemporary Service

January 30, 2012 by Editor 16 Comments

Republished with permission from Alex Mejias. Originally published at HighStreetHymns.com.

As a person who grew up in the age of CCM and “contemporary” worship, I had little exposure to traditional liturgies and “liturgical music.” I think the closest we came to using anything liturgical was when sang the Doxology (the “Old Hundredth”) as traveling music for the ushers after the offering. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure that was the original intention of Thomas Ken, who penned those words back in the late 17th Century.

It wasn’t until after college that I had my first really full experience of traditional liturgy in spoken word and song. I had always had this image of stuffy Catholic services where people were being brainwashed to mindlessly repeat prayers and creeds. I never imagined that what I would find would be this giant collection of the most thoughtful and beautiful expressions of faith I’d ever encountered. I had been missing so much. Now I want to help churches find what I found and see meaningful ways to incorporate these prayers and songs into their worship. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting, Worship Arts, Worship Leadership, Worship Planning Tagged With: contemporary service, history, liturgical music, liturgy, songs, worship

REVIEW: Reuben Bidez – the Signs of God

January 26, 2012 by Shannon Lewis 8 Comments

Reuben Bidez The Signs of God
(Independent)

In all honesty, you may not be ready for this.

Following his big, anthemic, modern rock, corporate worship CD, GENERATION, Reuben – an Atlanta-based worship artist – felt a tug on his soul to do something quite a bit different with this project. Fans of Gungor, take note: though THE SIGNS OF GOD sounds nothing like Gungor, that same stretched feeling you got when first challenged by Gungor’s unorthodox take on worship resides here as well, for many reasons. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Music Reviews, Reviews, Songwriting, Worship Arts, Worship Theology Tagged With: Jesus in the Qur'an, Messianic Muslim, New Music, Reuben Bidez, review, the signs of god, worship

Worship Songwriting: What is the GQ (God Quotient) of Our Worship Songs?

January 25, 2012 by Editor 30 Comments

Thanks to Mark Snyder for sharing this great approach with TWC. Not only is it a great practical approach to writing worship song lyrics, it’s also a great way to analyze our Sunday Setlists.

Worship songs are an area of vastly differing opinions. Evaluating what works and what doesn’t can be very subjective. One sentiment I hear and read all the time is ‘let’s take the focus off of us, or I, or me, and put it on God, where it belongs.’ In many ways, this is a push back on the effects of a ‘generation me’ culture. But, to figure out why a song leaves this impression is not as easy as it sounds.

As a career software engineer who is also a worship songwriter, I try to allow my analytical side to influence what I do musically. When I am songwriting or considering songs for my set list or recording projects, I like to think in terms of an analytical measure of a song I call the God Quotient (or GQ for short). GQ is a way to look at a song and try to evaluate its real focus. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Recent Articles, Songwriting, Worship Arts Tagged With: analysis, god quotient, Lyrics, songwriting