TWCSW Feb. Lord, I Come

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Here are the words I have written for this project. I am looking for a collaborator.

The words capture the essence of the entire psalm. The verses I drew from specifically are Psalm 31:1,2,4,16,19,20,22,23

The finished version, and the chord chart are on posts 21 and 22. Scroll down to find them And please post your feedback. Tom

LORD, I COME
words by Tom Kline

1.
O Lord, I come to you for protection
You are the One who rescues me
And when I follow your direction
You deliver me from the enemy

Chorus
Your goodness is so great!
Your love is never-failing
You store up great blessings
For those who honor you

2.
You hide me in your holy presence
You shield me from my enemy
So let your face shine on your servant
And in your love, come set me free

Bridge
Bend down and listen
Rescue me quickly
Be my rock of safety
A fortress from the enemy

Tag
Praise the Lord
Love the Lord
Praise the Lord
Love the Lord

FEEDBACK, PLEASE

[pian0dude]

Do you have a general preference on tempo/feel of this?

-Brian

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Brian, thanks for your interest. To me this is a medium-paced song. More mellow than heavy, if that makes sense. Just do what you feel led to do. If God gave me the words, and he gives you the music, who can argue with that?

I have some music for it in my head, but alas, I don't play the guitar or keyboard, and I'm just learning how to use the garage band on my new mac.

Tom

[david_d_lindner]

Hey tom, good work on cranking this lyric out. My two cents would be, it would be nice to see the title line in there another time or two. Since you didn't use it in the chorus, maybe you could use it to start each verse, and possibly work it in the bridge again too. Take it or leave it.

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

David, thanks for your feedback. As I sing this over in my head, v1 gets repeated after the bridge.
I'll think about your suggestion and see what comes ...

[pian0dude]

Tom,

Here is a base of what came to me in reading your lyrics.

Let me know what you think. If you like it, I might suggest working on the meter of some of the lyrics in verse 2 so that it'd fit comfortably to the flow/feel posted here.

-Brian

[chipshot0701]

after reading your lyrics i feel a waltz beat with strings in the background. Yeah, a waltz beat sounds right as i sing the verses.


I have not listened to pianodudes mp3 file yet tho.

Maybe I can tinker with it tonight at home and record something down too.

Its a nice piece better be right? after all its inspired.

[pian0dude]

Tom,

Here is a base of what came to me in reading your lyrics.

Let me know what you think. If you like it, I might suggest working on the meter of some of the lyrics in verse 2 so that it'd fit comfortably to the flow/feel posted here.

-Brian

Tom, so I modified the lyric slightly in my MP3 sample. Also, the harmonies were a 1 take job, so don't expect anything spectacular ;-)

I also tried to let you hear a place where the "Lord I Come" lyric might fit as one of the other posters mentioned a desire to hear it repeat somewhere in the song.

-Brian

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Brian, sounds great. I look forward to hearing the whole song!


Here is a rewrite of verse 2:

You hide me in the shelter of your presence
You shield me from my enemy
Let your face shine on your servant
In your awesome love, come and set me free

Also, the tag I put on, "Praise the Lord, love the Lord," although found in the psalm, don't really fit the feel of the song. It might work better to end with some ad-lib of "Lord I come."

See how that works.
Tom :)

[pian0dude]

Tom,

Will try to work something out over the next day or so with the second verse and bridge.

Do you like the overall feel that I'm going for here?

-Brian

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Brian, go for it. Yes, i like what you have done so far. Look forward to hearing all of it!
Thanks for working with me.
Tom

[pian0dude]

Tom,

As I'm working on this, there is one lyric I'm struggling with, to be honest. I also sang it for my wife and she too was confused by it.

"Bend down and listen"

We found ourselves asking "does God need to bend down to hear us". I typically use other, non-musical type critique as valuable input as to how the congregation would respond to something often.

Could the thought be communicated by singing something like:

1. Oh Lord please help me
2. Oh Lord I'm asking

Or some other lyric that doesn't necessarily point to God needing to do something on our behalf?

I may be misunderstanding the lyric altogether, thus my post.

-Brian

[pian0dude]

Tom,

As I'm working on this, there is one lyric I'm struggling with, to be honest. I also sang it for my wife and she too was confused by it.

"Bend down and listen"

We found ourselves asking "does God need to bend down to hear us". I typically use other, non-musical type critique as valuable input as to how the congregation would respond to something often.

Could the thought be communicated by singing something like:

1. Oh Lord please help me
2. Oh Lord I'm asking

Or some other lyric that doesn't necessarily point to God needing to do something on our behalf?

I may be misunderstanding the lyric altogether, thus my post.

-Brian

Ok, in reading a different translation of the Psalm, I see "turn your ear to me". So I understand where this lyric is coming from. I'm just trying to brainstorm and see if we can communicate the same thought or desire without necessarily portraying something different to the listener. I totally understand where you are coming from with the lyric, but I have certain popular worship tunes out there that have some lyrics that I just don't jive with well and others thing are amazing lyrically.. so, just my two cents.

[pian0dude]

Tom,

Here is the newest recording of the song. I'd say this is pretty close to as finished as it will get at this stage.

Let me know your thoughts.

I have to be honest.. it's not just because i did the music, but I'm walking around my house singing this at the top of my lungs tonight. ;-)

[chipshot0701]

I tried a waltz beat but didn't like it too much. This is what I liked best. This is on one take of each instrument-lead guitar clean, lead guitar dirty, bass and drums. I had to play with the vocals and do three or four takes.
The over all song ended up at about 5 minutes..... but it worships well.

[chipshot0701]

After I posted my version on hear I listened to Pianodudes awesome version! I can see why pianodude is walking around singing this at the top of his lungs. Its really really great!

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Chip, thanks for your work in coming up with a version of this. Please don't be offended when I say I like pianOdude's version better.

Brian, love it!
The "bend down and listen" is how the New Living Translation says v2 of the psalm. The idea, from all translations is, listen to me, God; please pay attention to my request. It is a human request for something that God is already doing.
I'll give it some thought. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
Tom

[pian0dude]

Hey there,

Thanks for the positive feedback on the musical arrangement of Lord I Come.

Tom, would you say this one is a keeper then?

It was fun collaborating on this.

Could you picture a congregation singing along to this after being taught how it goes?

Praise God!

-Brian

[pian0dude]

I will try to brush up / polish the lower harmony track a bit before we classify this as finished. The notes are off in spots and I accidentally said "my enemy" instead of "the enemy". I should be able to have it sometime this week.

-Brian

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Yes, I can see this as a keeper, but I'm prejudiced. Let's have some feedback from some of you who have been watching from afar. :)

Since you did this on a piano, how hard would it be to come up with a chord chart for those who would use guitar/band? It would be helpful to them.

As for me, a piano score would be a great asset, too. Not asking too much, am I?

Tom

[pian0dude]

Tom / All,

As requested, here is a chord chart for the musical/melody arrangement I have put together for Tom's lyrics.

The current recording (http://soundcloud.com/pian0dude/lord-i-come-psalm-31) is in the key of G.

Any/all feedback is welcome.

God Bless,
Brian

[pian0dude]

Here is the latest version of Lord I Come. I added in an echo track in parts and also tweaked the lower harmony to remove some sour notes from before and even an incorrect word.

God Bless You,

-Brian

[russhutto]

Sounds great guys! I think this is a great recording/version of this tune!

Wonderful collaboration!

[pian0dude]

Thanks for the feedback Russ! Appreciate it. What is going to be done with the submissions that are made or is it just a discipleship / encouragement exercise?

[russhutto]

Great question.

We're going to bunch them all together and ask all the participants top pick at least one other song to introduce at their home worship gatherings.

The goal of this exercise is:

1) to get you all writing
2) to get you all sharing
3) to get you all using

So hopefully as we do an assignment each month, you'll each contribute (challenging yourselves to grow in your writing) but you'll also glean and use these songs and there will be some cross-pollination at a grass roots level going on.

[webebo]

Tom,

Sorry for not commenting on this earlier. But the thing that caught my attention on your lyrics when I first read them was the poetic flow of the wording. I love it.

I have downloaded the chord chart and mp3. I will give a shot on my guitar in the next day or two and let you guys know how it flows with a guitar, since that is what I lead with.

I will let you know.

[Smitty]

Tom...GREAT job with the lyrics! This song is VERY singable. The rhyme sceme is spot on.

Brian...EXCELLENT music! The song flows well, and again...VERY singable. Really great job on the lead and harmony vocals.

My only beef is that I hear no tasty bluesy electric guitar fills...this song just cries for them.

That aside...BIG winner here!

Smitty

PS - I can play this on acoustic guitar quite easily. It sounds GOOD!

[matreames]

Tom...GREAT job with the lyrics! This song is VERY singable. The rhyme sceme is spot on.

Brian...EXCELLENT music! The song flows well, and again...VERY singable. Really great job on the lead and harmony vocals.

My only beef is that I hear no tasty bluesy electric guitar fills...this song just cries for them.

That aside...BIG winner here!

Smitty

PS - I can play this on acoustic guitar quite easily. It sounds GOOD!

I am going to echo Smitty's sentiment here. I have been listening to a Worship Leader from Colorado this morning, Jeremy Burk and his music seems similar in its 'flow' but he leads from an Electric and has a good blues/jazz mix to his stuff. Myself being a guitar player and knowing nothing of the Piano, I have been trying to fit this to my guitar, as I play along with the mp3 I find myself more working on blues fills than learning the song. That assures me this is pretty catchy. Well in you two, well in.

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Smitty, it's good to have you back on here. Your voice has been missed.

To reply to both you and Matt: Brian, who wrote the music, is a pianist, so his version is with a piano.

So when you do this song, with your church band, make it sound how you want. That's really what this songwriting challenge is about; to write songs for others to use in their own worship and in their churches.

I'm glad you like the song, and hope it will be used for God's glory.
Tom

[webebo]

Great song. Plays on guitar very well. Bridge for me is a little tricky on the timing, the second line, for me, plays smoother with a quicker start. Not as crazy about the echo effect, but still a great song, lyrics and music.

[pian0dude]

thanks for all the feedback guys/gals. I'm glad this is one that people can imagine hearing other things, etc... I would love it if when these songs are done at other churches, a recording of it be posted back on these threads so we can hear how they came out.

It is true, I'm a pianist, so you don't hear any guitar stuff, because I can't play guitar :-)

The echo was put in just as a different "flavor" of the same song to make it sound a little more modernized, I'm not big in to echoes either, just thought it sounded kinda cool when I was putting the original recording together.