TWCSW Feb Lord of My Refuge (Psalm 31)

[russhutto]

So here's my contribution to the pool! Hope you all like.

The intro stinks. No excuses. i just stunk it up.

The lyrics and melody are what I'd like you to focus on. NOT the production or instrumentation! I had some fun with this one. Added in some mandolin and even some autotune on the voice...Yeah I know. But I like doing things to rock the boat a little...so I had to use autotune because it's the last thing anybody would want combined with an acoustic guitar and mandolin driven song.

Anyways, I chose to use the verses to focus on the negative aspects of the Psalm. The prechorus moves into the "prayer" to God aspect of the song. And the chorus (hopefully) is the payoff. Where the negative tension and prayer are resolved.

Thoughts?

PDF CHART HERE FOR DOWNLOAD

Listen here: russhutto - Lord of My Refuge (Psalm 31) - SoundCloud

Lyrics/Chords (usually forums compress chord spacing so you can DL the chart for accurate chords):

Lord of My Refuge
2009 Russ Hutto

(Verse 1)
Em
When darkness surrounds
Cadd9
Terror abounds
Asus7
Enemies gain ground
Em
When death is calling
C2
Hope is stalling
Asus7
And night is falling down

(Prechorus)
D C
May my heart find peace in You
G
Let my soul take refuge
D C
May my trust be found in You
G
Let my hope be in You

Chorus
G Em
You will shine, Lord of time
Am Em D
Lord of the future, Lord of my rescue
G Em
You will shine, Lord of Light
Am Em D Em (Em C Em C)
Lord of protection, Lord of my refuge

(Verse 2)
Through darkness scheming
Danger teeming
Tear drops streaming

Through times of grieving
And friends leaving
And foes deceiving

(Chorus 2x)

(Bridge)
D C
May my heart find peace in You
D C
May my trust be found in You (2x) (Chorus 2x)

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

As I've said about all the Psalm 31 songs-- I love how God is showing each of us something different about the psalm.

This one is very singable and easy to follow. And straight from the scripture.
Good job, Russ.

BTW, I noticed you put a link to this onto your FB page. How do you do that? I'd like to put my collaboration with pianOdude, "Lord I Come," on FB.

[david_d_lindner]

Hey Russ, Diggin this one. I could actually hear you goin a little different direction with the arr. - maybe with some sweet b3 through the verses. (that could just be because I'm a keys player)

The two things I'd say are, it would be a little refreshing for the second half of each verse to go do a different vowel for the rhyme instead of staying with the 'ing' the whole time, maybe towards something with a long 'A' since you didn't use anything along those lines elsewhere.

The other thing would be on the melody on the last line of the 2nd verse, I'd hang on to the word foes a little longer and make the de of deceiving a 16th note or a swung 8th note to smooth that out a bit.

Not sure how much critique you wanted here, but those are my thoughts. (It might be cool to have levels of critique that are standards that we can all go by. They do that on another forum I'm on, and it's helpful to know how nit-picky we can be)

[russhutto]

Originally Posted by Wannabe a Worshiper

As I've said about all the Psalm 31 songs-- I love how God is showing each of us something different about the psalm.

This one is very singable and easy to follow. And straight from the scripture.
Good job, Russ.

BTW, I noticed you put a link to this onto your FB page. How do you do that? I'd like to put my collaboration with pianOdude, "Lord I Come," on FB.

Thanks for the kind words, Tom. My goal in writing worship is "singable" so I love when people latch on quickly.

I have uploaded songs to my website and then just copied and pasted thar URL into the status at facebook. If you've got an mp3 you could upload it to soundcloud.com (that's also where I store some of my music stuff) and then link to it from there.

Thanks!

[russhutto]

Originally Posted by david_d_lindner

Hey Russ, Diggin this one. I could actually hear you goin a little different direction with the arr. - maybe with some sweet b3 through the verses. (that could just be because I'm a keys player)

The two things I'd say are, it would be a little refreshing for the second half of each verse to go do a different vowel for the rhyme instead of staying with the 'ing' the whole time, maybe towards something with a long 'A' since you didn't use anything along those lines elsewhere.

The other thing would be on the melody on the last line of the 2nd verse, I'd hang on to the word foes a little longer and make the de of deceiving a 16th note or a swung 8th note to smooth that out a bit.

Not sure how much critique you wanted here, but those are my thoughts. (It might be cool to have levels of critique that are standards that we can all go by. They do that on another forum I'm on, and it's helpful to know how nit-picky we can be)

Critique is ALWAYS welcome! As far as the arrangement that's always open for interpretation. Sometimes I write with a full band sound in mind specifically, but most of the times I'm more interested in how the melody and chords connect. Hence, my occasional odd arrangement.

Thanks for the feedback on the flow of the verses (vowel sounds) and on that last line of verse 2. I'll definitely revisit this!

Thanks!

[webebo]

Russ,

Enjoyed the song. I think it is very singable. Love the chorus!!!

I do agree with David on the last line of the the second chorus. But other than that I think it is great. I can hear both an acustic set for it, or on the heavy side. Will just have to try both.

[garydurbin]

Here's mine. It's called "I Turn to You".

garydurbin - I Turn to You - SoundCloud

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Gary, you need to start your own thread. On the share originals, collaborate page, upper left, there is a New Thread button.
By making your own post, we can comment on it .
Tom

[pian0dude]

Russ, love the vocoder!!!! :-)