Doxologist ContentSick Songwriting Seshy Sesh
The Resurgence conference is approaching (Sep. 17 & 18). I’ll be doing a sick-sesh on Songwriting. As I’ve spoken with many of you over the years, I’ve found that most people view the act of songwriting as either completely mysterious or something done by “other people” somewhere else. Very few actually write their own material. Our vision is to see more worship leaders writing their own material as indigenous expressions of their specific cultures. That’s where you come in…
I’d really love some input on topics to cover during this sick songwriting sesh. Let’s start this sick sesh now so that we’ve got some good momentum come September. What questions do you guys have about songwriting?
Joe,
Hey man, I’ve had some email correspondence with you in the past. Anyway, I will be at the conference with 5 of our music leaders. We currently are writing about 25-30% of the songs we do.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about writing songs that:
1. Have some level of lasting artistic significance
2. Are Pastorally/Theologically Beneficial to the church.
3. Serve the church practically (singable etc…)
How do you find the perfect tension in your songwriting?
Mr. Day - How about discussing the struggle of creating for the corporate audience (lyrically/melodically) vs. being free to create and explore musically & lyrically. Also, what processes (if any) do you have in place for reviewing the validity of your lyrics from a doctrinal perspective? -B
I wanted to come to the conference badly but, sadly, cannot.
I guess my question would be:
What exactly does it mean to write as “indigenous expressions of their specific cultures?”
I think I know what that means but a little more in-depth explination might help (of course, unless you answer here, I will never hear the answer)
:-)
The thing I have been working on, and has slowed down my song writing is my desire to stear clear or Christianese, and cliche terms…wanting to produce something that doesn’t soudn exactley like everything else.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the functions of verse, chorus, and bridge lyrically in a corporate setting. (How to tie each verse into same chorus, and the whole song into the bridge, and the effect of that done smoothly on the singing of said song.)
I’d also like to echo the intensely practicl question of the difference in needs/requirements for the lyrics of a song to be used in a gathered worship setting as opposed to what works as a private (or more personally specific) song of worship, or just a song in general.
Thanks so much for being open to hear the questions and desiring to help provide some helpful nswers. I look forward to hear your session!
Good questions all.
I hope to spend some time with these when I return from Mexico. :)
Keep ‘em coming!!
I would like to know what rhymes with ‘majesty.’
The closest I can find is ‘travesty,’ and that just won’t do.
HA HA
OK for reals, this is a really old question but… do you start with the words or the music? And do you fill in the melody later, or do you start with it? Maybe there’s no ‘right way’ but I’m curious as to how you did it with songs like “Christ is Risen” and “The Glory of God.”
Hey Joe,
Look forward to seeing you at the conference. My question is less about the art of songwriting and more about inspiring others in the church to write. We are fortunate to have a good amount of songwriters within our church community, most of which are in local bands. But often they are so preoccupied with writing songs for their bands, they don’t have time to write for corporate worship. I would assume you guys deal with that at MH also. Love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for the feedback everybody. Some really great questions here, I’ll attempt to tackle a few.
DANIEL - Ha! You caught me using big words. Seriously, my wife laughed when she read that and taunted me with a, “Now you have to explain yourself,” delivered in a fine kindergarten melody. What I mean by “Indegenous expressions of their local cultures” is that the content and arrangement of songs in any place should be assembled in such a way that makes sense to the people in that place. For instance, generally, music in Nashville will be different from music in Seattle. That’s because the cultures are night & day different from eachother. Bible belt and rainy paganism have little to do with eachother. And so, to sing Nashville in Seattle won’t work. Seattle has to sing Seattle. Nashville has to sing Nashville. (There are of course exceptions here, as there are Seattle bands influenced by Nashville bands, but that is as it relates to sound, not culture).
PRACTICAL NOTES ON SONGWRITING - Creating for congregational worship vs. creating for a wider (bands outside the church) or narrower (songs for yourself to sing) audience. It’s true that in the clubs, anything goes. You can try anything and say anything, and perhaps, you should. In the church, however, we have a very specific purpose and so filters must be in place. Historically, for me, I rarely set out to write a “worship” song. I usually write the song and sort it out later. In some cases worship songs are born while reading scripture (The Glory of God), in other cases they are born while snowshoeing in the Cascades (Christ is Risen).
Some are simply born from neccessity. One morning, about 7 years ago, I was preparing for an evening service. I knew what the sermon content was and I had chosen a set list in response. But the set list was incomplete, it was missing a song. After searching my entire song library, I knew the song didn’t exist, so I started writing. That session produced two songs. The first was strong but too abstract and personal. I liked it and knew it was a keeper, but it didn’t serve the purpose of filling the hole in worship set list. The second song came rather quickly as I began with a chord progression that I had been tinkering with for awhile. The content fit the context well, and melody was very singable; a good fit for that night’s service. That was the birth of “For Your Goodness.” The other song (first one) is called “Melodrama” and is on the first Mindhead album.
Both songs were born from a love and adoration of God, but were expressed differently. One is used for gathered worship at church, the other is used as more of a personal worship song outside the church. Had I filtered myself during the session, I may have gotten nowhere and simply become frustrated and forced to defensively chose a song that didn’t really fit. And I would never have had the opportunity to sing “Melodrama,” to large crowds of people who don’t know Jesus. This was a significant moment for me, shaping my approach to songwriting from that point forward.
That’s all for now…feel free to keep the questions coming!!
Joe
Good stuff Joe! I have a feeling your class will be during the day and therefore, I’ll miss it, so I really appreciate you sharing on here!
I have recently started writing after pretty much a lifetime of wanting to and not knowing where to start. It’s been really fun and so rediculously therapudic.
I think like Joe explained, what you start with is completely different for every situation. When I write for myself, I start with lyrics because it’s usually like journaling for me, then add melodies (usually in the car). When we write songs for the BET however, we start with the guitar and bass groove and then add melody and lyrics afterwards.
hey joe.
i am a youth pastor / worship leader in shelton, wa [near olympia].
i was at the continuous worship conference in september [& TnC last week] and was blessed by the pre-conference session on songwriting [described above].
in the session, the importance of theologically sound and thought provoking lyrics was greatly stressed.
i couldn’t agree more.
i have a group of guys that are in my band and in my community group that i run my lyrics by, but sometimes i worry about them being just yes-men, or too encouraging to be honest… if you know what i mean!
so i’m wondering if you would mind taking a listen to one of my latest songs and providing some honest, critical and constructive feedback.
i’m just beginning to truly break into good song writing, so this would be incredibly helpful.
you can find the song here. and the lyrics here.
thank you very much.
.justin holzgrove
[first baptist] church
shelton, wa
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