A Current Work in Progress…Part 1

I’m finally starting to stir up some songwriting again – hallelujah!  Check out the following video to hear portions of a worship song I’m currently working on, “My One Desire”.  I’ll be posting a series of short video clips as the song progresses, so you’ll get to follow it’s development in real-time!

Lyrics: Verse – I really want to know You Jesus, know You more.  More than just words on a page – I want to encounter You.  I really want to love You Jesus, with all my heart – more than just words from my lips; I will show You by how I live.  Chorus – ‘Cause there is nothing more that I desire.  There is nothing more I seek after.  There is just one thing: I will seek to know You, I will seek to love You more. (see Psalm 27:4)

Songwriting Part 3: Polishing (& Recording)

So, I’ve got another great joke for you, this time quite relevant to the topic at hand:  What’s Beethoven doing in his grave??… decomposing, of course!  *groan!*

Once I’ve got a basic song outline with all the pieces in place, I do Stage #3, which I like to call: Polishing.  This is where I go over the song & smooth out rough edges, add details & finishing touches, & test it against an audience!

11. Play the song for family and/or close friends.  They are usually the first to hear my fresh ideas.  Often, I’m too excited to wait for the song to be done & if I have even just a Chorus done that I like, I’ll run it by them, giving them future samples as the song progresses.  I highly value their opinion, as well I trust they’ll be honest, so if I have one that they say “hmm…didn’t do much for me” I will often reconsider or try to rework it.  They can also give me a good idea of how easy it is for someone to pick up the tune, and if it’s in a comfortable singing range for the average person.

12. Double-check the words to make sure it flows & that the message is clear and accurate.  Not only that, but I try to think what context the song is for.  If it’s for a congregational/group song, perhaps I want to think about changing all the “I” words to “we”.   Or do I have too much focus on “me” instead of “God”?  Is there a natural progression in the lyrics?  Does it make sense grammatically?  Thankfully in music there can be some artistic liberty with this, but I still want to be as consistent & clear as possible.

13.  Check for theological/biblical accuracy, as far as I understand thus far in my walk of faith.  Usually pretty easy, since my songs are mostly straight scripture.

14.  Make any final adjustments to melody, lyrics, chords, order of the song, etc.

15.  Type it up so that I have a hard copy of the final version.

16.  Finally, I sometimes record the song on my computer using a basic recording program (garage band).  I could do a whole other section on this process, but I’ll save that for another time!  But just to give you an idea, it takes an average of 8-20 hours just to do a basic recording of 1 song & get it close to what I like!  I don’t know if I could count the hours it took to put together my demo CD but I’m sure it’s something like 150-200 hours!

Songwriting Part 2: Song Development

So first I’ve gotta share this great corny joke a friend posted on my facebook wall: So there’s a cheetah and a lion racing…the cheetah ends up winning but the lion tells him “hey you a cheetah!” and the cheetah says back “nah you lion!”  hahaha 😉 Ok, now back to songwriting…

The 2^nd stage of songwriting is: Song Development.  This is where I start focusing in on the overall shape or theme I want the song to have.   These steps tend to overlap, but I do them roughly in this order:

6. Finalize the chord structure (i.e. the actual notes I play on the piano/guitar – giving the song it’s “mood”).  This is where I throw out the sounds I don’t like & find other ones to replace them, to fit the mood of the song.

7.  Fit the musical sections together in the order I want.  Sometimes I’ll end up with a few different sections but I’m not sure which piece I want to come first, or which one I should flow into next. Often, though, there is a really natural flow.  If I feel like there is a gap I’ll go back to playing around & see what I can come up with to fill it.

8. Fine-tune the melody.  I play around with variations, sometimes just down to 1 or 2 note’s difference!  I know, Type A. 😛  I can be quite indecisive with this, & if so, I may record myself singing it & try to decide by listening, wait & come back to it later when my mind is fresh, or ask someone to listen & give an opinion. Generally you want to have the melody range higher on the Chorus than the Verse, so it creates a natural climax.  Or if I’m singing about looking UP to God, I might have the melody notes go higher to reflect the thought musically.  Yeah, I think deep. 🙂

9. Finalize the rhythm & dynamics.  I may play around with a different time signature, strumming pattern, volume/intensity, etc.  Again, this is often pretty much decided by how I first played around with the song, but sometimes I want to experiment with how it would sound in a different count or feel.

10. Solidify the lyrics.  This is probably THE hardest part of my songwriting! Though I base songs heavily on Bible verses, there are SO many different aspects I try to keep in mind:

– rhyming (though keeping it accurate to the original text)

– natural word flow (so you don’t sing, for example, “praise THE Lord in heaVEN”)

– singability (easy for people to pick up & not too many words or syllables that they are tripping over them)

And most importantly:

– message (that the words are reflecting the message I want to portray as clearly as possible!)

[*On a happy side “note”, I’m just about healed up from bronchitis!  Yay!]

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a blessed holiday season with friends & family!  Here we are with a fresh new year & I’m ringing it in with…bronchitis! 😛  I’m really excited because the way I see it, I’m getting my only sickness for the year overwith right away & now the rest of the year I can just run full steam ahead with no worries – ha!

Truly, though, I had a fantastic time worshiping it up down in Kansas City at the International House Of Prayer’s (IHOP) “Onething” conference with 26,000 crazy Jesus-lovers!  What a way to ring in the New Year!  (Pic above is their official pic, & pic below is one I took from the very first conference I went to – gives you an idea for the crowd!).  You could literally feel the floor shaking up & down with our jumping (although that could be a slightly concerning thought…).  I came back with a renewed strength to seek after God more diligently every day – that time alone just with Him.  I anticipate some new inspirational music will not be far behind!

Which reminds me, there’s another post about songwriting, coming soon to a blog near you.  🙂