Current Listenings

Justin McRoberts: Decontsruction – I met this guy at the conference and have heard certain songs from him over the years. Beautiful, raw folk music with a strong ‘prophetic’ voice. Very challenging.

Hillsong: This Is Our God – Decent worship album. I really like 4-5 songs, in particular. I find myself singing “Stronger” all the time.

Sovereign Grace Music: Psalms – Sovereign Grace is a great community of churches. Strong, theological truth is packed into these great songs. It’s exciting to see a lot of ‘lesser known’ writers all working together.

Charlie Hall: The Bright Sadness – I’ve always liked Charlie Hall because he is a deep thinker and expounder of truth. This album is soaked in so much passion, it’s almost uncomfortable. A different sort of worship music – maybe not a set of congregational lullabies, but music that definitely stirs the heart.

Highlights from the Songwriter’s Conference

This is what I enjoyed most about my time away:

• Mount Hermon, California – absolutely beautiful. Massive redwood trees, great weather, beautiful retreat center.
• Hanging out with Bob Kauflin – Bob was one of the keynote speakers who I was able to get some one on one time with. I’ve rarely been so affected by a person – visible love for God, love for people, and all around great guy.
• Hearing Derek Webb speak and sing – marvelous.
• Visiting random Mexican restaurants with my Dad.
• Drinking an iced blended coffee at ‘Coffee Cat’ that was even better than a Starbuck’s Frappacino.
• Realizing the highest calling as a worship leader/songwriter is ministering in a local church setting to a specific body of people. Super-stardom should not be the highest goal of a minister.
• Getting to record my song ‘Rising Glory’ for a potential CCLI TV broadcast!
• Having a roommate named Socrates – what a great guy!
• Connecting with Ben Gowell.
• Meeting some great songwriters and worship leaders from around the country.

Wednesday Night – Charlie Peacock

THE SONGWRITER AS PROPHET

• The prophet is a recipient of divine revelation
• Prophecy is to speak the will of God into the world
• Prophets of God

Isaiah

Messianic prophecies

Jeremiah – calls to repent

Ezekiel – prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and a coming covenant

Daniel

Joel

• Proclaim the whole will of God
• Our work is to bring the revealed word – Word of Law, prophets, writings, new covenant, apostles, eyewitnesses of Jesus, etc.
• The prophetic songwriter is always bringing the truth…revealing all that isn’t a lie
• The prophetic is too cooperate with God’s agenda in turning people from evil
• we come to the lazy, dull, apathetic, heard hearts and speak truth
• we use words that arouse, anger, peak curiosity, words that provoke about what constitutes life on planet earth
• language has an implicit and an explicit function… some artists speak more implicitly – don’t judge those who do
• the prophetic songwriting voice can also be poetic (Dylan’s ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’)
• follow Jesus’ model and move from anger to compassion to distress
• There’s a time and a calling to express ‘distress’ in our songs

Songwriting – Paul Baloche

THE JOURNEY OF A SONG

1. Capture Inspired Moments

• songwriting as a ‘by product’ of living your life and worshipping God
• keep your antennae on all the time
• pay attention to: sermons, prayers, journals, scripture, everyday life, radio
• find your ‘well’ of inspiration… write from heart, not just head

2. “worship with it”… “play with it”

• are you getting a sense of where it wants to go?
• “what’s the feeling” of the idea?
• cardinal rule: make sure that ALL the elements of your song work together to enhance the FEELING of the message
• Is there a model in mind?
• stay in the child-like, right brain, “heart”, creative part for as long as possible
• allow the song to be a by-product of worshiping

3. Invite your left brain to the party

• a form should start appearing (verse/chorus/verse, etc.)
• start to edit, use rhyming dictionary, throw out cliche’s
• “crossword it”…fill in the blanks, the missing word

4. Start a simple demo or try with your praise team

5. Be honest about how it feels and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite

Message in a Bottle – Mia Fields (Hillsong)

*Mia Fields is a songwriter from Hillsong Church in Australia

Hillsong wasn’t just given great songwriters… they are people living in community, challenging one another.

Songs come out of righteous living, but also out of grace

Why songs?

• There has to be more than simply God liking music
• Psalm 40:3
• Songs can help ‘lead people home’ beyond just words…they may not listen to you preach your thoughts, but they’ll listen to a song
• A major problem with Christian music today is solid production, great music, but ‘watered down’ lyrics
• Our goal as ‘truth tellers’ is to help people understand…when they see something narrow, we can broaden their understanding
  
• Truth is about understanding…understanding is about angles (John 16:12)
• Write from real life…your own personal revelation
• People are the focus

Types of Congregational Songs

1. Songs of Expression
2. Songs of Theology – songs that explain Scripture, explain who God is, ‘flesh out’ doctrine
3. Songs of Prophecy

Write through hard seasons…write about random things – this will make you a good writer

PRACTICE LYRICS!

• we practice our instruments but don’t think to practice lyric writing
• do creative writing
• write down random ideas wherever you are (fortune cookies, quotes from books, etc.)
• Write about anything and everything
• We need to speak TRUTH despite hard things
• People don’t notice musical mistakes…they are looking at the screen reading lyrics. Focus on your lyric writing.
• Bring Truth in new ways (Eugene Peterson and “The Message”)
• Buy Frederick Buechner books, Jon Foreman EPs, listen to good lyricists
• Help people get ahold of truth
• Just as you need to get better at communication, we need to get better with lyrics

Wednesday Morning – Bob Kauflin

THE IDOLS OF THE SONGWRITER’S HEART

An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our thinking, desires, and choices

1. Praise
2. Credit
3. Fame
4. Money

What we can do to be free from idols:

• Confess it as sin
• Receive forgiveness
• Repent
• Replace our old desires with new ones

Be generous with your time, talent, and resources

Tuesday Night – Charlie Peacock

SONGWRITER AS SERVANT

• Philippians 2
• How do you become a great songwriter? Read Phil. 2/go to the revealed Word
• Seek the good of others
• ‘others centered’ living is at the heart of good songwriting
• music has the ability to serve in a variety of ways/care for others through your talent
• tell stories back to God of the truth of God
• Christians will be wise if they understand art
• Our songwriting must be a tangible response to the goodness of God
• Spreading the good news must be essential to the Christian songwriter – redeeming all that Jesus loves
• Our love for the Bible must be as essential as our guitars, computers, and rhyming dictionaries
• You serve the church and the world when you introduce them to what has been ‘remade’
• KNOW THE WORD OF GOD!
• Don’t even call yourself a Christian songwriter unless you can tell the story of the Word of God from beginning to end – you can say to a stranger ‘What is going on in the world’
• A Christian songwriter offers himself to everyone in need – be an agent of reconciliation
• Christian songwriters push back the effects of the fall
• A servant songwriter asks the question, ‘How can I be a part of restoring rightness?”
• Love is the motivation of a creator servant
• Creator servants have an empathetic heart for people
• Do not pursue status
• Make musical choices that say you believe in diverse community
• When the love of Jesus is embodied in songs, they stand out from the crowd
• Be separate by the conspicuousness of your love to all people
• Never underestimate the power of nuance… let your songs carry the flavor of forgiveness
• Let your music and your lifestyle display mercy to people
• Do for others what God has done for you…through your songs
• Take your role in the story God is telling…live out who and what you are…have integrity as a songwriter…know your true identity in Christ (authenticity)
• God is up to extraordinary things through ordinary people
• Our most acceptable worship is to give up our agendas for the kingdom…we invite people to follow along through our lives and through our songs

Songwriting – Derek Webb

Songwriting thoughts:

• Songwriting is an art, not a science
• Good songwriting is preparing for moments when the ‘lightning strikes’
• Write things down
• You’re not gonna write good songs if you’re not living a good life – listen to good music, read books, be interesting
• A good artist looks at the world and tells you what he sees
• Art today is learning how to hide your influences well
• There is no such thing as christian or secular music…there is no inherently ‘redeemed’ music
• Know what you’re filters are…use as few as possible
• Our job as songwriters is not to please our fans or sell a lot of records…it is to look at the world and tell what you see.
• Every artist has a grid through which they look at the world
• You can create art of anything that Jesus is Lord of
• Music is not always full time vocational ministry…sometimes you just make great art…it’s your job and you love it
• We all need to be doing what we CAN do… we are all part of one body
• Recommended Book: Steve Turner ‘Imagine’

Vocals for Songwriters – Sheri Gould

Vocal Health

• There is a lot of vocal strain in the church today…because of passionate people. We’re more interested in heart than we are in excellent art
• Warm up your vocal chords as a routine!
• ‘Flem’ is natures bandage…it accumulates when you don’t warm up.
• If you’re hurting…you’re using the wrong muscles to sing.
• ‘Speaking’ in a wrong way can also damage your vocal chords. Take times of silence.
• Make a habit of breathing through your nose.
• Caffeine dries out your vocal chords. Citrus juices are even worse.
• Use ‘Breathers’ or ‘Throat Coat’ or ‘Entertainers Secret’ to sooth your throat.
• It takes an hour for water to coat the throat. Start drinking early!
• Do a good 5 minute warmup [hum...make some noise...gently] before you sing
• Prepare your voice throughout the week
• Vocal endurance is building up the vocal strength to stand the ‘4 hour concer

Vocal Technique

• Relax! If you speak correctly…you will sing correctly
• We don’t want to use any outer muscles in the throat… you should feel vibration, not muscular tension
• You need constant feedback in order to get better
• Suggestion: Record a video tape of yourself and watch it with the music off!
• Keep your larynx low as you sing…open your mouth when you sing!
• Don’t whisper
• Most of us take a deep breath and let it all out at the beginning of a phrase…control your flow of air!
• More breathing is not better…but letting that breath out in the right amount
• Breathing exercise: say the alphabet!
• Have an open chest…open rib cage

Tuesday Morning – Bob Kauflin

Every songwriter asks the question, “What will my next song be about?“

• If I am a Christian songwriter, every song directly or indirectly has to do with Jesus Christ
  1. Some songs are written about Jesus. The best songs help us to know and love the true, biblical Jesus. Our words and melodies will never be more important than Jesus Christ. We are all theologians.
  2. Some songs are written to Jesus. Here we are defining our response to WHO HE IS. The best songs to Jesus make Him look better, not us. We cannot simply ‘gush’ about Jesus. We don’t need anymore ‘God is my girlfriend’ songs. There is a difference between our love to Jesus and our love for our spouses.
  3. Some songs are written because of Jesus. The best songs take the realities of heaven and hell seriously – unending pain and eternal joy. We write because we cannot ’shake’ what Jesus has done for us. ‘Labor to be effected by the cross’ – The Puritans.