Locally Created Music?
One thing I have been wondering... are there any congregations out there that endeavor to regularly write at least some of their own music for worship? I have seen churches that create visual art for worship, those that regularly redesign the worship environment (like Rock Harbor), lots of churches that write their own prayers and prose, many that write and perform their own drama, create dance, etc... but I haven't heard anything about congregations (not just individuals) that do a similar thing with music.
It would seem to me that there would be great power in a song written from that kind of local congregational context... has anyone ever tried doing this?
It would seem to me that there would be great power in a song written from that kind of local congregational context... has anyone ever tried doing this?
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Permalink Reply by Linda Parriott on -
Timely question, Chad. No sooner did you ask and then Josh added his interview with Dave Frincke where Dave says come2go writes their own music and lyrics, even for liturgical settings. I'm sure there are other members of Creative Worship Tour who write music for their local congregation, or know people who do.
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Permalink Reply by Jason McCoy on -
There's actually quite a lot of this going on...for example, many Vineyard churches regularly use songs created by their own congregations...in fact, there are quarterly CD's put out by each region that have gathered up the best local songs (by best I mean getting used the most in local churches and that work well for congregational singing)...other church movements that do something similar would include New Frontiers International, Ministers Fellowship International and there are just too many specific churches to name individually.
A great resource for getting some of these releases is worshipmusic.com as they often will post a church's independent project in addition to the more mainstream releases....but there are a host of sites out now to find local church music...
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Marsh on -
Hey Chad, I took your post/question, "are there congregation (not just individuals) that are creating music" to mean - communities collaborating to create original songs for worship born out of that community. We've attempted to do that at Church of the Beloved. We have a friend, Tracey, from The Restoration Project, who also leads workshops on this very thing - corporately authored worship songs. She facilitates a time of prayer and jamming, often using the psalms as material, improvising in a key, spontaneously singing melodies that develop as each person puts their print on it. Improvisational singing is REALLY vulnerable. It seems like it would be difficult to have more than seven or eight folks collaborating together at one time... i'm not sure how it could work with an entire congregation. but maybe that's not what you meant. we've got several songwriters in our community who write for our worship regularly and seasonally... songs for advent, christmas, lent and so on. As well as for parts of service, invocations, confessions, eucharist, blessings and so on. That's been an incredible, incredible gift to our community. We're trying to raise some moneys to record an album of original worship songs this summer. Here's one we're working on called "Given".
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4-01 GIVEN.mp3, 3.5 MB
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Permalink Reply by Chad King on -
This is very helpful, thank you!
I come from a background where this type of songwriting was almost non-existent, and hearing these kind of locally-grown musical offerings being integrated into worship is inspiring.
Ryan, thanks for sharing this song - and good luck on this project!
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Permalink Reply by Bethany Stolle on -
I've worshiped at Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis a few times before, and the music they use in worship is all "home-grown." They have information posted about their music philosophy on their website.
Incidentally, Solomon's Porch was the first--and only--time I've ever sung the word "latex" during a worship service! (If I remember correctly, the song was about how isolated we are from each other and our communities. Even people needing healing are handled with latex gloves.)
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Permalink Reply by Nadia Bolz-Weber on -
I have experienced home-grown music at several communities and like the ethos behind it very much, but have one issue - that is that often (not always) the songs have a "singer-song writer" quality to them, which is fine except the fact that singer-song writer music is, for the most part, not conducive to congregational singing.
My bias is that congregational singing be the primary musical expression in worship but I know that many people are very oriented to the organ or the band, so I am in the minority here.
Some people have written very simple, singable music which is theologically sound and used in the community where it was written. This is ideal, but a difficult balance to strike.
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Permalink Reply by Jason McCoy on
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Nadia, you hit it! It is a really hard thing to pull off skillfully...
One mistake I think we've made, as the Church with a capital C, is that there have not been a lot of forums/formats to workshop this very unique kind of songwriting...consequently a lot of sings get written poorly.
If you consider the incredibly high bar set for this task...
we are asking for:
- singable, memorable melodies
- musical style and structure that is authentic, aesthetically pleasing and yet not distracting or simply drawing attention to itself
- lyrics that are theologically sound
- lyrics that people actually want to sing!
- lyrics that are relevant and not full of insider language
- easy to translate to a variety of instruments and arrangements
- create an atmosphere of intimacy, awe or wonder in relation to God that relates to the majority
So....a very tall order...maybe the next questions would be....what are we doing to cultivate this in our communities?
Do we have songwriting groups?
What resources are we making available (i.e. has money or time been invested)
Who is working with the songwriters?
Are there venues they try out new material/ work out the bugs?
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Permalink Reply by Richard Webb on -
Ryan mentioned that their congregation does improvisational singing. International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOP), sort of a Pentecostal monastery (you read right) has done a lot of work on improvisational singing in the context of band-driven worship. Their term for it is "harp and bowl" (as in incense bowl) worship. They even have CD's and a manual on how to combine improvisational singing with prayer, and the reading of scripture. There's even a portion on the practical logistics of how to rehearse this kind of music so that it isn't bumpy.
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Permalink Reply by Jenn on -
Our band has written our own songs that we have had part of our worship services.
We have also performed them at coffee houses and other venues.
It's really cool to go outside the church walls and bring God's message to secular places.
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Permalink Reply by Jake Bouma on -
I'm a worship leader in Des Moines, and we have yet to use a local/original song in our worship services. I've sung some of my own music for communion and offertory, but nothing the congregation has joined in.
Yet.
I'm working on a song right now tentatively titled "Worthy" which will be used as an introductory song for a worship set. The line "Come before the One who's worthy of praise" is sung repeatedly throughout, making it perfect for the first song of a set or whathaveyou.
I've been learning things from the congregation about what kinds of songs people are drawn to: how does the key of a song or the melody affect someone's desire to sing along and worship, etc. Hopefully the song(s) we end up with will suit our congregation... because in many ways, that's the point.
There are lots of themes that can be drawn out and universalized into the larger Church, which is why I think CCM/worship has been so successful, but I believe (as do many others) that there is something very special about music that is unique to a congregation.
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Permalink Reply by Creative Worship Tour on -
Can anyone tell me what the easy to sing keys are? Not that I'm writing my own music, just interested...really so I can sound like I know what I'm talking about when I do other interviews and impress people...because I know knowing the easy to sing keys will impress people :-)
By the way, check out this video where Richard Webb shares three criteria for selecting music...basically an echo of what Jake wrote above...so listen to Jake, he knows his stuff.
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Permalink Reply by Jake Bouma on
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Ahh... what is the "perfect key"?
I would say this: Try to keep your song within an octave, probably the octave including middle C and the C below it. This is pretty much a comfortable range for *most* men and women, one that can be sung lower (for the men and some women) and an octave up for the women (and some men/boys).
Obviously this includes many different keys. What you want to watch out for is when the melody creeps up into E, F, F# and higher range.
Usually what is relatively easy for guys to sing in their "higher" range is more difficult for women to sing, at least in my experience.
What do others think?
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