The First Principle Of Melody-Writing For Worship Songs

Nothing in the songwriter’s craft is more mysterious than the creation of a good melody. It’s not an exact science – its art. And yet without a strong melody, most people won’t pay attention to your lyrics. In an interview with me here at My Song In The Night, John Mark McMillan said,

“The words and the music have to work together to create that vibe, that overall experience.

“Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase ‘The medium is the message.’ Christian music and the church as a whole could pay attention to that. We forget that the words are the last little piece of the message. The real story is told in the things you do and the way you do it.

“I want to put everything into my music so that the music and the lyrics tell a story together — the same story.”

I can’t guarantee that you’ll write a good melody by following “the rules.” Nor can I promise that people will hate your melody if you disregard “the rules.” But there are basic principles that have worked for numerous worship songs. We’ll talk about these principles in a series of posts over the next several weeks. You will increase your odds of composing singable, interesting melodies if you allow these principles to shape most of your songs.

Principle #1: Simple And Singable

Worship songwriters have a responsibility that is foreign to many of the most well respected singer-songwriters and bands you’ll hear on the radio, TV and live shows. Our melodies must not only be interesting, they must be simple enough for the average person to sing. If church congregations can’t sing along after hearing our song just one or two times, we lose.

John Witvliet is director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and professor of worship, theology, and congregational & ministry studies at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. In a podcast interview with Mike Cosper, Witvliet said he asks this question of songwriters and worship leaders,

“Is this song genuinely singable by a congregation? That’s not a consideration for radio or concerts, but it must be for congregational worship songs.

“You must understand that question. You must love that question. You must thrill to hear a congregation singing together. Do you have a passion for it?”

This is why the most lasting hymns and praise songs tend to contain concise, symmetrical phrases, simple melodic lines and plenty of melodic repetition. It’s easy for a congregation to feel an emotional connection to a melody they can easily sing on Sunday and remember during the week.

Also pay attention to the intervals in your melody (the number of scale steps from one note to the next). If your intervals leap all over the place, your song will have a herky-jerky feel that is difficult or unpleasant to sing, even if the entire melody is confined to one octave. Most of your intervals should be step intervals (up or down one scale step). Save your leap intervals for spare moments when you need the music to swell.

Finally, remember that you’re writing for both genders, not just your own. As Vicky Beeching has written:

“Make sure it works for the male and female vocal range – if the song is meant to be sung in church, it needs to be singable by both men and women (who have very different vocal ranges). Gather some guy and girl friends and have them all sing it with you. See if it works for everyone’s voices. If not, try and find a melody everyone can join in with. It’s really tricky to make this work, but many worship songs don’t – and half the congregation will be struggling to join in, or desperately trying to harmonize, to find a melody they can actually reach! “

Next time I’ll write specifically about the melodic range you should aim for in your songs.

Why Worship Through Pain And Suffering?

God is gracious to allow us to suffer with Him.  He gives us the blessing of mourning (we will be comforted).  He’s given us tears and the ability to perceive pain.  He lets us feel what He feels.  But His generosity doesn’t stop there.

He empowers us to endure suffering with the strength of Christ working in us.  He perfects His power in our weaknesses.  He fills us with the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead.  So even though our bodies will die because of sin, our spirits are alive because we have been made right with God.  And just as He raised Christ from the dead, He will give life to our mortal bodies by this same Spirit living in us (Romans 8: 10-11).

God’s generous love abounds even more to us as He gives us His very great and precious promises.  He speaks into all of time with promises that are trustworthy and true.

“Look, God’s home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.”

These promises are in the present, future and past tense.  God’s home is NOW among His people. He WILL live with them. He WILL wipe every tear from their eyes. There WILL be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.  When we read these promises, we don’t experience “these things” as gone.  We’re enduring them now.  Our eyes burn with tears, we’re bent low with sorrow, and our bodies are dying.

But God does not lie.  He never fails to keep His promises.  God is eternal.  He sees all of time all of the time.  He is not bound as we are by the hands of time.  So He can speak to our present sufferings and promise they “will be no more” while simultaneously affirming that they “are gone forever.”

And we can trust whatever He says in whatever tense He says it, no matter what our present experience may be.  So we should always praise Him for what He has promised to do, regardless of when we actually experience the fulfillment of His Word.

“And the One sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then He said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” –Revelation 21:5

God is making everything new.  Do you believe that?  Your failing frame will be made new.  This weary world will be made new.  The crying cosmos will be made new.  Your loved one who died in Christ will be made new.  You who will die in Christ will be made new.  Everything will be new.

This promise is in the present tense: I AM making everything new.  It’s a work in progress, even though we don’t readily perceive the transformation.  Do you believe what God has said?  As you suffer trials of every kind, do you affirm and express this belief in praise to God who promised to make everything new?  Do you trust God to do what He promised?  Look and see and rejoice that God IS making you new and more like Christ as He supervises your suffering until the day you experience the promised reality of “no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.”

How To Embrace Change While Holding Onto Your Core

“Every leader needs to etch some things in granite (never-change core) and write some things in sand (must-change methods). The problem is that when we fail to clarify and nurture things written in granite, our people get too attached to the things written in sand …

“The leader’s role is not just to communicate in both granite and sand but to show how the two components work together. The leader should help people embrace change by nurturing an emotional connection to the unchanging core vision.”

– Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, And Create Movement, by Will Mancini

Church leaders often struggle to discern granite from sand. We see it in church communication, in worship music, in evangelistic tools and methods. As much as we might have trouble seeing it — or as much as we may not want to see it — here are some things that may prove to be sand:

• Facebook
• Your blog
• Guitars
• Verse-Chorus-Bridge songs
• Sunday School
• Trunk-or-Treat

Some of these may prove to be sand within the decade. Others may prove to be sand within the century, or three centuries from now. Regardless, our core values and vision, stemming from the gospel, must drive everything.

The Flaw In Your Church Communication Strategy

“In most communication models, there’s a speaker and a listener or sender and a receiver. At our churches, many of us are accustomed to playing the role of the speaker, the communicator. Let’s do what we can to wear the other hat as often as possible. When we do, I bet we’ll learn a lot about what’s working, what’s not and why. I bet we’ll be inundated with ideas for new strategies, new channels and new messages. Frankly, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise — many of our best ideas come when we decide to listen.”

— Scott McClellan (@ScottMcClellan), “Never Trust A Skinny Chef,” from Outspoken: Conversations On Church Communications

• Pastors and church Communications staff, how are you listening to your members and attendees?
• Worship leaders, how are you listening?
• Songwriters, what about you?

All communicators need to listen.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” – James 1:19

“To answer before listening—
that is folly and shame.” – Proverbs 18:13

How To Worship When Our Suffering Seems Fruitless

“Lord, in distress we searched for you. We prayed beneath the burden of Your discipline. Just as a pregnant woman writhes and cries out in pain as she gives birth, so were we in Your presence, Lord.  We, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.  But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy! For Your life-giving light will fall like dew on Your people in the place of the dead!”  – Isaiah 26:16-19

Why should we praise the Lord when our sufferings seem fruitless?  Why should a woman rejoice after writhing in agony, laboring with great pain only to hold her stillborn son?  Why should we sing joyful songs after burying our loved one who lost their cancer battle?

In distress we search for the Lord.  We groan.  We suffer.  We weep.  And it seems like nothing comes from our suffering.  It’s not bringing salvation to the earth or bringing life into the world.

This passage from Isaiah is literally true for many people.  It’s literally true for me.  Last October, I was that pregnant woman writhing and crying out in pain as I was giving birth to my son, Parker.  And at the time that he was stillborn, it looked like nothing had come from my suffering.  Since then, I battled the lie that I had nothing to show for my efforts in carrying him or laboring to deliver him.  I had not brought forth life into the world.

Yet, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know that my Redeemer lives.  And because He lives, I who have been buried with Christ in baptism now live, and my physical body will be raised to new life at the last day.

So, I praise the Lord!  I command my soul to praise Him with my empty arms lifted high.  I declare His salvation to me, to my son Parker, to all who believe in His name, and I rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ which is also our resurrection!  Because those who die in the Lord will live.  Their bodies WILL rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy!  For the life-giving light of the Lord will fall like dew on His people in the place of the dead!

This is why we praise the Lord.  Christ suffered.  Christ died. Christ rose again.  After suffering under the weight of the sins of the whole world in His own death on the cross, He dealt Death the final, fatal blow when He rose victorious from the grave!  And He has promised to return and “remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that still hangs over the earth.  He will swallow up death forever!  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.”  (Isaiah 25:7-8).

The suffering of Christ was not fruitless.  His writhing on the cross in agony and crying out to His Father in pain gave Salvation to the earth and brought fullness of Life to the world.  And He proved God’s word to us that those who die in the Lord will live.  He is the firstborn among the dead!  He has risen up from the ground and now joyfully sings God’s praises in Heaven where He intercedes for us and perfects our worship of God.

As we share in Christ’s sufferings here, although it may appear that nothing good is coming from our troubles, let us behold our Risen Savior. As we long for His return, let us praise Him for His victory over death and His promise to wipe away all of our tears.

“The Mourners” photo, top, used via Creative Commons license

Why Some Worship Songs Need Not Explicitly State The Gospel

The following paragraphs are among the most apt words for worship leaders and songwriters that I’ve seen this year:

“… some leaders (myself included) have believed that to be gospel-centered, every song we sing has to explicitly state the gospel, or more narrowly, substitutionary atonement. But we shouldn’t be more gospel-centered than the Bible is. The Bible includes all kinds of topics, and our services and songs should address the full range of human experience.

“If the history of the universe is a movie, Christ’s death and resurrection is the turning point of the movie. Don’t let people grow dull by only ever playing the highlight reel. Let them see the whole movie! At the same time, don’t be ashamed of going to the highlights again and again, because without them the rest of the movie doesn’t make sense.”

— from “The Worship Leader and the Gospel” by Ken Boer, a chapter in Doxology And Theology: how the gospel forms the worship leader

• Worship leaders, how are you “showing the whole movie” in your church?
• How are you “showing the highlight reel”?
• Songwriters … same questions. 

Rhyme Schemes – The Technique All Songwriters Should Master

Every songwriter knows that “rhyme” is a big deal. And it seems so simple — make your songs rhyme. But there is danger on the tracks, especially for beginning songwriters who don’t think about the overall structure of their songs at the beginning.

Let’s look at the most popular “rhyme schemes” in modern songs. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes in your song (rhymes that occur at the end of your lines). We show this pattern by creating diagrams based on the alphabet.

To create a rhyme scheme diagram for a verse, label the first line “A.” Then label every line that rhymes with that first line with an “A.” Label the next non-rhyming line with a “B.” Then assign the letter “B” to every other line that rhymes with it. If this seems confusing, don’t worry. You’ll see the pattern when we begin to look at sample verses, below.

We create song diagrams to discover inconsistent rhyme schemes, so we can make them consistent. This is because when we begin a song, we make certain promises to the congregation (we could consider it a contract). In this case, the promise is:

Whatever end-rhyme pattern we establish in the first verse will remain through subsequent verses.

Let’s look at the three most popular rhyme schemes:

ABAB (and its variant, ABCB)

Early English hymnwriters often wrote in a rhyme scheme called “ABAB.” Augustus M. Toplady used the ABAB rhyme scheme in “A Debtor To Mercy Alone.” Watch:

“The terrors of law and of God (A)
With me can have nothing to do; (B)
My Savior’s obedience and blood (A)
Hide all my transgressions from view.” (B)

He rhymes “God/blood” on lines 1 and 3, and “do/view” on lines 2 and 4. This is a tight rhyme scheme. ABAB songs are often fun to sing and easy to remember.

ABCB is a popular variation of ABAB. It gives the writer a little more freedom to concentrate on things like plot and theme instead of being too beholden to rhyme, but it still provides rhyme where our ears most expect it – on the even-numbered lines.

Contemporary ABCB songs include “Forever Reign” by Jason Ingram and Reuben Morgan, “You Are My King (Amazing Love)” by Billy James Foote, and “Beneath The Waters (I Will Rise)” by Scott and Brooke (Fraser) Ligertwood. Let’s diagram the first verse of “Beneath The Waters (I Will Rise):

“This is my revelation (A)
Christ Jesus crucified (B)
Salvation through repentance (C)
At the cross on which He died” (B)

Unlike the ABAB rhyme scheme, lines one and three don’t rhyme here (revelation/repentance). But note that “revelation” rhymes with “salvation,” the first word of line three. So we have a nice instance of internal rhyme (rhymes that occur within the body of your verse, rather than at the end of your lines).

Still, less-experienced songwriters than Brooke and Scott Ligertwood might have thought “We need to revise our third line so it rhymes at the end with revelation. Let’s change the third line to:

“Repentance leads to salvation”

This would have given them a “perfect” ABAB scheme, but what a clunker.

AABB

AABB is the easiest scheme for beginners to write. When a poet ends his first line, it feels natural to immediately find a word that will end the next line with a rhyme.

The problem is that this can encourage writers to put too much emphasis on rhyming and not enough on developing a sustained thought across multiple lines. This can lead to songs that are more like a series of individual two-line platitudes than a compelling narrative or exposition. Nevertheless, many great hymns of the faith use AABB well. See Charles Wesley’s classic Christmas carol:

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (A)
Glory to the newborn King (A)
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, (B)
God and sinner reconciled” (B)

Many contemporary praise songs use this scheme well, too, including “Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)” by Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown, and “Our God” by Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin, Jesse Reeves and Chris Tomlin.

When Tomlin and Louie Giglio adapted John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” into “Amazing Grace (Chains Are Gone)” they kept Newton’s ABAB rhyme scheme in the verses. But they switched to AABB in their chorus:

“My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace”

Did they “break contract” with us? No – although you should use the same rhyme scheme in your verses, you can switch to a different scheme for your chorus and bridge. In fact, doing so may help you distinguish those elements of your song. Most contemporary songs use different rhyme schemes for the distinct elements of their songs (verse-chorus-bridge).

Diagram your own songs. Not only may you discover inconsistent rhyme schemes, you may find out that you rely too much on one or two rhyme schemes. If so, give yourself assignments to write songs in alternate rhyme schemes. Doing so will help you avoid creative dry spells. And it may just give you your best song yet.

Top photo used via Creative Commons license

Experience Redemption’s Story Through The Blood and The Breath

Less than two years ago Kristen and I became acquainted with the music and ministry of Caroline Cobb, a Texas singer-songwriter who lives, breaths and shares the biblical story of redemption. She had a dream to build a crowdsourced “soundtrack to scripture” — indie songs and major-label songs that tell God’s story. That’s what she’s done with with the Scripture To Music Collective.

And now she’s done it with an ambitious collection of her own recordings, The Blood and The Breath:

You can download it on iTunes today. You can also order a physical CD and even a companion devotional e-Book here.

Listening to this record is like sojourning through the topography and stories of the Bible, beginning with Genesis (as in “Garden”):

Pick the lies right off the tree
Your eyes are opened but not to see
Build a tower to the sky
You think you know, you think you’re wise
Melt your gold down to a god
Sell your soul to pay for your facade
Trade your truth for silence
I’ll let you loose if you want it

and ending with the return of Christ. And just as in Scripture, each song points to the cross.  Caroline paints the scene with roots music that makes me feel like I’m there, walking the dusty roads of ancient Israel and the hard trails of the wilderness. And her lyrics are both direct and metaphorical, as in Everything You’ve Heard.

You’ve heard it said, “Don’t you murder anyone”
But you carry your anger like a knife
And your insults like a gun

You’ve heard it said, “Don’t you cheat on your wife”
But your mind is a motel room
And you undress the other woman with your eyes

The idea for The Blood and The Breath came from a songwriting goal that Caroline gave herself in late 2010: to write a song for every book of the Bible in just one year, ending on her 30th birthday, November 11, 2011. 11/11/11. This album contains several of those songs from that year-long challenge. She enlisted producer Josh Moore (Derek Webb, Matthew Perryman Jones, Sandra McCracken) and recorded at Shane & Shane’s studio near Dallas.

You can get The Blood and The Breath in the afore-linked websites and from Caroline’s site. For more about Caroline’s music and ministry, see this interview I conducted with her last year.