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’

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

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.

“God will not anoint who you want to be… He will anoint who you are.”

“Worship songs” don’t ALL have to garner the same response from a congregation to be effective (stand, raised hands, dancing, singing). Sometimes maybe the people need to sit and just listen to TRUTH.”

“Co-songwriting demands lots of vulnerability.”

SONGWRITER AS CREATOR (Identity)

• Creator God has given us a ‘creator’ identity (Gen. 1)
• We have the breath of God and bear God’s image
• Francis Schaeffer referred to us as the ‘little creator’
• The creator in us is a person alive to God, alive to people, and alive to place
• Christians err when we think only the invisible is worth something. God created the stuff of life! Get away from this Greek & Gnostic idea that the physical is not of God.
• Building blocks of creativity: Image of God & Spirit renewal>Soul Personality>Creativity (music/language)
• Songwriters encounter life and then express it through music (mood) & lyrics
• Songwriting is an art/craft but it is first an expression of our identity as ‘image-bearer’
• We’re supposed to take the ‘stuff’ of God’s creativity and create with it ourselves
• Our expressions of creativity echo back and forth between blessing people & glorifying God
• Our true work is to be an image bearer of God…not just working for the weekend
• Values of a Kingdom Songwriter

Kingdom songwriters are in the business of fostering a holy, kingdom imagination. Imaginations that dream for the glory of God and the good of others…without discounting the good pleasure of creating.

Kingdom songwriters are good citizens…of their community, church, stage, region, etc. There is no sphere of life that is hidden from the view of God. Bring on the big songs that cause the mind of God to bear on people.

Kingdom songwriters have the ability to do good creative work in the world and in the church while becoming more like Jesus and not less. We are bent on making a name for ourselves

Kingdom songwriters need a humble ambition to excel at artistic ability out of reverence for God.

Kingdom songwriters need to respect the art form of songwriting. Know about it. We want pilots to have put in thousands and thousands of hours in practice. You need to write a lot of songs to get to great songs.

Kingdom songwriters have the wisdom to ask first, “What is good and not first what will succeed or make money?” Christians have an unusual lot…we could be hated by everyone yet be successful because we lived obedient to God. People pleasers to not make good songwriters.

Kingdom songwriters need a commitment to truth telling narrative in all its forms. There’s no greater calling than to stand before God and say, “You are WHO You say You are.”