God Songs / Rugby / FREQuency
Hey all,
My last post was Monday, so I decided to just talk about a few little things now, before I do a proper update on Monday.
My copy of Paul Baloche's new book God Songs arrived today and I haven't been able to get my head out of it, except to eat and for the rugby this afternoon. Its basically a cross between a textbook and a how-to on writing worship songs and also selecting worship songs - except its really readable with little sideboxes and excerpts and pieces from other worship leaders on songwriting thrown in as well.
I've been feeling kind of stuck in a hole recently with my songwriting as well so hopefully all the stuff about re-writing and crafting a song in this book will really help me bring myself out of that. Over the last few months, I've been able to write nothing but choruses (I think I have somewhere between 3-5 that are half decent) but just not been able to sit down and form anything vaguely resembling a decent verse - I keep getting inspired with odd lines and buzz phrases for new songs - my bedroom mirror is starting to fill up with post-it notes with random lyrical ideas on them - but nothing's really coming together for me right now so I'm this is help me to break my writer's block.
The other thing I've just started (day 4 today) is to read through all the psalms to try and get some more inspiration from them and widen my worship vocabulary - so I started on Wednesday on Psalm 1 and am going try and do one a day until I reach the end in about 5 months time (I think right?) and hopefully God will give me the staying power to see it through. Each day I've been writing just a simple sentance to some up the psalm in my songwriting journal/notebook and then picking out some of the lines that seem important or sound good to me or just jump out off the page at me. In future days, I think I might even try out some "Graham Kendrick Psalm Surfin'" or "Singin'" or whatever Mr Kendrick likes to call it and see if any choruses or lines come to me from that.
So, anyway, England played pretty well today. I'm not sure we can hold out much hope for Wales tomorrow, but I wasn't even going to watch the match today until I was skimming through channels and the game caught my attention. Jonny didn't play so bad for someone who's played no international rugby for 2 years and about 40 mins domestic play this season - I'm not sure whether its a good thing or a bad thing that England can now kick their way into winning every match again...
Oh, another thing I wanted to talk about is FREQuency, which is Chris Tomlin's new worship resource website. If you're into that sort of thing you can just sign up for free and get access to loads of cool stuff. Chris and band have been busy making videos teaching new songs and showing you the lead lines of guitar for some of his songs. Dan Carson, his guitarist, has a video rundown of all his gear, and there's also a great message board, which has a section on it with worship theology discussions started and moderated by J.D.Walt whose teaching on worship is really good.
Umm, what next? Some lyrics from a song I've been working on? If you read the above you should already know that this is a chorus...
FINALLY WHOLE
Oh, I can't hide it anymore
You're inside of me,
It's written in my heart
And with You in all of me
I'm finally whole
Let me know what you think. This is the most promising of my bits and pieces written so far in '07.
That's all for now, talk to you on Monday!
James.
Bonus!
I was listening to my iPod whilst reading today, and through it onto the default "25 most played songs" playlist, so I though I might share it with you... Let you know what I've been listening to since November when I bought it.
James' iPod Top 25 Played Songs
1. I Don't Want to Be - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 62 plays
2. The Stand - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 39 plays
3. Celebrate - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 38 plays
4. Love Came Down - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 36 plays
5. Happy Day - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 35 plays
6=. Foreverandever Etc... - DavidCrowder*Band (A Collision) 34 plays
6=. How to save a life - The Fray (How to save a life) 34 plays
8. Here is Our King - DavidCrowder*Band (A Collision) 31 plays
9. From the Inside Out / Majesty - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 30 plays
10. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair) - Sandi Thom (Single) 28 plays
11. Through the Valley - Lex Buckley (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 27 plays
12=. The Highest and The Greatest - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 25 plays
12=. Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson (Single) 25 plays
12=. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol (Eyes Open) 25 plays
15=. Chariot - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 23 plays
15=. Belief - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 23 plays
15=. She Moves in Her Own Way - The Kooks (Inside In Inside Out) 23 plays
15=. Above All - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 23 plays
15=. It is Well - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 23 plays
19=. Follow Through - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 22 plays
19=. Bright Idea - Orson (Bright Idea) 22 plays
19=. Who Knew - Pink (I'm Not Dead) 22 plays
19=. Better is One Day - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 22 plays
19=. Unchanging - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 22 plays
19=. Chocolate - Snow Patrol (Final Straw) 22 plays
My last post was Monday, so I decided to just talk about a few little things now, before I do a proper update on Monday.
My copy of Paul Baloche's new book God Songs arrived today and I haven't been able to get my head out of it, except to eat and for the rugby this afternoon. Its basically a cross between a textbook and a how-to on writing worship songs and also selecting worship songs - except its really readable with little sideboxes and excerpts and pieces from other worship leaders on songwriting thrown in as well.
I've been feeling kind of stuck in a hole recently with my songwriting as well so hopefully all the stuff about re-writing and crafting a song in this book will really help me bring myself out of that. Over the last few months, I've been able to write nothing but choruses (I think I have somewhere between 3-5 that are half decent) but just not been able to sit down and form anything vaguely resembling a decent verse - I keep getting inspired with odd lines and buzz phrases for new songs - my bedroom mirror is starting to fill up with post-it notes with random lyrical ideas on them - but nothing's really coming together for me right now so I'm this is help me to break my writer's block.
The other thing I've just started (day 4 today) is to read through all the psalms to try and get some more inspiration from them and widen my worship vocabulary - so I started on Wednesday on Psalm 1 and am going try and do one a day until I reach the end in about 5 months time (I think right?) and hopefully God will give me the staying power to see it through. Each day I've been writing just a simple sentance to some up the psalm in my songwriting journal/notebook and then picking out some of the lines that seem important or sound good to me or just jump out off the page at me. In future days, I think I might even try out some "Graham Kendrick Psalm Surfin'" or "Singin'" or whatever Mr Kendrick likes to call it and see if any choruses or lines come to me from that.
So, anyway, England played pretty well today. I'm not sure we can hold out much hope for Wales tomorrow, but I wasn't even going to watch the match today until I was skimming through channels and the game caught my attention. Jonny didn't play so bad for someone who's played no international rugby for 2 years and about 40 mins domestic play this season - I'm not sure whether its a good thing or a bad thing that England can now kick their way into winning every match again...
Oh, another thing I wanted to talk about is FREQuency, which is Chris Tomlin's new worship resource website. If you're into that sort of thing you can just sign up for free and get access to loads of cool stuff. Chris and band have been busy making videos teaching new songs and showing you the lead lines of guitar for some of his songs. Dan Carson, his guitarist, has a video rundown of all his gear, and there's also a great message board, which has a section on it with worship theology discussions started and moderated by J.D.Walt whose teaching on worship is really good.
Umm, what next? Some lyrics from a song I've been working on? If you read the above you should already know that this is a chorus...
FINALLY WHOLE
Oh, I can't hide it anymore
You're inside of me,
It's written in my heart
And with You in all of me
I'm finally whole
Let me know what you think. This is the most promising of my bits and pieces written so far in '07.
That's all for now, talk to you on Monday!
James.
Bonus!
I was listening to my iPod whilst reading today, and through it onto the default "25 most played songs" playlist, so I though I might share it with you... Let you know what I've been listening to since November when I bought it.
James' iPod Top 25 Played Songs
1. I Don't Want to Be - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 62 plays
2. The Stand - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 39 plays
3. Celebrate - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 38 plays
4. Love Came Down - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 36 plays
5. Happy Day - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 35 plays
6=. Foreverandever Etc... - DavidCrowder*Band (A Collision) 34 plays
6=. How to save a life - The Fray (How to save a life) 34 plays
8. Here is Our King - DavidCrowder*Band (A Collision) 31 plays
9. From the Inside Out / Majesty - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 30 plays
10. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair) - Sandi Thom (Single) 28 plays
11. Through the Valley - Lex Buckley (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 27 plays
12=. The Highest and The Greatest - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 25 plays
12=. Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson (Single) 25 plays
12=. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol (Eyes Open) 25 plays
15=. Chariot - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 23 plays
15=. Belief - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 23 plays
15=. She Moves in Her Own Way - The Kooks (Inside In Inside Out) 23 plays
15=. Above All - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 23 plays
15=. It is Well - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 23 plays
19=. Follow Through - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 22 plays
19=. Bright Idea - Orson (Bright Idea) 22 plays
19=. Who Knew - Pink (I'm Not Dead) 22 plays
19=. Better is One Day - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 22 plays
19=. Unchanging - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 22 plays
19=. Chocolate - Snow Patrol (Final Straw) 22 plays
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