Last night at worship band rehearsal, I played "Leaning To Fly" for a few minutes when we were waiting for the tech team to fix some things. One of our drummers Dusty said "why can't more worship music sound like that?"
I tell this short story because when he said that, my thinking was spurred. Big time.
One. I along with a lot of other worship leaders get frustrated with the simple harmonic structure of a lot of the worship songs we sing in church. Usually it is four chords. I IV vi V or some sort of variation of those chords. C Am F G. I vi IV V. This happens a lot.
But it happened in Learning To Fly. F C Am G. IV I vi V. Four chords and the truth. And along with Dusty I agree, Learning To Fly sounds way cooler then most worship.
So why? It is four chords...just like In The Secret.
I don't know why. But I think, it has attitude. It has a feeling about it. I know its a great driving song. It evokes feeling and emotion.
Secondly I think it is a pretty solid arrangement, even though it is only four chords over and over, stuff (specifically guitars) just keeps getting layered. Vocals are layered. It doesn't get boring.
Third. A very singable chorus. And its catchy. I defy you to listen to the song and not sing it the rest of the day. FA FA FA Mi.
Four. Even though it is four chords, the ratio of lyrics line to chord, works. "Started out" (Am G) down a dirty road (Am G)
For whatever reason it works, and it doesn't sound like a tired four chord progression.
Those are reason I can think of. I wonder what your thoughts might be?
More Tom Petty Worship!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
"Be Still My Soul" by Bifrost Arts
We use the song "Be Still My Soul" by Bifrost Arts a lot at our church. Below is the loop we use for . Piano, Vibes, and Strings. The Bifrost Arts entire album is gorgeous.
Anyway, It starts out with the vibes in the left so that the vocalist can start the song seemingly spontaneously. And then for the last verse the the vibes go back to the left so that the vocalist can do 4 or 5 part harmony in tune.
I hope you can use this, and I hope you are listening to Bifrost Arts!
"Be Still My Soul"
Be Well.
Jeremy
Anyway, It starts out with the vibes in the left so that the vocalist can start the song seemingly spontaneously. And then for the last verse the the vibes go back to the left so that the vocalist can do 4 or 5 part harmony in tune.
I hope you can use this, and I hope you are listening to Bifrost Arts!
"Be Still My Soul"
Be Well.
Jeremy
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
"Alive Again" by Matt Maher
We have been using the song "Alive Again" by Matt Maher
At Faith UMC we have been doing a good number of songs off of Matt Maher's new album "Alive Again." Here is the pad for the whole song and the drum loop that is used in the second verse. It follows the Matt Maher arrangement exactly. Two bar click and then the acoustic guitar intro.
Enjoy.
At Faith UMC we have been doing a good number of songs off of Matt Maher's new album "Alive Again." Here is the pad for the whole song and the drum loop that is used in the second verse. It follows the Matt Maher arrangement exactly. Two bar click and then the acoustic guitar intro.
Enjoy.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Arrangements.
The arrangement. Music is all about the arrangement. Jazz musicians do this intuitively, on the fly. The music builds dynamically, people drop and don't play, or play full on, the head (melody) comes back, and is improvised over. It's beautiful.
Great rock music does this too. Think about U2 arrangements. Think about or With Or Without You. It starts soft with a loop, Larry holds off on the real drums. The melody stays low until the song builds and Bono sings "You give yourself away." Think about other rock bands, like Zepplin, great arrangements.
A great arrangement is what makes people (subconsciously) be welcomed into your music. A great song with a bad arrangement is a bad song. Not mediocre.
After leading worship for ten plus years, this is where I spend the most of my time. On The arrangements. On how the song is going to build, where its going to be soft, what the loudest instrument is, who plays where, and what lyrical parts should the music put more emphasis on.
I give the band I lead the arrangements. Anybody can click on a chords chart. Press print, and bring it to rehearsal, and say we are going to play these. Everybody plays. Or everybody has a different idea on what needs what. It's static. There is no life.
The worship leader is the arranger. That is what you do. You can spend money and go to school and learn this, OR you can listen to albums. It took four years music school for me to realize that I should just analytically listen to music.
Collaboration is beautiful. Having the whole band come up with the arrangement is fun. But have a backup. Have an agenda and a plan, through prayer, of where the songs are going arrangement wise. It will make your rehearsals great.
I have played with some excellent, professional musicians over the years, and the first question from the pros is "what's the vibe?" What's the arrangement is the question behind the question.
Great arrangements:
U2: With Or With Out You
Mumford And Sons: The whole album
Death Can For Cutie: Transatlanticism (The song)
Bill Frisell: Shenandoah
There are tons of others. Because if the music is great, it has a great arrangement.
Go. Do it. Arrange. Don't just copy the new Tomlin record for how to arrange How Great Is Our God. Coping isn't always bad. Steal ideas. But what is your spin? What's your arrangement? What makes you do different? OR should you just hire Chris Tomlin. Ya Dig?
Great rock music does this too. Think about U2 arrangements. Think about or With Or Without You. It starts soft with a loop, Larry holds off on the real drums. The melody stays low until the song builds and Bono sings "You give yourself away." Think about other rock bands, like Zepplin, great arrangements.
A great arrangement is what makes people (subconsciously) be welcomed into your music. A great song with a bad arrangement is a bad song. Not mediocre.
After leading worship for ten plus years, this is where I spend the most of my time. On The arrangements. On how the song is going to build, where its going to be soft, what the loudest instrument is, who plays where, and what lyrical parts should the music put more emphasis on.
I give the band I lead the arrangements. Anybody can click on a chords chart. Press print, and bring it to rehearsal, and say we are going to play these. Everybody plays. Or everybody has a different idea on what needs what. It's static. There is no life.
The worship leader is the arranger. That is what you do. You can spend money and go to school and learn this, OR you can listen to albums. It took four years music school for me to realize that I should just analytically listen to music.
Collaboration is beautiful. Having the whole band come up with the arrangement is fun. But have a backup. Have an agenda and a plan, through prayer, of where the songs are going arrangement wise. It will make your rehearsals great.
I have played with some excellent, professional musicians over the years, and the first question from the pros is "what's the vibe?" What's the arrangement is the question behind the question.
Great arrangements:
U2: With Or With Out You
Mumford And Sons: The whole album
Death Can For Cutie: Transatlanticism (The song)
Bill Frisell: Shenandoah
There are tons of others. Because if the music is great, it has a great arrangement.
Go. Do it. Arrange. Don't just copy the new Tomlin record for how to arrange How Great Is Our God. Coping isn't always bad. Steal ideas. But what is your spin? What's your arrangement? What makes you do different? OR should you just hire Chris Tomlin. Ya Dig?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Forever
The song "Forever" by Chris Tomlin is a old favorite in our community. This loop is in the Key of A @120bpm.
The instrumentation is wurlitzer and arppegiator (mo6). And sometimes we use this drum loop with it. I created in Ableton Live...
Another way to change it up is to up the snare drum on beat 3 during some of the verses and let the band groove in that feel, it is a power pop move and may or may not work for you, but it is fun.
Forever Left is click, Right is Loop 120 BPM
2 bar intro
verse 1
sing praise, sing praise
verse 2
sing praise, sing praise
sing praise, sing praise
1 chorus
2 bars
verse 3
sing praise, sing praise
sing praise, sing praise
chorus
chorus
4 bars
His love endures forever x4
sing praise, sing praise
sing praise, sing praise
chorus
chorus
outro: instrumental chorus
Enjoy. Hope you can use it.
The instrumentation is wurlitzer and arppegiator (mo6). And sometimes we use this drum loop with it. I created in Ableton Live...
Another way to change it up is to up the snare drum on beat 3 during some of the verses and let the band groove in that feel, it is a power pop move and may or may not work for you, but it is fun.
Forever Left is click, Right is Loop 120 BPM
2 bar intro
verse 1
sing praise, sing praise
verse 2
sing praise, sing praise
sing praise, sing praise
1 chorus
2 bars
verse 3
sing praise, sing praise
sing praise, sing praise
chorus
chorus
4 bars
His love endures forever x4
sing praise, sing praise
sing praise, sing praise
chorus
chorus
outro: instrumental chorus
Enjoy. Hope you can use it.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Blessed Be Your Name
A few weeks ago I blogged about how to change up the song you do in church (harmonically). I talked about Blessed Be Your Name. So I thought I would share with you the loops we use for that song. It follows the Matt Redman "Where Angles Fear To Tread" album. This is a simple loop, just synth and glockenspiel. I also provided the chart so that you can use the different chords to change it up a bit. The arrangement is based off of Aaron Neiquist's idea for a song by Sigur Ros done to Blessed Be Your Name, but it doesn't follow that arrangement exactly.
This is slower and at 106bpm. It needs two bars of click and then run with the chart. Enjoy.
Loop: Blessed Be Your Name
Chart: Blessed Be Your Name
Check out the new A Fine Frenzy: "Bomb In A Bird Cage" it is awesome
This is slower and at 106bpm. It needs two bars of click and then run with the chart. Enjoy.
Loop: Blessed Be Your Name
Chart: Blessed Be Your Name
Check out the new A Fine Frenzy: "Bomb In A Bird Cage" it is awesome
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Here Is My Loops For "Mighty To Save"
This is the loop that our team uses for the song "Mighty To Save."
There are a lot out there, but I wanted to put our own spin on it.
It follows the Hillsong version except that we don't do the long drum intro. The click starts 2 bars of nothing, then the drum riff starts for 2 bars only, then it is the full band intro on the D chord and the song goes exactly like the recording from there. Key of A, 76 bpm.
I made a loop, synths and pads, and bass sub stuff. You can use all three together or whatever you need for your team. We like this song, we don't do it a whole lot just because it is so popular, but from time to time this song is appropriate.
So here you go...
Loop 76 bpm (left click; right loop)
Synth and Pads 76 bpm (left click; right pads/synth)
Bass Sub Synth 76 bpm (no click)
I used a Yahama mo6 on the whole loop and fender rhodes and pad, I used Albino 3 for the synth arp and bass arp and mixed it in Pro Tools.
Hope you can use this, if you have any questions about it Facebook me.
There are a lot out there, but I wanted to put our own spin on it.
It follows the Hillsong version except that we don't do the long drum intro. The click starts 2 bars of nothing, then the drum riff starts for 2 bars only, then it is the full band intro on the D chord and the song goes exactly like the recording from there. Key of A, 76 bpm.
I made a loop, synths and pads, and bass sub stuff. You can use all three together or whatever you need for your team. We like this song, we don't do it a whole lot just because it is so popular, but from time to time this song is appropriate.
So here you go...
Loop 76 bpm (left click; right loop)
Synth and Pads 76 bpm (left click; right pads/synth)
Bass Sub Synth 76 bpm (no click)
I used a Yahama mo6 on the whole loop and fender rhodes and pad, I used Albino 3 for the synth arp and bass arp and mixed it in Pro Tools.
Hope you can use this, if you have any questions about it Facebook me.
Friday, February 5, 2010
How to change up your worship songs.
I believe as a worship leaders, we need to add our own flavor to songs we sing every week, so it's fresh. If you get on CCLIs website you will find that these 5 songs are sung the most in churches every week.
1 How Great Is Our God Tomlin, Chris \ Reeves, Jesse \ Cash, Ed 4348399
2 Mighty To Save Fielding, Ben \ Morgan, Reuben 4591782
3 Blessed Be Your Name Redman, Beth \ Redman, Matt 3798438
4 Here I Am To Worship Hughes, Tim 3266032
5 Everlasting God Brown, Brenton Riley, Ken 4556538
Rightfully so, these songs are loved by our communities.
As a someone who was trained in jazz, the idea of playing/singing the melody and the tune exactly like the original artist is foreign, illegal, and Windows 7. We develop our own ways interpreting melodies and harmony, that is the fun part, it stays fresh and alive and improvised!
However in the church setting, there is not much you can do as far as the melody is concerned. People have heard it on KLOVE (in between, them begging for money) and know how to sing it a certain way.
Still, we can play around with the chords, or harmony as long as it doesn't effect the melody. A lot of churches do their own arrangements and their own dynamics, but for the most part across the board all of the churches I have been to, play and sing "How Great Is Our God" like Chris Tomlin.
Let's take that one for example. The basic chord structure is C Am F (G). It is pretty simple. This is what I did to the chords for a few weeks at our community.
C.................................Bm7b5.E7.Am
The splendor of a King,...............clothed in majesty
.....Gm7.......C7.....F
Let all the earth rejoice
.......................Fm
All the earth rejoice
Chorus
...........C...................Bm7b5....E7
How great is our God, sing with me
..........Am.......................Gm7.....C7
How great is our God, and all will see
.........F............Bb7............C
How great, how great is our God
Now this may be complicated depending where you are musically, but that is ok. AND by adding new harmonies you can pick and chose which ones to make it easier for you or your team. However these changes do not effect the melody, and I can tell you that the chorus really works with the changes over "sing with me, & and all will see." TA DA new life to a song we have done forever!
Let's take a more simple version of what I am purposing. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman. The basic chord structure is |B|F#|G#m|E| and then |B|F#|E|. It's pretty much that way the whole time. So to make it more of our own and less the same, here is what we did with it.
For the first two lines of the verse it is the normal progression, then for line 3 and 4 of the verses we used |G#m|F#/A#|B|E| and then |G#m|F#/A#|E| because those lines are talking about how God is still blessed in times of lament. You can do this on the pre-chorus as well, you can do it where ever! Or not do it. That is the point, it is your call, make it!
There are other things we did with it later in the song, but for now you can see/hear/feel that just changing the 3rd and 4th lines of the verse breathes new life into a song we have done for years.
More on this later. And if you have questions about how it works, facebook me. I'm happy to help. PS sorry about the periods, it wouldn't line up correctly without them.
1 How Great Is Our God Tomlin, Chris \ Reeves, Jesse \ Cash, Ed 4348399
2 Mighty To Save Fielding, Ben \ Morgan, Reuben 4591782
3 Blessed Be Your Name Redman, Beth \ Redman, Matt 3798438
4 Here I Am To Worship Hughes, Tim 3266032
5 Everlasting God Brown, Brenton Riley, Ken 4556538
Rightfully so, these songs are loved by our communities.
As a someone who was trained in jazz, the idea of playing/singing the melody and the tune exactly like the original artist is foreign, illegal, and Windows 7. We develop our own ways interpreting melodies and harmony, that is the fun part, it stays fresh and alive and improvised!
However in the church setting, there is not much you can do as far as the melody is concerned. People have heard it on KLOVE (in between, them begging for money) and know how to sing it a certain way.
Still, we can play around with the chords, or harmony as long as it doesn't effect the melody. A lot of churches do their own arrangements and their own dynamics, but for the most part across the board all of the churches I have been to, play and sing "How Great Is Our God" like Chris Tomlin.
Let's take that one for example. The basic chord structure is C Am F (G). It is pretty simple. This is what I did to the chords for a few weeks at our community.
C.................................Bm7b5.E7.Am
The splendor of a King,...............clothed in majesty
.....Gm7.......C7.....F
Let all the earth rejoice
.......................Fm
All the earth rejoice
Chorus
...........C...................Bm7b5....E7
How great is our God, sing with me
..........Am.......................Gm7.....C7
How great is our God, and all will see
.........F............Bb7............C
How great, how great is our God
Now this may be complicated depending where you are musically, but that is ok. AND by adding new harmonies you can pick and chose which ones to make it easier for you or your team. However these changes do not effect the melody, and I can tell you that the chorus really works with the changes over "sing with me, & and all will see." TA DA new life to a song we have done forever!
Let's take a more simple version of what I am purposing. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman. The basic chord structure is |B|F#|G#m|E| and then |B|F#|E|. It's pretty much that way the whole time. So to make it more of our own and less the same, here is what we did with it.
For the first two lines of the verse it is the normal progression, then for line 3 and 4 of the verses we used |G#m|F#/A#|B|E| and then |G#m|F#/A#|E| because those lines are talking about how God is still blessed in times of lament. You can do this on the pre-chorus as well, you can do it where ever! Or not do it. That is the point, it is your call, make it!
There are other things we did with it later in the song, but for now you can see/hear/feel that just changing the 3rd and 4th lines of the verse breathes new life into a song we have done for years.
More on this later. And if you have questions about how it works, facebook me. I'm happy to help. PS sorry about the periods, it wouldn't line up correctly without them.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Kingdom Come
1. I remember being at the Willow Creek Art's Conference and hearing Brian Mclaren say that there needed to be more songs about the Kingdom coming on earth.
2. I listened to numerous different artist's version of this advice. Many are great.
3. I don't know that alienation is always the best way of promoting a song, but I don't really care. I wrote this song as a response the doomsday preachers of our time. The Left Behind series, John Hagee, Pat Robertson, and others who make there money by promoting fear. And by preaching of the coming apocalypse, instead of spreading love.
I think every thing is going to be good, but we all have to get together and spread love. That is what this song is about. Here is a demo that I recorded in my house over the last couple weeks. My brother Jason played the bass, and I played everything else. The kick sample is from Dusty Merrill.
So take it and listen to it. And if you are one who leans more towards fear instead of love, hopefully you can sing this chorus and it will start to change that.
Share it. Not the song. Not my name. Share the idea. The idea is more important. We could give up and let the cards fall where they may, or we could stop worrying and start spreading love. Let's make love till kingdom come, it doesn't have to be fear and death and fire. The choice is ours.
Kingdom Come Demo copyright 2010 Jeremy Batten
2. I listened to numerous different artist's version of this advice. Many are great.
3. I don't know that alienation is always the best way of promoting a song, but I don't really care. I wrote this song as a response the doomsday preachers of our time. The Left Behind series, John Hagee, Pat Robertson, and others who make there money by promoting fear. And by preaching of the coming apocalypse, instead of spreading love.
I think every thing is going to be good, but we all have to get together and spread love. That is what this song is about. Here is a demo that I recorded in my house over the last couple weeks. My brother Jason played the bass, and I played everything else. The kick sample is from Dusty Merrill.
So take it and listen to it. And if you are one who leans more towards fear instead of love, hopefully you can sing this chorus and it will start to change that.
Share it. Not the song. Not my name. Share the idea. The idea is more important. We could give up and let the cards fall where they may, or we could stop worrying and start spreading love. Let's make love till kingdom come, it doesn't have to be fear and death and fire. The choice is ours.
Kingdom Come Demo copyright 2010 Jeremy Batten
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Our loop "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus"
I have decided to go a different direction with this blog. I am going to talk about Art and the Church still. I am reading a lot of things that are shaping a lot of things I have thought for a long time. I am being vague. But let's talk about a song that totally worked on sunday at our church in Fairmont WV.
Here is our arrangement for "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus." I made this with Pro Tools and my Yamaha mo6 workstation.
The loop is here
We do 5 verses. "I have decided to follow Jesus" verse twice. Then the verse "though none go with me, still I will follow" Then verse 4 is "The cross before me the world behind me."
The last verse is "I have decided to follow Jesus."
The loop is 68 BPM. The chords are |E|E|A|A|C#m|C#m|E B|A|A| repeat.
Intro: two bars of loop
Verse 1: loop, vox, & ag
Verse 2: add bass whole notes and cymbals
Verse 3: add drums kick and snare on beat 4 and the last two bars build to full on, add all other instruments.
Verse 4: full on
Verse 5: ag and vox.
This arrangement seemed to work great. I love this song, and don't think it is a children song but a song for Worship. I hope you can use it.
Cheers.
Here is our arrangement for "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus." I made this with Pro Tools and my Yamaha mo6 workstation.
The loop is here
We do 5 verses. "I have decided to follow Jesus" verse twice. Then the verse "though none go with me, still I will follow" Then verse 4 is "The cross before me the world behind me."
The last verse is "I have decided to follow Jesus."
The loop is 68 BPM. The chords are |E|E|A|A|C#m|C#m|E B|A|A| repeat.
Intro: two bars of loop
Verse 1: loop, vox, & ag
Verse 2: add bass whole notes and cymbals
Verse 3: add drums kick and snare on beat 4 and the last two bars build to full on, add all other instruments.
Verse 4: full on
Verse 5: ag and vox.
This arrangement seemed to work great. I love this song, and don't think it is a children song but a song for Worship. I hope you can use it.
Cheers.
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