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Tom Petty Worship

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!

"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

"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.

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?

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.

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