United Through Worship

These lyric writing tips are geared toward helping you write comfortable, natural-sounding lyrics. A contemporary lyric should sound conversational, and there should be no doubt as to what the song is about. Here are a few ways to get you started writing better lyrics.

1. Write the story in prose. Before you attempt to write in song form, write your idea as a short story. Include visual descriptions, things your characters might say, and even their names if you want. Don’t worry about rhyme or meter. The goal is to tell the story, to say exactly what you want to say. Stay on the subject you’ve chosen until you have a beginning, a middle and an ending. It doesn’t have to be very long. Remember your song only needs a couple of verses, a chorus, maybe a bridge. When you’re happy with what you have written it’s time to turn it into a lyric.

2. Write the lyric without rhyme. Begin writing your lyric, but don’t worry about making it rhyme just yet. Simply tell your story in lyric form. If you’re thinking too much about rhyming at this point, you may not say just what you want to say. You want to be able to write it with freedom. Once you have your verses planned out then you can start looking at how you might rhyme them. Use a rhyming dictionary to help you. You can also open your thesaurus to look for just the right synonyms.

And remember, you don’t HAVE to rhyme. Rhymes are very useful for helping to hold the lyric together, and to help us remember the words. And they can sound clever and cool. But be careful not to make it rhyme just because you think it should. Don’t risk twisting the meaning of your song just to force a rhyme.

3. Speak it out loud. Once you’ve finished your song give yourself a pat on the back! It doesn’t mean you’re finished but do it anyway. You deserve it. Now before you go any further, speak it out loud. How does it sound? Do people speak that way? How does it feel? Are there any parts that are awkward or uncomfortable? I’m not talking about subject matter. I’m talking about the natural flow of the words. You want it to sound as conversational as possible. Once it does, you know you’re onto something good!

One of the greatest things about freedom of religion in the United States is the ability to choose none of the above, that is to say become an agnostic or even a straight atheist. Of course, due to the public outcast issues in various communities that too can become a problem. If we are to ever have true religious tolerance in the world, it has to come from all directions to the middle. In other words, everyone is allowed to hold onto their belief system, without telling others to change their beliefs or mold themselves to the other.

As we look around the world we see far too much sectarian violence these days, too much animosity, too much fiefdom’ism. And, we see too much religion in politics and government, even in the United States where it really is not suppose to be at all. Worse, I’ve watched friends who are of no religion, even atheists, judged without merit or validity to their honor, or integrity, but rather negatively judged for merely being without a religion.

Consider this statement by an atheist; “Well, just so you know I am an atheist, so I guess I am the infidel from hell to nearly all religions. They all seem to be offended equally by me. I almost find the concept of folks being so offended as sign of their “work in progress” of whatever understanding they seek, meaning they still have a ways to go. But that’s an issue with them not me.”

Indeed, I can understand his ire, and well, I live in America, I am free, and tire of religious demand for obedience by other humans’ standards, which depending on the religion are; all different. So, to my atheist acquaintance, I’d say; you can never be able to please anyone, well, perhaps except me, because I don’t bother to judge anyone based on their religious adherence to ritual, as I judge a human being by their deeds. Interestingly enough, in most religions, isn’t that how you are supposed to judge your fellow man?

I’ve often wondered what the world would be like without religion, and those who have a devout calling to a given line of religious thought will tell me that; things would be terrible. Further, after discussing this, they tell me that everyone should become their religion because supposedly it is the best one.

Fascinating as that is what the other religions say about them. Of course, if you ask an agnostic or atheist what the world would be like without religion, they say it would be wonderful and peaceful, and who knows maybe they are right considering what we’ve been observing around the world and throughout history? Please consider all this.

The history of music in Christian worship is a substantial one which can trace its origins all the way back to pre-Christian times in the Old Testament. In those very early days we read of the Jewish people singing, playing instrumental music and even dancing. Such activity was widely used as a means of expressing faith. Music played an important role in many acts of celebration and worship. It was into that society that Jesus was born.

Over the two thousand years since Christ’s life the use of music in Christian worship has gone through many phases and many musical idioms. It is really over the second of those two thousand years that church music, as we know it today, has developed.

One of the most important events in the whole of the world of music came about through the work of a Benedictine monk, Guido of Arrezzo who lived from about 995 to 1050. He didn’t actually ‘invent’ staff notation but he perfected it, completing the evolution of the earlier neumes into plainsong script, which was the forerunner of what we know today as ‘tonic-solfa’. All music had previously been passed down by aural tradition so the facility to write down music for others to read and perform was a massive step forward. Almost all musical expression since that time has come as a direct result of that development.

From that time on, composers were able to create substantial works for use in worship. This early church music was written to form the framework of an act of worship. The music was performed primarily by professional musicians attached to the church and was not for congregation participation. Composers did eventually begin to incorporate chorales (hymns) into the liturgy which gave the congregation the opportunity to join in at certain points in the service.

Many of the greatest composers over the centuries have added their voices to the ever growing repertoire of great church music. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and many others have given us masterpieces adding to the wealth of music in Christian worship. We tend to know many of these works today through concert performances, forgetting that many were originally created as liturgical pieces for use in church services.

At times of spiritual revival (the Protestant Reformation, the missions of Moody & Sankey, the evangelical energy which led to the founding of Methodism and the Salvation Army, etc.) there was a burst of hymn writing surrounding these events. These highly creative times in church music led to the appearance of many of the greatest and most popular congregational hymns of all. The hymns from these eras of church history have stood the test of time and are still to be heard today in even the most contemporary of worship situations.

Over the last 50 years worship music has gone through a whole new phase of development. Since the early 1960′s composers of church music have gained much inspiration from the popular music of their day. We now regularly encounter worship bands accompanying church singing rather than the traditional organ. More and more, we hear the term “worship song” rather than the word “hymn” and congregations are becoming much more attuned to worship music in a popular contemporary idiom. This can be a contentious issue at times but it is important that all Christians have the right to express their faith in a manner which suits them. Many churches are coping with this by having both traditional worship and contemporary worship on a Sunday.

So, music in Christian worship continues to develop and change. We now have a massive repertoire of music in many, many different styles and idioms to choose from. At all costs, we must avoid the blinkered view of focusing on music of one idiom and ignoring the rest. Every generation adds to the rich tapestry of worship music we have available to us.

Copyright (c) 2010 Robert Hinchliffe