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How To Write Worship Songs

In the Bible it says to sing a new song to the Lord in several of the Psalms and in Isaiah 42:10. Have you tried writing a 'new song'? In this article I'll share with you some ideas for writing worship songs. One of the best sources for song writing ideas is found in the Bible.

The psalms were originally songs sung by writers like King David. Using music to convey the truths in the Bible is a great place to get ideas for the lyrics. If you look at our most popular worship songs, they are based on God's truths. 'How Great Thou Art' is a beautiful illustration of this. Although the song was written in an earlier century, the song is still sung today and loved in many cultures.

You can put whole sections of the Bible to music or get take some ideas and create a song around specific concepts. A while back I wrote a little song on Jeremiah 9:23-24. That verse talks about not boasting about ourselves, but boasting about our relationship with our God who exhibits lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth.

There are simple chord patterns that work well with most songs called the I, IV and V chords. You can see these in the 'Common Chord Charts' that are free with our newsletters and it's also taught in Volume Two of the Worship Guitar Class lessons. Here's the little song I wrote:

If you would like the music... just request it from the form below.

 

Walking Bass Notes

Walking Bass NotesWalking Bass Notes

A common technique used to write songs is with using walking bass notes. It's a style of writing music for literally hundreds of years. I think of the very famous Pachelbel's Canon in D that dates back to the Baroque period in the 1700's. Pachelbel uses a repeating descending bass line throughout the piece.

'As A Deer' is a well known worship song that uses a descending bass line in much of the song. There are several ways to write and make song arrangements. In the video below you can learn the walking bass notes for a number of different keys. I've filmed a 6 minute lesson for you. This is also in one of the Video Newsletters but I thought it might be easier to find on the website to have the lesson stand on it's own, too. The video shows some walking bass notes in major keys, but it also works for minor keys.

If you would like to learn and apply many ways to write songs, you might enjoy our Guitar Music Theory course. I hope you enjoy the lesson.

The Walking Bass Note Video

 

Video Newsletter 3

Worship Guitar Class Family News - Guitar Walking Basses, Facebook Fan Page and more...

Topics for this 8 minute Video Newsletter are:

  1. Reading Music on Your Guitar - See the first 3 lessons free
  2. Guitar Lesson On Walking Basses
  3. Get fit in 10 Minutes a Day?
  4. Survey With Free Gift
  5. From You

The link to the survey, which is running, is here with details about the free product - The survey

To read the rest of this article click on the 'more' link [Read more...]

Video Newsletter – Finger Strumming, Plagal Cadence, and Japan

Worship Guitar Class Family News Video

This is our first video format newsletter. There are four topics covered...

  1. A Lessons on 'Finger Strumming'
  2. Plagal Cadences
  3. Piano Software Game
  4. News from Friends in Japan

To see the piano program, visit WizPiano.info. It's a software game that teaches people to play the piano. It was produced by a gentleman who lifts up his work to the living God. He debated going into the ministry or into music full time.

I was so delighted to hear from the Galbreath family in Japan. They sent several pictures and described how God was merciful to their family. The pictures show that everything in the house had fallen... but the miracle is that the house is still standing and no one was injured. I found the song the kids submitted for our worship contest in 2007. It is background music for some of the pictures and some wonderful verses in Scripture, in the video. Their site is japanmin.com/

Remember to Worship Him with all of your heart, because He Loves you with all of HIS.

God Bless,

Jean :-D

Deceptive Cadence

Using a Deceptive Cadence

I'm enjoying creating our brand new Music Theory for Guitar program. One of several musical ideas in the program is known as a Deceptive Cadence. Worship musicians make use of the deceptive cadence frequently in order to lengthen a worship song.

It is common for any worship song to finish using a chord referred to as the V, or the V7, to the chord known as the I. Now there is not enough space here to speak regarding the numerous chord constructions and keys, however the I chord is the actual root chord of the key. For instance within the key of 'G' the I is a 'G' chord. The V within the key of 'G' will be the chord 'D.'

The 'D' or 'D7' chord resolves beautifully into the chord 'G.' A deceptive cadence is whenever you switch to your VI chord at the conclusion of the tune rather than the I.

An example could be the song 'Lord I Lift Your Name On High.' I am aware that a lot of you may have the 'Worship Guitar Class' program and this particular song is inside the very first volume. The chords tend to be mainly 'G C D C.' The song finishes using the chords 'D,' 'Dsus,' G…..

The deceptive cadence for that key of 'G' is the VI chord and that is the chord 'Em.' As an alternative to using 'D,' Dsus,' 'G' … you could play 'D,' 'Dsus,' Em.' This 'Em' is on the final word 'high.' Play for the full measure and then 1 / 2 a measure with 'Am' as well as 'D' 'Dsus' for that 2nd half of the measure and then finish on the pattern 'G C D C and G'. This particular ending is below…

| Em | Am      Dsus        D           | G C | D C | G
… high. Lord I lift your name on high.

We usually perform the deceptive cadence two or three times prior to ultimately concluding on G.

If you have ever desired to learn how to read music as well as to fully grasp music theory, would certainly like to have you become a member of the music theory course.

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Jesus is LORD!