Tip #5 for Writing Worship Songs: Be a Rip-Off

Tip #5: Rip-off stuff you like
No composer exists in a vacuum. Listen to artists you want to emulate, and look for characteristics that you can draw from. How do they create a good hook? What is the groove like? How does the chord progression work together? What forms do they use? Sometimes when you start out by ripping off an idea, the idea evolves into something new. I once wrote a song based on the chord progression from "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys. I don't think that you would ever guess it because the final product sounds nothing like them; it sounds like me. If you try to compose completely original, never-before experienced music, not only are you being naive about the way other music influences you, you are also setting up a goal of creating gibberish music. Music is a language. If you don't learn to speak the language, then you can only communicate non-sense. Ripping-off is just a form of being rooted in a community and a tradition.