Recently in Song Writing Category

There's always a twinge of guilt around featuring my own music. Am I just glorifying myself? Is this just a big advertisement for my CD and my agenda? I can recite to myself the reasons why it is better to allow the community of believers in a church to create their own unique expressions of worship, but it sometimes just feels like a justification for exploiting a captive audience. Of course, these feelings of guilt are just a lie. Would feelings of guilt that inhibit the creation and expression of new worship really be from the Holy Spirit? No, this is the guilt of the enemy who wants all expressions of worship to cease.

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with someone who has been at our church for several months. They were surprised that I was recording a CD. They asked if I wrote songs. They didn't recognize any songs that I had written from our worship services. After that conversation, I immediately consulted my records and found that I had not featured much of my own music over the past 6 months. One song a month was the average. So, I decided, in anticipation of the CD release, to schedule one song of mine every Sunday. I want my songs and the CD that I've spent so much time on to be a gift to the congregation of people who I lead in worship. If they don't recognize my songs then I have been failing to faithfully share the gift that God has equipped me with.

I believe that any artist (or any other labor) who does not faithfully practice and share their gift is being unfaithful to the Spirits work. The gifts we have been given are not for ourselves; they are gifts that are to be shared with our communities. So, to my community, New City Fellowship, I apologize for the way I have allowed false guilt to drive my gift into the dark.

I am independently producing my CD. This image shows where the money goes when you buy a CD from a big chain store. I know you can't read it, but you can check out the original here. Independent releases mean that more money ends up in the pocket of the artist. That means that the artist is supported to be able to continue to do their art without having to get a "day job". Fortunately, I have a day job (I love my job), and so I will not have to rely directly on my art to survive.

Being signed on a label has it's advantages. I would seriously consider signing to a label if the opportunity presented itself. The label does a lot of work for the artist. The big service they provide is marketing. I am not looking forward to marketing myself.

My wife is taking a big risk to allow me to spend so much of our personal money on this project. She has shown a deep level of trust in me and the gifts God has given to me. God is working in amazing ways in this process. It's been exciting to see his hand working as I have stepped out in faith. Please continue to pray for this CD.

Last week, I set up a Nimbit online merch table in order to sell mp3s, CDs, and other merch should I go into the T-shirt business. (Maybe I can offer some Little Knots gear, too.) If you can't see the store directly under the header, you might not have a current version of flash installed. Also, if you subscribe to my blog in a reader, you need to come to the actual site to see it.

The only product in the store right now is my 2002 CD, "Only One" but having the store up and running before the release of the new CD later this year will mean that as soon as I have something, you can go online and buy mp3s. Play around with the store and let me know what you think. Buttons on the top left side are store, bio, mailing list, and shopping cart. You can play full-length samples of all the songs. If you are in St Louis and you like the samples, come by the New City Fellowship office sometime and buy a CD for only $10. As always, it's cheaper to buy downloads, but isn't it more satisfying to own the real deal?

You can find the same store widget on my facebook fan page as well as my myspace page.

Tip #8: Share the song with a group you can worship with. This is where I take the step of sharing the song with my church. If you are not a church musician with the luxury of a captive audience, then you could share the song with a prayer group, house church, or a group of friends. The point is to give the song away to the community. I don't mean you give up your copyright ownership; I mean you let go of control of the song and give it like a gift to the people you care about. The artists work is a gift from the Spirit to be given away. It's a little terrifying to open up yourself up to being vulnerable, but just consider how vulnerable the Lord Jesus was to subject himself to the incarnation, to become a baby. You are not your song. If the song fails, you are still a valid artist. Just toss it out and keep writing. My dad once told me that for every 30 songs, you get one keeper. Good writing comes from the same thing that makes a good musician: discipline, practice, and performance experience.

Tip #7: Share the song with someone you trust with the role of editor.
Ask a friend to listen to the song and give them permission to be honest. I like to share my song with a fellow musician and a non-musician. I usually share song ideas with my Dad and my wife. Dad helps me refine the idea or gives me new ideas for developing the song more. My wife first showers me with affirmation (which is wonderful); then when she knows my ego won't be crushed, she gives me very good feedback of how the song makes her feel. It's a difficult step, but letting your song into the light of day will show you whether it has merit to continue working on it.

Tip #6: Look for the hook
A hook is a musical phrase captures the attention of the listener and "hooks" them into listening and remembering the song. A hook should be clearly presented, then repeated and developed throughout the song. A song without a hook is like a boat without a rudder; it floats around different ideas without any direction or goal. Build the song around the hook. If the hook is "I am Delivered" then the rest of the song should develop the idea. Delivered from what? Delivered by whom? Delivered into what? Delivered how?

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.