{"id":14796,"date":"2014-09-25T05:58:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T05:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=14796"},"modified":"2019-08-01T15:01:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T15:01:49","slug":"great-worship-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/great-worship-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes a great worship song?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday we asked on Facebook “What makes a great worship song<\/a>?” As usual our subscribers had lots of great ideas which you can read by clicking through . But below that is an interview with a worship academic who reckons he is on the road to defining the science behind a great worship song.<\/p>\n

An interview with no less than the word’s leading expert on the contemporary congregational song<\/h2>\n

Daniel Thornton<\/a>\u00a0is an Australian worship leader, songwriter, composer and, intriguingly, the \u2018world\u2019s leading expert on the contemporary congregational song<\/strong>\u2019.\u00a0Daniel\u00a0is conducting a PhD\u00a0to find\u00a0the\u00a0\u2018science\u2019 (my word)\u00a0behind the songs that churches\u00a0<\/span>can<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>want<\/em>\u00a0to sing. Using CCLI\u2019s list\u00a0of the top 25 songs\u00a0reported by churches,\u00a0he\u00a0is attempting\u00a0to discover what it is about these particular songs that has made them\u00a0so universally popular\u00a0in churches.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was keen to\u00a0find out what Daniel has found –\u00a0why churches choose\u00a0to sing certain songs and not others, and whether his research could influence the way\u00a0\u2018congregational songs\u2019\u00a0are written in the future\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/a><\/p>\n

Daniel, tell us about your PhD. Why study the \u2018contemporary congregational song?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most people talk about praise & worship or contemporary worship music. I chose the \u2018contemporary congregational song\u2019 because I think it\u2019s really dangerous to use the word \u2018worship\u2019\u00a0when we\u2019re only referring to\u00a0songs. I think most people know that worship is a lifestyle, but we still talk about praise & worship when we mean worship music. So in an academic context I needed a term that was not so linked to other expressions of worship. We even talk about praise & worship as meaning fast songs\/slow songs, so we\u2019ve made \u2018worship\u2019 into \u2018slow songs\u2019.<\/p>\n

No one has done this research before and I really want to help songwriters. I\u2019ve been a local worship pastor and I\u2019ve had so many conversations with my team, with other pastors\u2026 you have these subjective conversations around songs going, \u2018I like this song, but I don\u2019t like that song\u2026 this song is going to work\u2026I didn\u2019t think the congregation engaged with that one\u2026\u2019 Most of those conversations are just subjective opinion. So my question is, \u2018What\u2019s the data? What can the average Christian actually sing \u2013 does anybody know?\u2019 We say, \u2018that song\u2019s too high\u2026that song\u2019s too low\u2019, these are all subjective opinions. I want to know what the average Christian can sing, and I want to know what songs resonate with them\u2026not just the songs we\u00a0make<\/em>\u00a0them sing \u2013 CCLI can give me\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0data, but it can\u2019t actually tell me individually how people in the congregation are connecting<\/em>\u00a0with the songs.<\/p>\n

Some of the most fascinating findings for me have been my online surveys. I\u2019ve been asking people of all ages and from across the denominations to sing a song without any accompaniment. There\u2019s a few things I wanted to find out.\u00a0One of them is\u00a0simply their song choice \u2013 so the song they naturally choose without any prompting. And already\u2026 it\u2019s diverse! I expected that some of the top CCLI songs would keep appearing, but actually when people get to sing by themselves it is a vast array of songs they choose.<\/p>\n

Contemporary songs are sometimes accused of dumbing down worship, and lacking creativity. Do you think that\u2019s fair? Can you reveal what you\u2019re finding through your PhD?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a big tension in that space. There are lots of arguments about the lack of theological depth in contemporary songs\u00a0but I don\u2019t see those conversations really going anywhere useful. Even though many contemporary songs are actually getting a bit more theologically attentive than they were perhaps 20 years ago, my question is why do theyhave<\/em>\u00a0to be completely inclusive of all Christian doctrine? A song is a limited vehicle, even those that we think are theologically profound, ultimately it\u2019s just a sliver.<\/p>\n

In an oral culture, you want to capture all your theology in song because that\u2019s the way that you teach and learn that theology, and that\u2019s crucial. But actually we\u2019re in an age where we\u2019ve got more vehicles that we\u2019ve ever had for that theology. Preaching is available everywhere and anywhere, versions of the Bible and commentaries are available at the touch of a button. We\u2019re not short of theological options. I still believe song is a very powerful vehicle for theology because it actually puts it in our mouth so then that becomes the theology of our confession rather than just the theology that we read or listen to. So yes, there is something important about song, but I do wrestle with this idea that songs need to encapsulate all our comprehensive theology. Ultimately they can\u2019t individually, but CCLI has thousands of songs in its database, so actually there\u2019s probably an impressive theological database amongst all those songs.<\/p>\n

But how many are churches singing on a Sunday? Perhaps three, four? And which ones are churches choosing to sing? People have asked me; \u2018Why aren\u2019t we singing more lament songs?\u2019 \u2018Why are they not in the CCLI charts?\u2019 It\u2019s because churches are choosing not to sing them, not because they don\u2019t exist. So really the question is why are churches choosing to sing the songs they are, and that\u2019s really what I\u2019m looking at. I\u2019m looking at the songs that are most sung, that are most popular, and asking; What are the lyrical, theological, musical components that come together to resonate with churches?<\/p>\n

So presumably when you\u2019ve gathered all the answers you\u2019re going to be the ultimate songwriter\u2026you\u2019ll be writing the songs that churches are guaranteed to want to sing\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Daniel laughs). That\u2019s the danger of the research. Clearly what I\u2019m not going to come up with is some hit Christian song formula, because of course if anyone could do that\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026It would no longer be art, it would be science\u2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, and part of what I\u2019m doing is talking to the writers. I\u2019m gauging peoples reception and engagement with the songs but I\u2019m also getting the intent from the songwriters \u2013 what they thought when they were writing it. And sometimes the way people are engaging with a song is a long way away from what the songwriter intended for the song \u2026 or they thought the song wasn\u2019t going to work and it took off, or they thought they\u2019d got something quite profound and it\u00a0didn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0take off. So I\u2019m not trying to come up with a formula.<\/p>\n

But there definitely are some key findings. If I had to reduce it down to a sentence it would be that contemporary congregational songs work when they resonate with the vinacular music of the people who are singing them \u2013 so the music of their culture. Certainly in a broad western culture that\u2019s going to be pop music of some form or another.<\/p>\n

They contain theological truth. There is interpretability in them \u2013 they contain metaphors and poetry that allow people to interpret. Certainly some people will argue and choose not to sing certain songs but the bottom line is they always contain some kind of fundamental theological truth. One of the powerful things about a song is that five people can listen to it and actually get something different out of it, that it can speak to them in a personal way. So great songs have lyrics that allow them to be interpretable.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0well as an element of the Holy Spirit working through them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, so \u201810,000 reasons for my heart to find\u2019\u2026 Clearly what people invisage when they sing that lyric is going to be diverse. \u2018You call me out upon the water\u2019\u2026 They\u2019re metaphors and this sort of poetic language and metaphor is really important in songs. And finally, directly related to that is some kind of personal applicational connection, or resonance. I think it comes out of all of those elements \u2013 with the music they connect to, with the theology they resonate with, with the pictures they invisage that relate to them individually.<\/p>\n

Does a song have to have a spine-tingling quality, or can people engage with a song on an intellectual level through the words even if they aren\u2019t moved by the melody?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure they can, but the bottom line is musical preferences are held very very deeply in human beings, and there is a lot of research out there that looks at this, not just in a Christian context, but generally. One particular guy,\u00a0Daniel Levitin<\/a>\u00a0talks about this \u2018schema\u2019, this place where we resonate with music, and basically he says that\u2019s often formed somewhere around our adolescence, our early adulthood, especially through crucial moments in our lives; our first love, those initial achievements. Basically we end up creating our own personal musical schema, so that anything that is too simple or too predictable, we don\u2019t have any interest in, and anything that is too complex or too outside of our world, we don\u2019t resonate with.<\/p>\n

Of course this can change over time but clearly those preferences are where music is going to have the most impact for us personally. The great challenge in a church setting is that we\u2019ve got the 99 year old and the nine month old; you\u2019ve got generations who have significantly different schemas\u2026<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just one church\u2026as\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0church, we are as eclectic a body as we could be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exactly, yet in church we all lay down these preferences, because there\u2019s actually a bigger picture for us. We\u2019re engaging with the body and God is more important than the song, and so I think every Sunday there are countless people laying down musical preferences to engage in worship and doing so quite happily. You can never find the perfect music that resonates with everyone because it\u2019s an impossible task, it\u2019s always going to be too loud for some, too soft for some, too much guitar for some, too little for others.<\/p>\n

So you hope these findings will be of value to songwriters, worship leaders and churches. When do you hope to publish your findings and where can\u00a0we go to find out what you\u2019ve discovered?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly by this time next year I\u2019ll be planning to have the results in a digestible form, a book. It might take a bit longer. In the meantime I\u2019ve written a lot of articles for Worship Leader Magazine on my ongoing findings which you can find online. (Part 1<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Part 2<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Part 4<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Part 5<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to ask you a little bit more about your background. You\u2019re classically trained in a number of instruments, you\u2019ve composed all kinds of different types of music, you\u2019re also a worship songwriter in your own right. How has that background influenced the way you write songs and the way you approach worship music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s interesting that so many of those whose songs are popular in the churches don\u2019t have a particularly high degree of musical training. I think one of the dangers of classical training\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>that schema \u2013 where your musical preferences are. I can love everything, I can love extremes, I can find interest in anything you give me that you call music. That becomes a bit of a problem because to write a congregational song you have to have something very similar to the musical schema your congregation has. I love juicy harmony and creative instrumentation but the bottom line is that most people can\u2019t sing to it!<\/p>\n

\n

Daniel is a worship leader as well as a composer, songwriter and lecturer on music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

So are you saying that when you write worship songs, and especially in the context of being a worship pastor when you have a responsibility to\u00a0lead songs for a specific group of people in a church, that you\u2019re not necessarily free to just follow your heart in that process \u2013 that you perhaps have to be a bit more scientific?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a really interesting tension, and I guess where there are guys who already share the same musical preferences they may never have to think about it. They write what they love and everyone else likes it. But for someone who actually has very different musical preferences, yes, it\u2019s not about me. Hopefully I can add some of me into that, and it\u2019s not about trying to be something that I\u2019m not, but I do have to think about why I\u2019m writing these songs \u2013 it\u2019s about helping people to engage with their faith in that profound way that worship does. So yes, I\u2019m going to try and do that musically and lyrically in a way that\u2019s meaningful to them and not just to me.<\/p>\n

You teach a nationally accredited course in music at\u00a0Alphacrucis College\u00a0which includes lots of aspects of performing and songwriting, but it also looks at the music industry and issues related to publishing and copyright. Why is it important to include those?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I serve on the advisory council for CCLI in the Asia Pacific region and it fascinates me to see how CCLI has developed. The whole music industry has been changing in the last 20 years and nowadays, any songwriter or artist needs to have some understanding of copyright and the music industry because the vast majority of them will be self-published.<\/p>\n

Given your research and your background, are you excited by where things are heading in worship music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever I talk to people who have been involved in worship music for a long time they often lament the time when songs were more \u201csingable\u201d. But I\u2019ve found in my research that the current generation isn\u2019t saying that \u2013 they\u2019re happy to sing them. I think the greatest challenge facing the \u2018industry\u2019 is maintaining (the right) heart and integrity. Something I\u2019ve loved about talking to songwriters in the UK is that there does seem to be a community that is not just looking for the next hit. I think that\u2019s really healthy. As a musician I realise that we\u2019re stuck in very small worlds \u2013 we use four or five chords and they\u2019re the same four or five chords for the top 25 songs\u2026<\/p>\n

So how do we keep it interesting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well I think technology is one of the ways, so looking for those fresh sounds that we can get through the advancement of technology is useful. I think that each generation carries a message so we\u2019re going to see culture reflected in our songs, so as culture changes our songs will change. That could be both a blessing and a curse, but I think the best is yet to come. For me this PhD is just the beginning. Five or ten years down the track we\u2019re going to need to look at the data and compare it to where we are now and try to understand the journey that\u2019s happening in contemporary congregational songs.<\/p>\n

Daniel Thornton was talking to Rich Burrough of CCLI. The original article can be found on the CCLI website<\/a>. Thanks to Rich and CCLI for permission to reprint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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