{"id":6641,"date":"2011-09-07T10:19:05","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T10:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=6641"},"modified":"2019-07-31T10:53:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T10:53:05","slug":"10-mistakes-to-avoid-in-song-writing-guest-post-by-vicky-beeching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/10-mistakes-to-avoid-in-song-writing-guest-post-by-vicky-beeching\/","title":{"rendered":"10 mistakes to avoid in song writing – guest post by Vicky Beeching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s post is on songwriting, and the tips are relevant for people writing for church congregations. This kind of songwriting requires a different set of values and practices than writing a song to sing TO people, or a song people will just listen to. Writing songs that people need to join in with<\/strong> is tricky and I hope the 10 tips below will help!<\/p>\n

1. Focus on one idea<\/strong> -most songs cover way too many ideas or themes, and the lyrics lack the punch of one focused idea. When you\u2019ve written a verse and a chorus, the temptation is to move on to a different theme for verse two, and maybe a different theme again for the bridge! Stay true to your initial focus\/idea and go deeper into it during verse 2 and the bridge. Resist the urge to pack ten theme into one song \u2013 aim for one theme!<\/p>\n

2. Be brave and allow others to help \u2013 <\/strong>this is always hard! Try and emotionally detach from your song enough to allow people to critique it. It\u2019s the only way to grow as a writer, and it\u2019s definitely going to help your song be the best it can be! Get feedback on what is good and bad about the song, and use it as a learning experience. People will see things about the song that you as the writer, wouldn\u2019t see. Don\u2019t be defensive. Try and see it as a gift to you, to help your song be better!<\/p>\n

3. Re-writing is the key \u2013 <\/strong>when you think<\/strong> the song is finished, assume that it\u2019s not! Give it another few weeks, where you go over it with a fine toothed comb searching for things that can be improved. Have you really laboured to find fresh ways of saying what you\u2019re saying? Have you defaulted to cheesy lyrics or cliches? Have you let anyone else hear the song and give you feedback? Re-writing can take an ok song and turn it into an amazing song!<\/p>\n

4. It needs to work on one guitar \u2013 <\/strong>I believe that if a song is going to be useful to the global Church, it needs to work with one voice and one acoustic guitar (or one piano). Most churches are not huge and have a small handful of musicians. Often it\u2019s just one person up the front leading on one instrument. Make sure your song doesn\u2019t hang on some big musicial riff, or the drum beat, or the fact a huge choir are singing it. Does it work when it\u2019s stripped right back to one guitar and one vocal? If not, I\u2019d say the song is too reliant on instrumentation and probably isn\u2019t ready yet. Keep working on it until it stands strong on just one instrument and one vocal. Try the song that way at a smaller meeting, or a home group. A great song will work just as well in that simple setting, as it does with a huge band.<\/p>\n

5. Demo it simply –<\/strong> it needs to be shown to work on just one instrument. So if you demo it, I\u2019d suggest doing a big full band demo, and also a one guitar-one vocal version, so the people hearing it can imagine leading it, whatever their setting. I\u2019ve heard so many worship leaders from smaller churches say \u201cI love that song, but I can\u2019t imagine how I\u2019d strip it down from the big album version, so we could use it at our small church\u201d. Make it easy for them! And don\u2019t think that a massively over-produced demo will hide a weak song \u2013 publishers are good at seeing through that ;-)<\/p>\n

6. Make sure it works for the male and female vocal range \u2013 <\/strong>if the song is meant to be sung in church, it needs to be singable by both men and women (who have very different vocal ranges). Gather some guy and girl friends and have them all sing it with you. See if it works for everyone\u2019s voices. If not, try and find a melody everyone can join in with. It\u2019s really tricky to make this work, but many worship songs don\u2019t – and half the congregation will be struggling to join in, or desperately trying to harmonise, to find a melody they can actually reach!<\/p>\n

7. Avoid big octave jumps –<\/strong> these have been use a lot in worship songs (including mine!) over the past few years. But I keep meeting worship leaders who just can\u2019t sing them. They reminded me that an octave jump is all very well for Bono, but not for most Sunday morning singers! It\u2019s also true that an octave jump is easier to reach in a big arena, listening to U2, as everyone screams out the notes because the volume is so loud. On a Sunday, usually churches go for a low to medium volume, so the congregation aren\u2019t going to push their voices as hard, as they feel exposed as everyone can hear them. Plus it\u2019s usually early morning, which is a harder time to sing than in an evening U2 concert! Although octave jumps provide a great vibe to songs, I\u2019d advise steering clear of such big melodic leaps if you want lots of churches to use them.<\/p>\n

8. Use the song a lot before it\u2019s \u2018finished\u2019 or recorded <\/strong>– the \u2018Nashville\u2019 approach to worship songwriting often involves writing or massively re-writing a worship song during the recording process<\/em>. This has always made me uncomfortable, as how can you know whether it\u2019ll work in churches if it hasn\u2019t been test-driven in it\u2019s final state? Several of my songs have been changed by others, right when we were recording them, only for me to find the changed had made them un-singable for most congregations. We couldn\u2019t tell this in the studio, as there wasn\u2019t any time to test out the new versions with churches. So I think a song shouldn\u2019t be tweaked too much in the recording process. It needs to have been test-driven a lot, in it\u2019s finished form, long before anyone records it. So be patient, and use your songs a lot before you commit them to a CD!<\/p>\n

9. Write on a different instrument \u2013 <\/strong>don\u2019t get into a \u2018rut\u2019 where you always write on the same instrument and your chords\/tempo\/rhythm and overall song vibe gets very \u2018samey\u2019. If you\u2019re a guitar player, why not try writing on piano (even if you barely play!). Or if you always write with an instrument, try writing without one \u2013 just your voice. I bought a mandolin ages ago, and loved writing on that, simply because it was different and inspired different chords and sounds. Experiment.<\/p>\n

10. Be yourself! \u2013 <\/strong>there\u2019s a lot of pressure to write worship songs that sound like other worship songs. Don\u2019t go for a certain sound, or chord progression, or style, just because it\u2019s popular and working. Be YOU! We desperately need something fresh in the worship song pool, and it\u2019ll only happen when people feel released to be themselves! You don\u2019t need to be the next Chris Tomlin or whoever\u2026 just be YOU. Perhaps your style of music or lyrics will be really different \u2013 go for it! As long as people can understand and mean the lyrics, and the melody is singable for everyone, the rest is up for grabs. Be brave and be you \u2013 the church needs more of that :)<\/p>\n

Over to you\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n