Songwriting Workshop

My friend John and I once had the privilege of sitting in a classroom with Paul Baloche at an Integrity Music Songwriting Retreat.  They’re annual, and they travel around; if you get a chance, go on one.  Don’t go for the opportunity to get “discovered” as a songwriter, because the retreats don’t exist for that reason.  Go to be near God and to set aside several days for nothing but writing songs which glorify God.  Go to reflect, write and rejoice.

Since going, I have had a hunger to pass on what I learned there.  I finally got a chance to do that (only 4 years after the fact!).  You see, last week and this week, our worship team class at Highlands School has had very little to actually practice.  We didn’t play last Friday’s chapel and this Friday, being Good Friday, we are keeping it quiet and simple.

So I decided to do some songwriting experiments with them.

With various reactions – everything from fear and trembling to sheer terror to enthusiasm – I tried to engage them in some of the cool stuff that Paul Baloche, Don Moen, Lynn DeShazo and others tried to share with us at the retreat.

Mainly, we tried three things (and I threatened promised them that more was to come next quarter): first, we studied psalms and then, well, wrote some.  Frankly, that actually was something I took from my days at InterVarsity chapter camp.  I thought it would be a dud of an experiment.  Boy, was I wrong!  Several kids shared heartfelt psalms which were, much like David’s own, expressions of intense emotion and intense truth.  I was so proud!

Next, we tried what I thought would be the easiest one: putting a scripture to music.  I took the “I am” statements from John’s gospel, and gave each student one of them.  I gave them lots of time as I – echoing what had been done at the retreat – played a simple chord progression around which they could build a melody to sing their scripture verse.

Turns out, stage fright is a very powerful enemy.

We ended up doing one together, and they did give me suggestions, after I had sung the first line (“make it faster”, “it should be in major… no, minor”, “make the melody higher”), so, while it was awkward, it wasn’t a total loss.

Yesterday, I shared what I had done with their ideas.  I think they kinda dug it.

Afterward, we did one more experiment to finish out our two weeks of light practice load: And I admit I didn’t get this idea from the retreat, either, but it was something I had thought of once during some prayer-stations my wife Anne and I had done at a Davidson College IV meeting: collective songwriting.

Basically, I wrote the beginning of two phrases on a dry-erase board: for the purposes of this experiment, I wrote, “Jesus, you always…” and “I know I can always…”  Then, to set an example, I wrote, “… care for me” under the first, and “count on You” under the second.  Then, after explaining that they should just list phrases to complete those ideas as I had, I played another simple chord progression as they went to work.  They were amazing.  They gathered around that whiteboard and talked, and thought and wrote.  By the end, there were about a dozen statements on there!  I had them hold it up, and we did an impromptu (and very undeveloped!) sing-along with a song of praise in their own words: “Jesus, You always love me… I know I can always talk to You…” and so on.

At the IV meeting a couple of years back, I had just written, “God, You are…” and it turned out pretty awesome, too.

I can’t wait to see what they do with: putting old hymns to new tunes, adding choruses to hymns, or writing on a particular theme (all of which I am joyously gleaning from Paul Baloche and friends!).

I wonder: do you have any stories about songwriting you’d like to share?