If you are reading my songwriting progress reports you will see that the audio you hear now is a totally different song from the one I started with!

What happened:
My Dad listened to my song in its early form and he wasn’t convinced about the majority of it and only like the bridge section. He told me to use this part as the basis for the song, like a motif and the other parts as repetitions of this phrase.

Here is the original song idea (the bridge is @ min 6:43)

Here is the new version:

When I started improvising with this phrase I came out with a totally different idea and found that the bridge idea didn’t fit at all!!!

For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure. – Proverbs 11:4
I’m not trying to go to war or campaign for presidency but the principal remains, the bible is talking to me, I can easily forget that. Therefore I’ve found two wise men that I take my songs to every time: my dad Marcus Roberts and my pastor Mana Miron. Both are song-writers, both are pastors, both are wise. They have helped this song in a way that I could not imagine, let alone my progression as a songwriter. It’s nice to be able to recognise them. I need to show them my appreciation more

When wisdom says let go, let go
I’m reminded of when Solomon’s son Rehoboam lost the whole kingdom for only listening what he wanted to hear. Likewise, when wisdom speaks I must listen. It was a hard choice to move from the original idea but I’m glad I did, I’m happy with how the song is coming on. If I see correction as slowing me down, that is pride and God won’t bless me. If I see correction as God’s discipline it will help build a foundation in my life.

What next:
Work is still needed on completing the end of the chorus and the bridge. I should spend 30 minutes a day until the song is completed.

Additionally I would like to make a recording and keep the “humble heart” audio idea stored away for safe keeping. The shorter the recording the easier for referencing.

So… It’s been more than a week and I’m still going strong with my song without being distracted too much I haven’t shifted my attention to writting another song. I have persevered for most days of the week, writing for 30 minutes each day, except weekends.

In my last post I spoke about how my father, also a songwriter, who advised me to re-write the entire song based around the bridge section… Initially this was hard to swallow, but the wise advise of experience is more valuable than treasure; so I pushed myself to start again.

I woke up the following Monday, pressed record on my iPhone and improvised the following:

The lyrics are:

VERSE 1
My heart cries for your love

For your life

For your Lord

In my songs a cry

I need you

 

The broken you won’t turn away

So hear my cry today

I give my heart to You
BRIDGE
The repentant heart you won’t turn away
The humble heart you won’t turn away
The broken heart you won’t turn away

VERSE 2
Victory is in your hands
We’re not defeated
We’re not broken down
Victory is in the hands of God

When we praise the walls come down
The strongholds in our minds fall down
When we praise the angela dance and sing

BRIDGE
The repentant heart you won’t turn away
The humble heart you won’t turn away
The broken heart you won’t turn away

CHORUS
Oh king of Glory
Oh prince of peace
Of Lord of life
Hear my song
Oh river of Joy

Oh morning dawn

Let us trust in your unfailing love

Oh morning star

Oh breaking dawn

Giver of new life

Here’s our song!

 

I was surprised, I no longer had the fast sections in mind whilst improvising. I was focusing on the bridge when improvising new ideas and the song came out as a slow, proclamation instead of the previous fast, dance-able song it was. I realise that, when improvising, I’m constantly considering how it would relate to the original section and this thought process almost automatically generates the other new part .

THEME AND VARIATION: I’m really excited about this new discovery! it’s probably quite obvious but the penny has dropped :p. I shifted my focus to another part of the song and the material that came out resembled this section. This reminds me of classical composing, not that I should compare myself to the great compositions you hear, that would be insanely foolish! however the human psychology/methodology is the same. The classical composers worked their pieces with themes and variations. They would have one idea they liked and then could base a whole symphony on it e.g. Beethoven’s No.5. My focus on one theme (in this case: the bridge) meant that any material I created while thinking on the melody and rhythm of the bridge resembled the bridge in character.

I was tempted to rename it to Humble heart or something similar because the song is much slower and the strength of the song is in the words “the repentant heart you won’t turn away, the humble heart you won’t turn away”. These words burn in my heart every time I sing them. It reminds me of Jesus’ example of the Publican’s prayer. The person who comes to God thinking he’s done it himself isn’t humble, the humble person comes to God knowing that he could always do better.

I really like the new chorus section. It starts off at a slower tempo than the verse and slightly speeds up. I feel that this small lag in tempo at the start of the chorus gives it a sense of tension and release and I would like to keep it if we play this at church, should the congregation want to.

What to do next?:

• Collaborate: I’m meeting with a friend today to give him some tips about songwriting so I think I’ll go through this song with him. A second opinion might help the song and will definitely develop his skills together.
• Read passages in the bible that are similar to the songs words: I’ve found this to be a really useful exercise and will always bless me as I’m focusing on the one theme when reading so it’s systematic learning of God’s word! The bible is like a siv, anything extra biblical has to go. It helps add words too, the bible is saturated with truth. When I read the context of the verses around what I’ve written I often add lines to the lyrics.
• Get a list of all my completed songs: At any one time I seem to be able to only remember 4-5 of the songs I’ve written. It’s not so I can walk around saying: “Hey! Do you know how many songs I’ve written?!?! So many….”, this doesn’t show Jesus character, he would have presented songs to bless specific people: maybe a song for a beggar, maybe a song for a cripple. I just want to remember them so that I can sing them. The more I present them they stick and catch on.
• Write on weekends: I don’t see why I shouldn’t write on a Saturday/Sunday. Every day it’s worship to God. On a Sunday I could worship more than practice, such as I do every other day.
• Recording: I could record, with proper microphones etc, this song on Saturday if it’s complete

I played the song “Seated High” to my Dad, a songwriter who I respect very much, he said “hmmmm”. I knew this meant he wasn’t sure whether it was good :p. He told me to only keep the bridge words that say “The humble heart you won’t turn away..The broken heart you won’t turn away” and gave me this idea:

He liked this part, so did I. My intuition already told me this part was the good part but hearing it from someone else clarified this. He said I should use this as the basis for the rest of the piece. It feels like square 1 again, but no worries, I’ll have to go a little deeper. Here’s what I think I should do next:

• Improvise some other sections with a similar theme to this section

I’ve been working on a song called Seated High that I aim to finish tomorrow morning . I’ve got some coursework due in on Monday which I’ll upload as soon as it’s done, it has distracted me from posting progress yesterday. Here is both today’s and yesterday’s progress

Day 3:
I added the verses again . If you read my day 3 update you may have read that I removed the verse, I’d fallen out with it! I added it again on day 3 :p It was just one of those things I guess, I might have gotten tired of my own verses.

Bridge – I removed the bridge

I’m glad I re-added the verses because in day 4….

Day 4 (today):
Verses – I’ve altered the verses as I felt that saying Jesus name too many times de-emphasised the  glory of his name.

Brige –  I also re-added the whole of the bridge, I felt this section was necessary to contrast the short verses and simple chorus. The words were powerful also

I’m near completion now, I only have today/tomorrow morning. If there is an opportunity I will try singing it tomorrow at church

HOW TO IMPROVE THE SONG:

• I  could get the bible out and cross check it, still haven’t done this
• I need to nit pick the verses making sure that I’m not repeating words and they are theologically/grammatically sound

I didn’t find time to write-up today’s progress with the song, partly because I was busy and more tired than normal, I’ve been getting up at 5almost every day for the last two and a half weeks. I recommend early mornings, it’s my most productive time. All the stuff posted on here if from an early morning session.

I promise to post is as soon as I’m free. In the meanwhile here is a song I produced ages ago on my iPhone with nanostudio app. It’s an awesome program for a phone!

It’s kind of a hip hop track where I was just learning how to use my new app. It was inspired by my experimentation with, or lack of, rhythm. I played a beat and it was a time signature I’ve never previously done and sounded cool. I don’t know if I could repeat it though :p. It’s cool, if I had the original takes still I’d redo the singing parts as I think they sound slightly sloopy.

If you read my previous post you might understand a lot more about what I mention in this post. This is yesterday’s/today’s progress:

Min: 0:00 – starts with a new chorus Min 0:22 – A new bridge
Min 0:28 – The was brige now chorus “Remission for our sins”

Here’s the original idea from the first day of editing:

I was playing it through a few times and what stuck with me was how natural I found the bridge, it just sat within my style. I found the previous verses quite trick to pull off. Additionally  to this I’ve recently been enjoying songs with the verse in a the relative minor (F#m) and the chorus in the major key (A). I feel like the song flows a lot better than before and the relative key creates a strong contrast between sections.

What I could do next
I only spent 30mins on the song today as part of my 5am early morning practice routing. The early morning time is useful but a bit quick and I need a good flat deskspace to write on. I find it hard to write on a piano music desk :S. Once at my desk I will siv through the lyrics with the bible to think were I’ve got the idea from. If it’s not in the bible then I’ll scrap it. If there is something really great I find in the same verse or as part of an explanation in the surrounding chapter then I’ll upgrade my verse.