Women Teaching Women

  Okay, here it is! In this three-part post, I want to give you some tools. Some of these tools will help you tweak little details, some install necessary components, and others will help you assess the situation of your music. Each is important to know how to use on each piece of music you make. Ready? It will be fun!           Before I show you the tools, I’d like to point out that there is no section giving you step-by-step instructions on how to write a song. This is because music-making does not necessarily follow a particular order: You may write the words first, or the music first, or simply have a concept first. Some smaller steps must go in order, but we’ll see those as we discuss our toolbox.           So, let’s open the lid and see what tools we have to work on our WORDS! WORDS           Of course, we must have words , at least  to start with ,  for our God-honouring songs. The words are the foundation; as pretty as music can be, if it brings to mind no wo

   Answering the same question as our last post with a different take, I am going to give you some ideas of how we can use our music-writing passion. WRITE FRESH! No words, no music.  Many of us will start from scratch. We have no words to set to music and no music to put words to, but we have a desire to write a song. Maybe we were reading something that seemed to scream, “Write a song about me!!” Or maybe we were listening to someone who said something poignant. Maybe we just have a free afternoon waiting to be used and we want to try our hand at writing music. Whatever the reason behind it, it is quite doable to put together some good words and matching music. Words, but no music.  Sometimes, we come across a poem on a greeting card that is really good. Or a chapter in the Bible seems to flow musically today. Now we have a text that we want to sing, so next we work out a rhythm and notes. Soon we’re singing Job 28 to  my own tune!  It’s exhilarating! Music, but

 This is the pivot on which this series turns. I hope you have a desire to write music, and I hope that you’ve realized that anyone  can  do it. When you’ve conquered those two things, nothing is able to stop you from doing it, but there is another thing that you need: direction.                     You’ve heard the illustration that you can’t steer a parked car? Well, a moving car buzzing aimlessly about is also a problem. You need get-up-and-go, but you also need to engage the steering wheel. That is what the remainder of this series will cover. We need direction in our desire to write music.           We need to identify the type of music we are going to make. First of all, in case you haven’t gotten it yet, I will say it quite plainly: I am discussing writing music with the purpose of honouring God. “Christian music”, “church music”, “sacred music”, whatever you want to call it; its purpose is to glorify the Creator, not the creature. So, in this series, you will  not  fin

  Pastors and theologians, of course; in fact, many preachers have been better-known for their songs than their sermons. Monks. Schoolteachers. Pharmacists. Fathers, mothers, old folks on their death bed, and teenagers. Evangelists. Lawyers. Piano teachers. English, German, Spanish, Indian, Israeli, and many other nationalities. Lovers. Divorced persons. Those who were single all their lives. Sailors. Knights. Soldiers. Those raised in church and those who were atheists before meeting Christ. Farmers. Cooks. College students. Gipsies. People with black skin, people with white skin, and people with all the shades in-between. Rich people. Poor people. Educated people and uneducated people.           Flipping through a book that tells the stories behind 150 hymns, some well-known and some more obscure, these are the situations of the authors that I see; I didn’t make up anything. Do you find yourself somewhere in there? Surely, all of us are somewhere in there; in fact, I even thre

  The first question I would like to explore with you is the “why” of writing music. This is the natural starting point in any discussion, really, because if there is no reason behind it, there is no motivation. On the other hand, if there is motivation to do something, one will commit to jumping through complex hoops to attain the goal. Specifically for writing music, even if you have never been trained in writing or playing music, if your motivation is strong enough, it will drive you to learning until you can master it. So, let’s grasp that motivation! A quick search on E-Sword (the Bible software program that I like to use) of the words “sing praise” brought me to some good reasons for making music. Some were  commanded  to sing praises; David indicated that he could not  fulfill his daily vows  to the Lord until he had sung His praise; others declared that it was solely their  delight  to praise God. It is described as a  good thing  to sing praises to the Most High (Ps. 92).