re:create ’09 – Friday – EMI

• 12:35 Chris - Recreate is officially over but a bunch of us are hanging out at the EMI building today talking about songwriting. A nice panel put together to help us think through some stuff.
• 12:35 Chris - As with all of the other events this week I’ll be pulling in comments from other people in the room.
• 12:35 bradandrews - audrey assad just led us in an anointed time of worship here at emi cmg. blessed. #recreate
• 12:35 westerfield - Glad #recreate is at EMI. You guys make this one of the best work days of the year for us.
• 12:37 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #1 Define Your Purpose
• 12:38 Chris - ‘Songs that have universal appeal fall in to that trap. They have no specific purpose and no specific meaning.’
• 12:40 Chris - Lots of worship songs are filled with phrases that have worked really well in other worship songs.
• 12:40 Chris - ‘What is my purpose here? Is this how I would talk with someone I love? It this really how I talk or am I treating people like cattle?’
• 12:43 Chris - Example of specific songs with specific purpose – Heart of Worship by Matt Redman, God of Justice by Tim Hughes.
• 12:44 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #2 Eight Seconds
• 12:44 Chris - ‘Whether it’s A&R or a congregation, you don’t have more than about eight seconds to get them engaged.’
• 12:47 Chris - ‘Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.’
• 12:49 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #3 Show and Tell
• 12:49 Chris - ‘Communicate the image by telling them what it is.. but you also have to provide them with a picture, something they can see, something that they can put in context.’
• 12:50 Chris - Don’t go overboard on the pictures – make sure part of the song also TELLS the meaning of the song.
• 12:51 Chris - Examples of songs that show and tell – East to West by Casting Crowns, One by U2.
• 12:53 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #4 Strong Lyric and Melodic Hook
• 12:53 Chris - ‘If it’s not entertaining or captivating or interesting you’ve missed your point.’
• 12:54 Chris - ‘We’re all free – create whatever you have to create. But if we want to be better communicators with our music we have to do things that are captivating and interesting.’
• 12:55 Chris - ‘Lyrically, people just get lazy. Melodically, you’re just not daring enough.’
• 12:57 Chris - Talking about songs with great hooks and listening to some too.
• 12:58 Chris - Sound of Your Name by Above the Golden State, Crazy Beautiful by Chasen.
• 12:58 bradandrews - 5 elements of great song: 1) define purpose, 2) 8 sec. 2 grab, 3) show + tell, 4) strong lyric/melodic hook, 4) critique + rewrite #recreate
• 13:00 Chris - Weave hooks through different sections of the songs.
• 13:01 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #5 Critique and Re-Write
• 13:01 Chris - ‘When you co-write, critiquing happens in real-time.’
• 13:02 Chris - ‘I think it’s important that you let the song happen. Give the song an opportunity to be birthed.’
• 13:04 Chris - ‘Don’t do critique and re-writing right away. It’s a creative thing and you need to give it time before you can come back to it with a little more objectivity.’
• 13:04 Chris - Listening to the first two versions and then the final take of Great Things by Matt Maher. This song killed us at recreate last year.
• 13:05 Chris - Kind of nice to be talking about practical, helpful stuff rather than the heart-wrenching (and awesome!) stuff we’ve been dealing with the rest of the week
• 13:07 Chris - ‘A melody is good if you can remember it after going for a drive and spending the day at work.’
• 13:09 Chris - Awesome – great stuff here so far today. Looking forward to unpacking all my thoughts once I get home. Later peeps.

3 Responses to “re:create ’09 – Friday – EMI”

1. David Lindner says:

   February 6, 2009 at 4:15 pm

   Thanks for taking such great notes during Re:create. I wish I could have been there, I’ve read a lot about it. I’m going to link to this article over on my site.

   Also, thanks for the pic on the list in Leadership Journal – hope it’s okay if I use it.

   Reply
2. 5 Elements of a great song - Chris from Canada | Worship Ministry Catalyst says:

   February 6, 2009 at 4:29 pm

   [...] Here’s the link: http://www.chrisfromcanada.com/?p=1033 [...]

   Reply
3. mandythompson says:

   February 9, 2009 at 9:37 am

   Oh to have been a fly on THAT wall…
   wow.

   Reply