More wise words from Paul Baloche. (although if I had a drummer who practiced whilst driving I'd rather rehearse with him and then get someone else to give me a lift home!)
Related Posts: Small band arrangements
Band on the run
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Paul Baloche - Choosing A Drummer (Or Choosing NOT To Have A Drummer!)
More wise words from Paul Baloche. (although if I had a drummer who practiced whilst driving I'd rather rehearse with him and then get someone else to give me a lift home!)
Related Posts: Small band arrangements
Band on the run
Tuesday 28 July 2009
Sign Up Now For The Third Arctic Expedition!
Arctic Monkeys new album Humbug is due for a release on Aug 23rd and you can pre-order the download version for only £5 from 7digital.
While it sounds like it might be more of a successor to Alex Turner's 60's homage side project The Last Shadow Puppets
than the brilliant first two albums, even an average Arctics album has got to be better than most other bands at the top of their game.BTW if you're looking for rare tracks, B-sides etc 7Digital is well worth a look. It's the only legal place I could found a download of Da Frame 2R a track only available on 7" vinyl or as a bonus track on the Japanese CD.
Monday 27 July 2009
Weirdest Google Search So Far...
Once a week (or once a day if I'm being obsessive) I'll check my referrals via Sitemeter, so I can see where my traffic is coming from. A good percentage come from google searches. Here's a recent one
"when i'm kissin you i fantasize you're a midget"
Embarrassingly my blog was the ONLY result.
Try it out!
Sunday 26 July 2009
Israel: Just Wanna Say - FREE DOWNLOAD
A free and legal download of the new single from Israel Houghton - 'Just Wanna Say' from GospelMusicChannel.com.
I'm not a big Houghton fan I have to say (too little biblical gospel in his gospel music) but here you actually get some Bible over a crazy mashed up tracked.
Think high school marching band gets mugged by hyper-caffeinated gospel singers.
Thank me later.
Related Posts: 3 free songs on iTickets
Saturday 25 July 2009
Facebook Alert
The NY Times has a piece, entitled The day Facebook changed, on the confusion surrounding Facebook's new default settings. It would seem that, instead of being automatically set to private, all profiles are being (?) will be (?) set to public - making your profile, friends, photos & videos available to anyone who can be bothered to Google you . However even FBHQ don't seem to be clear and what they are saying doesn't seem to be working out in practice.
So it might be a good time to read 10 Privacy settings every Facebook user should know and make some changes.
Don't let this happen to you...
On the bright side at least Divine Caroline has some clear info on What happens to your Facebook profile when you die?
Friday 24 July 2009
Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up
This takes rickrolling to a whole new level!
It's a Rick Astley/Nirvana mash up by Germany's DJ Morgoth with a Video by Thriftshop XL.
You can download the mp3 from Morgoth's blog. (And while you're there check out Ace Of Spades Feels Good - Motorhead/Gorillaz on the player).
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Behind The Song: The Eglon Song
FREE downloads
mp3 acoustic demo
Chord sheet
Lyric sheet
I was reading the ESV translation of the Bible in the garden one day when I came to Judges 3 and laughed at the explicitness of their translation of King Eglon's demise at the hands of Ehud the judge. When my children asked me why I was laughing at the Bible I told them the story. Wide-eyed they asked me if that “was really in the Bible!” After all, isn't it rude to talk about poo? Evidently the Bible writers were not so squeamish! As we talked about it, I started singing the refrain to a “here we go around the mulberry bush” type tune and improvising verses.
And that would have been the end of it, had they not pestered me at regular intervals to “finish that song,” even asking me if they could sing it at church! So I kept working on it and gave it a new tune set to a chord progression influenced by an old jazz standard. The 'universal playground chant' makes an appearance in lines like “King's flabby belly” and the little intro chords (E6 & Eb6) were inspired by Ry Cooder's playing on 'Jazz' and 'Pecos Bill'
I struggled for a long time to find a fresh way to say “a long time ago in a land far away” and came up with
“back in the day when the Bible was thin”
on the drive to a romantic getaway with my wife. It remains one of my favourite lines from any song I've written.
I had a momentary pang of conscience that a good children's song should have a moral, a life lesson to impart. But the feeling quickly passed and was replaced by the joyous affirmation -
“if you're wondering what this song is really all about...”.
That being said I did refer to commentaries while writing this song just as I would with any song. My one regret is that I didn't managed to include a reference that, like me, Ehud was left-handed.
The song is dedicated to J.I.Packer - ESV Bible General Editor and jazz music fan, and, of course, my children.
FREE downloads
mp3 acoustic demo
Chord sheet
Lyric sheet
Related Posts: Rise
Behind the song: Son Of God/GodThe Son
mp3 acoustic demo
Chord sheet
Lyric sheet
Related Posts: Rise
Behind the song: Son Of God/GodThe Son
Monday 20 July 2009
Eglon Update
Soooo sorry to those who've been trying to download the mp3 of the infamous Eglon Song. The link is now fixed.
- don't forget to leave a comment!
FREE downloads
Behind The Song: God Is Our Refuge
“rewrite, rewrite, rewrite”
God Is Our Refuge is a passionate, driving worship song based on Psalm 46 written for the Sovereign Grace Psalms CD.
The two writers, Joel Sczebel (Vancouver, Canada) and Peter Gagnon (Virginia, USA) wrote the song without ever meeting, working via email.
You can find links to download mp3's and chord sheets here.
+++
What was the initial inspiration?
PETER: I was reading through the Book of Psalms (more like scanning actually) in preparation for writing songs [for the album]. I was looking for Psalms that had some familiar language to them, but that were not overly familiar, and that could translate well to life in our modern world.
verse 1 -
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
- is a strong opening statement that sets up the rest of the Psalm, I found myself coming back to it time and again so I thought that should be the chorus for the song. However, in seeking to connect the Psalm with the modern world I was thinking a lot about wars, famines, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes - the stuff our news headlines are full of. As a result, I wrote the 2nd verse first and then the chorus.
How did you come to write a song with someone you'd never met?
PETER: [When] I was about 95% satisfied I posted the lyrics [on the Sovereign Grace songwriters forum] with the hopes one of our other writers would write the melody for it. Joel picked up on it and wrote the melody in one night.
JOEL: I was working on another song for the Psalms album [You Will Never Change] but was stuck and couldn't think of a line that I needed for it so I went on the forum, found some of Peter's lyrics, and decided to see if I could come up with any melodic ideas for them.
PETER: He originally hammered out a demo on acoustic guitar, then I got together with some of the musicians in our church and we worked up an arrangement that sounded a bit more like Coldplay than the final CD version does.
How long did the song take to finish, and how much rewriting did you have to do?
PETER: The song took about a month to the (almost) final draft.
JOEL: When I write melodies I typically just pick a chord progression and sing what feels like a natural fit for the lyrics and then do a basic recording with just a vocal and acoustic guitar or piano. I usually end up writing 3 or 4 completely different melodies for a song and try to pick the best one but on God Is Our Refuge my first idea ended up being the one that was used.
PETER: I’m a strong believer in the writer’s mantra – “rewrite, rewrite, rewrite”, so after determining what the song content should be, and hashing out some preliminary ideas and rhyme schemes, I spend most of my time rewriting. Not being a particularly talented musician helps me focus on lyrics.
In pre-production Bob Kauflin, Joel, and I emailed back and forth for 2 or 3 days. Bob made a suggestion about switching the verses so they followed the Psalm more closely [and] we agreed that the song needed a bridge. I also revised verse 2.
Any further thoughts?
PETER: I think it’s important to study and take time to digest the subject matter I’m writing about so as to have some perspective and a few solid ideas when I start to write. As I studied this Psalm, I was also meditating on related passages in Psalm 2, Daniel chapters 10-12, and Revelation 22. Distilling and including ideas from those passages while highlighting the language of the Psalm was a bit challenging, but not unduly so.
Related Posts: Behind the song: Jesus, Thank You
Sunday 19 July 2009
Cash or Art? Lead Like A Man
Joel Virgo has a challenging article in the latest Newfrontiers magazine, entitled "Where are the men?"
He takes various elements of Church life (prayer, preaching, parenting, giving, humility to name a few) and looks at how we can slip into handling them in an effeminate way.
Here, he looks at corporate worship...
Do men ever come into a Sunday worship service and reflect ‘this is a masculine environment’? I reckon it’s possible, but you have to work at it. Some of our songs lend themselves to a masculine response – songs full of objective truth that help men know what they’re singing about. Songs that subjectively express our love or longing for Jesus are entirely Biblical. Just beware of unbalance.A normal masculine man is going to be troubled in his first visit to church (even if he got saved at Alpha) if he has to stand for 40 minutes and sing words he would find awkward writing in a card to his girlfriend. You know the songs I mean.Maybe your worship leaders (if they are guys) should be the sort who remind you of Johnny Cash rather than Art Garfunkel.
Saturday 18 July 2009
New Song: The Eglon Song
The Eglon Song is a humourous retelling of the assasination of King Eglon by Ehud, Israel's leader in Judges ch.3 which I wrote for my kids' amusement.
(Read the 'Behind The Song' post HERE).
- leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
FREE downloads
mp3 acoustic demo
Chord sheet
Lyric sheet
Back in the day when the Bible was thin
Israel was conquered by a heavyweight King
So they prayed for a saviour who was able to fight
Big-bellied Eglon the Moabite.
Well, Ehud was the man God chose
He made a little sword & hid it in his clothes
Said “King I got a message to whisper to you”
Then in went the sword & out came the poo because he…
Stabbed him in the belly & his poo came out
Stabbed him in the belly & his poo came out
Stabbed him in the belly & his poo came out
Squishy, squashy poo.
Ehud’s sword stuck in his guts
But the kings’ flabby belly just covered it up
He shut the doors & then he ran back home
Before anyone saw what he’d done.
The servants said “phew, what’s that stink?
The king is on the toilet that’s what I think.”
But when they opened up the door
There lay Eglon dead on the floor because he…
Stabbed him in the belly & his poo came out….
Ehud blew the trumpet & he said “it’s war!”
And the Moabites ran as people grabbed their swords
And as they fought they all sang this song,
“Do you want to know what Ehud did to King Eglon?
I’ll tell you, he…”
Stabbed him in the belly & his poo came out…
Well the flabby baddie didn’t get a chance to shout
‘Cos he stabbed him in the belly & his poo came out
And if you’re wondering what this song is really all about...
It’s squishy, squashy, (give you hands a washy!)
Squishy, squashy poo.
Judges 3:12-30 (ESV) © Matt Blick Grace Church Nottingham 2005.
FREE downloads
mp3 acoustic demo
Chord sheet
Lyric sheet
LINKS TO THIS POST:
An Infant In The Cradle "The Eglon Song"
Count It All Joy "King Eglon hijacks the poop language patrol"
A Surprising Light "Enjoy.Laugh."
Eglon "Disgraceful song about King Eglon"
Beat The Drum "Ehud & Eglon...A song of God's deliverance & errrr poo"
A Fitting Name "The Ehud & Eglon song"
An Infant In The Cradle "The EglonSong LIVE"
What do you mean you'd prefer some more 'normal' songs? Oh, OK...
Great High Priest
Song Of The Redeemed
The Weight Of Glory
Great High Priest
Song Of The Redeemed
The Weight Of Glory
Friday 17 July 2009
GCN Set List: God is Our Refuge
God is our refuge is a passionate heartcry of trust in God's care from the Sovereign Grace album Psalms.
Words by Peter Gagnon, Music by Joel Sczebel.
(Read an exclusive Behind the song interview with Peter & Joel here)
The heavens shake, the mountains quake
And crumble to the sea
The oceans roar because the Lord
Is reigning sovereignly
And those who trust in You
Will never be afraid
Those who trust in You will not be moved
God is our refuge, our shelter and our strength
The Lord our fortress, our rock and our defense
God is our refuge, our help in time of need
He will always be our peace
All around us we hear the sounds
Of violence in the earth
The nations rage against Your name
Against Your mighty Word
And one day wars will cease
And endless peace will reign
One day all the earth will be made new
If You are for us, who can be against us
If You are for us, we’ll never be ashamed
If You are for us, who can be against us
If You are for us, we’ll never be ashamed
© 2008 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)
Buy the song (mp3)
Buy the Album (CD or Download set)
Preview God Is Our Refuge and other tracks from the Psalms project
FREE downloadable chord sheet, Lead sheet & lyrics
Related Posts: GCN set list: Thank You, Jesus
Behind the song: Thank You, Jesus
(Thanks to Nato Etire for help putting this post together).
Tuesday 14 July 2009
A songwriter's motivation
(Update: This post seems to have resonated with quite a few people.
Thanks to Dave@Blue Fish Project, Matthew @ Audience Of One & Ben Green @ '...' for the quotes, links & tweets!)
A note from my diary (21/12/07)
It's no light thing singing doctrinally accurate & 'sharp-edged' songs. I am singing & writing the very truths that got my brothers like Athanasius exiled or killed.
I must not cheapen their memory & the freedom they won by putting trivia in the mouths of God's people.
Nobody was ever burnt at the stake for saying "God is nice & He likes you"
Saturday 11 July 2009
Bendy cymbals and 20 hits per second
Here's the world's fastest drummer, Mike Mangini (from Steve Vai's Band), filmed at ultra high speed. (although I have to say, I prefer the video of the guy getting slapped in the face...)
Friday 10 July 2009
Here's A Pulitzer Prize For You
Joseph Pulitzer gave this advice to journalists but I think it is wonderful guidance for writing great worship songs too...
Put it before them briefly so that they will read it,
clearly so they will appreciate it,
picturesquely so they will remember it
and, above all,
accurately so they will be guided buy it's light
(quoted: The Daily Telegraph)
Thursday 9 July 2009
You can't beat this rap...
(Do you see what I did there...?)
If rap is your thing and you can stand to tear yourself away from Tedashii’s new album for a few minutes, here’s a few more beats for treats.
Lyrycyst may have the worst case of name mispelling since Motley Crue (“Yo! I’m a lyrical tumour!” – not good!) but his free track Go Get ‘Em Kik v3 is really rather splendid.(The Free Christian Music Blog heard it first)
Ditto for Praize Him, a live track from The Rep over at Kyle Campos’s blog Our Rising Sound.
The wonderful eccentric Pigeon John has two free tracks on RelevantMagazine.Com, Money Back Guarantee and Weight Of The World, that are “gonna melt your face off”. Unlike most of the downloads on the site they’re not ‘unplugged’ (unless the drum machine and keyboards you can hear are running off batteries).
Lastly but not leastly there’s beastly beats a plenty at BeastieMixes.Com which is a remix website where you can download, upload and for all I know sideload all manner of crazy user-generated remixes of Beastie Boys tracks.
For a band that allegedly put DRM on one of their recent albums they seem awfully cavalier about letting their peeps infringe other people’s copyright, but maybe they’ve seen the light.
If you don’t know where to start on this mash-up smorgasbord, let me suggest the awesome
Ch Check It Out_Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Remix,
And Intergalactic-Stronger Mix
both by Nygel (a friend the Cyst meister?)
and the crazy lo-fi-sci-fi drum and bass sound of
Bassdriver’s Pass The Mic- Children Again Passdamic
Peace Out – DJ Blyk
Wednesday 8 July 2009
Behind The Song: Son Of God/God The Son
This is the miracle of God made flesh -
The life that bridged the great divide.
This is the miracle of God made flesh -
The blameless cursed & crucified.
This is the miracle,
The miracle of Jesus Christ.
We introduced it at Grace Church and though it was well received it never really seemed to take off into the chorus the way I felt it should. In hindsight I thought the chorus needed to be to God rather than about God & be a simpler 'outburst of praise' in response to the amazing truth the verses were trying to express. Over the next two years I wrote four completely different choruses before I found the right one.
And so all we long to do
Is grow more in love with you
Jesus Christ, with all our hearts
We worship you.
To you be the loudest praise
Your name far above all names
Jesus Christ, Risen One
Son of God, God the Son
We worship you.
The overall theology and particularly the line "You became what You we're not" were influenced by the book "The Glory of Christ by Peter Lewis.
The song is in the minor key throughout (which I have a bit of a fixation on) and, unusually, the melody starts one the second degree of the scale rather than a chord tone. I worried that it would be too weird but everyone seemed to pick up ok. The opening melody line
"Son of God, God the Son",
reappears in the chorus a scale tone higher, on the line
"Jesus Christ, with all our hearts".
Download this song!
mp3
Chord Sheet
Lyrics
Read behind the song
Tuesday 7 July 2009
How High & How Wide (Finding The Right Key)
Bob Kauflin is always right on the money. Here he says just about everything you'd need to know about finding the right key to pitch songs in.
There’s a wide variety of opinions when it comes to what’s an “appropriate” key for congregational singing. My basic approach is to keep songs from a low A to a high D, but there are certainly exceptions and other aspects to consider. The strongest range for the congregation seems to be between G and D.
other considerations he looks at are;
Can you hear the men straining? Or the women dropping down to the men's range?
People often need to sing fast songs at the upper end of their range in order to 'belt it out'. Slow and low works fine.
Range is important but there's a big difference between a song hitting a D once in the chorus and one hitting it 6 or 7 times.
If you use the option of modulation in hymns or hymn-like songs the final verse or two can be a little 'too high' as the people will only sing the top notes a couple of time rather than getting fatigued over 5 minutes.
"If your church naturally sings in four parts, it’s possible for the melody to go up to an E or F without a problem, because the guys who can’t hit those notes will generally be singing the bass part".
Bob's conclusion is that we ought to primarily serve the Church and sing songs in keys that are comfortable for the congregation, not just the leader. If you're more comfortable in a higher range add harmony or vocal fills.
Read the rest - Finding The right key to sing in.
Monday 6 July 2009
Hey...I've got a good idea...
Only a few weeks ago I was reflecting that in 20 plus years of performing, I've never seen a broken Shure SM58 microphone. I've seen 'em bent, bashed, rusted and smelling of meat (don't ask) but they still work. So this film of a lunatic from Shure Inc. getting a famous blues guitarist to drive a bus over their mikes is only mildly surprising.
If you enjoyed this why not watch them drop mikes from a seven story building or bury one in soil for a year?
Sunday 5 July 2009
Half Birthday - Top 5 Music Videos
The Young Glory Blog is 6 months old! So I'm celebrating by reposting my 5 favourite music videos.
In reverse order...
5) John Butler Trio - Betterman (Live)
Rootsy jamming. Jaw dropping solos.
4) Andrew Peterson - Family Man
The stop-motion animated video is almost as beautiful as the song.
3) Mute Math - Spotlight
Great song, from the soundtrack of a lousy movie. Shot in the back of a van. One take.
2) LeCrae - Send Me (Live @ Mars Hill Church)
In your face rapping. Led Zeppelin vs John Piper. Piper wins.
1) Kutiman - Babylon Band
Kutiman spliced together 7 new songs made up entirely of Youtube clips creating something bigger than the internet.
Watch them all here!
5) John Butler Trio - Betterman (Live)
4) Andrew Peterson - Family Man
3) Mute Math - Spotlight
2) LeCrae - Send Me (Live @ Mars Hill Church)
1) Kutiman - Babylon Band
Seen any other great music vids? - Leave a comment!
Related Posts: Top 5 Free Downloads
Saturday 4 July 2009
Behind the Song: The Weight Of Glory
The Weight Of Glory was inspired by various sermons I’ve heard through the years on 2 Corinthians 4:17.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Verse 1 contrasts Momentary/Eternal,
Verse 2, Light/Weight
& Verse 3 holds up Christ as our example “who for the joy set before him endured the cross”(Heb 12:3).
The imagery in verse 1, this life being the beginning of a story continuing into eternity, was inspired by the conclusion of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia book The Last BattleAll their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
(The Last Battle
How long, O Lord, this story seems
Till you return, and then we'll see
The strife that fills our mortal days
Barely fills the opening page
And each new chapter has in store
More glory than the one before.
In 1988 I was leafing through a film catalogue looking for potential band names. One of the ones that didn’t make it was ‘Dust be my destiny' which apparently is a 1939 prison break film starring John Garfield. (Anyone out there seen it?). I liked the sound of it and filed it. It became
My destiny will not be dust, for what will be is glorious.
The song took 3 years to write. The music and the chorus lyrics came pretty quickly, but the verse took a lot of work because you hang on each syllable so long that each one has to ‘sing’ well. Many perfectly acceptable words sounded odd when stretched out. The tune also had to be rewritten because the original range was too wide for a congregation to sing.
Some unusual things about the music are that in the verse several of the chords hang on for an extra bar
Bm, F#m, F#m, G,
G, F#7, Bsus4, B.
and though the song is in Bm each verse cycle ends on Bsus4 resolving to B major (which is called the Picardy Third in music theory). The chorus starts on G major instead of the more obvious D major or B minor and ends on the very unexpected Cadd9.
The weirdest chord from a guitar player point of view is the F#m7/A which is played (low to high) X04220 and it’s fingered 4th finger on the D string and 1st finger in between the G and B and thus fretting both.
Download the live mp3 Chord Sheet Lyrics
Leave a comment about The Weight of Glory
Related Posts: Great High Priest
Other free songs by Matt Blick
Friday 3 July 2009
Half Birthday - Top 5 Free Downloads
The Young Glory Blog is 6 months old and by way of a celebration I'm reposting my 5 best...Freebies. Modesty forbids me mentioning my own songs...whoops, I just did!
5) Adoration (Song) - Brenton Brown
Beautiful slow burner worship anthem.
4) Charismatic Worship (Seminar) - Stef Liston
No nonsense advice for strengthening the manifestations of the spirit in our gatherings. (Audio & Video).
3) Band On The Run (Seminar) - Bob Kauflin
The best (by far) resource on doing band arrangements and doing them quickly. (Audio & video).
2) Thru-You (7 track EP) - Kutiman
(Especially 'Babylon Band', 'The Mother Of All Funk Chords' and 'I'm New'). Kutiman took around a hundred clips from YouTube, edited, pitch shifted & time stretched them, creating 7 brand new fresh and funky songs. A work of staggering creativity that proves all bets are off in web 2.0.
1) The Universe Is Flat (Album) - Chris Spring
One of my favourite albums of last year and totally free. Hints of every classic songwriter from the last 30 years, but in the end a true original. Coldplay wish they could write songs like this.
If you haven't downloaded this stuff, get to it NOW!
(Found any other great free downloads? - leave a comment!)
Thursday 2 July 2009
Small Band Arrangements
Brenton Brown has some great advice on how to arrange songs when you only have a few musicians.
Related Posts: 5 things you didn't know about Brenton
Brenton Brown - Write better lyrics
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