Top Ten Ways to Write Bad Worship Songs
October 21st, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Writing
Bob Kauflin shares the Top Ten Ways to Write Bad Worship Songs over at WorshipMatters…
- Aim to write the next worldwide worship hit.
- Spend all your time working on the music, not the words.
- Spend all your time working on the words, not the music.
- Don’t consider the range and capabilities of the average human voice.
- Never let anyone alter the way God originally gave your song to you.
- Make sure the majority of your songs talk about what we do and feel rather than who God is and what he’s done.
- Try to use as many Scriptural phrases as you can, and don’t worry about how they fit together.
- Cover as many themes as possible.
- Use phrases and words that are included in 95% of all worship songs.
- Forget about Jesus and what he accomplished at the cross.
(Via WorshipMatters.)
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5 is a biggie . . . I’ve encountered this with so many people - they write a song and then are unwilling to listen to criticism. Worship songs created in community are typically much stronger, both musically and lyrically than are songs created by one person. Yielding to each other is a great heart check and helps us to work on our greatest stumbling block as musicians, PRIDE.
I sometimes run new songs by several “average congregational member” type people. Even if they have zero musical skill, they can provide useful feedback on how a congregation will take to the song. Music people can give good feedback as well - I guess my point is don’t work in a vacuum, be yielded to leadership and be sensitive to the people you’re trying to lead in worship with an original song.