Capturing the Moment - Brenton Brown
Okay, so imagine that you've just had one of those wonderful moments of inspiration. Your spirit is soaring, your heart is filled with melody and prayer. You are drawn into worship. The only challenge is that you're in your car traveling 70 miles an hour on a four-lane freeway. I can't tell you the number of songs I've lost in this position. In the last few months I purchased a Digital Voice Recorder (DVR). My buddy Paul Baloche uses a program on his laptop called MasterWriter which he seems pretty happy with. And I've also used a cell phone that has a voice recorder. The USB port on the DVR, though, has distinct advantages.
Alright. Now that you're up to speed on capturing those moments, what happens next? As promised I'm going to be tracking the life of one of my songs-hopefully until it gets recorded-during the course of these articles. This is where it started.
About MidnightPaul and I were hanging out at my place late last year writing together. We'd spent a long day writing together and had worked on two songs late into the night. We parted ways at about midnight. But just before we called it a night I remembered something. About two months earlier I rediscovered a song by an artist I'm really fond of, Shawn Colvin. It was an up-tempo song with a groove that I hadn't noticed being used in congregational worship. I dutifully filed the song into a worship playlist and made a note to myself to revisit this groove somewhere down the line. Just as I said good night to Paul I thought of that song. Subconsciously, all day, I'd been thinking about the Psalms of ascents-the songs Israel used to sing on their way to the temple in Jerusalem for the big feast once a year. Over the groove and the chord I started singing:
Saints and angels gather round
Listen to the joyful sound of Zion
We're marching to Zion
I noticed Paul perk up. He joined in on his guitar and started singing along and recording with MasterWriter. After we'd sung a verse, these words to a new chorus melody popped out of our mouths.
Hear the joyful sound of Your people in Zion
On the mountain of God we will sing Your praise
Lead us through the night with Your songs of deliverance
Let the nations see that our God reigns...
We sang it through a couple of times and then Paul went off to bed.
Just a ThoughtYou'll notice that nothing about this lyric looks finished. A telltale sign of an early lyric attempt is the repetition of words. "Zion" and "joyful sound" are used in both the verse and the chorus. But there we had it, a melody and a direction for the song. We sang it into the DVR and Paul went off to bed.
Seconds later he emerged from his room with a guitar in his hand and a determined look on his face. In the same key, groove and tempo, he began singing these lyrics, and I added my ideas as he sang.
In the name of the father, in the name of the Son
In the name of the Spirit, Lord we come
Gathered together to lift up Your name
To call on our savior, to fall on Your grace
The groove, key and theological theme was the same. But the lyrics were different. I was stoked. I loved this new version. Whereas the first version of the idea felt more artsy and less congregational, this one had the simplicity that a congregational song needs. Also, they captured that sense of the New Testament people of God gathering together for worship-a song of ascent for today. We added the first chorus we had to this verse and it felt like we had the makings of a song.
Remember, you don't have to finish a song the moment it starts. Be prepared to nurture the seed of inspiration you have and shape the idea towards something you think people in your church might be able to sing.
Editor's note:
You may recognize this song. It is the rough version of "Our God Reigns" which was the title track of Paul Baloche's recent Praise Award winning album, and will also be featured on Brenton Brown's upcoming release, Because of Your Love.
