Asia Conference 2008 (Electives): Songwriting for Praise And Worship

Date: 21 November 2008
Speaker: Jeff Crabtree, Gan Khek Chyan
Venue: City Harvest Church (Singapore)

Anatomy Of A Song

1) The elements of a song.

- Principle: Melody and lyrics heard in a sequence in the context of harmony and rhythm.
- Application: The effect of context: form, chords, tempos, grooves.
- Techniques: Repetition, variation and harmonic substitution.

2) The hook.

- Principle: Melody and lyrics can combine together to form an irresistibly attractive combination.
- Application: The hook is the centerpiece of the music.
- Techniques: The secret of writing hooks. Learn to use the pentatonic scale, rhythm and idiomatic expression.

3) The image.

- Principle: The purpose of constructing lyrics is to awaken the imagination.
- Application: Imagery is the centerpiece of the lyrics.
- Techniques: Construction of imagery-descriptive, simile and metaphore. You are using the power of narrative.

4) The emotion.

- Principle: The purpose of music is to create an emotional landscape.
- Application: Music is a symbolic language of emotional impact. Changes in emotion are made through subtle nuances in the composition of the music.
- Techniques: Comparison of production techniques on the emotional language of music (ie. psycho-acoustics).

Tools For Songwriting

1) Tools for lyrics.

- Thesaurus.
- Rhymer Dictionary.
- Different versions of the Bible.

2) Melody.

- Listening widely to different genres of music.
- Music software (Garrage Band).
- Using different instruments for writing.