A New Song for You
Okay, first things first. When you’ve got a new song burning in your music library that you’ve been wanting to introduce to the church, and the chance finally comes for you to use it – what do you do? This is a three-part series where we dig a little into the process. This first part focuses on suggestions for assisting you to learn the song properly. The second will focus on teaching it to your team, and the third will focus on introducing it to the congregation/church at large.
Before you try and teach a song to your team, you need to know what’s going on in it yourself. My personal preference is, if possible, to be able to play it either on piano or guitar (or both, if possible). That way I have a solid grasp of the chord progressions, the rhythms, the structure, and the dynamics. In fact, those four points should almost be a checklist in learning the song.
For simplicity’s sake I will assume you are trying to learn a song on the guitar…
1) Chords
The easiest way to learn a song is to have a recording to play along with. So get one (if you don’t have a recording I hope you have a great memory and/or can read music really well!). Secondly, acquire the chords to the song. This is a must. You can purchase chord charts or sheet music (online or in/through a store), or you can probably find it online for free (some publishers like Vertical Music offer their chord charts online for free!). If you can’t find or get the chords, then you’ve gotta figure ‘em out by ear. Good luck! (there is not enough space in this post to cover how to do that…)
Now just play the recording of the song, over and over, first time just listening to the chord changes and following the chord sheet. When you’re comfortable with the chord changes, start trying to do one strum where each chord is first played or changed to. Be especially tuned to walking bass lines or progressions that walk through the scale – recognising these can be very helpful to your team in learning the song.
When you’re confident and comfortable with these chord changes you are ready to move onto the structure and rhythm of the song.
2) Structure
Now, stop the recording. Take a moment and analyze the chord sheet and how the song fits together. Somewhere on the chord sheet (top, side, bottom…) write down the structure of the song. Is it the classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus(2x?)-bridge-chorus(2x?). Many songs are a variation thereof. Many hymns are only “verses” with a latter section that feels like a chorus, though some actually are just a series of verses followed by a repeated chorus. Primarily here you need to understand how the song is put together so that you can articulate that in a simple way to your team.
After you’ve figured out how the song is put together, notice all the chord progressions in each section. Are they the same? How are they different? Usually a song will have one chord progression for verses and another progression for the chorus. Sometimes a completely new progression will be used for a bridge or tag – though sometimes that can be the same progression, just with a different dynamic. Where is the intro to the song derived from? Is the instrumental section’s progression the same as the intro, or is it from the chorus or verse?
Also note repetition and variation. Is the verse four chords repeated four times? Or are they repeated three times, the fourth being a variation on the original pattern? Or is the third time the variation?
Basically, in understanding the chord progressions, you want to try and figure out as many of the connections throughout the song as you can. That way you can break it down more easily for your team when you have to teach them.
3) Rhythms
After getting comfortable with the chords and the structure, take a look at the rhythms utilized in the song. Does the song have a straight rhythm or is it syncopated? Is it the same rhythm throughout? At this point you need to attempt as good an imitation of the rhythm of the song on your guitar as you can.
At this point, as well, make some notations on your chord sheet about what the drummer is doing where (as best you can figure). Having these will help you better direct your drummer.
4) Dynamics
Here is the real heart of a song. Make sure you know when the song is soft, when it is loud, when it builds, how long it builds, and where the climax of the build is. A majority of the music coming out of Hillsongs is incredibly easy as far as the chords and progressions go – and most of the rhythms are pretty simple as well. But they are masters of the dynamic. Every one of their songs is unique because of its own dynamics, and their “powerhouse” songs are such because the dynamics of how they build the song to its climax have been perfected. You cannot play a Hillsongs song correctly without paying a lot of attention to the dynamics.
So there ya go. These are some basics of learning a song, at least in my mind. As you learn more and more songs, you’ll develop your own system which will work best for you.
Also, this just addresses learning a song as it was recorded. If you want to develop your own version of a song, do these first. Learning a song how it was originally written is always essential to creating a new version of it which retains the same ‘heart’ as the original (at least that’s my opinion).
Next I will profer up some suggestions about teaching a new song to your team.