I am a huge fan of this book! It has so much practical wisdom about song writing, and how to do it well in any faith-based context – Christian or otherwise. These are my own notes from Page’s book – many of the points are quotations, and some are my quick summaries of his points. I have re-ordered the material under my own headings.
Purpose
- inspire, encourage, challenge and teach
- addressed contemporary issues and problems
- identify with characters and situations in the Bible
- emotional responses to the truth of God
- engaging with reality? speaking the language of the people?
- accessible and simple, in the language of people – “one of the key facts that we have to grasp: people will remember what they sing.”
- go right back to basics and look at what worship actually is
- “Worship songs are not solely vehicles for personal expression, they’re invitations to corporate worship. If you want to write stuff that only you can understand then keep a diary, otherwise you have to cut the rest of us some slack; you have to help us understand.”
- “need to do … more than repeat Scripture or stir a brief emotion”
- “The words should serve those singing them. … We need servant-lyrics. We need writers who constantly ask, ‘How can I serve the church with this song? How can I express what I know of God in a way that will help others?’”
- A good worship song “awakens us to the problem and then provides the solution. [It] grows from a deep, personal and, above all, real experience of God, … has a strong, simple structure, … uses ordinary language and images, … [and] has theological depth.”
Pop song entertainment
- Kevin Molecule (fictional character): “not let the words get in the way of the worship. Let the music do the job. I don’t think people need to think in worship; they need to feel.” [Ed. Don’t do this!]
- “In poetry, what matters is the words – the metaphors, the images, the rhythm and the structure. In pop songs what matters is the melody, the hook, the beat. Having a decent lyric is a bonus. Pop songs want a tune that sticks in your brain.”
- “Pop songs are nuggets of emotion. A pop song, generally speaking, is not about deep thought, but intense feeling.”
- “Generally speaking, however, the pop song is a disposable item intended to give you an emotional rush.”
- “And often, we end up singing little more than the religious equivalent of ‘I love you baby, oh yeah’.”
- “the spiritual equivalent of the paper plate”
- “in the pop song we have found the perfect model for the easy-come, easy-go worship song”
- “It’s fast-food worship; fine at the time, but half an hour later you feel hungry all over again.”
- “We can fool ourselves into thinking that we’re worshipping God when all we’re doing is getting an emotional rush from the guitar solo.”
- “The pop-music aesthetic is all about entertainment. It’s about a three-minute single that makes you feel great”
- “a great performance is no certain indicator of the presence of God”
- “we always have to keep checking that, at these big events, people are worshipping God and not just enjoying the band”
- “Too much worship is based on the pop concert; this has led to an emphasis on emotion and difficulties in encouraging effective worship in churches which cannot meet the musical challenges.”
- “Worship leaders are being pushed into the role of rock stars. But worship leaders are servants.”
Quality lyrics
- “Hymns were the products of a society where poetry was still a major art form.”
- “Songs are not published as poems to be read, but tunes to be played.”
- “The trouble is that very few singer-songwriters are genuinely good lyric writers.”
- “We should dare to do what most pop performers can never dream of doing: getting our audience to think.”
- “The worship song is modelled on the pop song rather than the poem; this leads to a downgrading of the importance of the lyric.”
- “When it comes to writing words, inspiration is important, but other things come into play as well. Things like vocabulary and rhyme schemes and imagination and invention. The more disciplined you are about your writing, the better your song will be and the more faithfully you will serve the inspiration behind that song.
- they probably don’t sit down and say, ‘I’m going to practise my words today.’ How many, I wonder, ever read poetry or listen to song lyrics with the sole aim of understanding how the thing works?”
- Christopher Driver called hymns ‘a poetic response to experience’.
- “the rule is if you’re going to rhyme, rhyme properly. If you’re not going to rhyme don’t tease us by occasionally doing so. Be consistent.”
- “So it’s important to stick to your pattern and to make sure that the number of syllables in your verses doesn’t alter from verse to verse. … [Congregations] …have to stop thinking about the words and start thinking about how to fit the words in. And that means that the worship will be interrupted.” “whether they like it or not, worship song writers are writing songs for other people to sing. Which means that the songs should aim to be ‘singable’. Mucking about with the syllable count might serve the writer’s need to get across what they want to say, but it’s not serving the needs of the congregation.”
- “Don’t finish a lyric and rush into church or into the studio. Revisit it. Let the words have space to breathe and mature.”
- “breaks us out of clichéd imagery and into very sharp, very personal, very uncomfortable reflection. It is part of the worship song writer’s job to startle and stimulate; to create new pictures and new images in our minds. Clichés cannot do this. They are tired; they are lazy.”
- “‘imperfect rhyme’ or ‘oblique rhyme’, where the rhyme is close but not exact. The trouble with this is that it’s an OK rhyme for verses that we read on the page, but it’s just annoying when you have to sing them. When you read it on the page, your eye takes in the shape of the words, your mind accepts the difference. Sing it out loud and at the top of your voice, however, and things become a little more apparent. Sung rhymes should, I think, aim to be perfect or exact rhymes. They are part of the rhythm and the cadence of the music. A perfect rhyme fits with the end of a musical phrase. An imperfect rhyme doesn’t. It is too tentative, too uncertain, too, well, imperfect.”
- “the sheer number of imperfect rhymes makes the song seem tentative and uncertain”
- “structure echoes the message … can you embody the theme of your song in the structure of your lyric?”
- “simple language and imagery gives the song a lot of pace and impact”
- “Rhyme schemes can do so much more than just shape the poem, they can affect the tone.”
- “Avoid words that have a double meaning – unless you want them to have a double meaning.”
- “when you have it expounded to you in a sermon, the context and images can be explained. When you sing it there is no one providing any help.”
- “The best songs make one main point and make it well.”
- “the need for deep songs, for songs that [take[ an idea and really [explore] it.”
Contemporary relevance
- “Using well-worn, not to say worn-out, images is more lazy writing.”
- “imagery which have no relevance and meaning for the contemporary Christian”
- “There is no doubt that finding and using modern images for worship songs is a difficult task. But I would suggest that it’s only difficult because everyone avoids it.”
- “The sad fact is that if you use modern language you may well get ridiculed.”
- “I don’t worship a God for whom I have to use a special language.”
- “We worship a non-traditional God”
- “find new images that have a contemporary relevance”
Craftsmanship
- “One of the things which characterised a truly bad writer was that they believed that heart was more important than art.”
- “Good intentions are no replacement for good technique. You might be a saint. You might have the most fantastic prayer life. You might be a prophet on a par with Elijah. But you still have to work at your craft. You have to work at your technique.”
- “Technique doesn’t remove the need for prayerfulness, for Bible study or for contemplation. Technique is what can help those disciplines bear fruit.”
- “Bezalel was a skilled craftsman. … Second, Bezalel thought and reflected on his art. God gave him wisdom. … He’s a Spirit-filled artist. His craftsmanship and skill were set to work on God’s plans.”
- “I’ve heard people say that ‘this came to me so quickly, I must have been inspired’. And most of the time I look at their work and think, ‘no, you were just in a hurry’.”
- “The great lyricist Stephen Sondheim fills an entire notebook with thoughts and ideas that are crafted into one song. An entire notebook for each song. In all honesty, you could take all thoughts and ideas behind many worship songs and fit them onto the back of a postcard.”
- “the difference between an amateur and a professional is that a professional never stops learning.”
- “Learning from the experts means sitting down with a lyric and taking it to pieces. How does the language work? Why are the images so potent? What’s the rhyme scheme and structure? Look at how the words ‘sit’ on the tune and how they make it easy to sing.”
- “Look at the work of songwriters in a wide variety of different disciplines.”
- “how many people ask others for feedback? Most often as writers we ask people for approval rather than constructive criticism. We look for people to accept our work, rather than improve it.”
- “you need to develop a group of people whose judgement and taste you trust. A group of people who, frankly, know what they’re talking about.”