by Paul Baloche
To be successful, any song must do two things:
1. Achieve its intended effect in the listener, by making him or her laugh or cry or contemplate or worship or whatever the song is supposed to do
2. Make the listener want to hear it again. First let’s consider what makes a successful song of any kind. Then we’ll examine those specific things a good worship song needs to accomplish its purpose.
The Cardinal Rule
This brings us to what we call the Cardinal Rule of Songwriting. Well— it’s not really a rule. Nothing we say here is a rule. But frankly, any song that doesn’t follow it doesn’t do a very good job of communicating its message and probably won’t get far. It ‘s so important that it needs a billboard, or at least a panel of its own:
Make all the elements work together to enhance the feeling of the message. Songwriting is an emotional medium, a vehicle for the expression of feelings. Think about it. If your message consists only of a series of facts and makes no emotional impact, you would do better to present it not as a song but as a list or paragraph. Try to match the mood of the music to the meaning of the message, so the listener can feel it. This way, the song becomes more than the mere transfer of data—it becomes an experience. Emotion is the soul of a song. That’s why computers can’t write songs. Even if they can be programmed to think, they still can’t feel.
The Very Idea!
When you get an idea for a song, the first thing you should ask yourself is: Is this idea worth writing a song about?
• First, is it biblical? Because of the power of the music, the words are going deep into the hearts and minds of people who listen and sing. Nice, cozy thoughts and warm fuzzies about God are not enough; the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit, ministers life. That doesn’t mean that every song has to be based literally on the words of scripture. Many fine worship songs express heartfelt devotion to the Lord without directly quoting scripture, but their concepts come out of the writer’s knowledge and love of the Word. Even being biblical alone is not enough. “An omer is the tenth part of an ephah,”( Exodus 16:36) is biblical, but it probably isn’t worth writing a song about.
• Second, is it touching, moving enough? Is it something other people will care about? Will they think, ‘I’ve experienced that, and this song says what I feel’? Not every idea can bear the weight of being set to music.
The Right Title
A great title idea may open up all kinds of possibilities depending on the style, atmosphere and mood you want to develop.
• Right at the start, your title should give us an idea of what this song is about: “Here I am to Worship”, “ Awesome God,” “ Change My Heart O God.”
• Like the cover of a book, the title delivers the first impact and whets the appetite for what is to come. Many writers begin with a title. It may take only one evocative line to set the creative wheels in motion:
“I Could Sing of Your Love Forever,” “Lord I Lift Your Name on High,” “Shout to the Lord”.
• Try, if possible, to avoid a title that doesn’t appear in the lyric.
Sometimes this is hard to do, so you just make the title as descriptive as you can and hope for the best. The problem is that people then find it hard to connect the title with the song. They may remember the song and want to hear it again, but they don’t know what to call it, so they can’t find it.
The Building Blocks of a Song
Now, back to our Cardinal Rule of Songwriting — Make all the elements work together to enhance the feeling of the message—What do we mean by the elements of songwriting? There are at least nine definable elements that make up most songs:
The Intangible elements:
1. Message. Not to be confused with lyrics. Message is what you have to say; lyrics are the words you use to say it. There are lots of ways of stating the same message, some more effective than others.
2. Style. Such as pop, rock, country, southern gospel, black gospel, etc.
3. Atmosphere or ambience. A song may take us to a tropical island (as the reggae song, “Heaven is in My Heart”), or before the Throne of God (“Holy, Holy, Holy”).
4. Mood. Not the same as atmosphere. Mood asks “How do you feel about what you’re saying?” Let everything in the song tell us you are happy, pensive, sad, nostalgic, triumphant, worshipful … If you do your job in using rhythm, harmony and melody, etc., we’ll feel it with you. Two songs might have the same atmosphere but opposite moods.
The tangible elements. We’ll list them here and examine each of them in more detail later.
1. Form, the shape of the song
2. Lyrics, or words
3. Melody, or tune
4. Harmony, or chord structure and voicing
5. Rhythm, or beat
These nine elements are the building blocks of a song. Which element is most important will depend on what you want the song to do. In a song for ministry, the most important of all is the message. All the other elements, both tangible and intangible, must work together to support it.
Editor’s note : Check out the song “Arms Open Wide”, written by Rita Baloche (Paul’s wife), and recently nominated for a Dove-Award as best inspirational recorded song of the year.
This article was featured in Worship Leader Magazine. For more information visit www.worshipleader.com
