changing it up

for just about every song i’ve written, the process has been the same.
i usually write the entire song on either my acoustic guitar or piano.
by entire song, i mean: lyrics, melody, key, chord progression(s), tempo.
then i give some thought to the full band arrangement and record a demo - programmed drums, live bass, keys, etc…

for this song, i decided to change the process up a bit.
i took it to the band much earlier in the process.

my thinking was that the input of other musicians would naturally produce a different outcome for each individual part and therefore the whole arrangement of the song.
then, as a result, the melody and lyrics would end up different as well.

so, here’s what i had going in….

**one line of the lyric: “we’ve caught a glimpse of your kingdom and we want more”
**a tempo: 144 bpm
**the rhythm for that one line: where each syllable falls in time with the music.

that’s it.

here’s what i didn’t have:
**key
**melody for the one line
**chord progression

joe, dan and chris did a great job of just jamming for awhile until we came up with a “riff” that seemed to work for a musical hook at that tempo.
we chose the key of E just for starters.
we played with that riff for awhile.
to me it started sounding like a verse.
so, we then decided to try to come up with a chorus progression and feel that would drive a little harder.

at that point, i decided to try to come up with a melody for the one line of lyric.
turns out we were in a bad key.
we couldn’t pitch the melody in the right range to match the intensity of the lyric and the music.
so we found a new key - key of B.
found a workable melody for that line and just sang blah blah blah for the rest of the chorus.

we worked on transitions between the verse and chorus.
decided that we needed a two-line ramp up to the chorus.
chose a chord progression that felt like it set up the chorus well.

transition back from chorus to verse, we decided to use the riff again.

we all agreed that it was coming together. felt good.
but we needed a bridge.
dan and joe threw out the idea of holding on each chord longer for the bridge - to help the dynamics change.
great idea.
they batted a few ideas back and forth.
meanwhile, i stumbled on a counter melody line that changed twice for each chord underneath (if that makes sense).
chris picked up on it on electric guitar.
we ended up with a nice bridge that starts out “down” and builds nicely over three repeats, leading back to a big final chorus.

now, i just have to write the parts that actually make it a corporate worship song - the lyrics and the melody.
but i have much more of a direction for that now, having experienced how the song feels with a full band already.