"Song Writing Part 2" Video Transcript

Video Transcript: Song Writing Part Two

Steve Elzinga  

All right songwriting Part Two Sing to the Lord of news song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful people. Step four and the songwriting process, you know, you got the key, you got the chord progression, you got a little bit of the beat going, maybe you figured out sort of a melody, a little bit of a chorus, perhaps, you start looking for the words. Now, this is where most people, you know, go off the track in terms of writing their own songs. People can come up with melodies, but then when they put the words, it's like the kind of corny they don't quite work. Anyway, that I found even for my own stuff, when I write, I have a great song in mind. And then I start putting the words down, and it's like, that's a, that's a hard thing to do. So instead of starting with your own words, make it easy on yourself and pick words that someone already wrote that that already fit kind of a nice pattern. And one good place to start is just to take the words of an old hymn. I didn't know you can do something like that. I was at some young people's thing. This was maybe 30 years ago, and I heard a singer by the name of James Ward. He took an old song Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages. The original

Steve Elzinga  

Some people love that song. But that tune never did anything for me. And I never really listened to the words of the song. Then I heard James Ward sing it to a different tone. And I was like, wow, these words are just to see if I can sort of remember it. (trying to remember how to sing Rock of all Ages) See, how did you first first have to get your first note here we go (trying again to play Rock of Ages).

Steve Elzinga  

And then it builds and becomes this just incredible, beautiful song. And I listened to the words for the very first time and I was like, Wow. So let's say you have a little tune and you can't figure out what to do with it. You just open a hymnal and start trying your tune with the whatever you can find. Amazing Grace, you know, Amazing Grace can be done almost anything. (Singin and playing Amazing Grace on a different tune).

Steve Elzinga  

so at some contemporary song, just throw Amazing Grace do it and I think people have sung like 25 30 different songs to Amazing Grace. I wrote a little tune myself. I'll just play a little bit of kind of the Southern gospel stuff. (playing Amazing Grace with a southren style tune).

Steve Elzinga  

It was great Saturday. brah nice danger. Anyway, it goes on a little bit like that. And anyway, it's a nice bluesy kind of song. And I don't know how good tune is and so on, but the words are really, really good because you know, those are the words that people have enjoyed and loved, you know, for for for centuries. So maybe find something abide with me, that's a good one. That one in the last session. Here's the old tune (playing Abide with Me).

Steve Elzinga  

So I took the old tune, I kept kind of that pattern. I just did. (trying again) Remember. Anyway, we'll skip that one. All right, so you just take an old hymn and stick those words. And a lot of times you can find a hymn that fits exactly what you're doing. Then try maybe the Psalms and you know, hymns work because someone already put them into like a poetry form, and they balance each other out and the right number of syllables, and someone has already made that into like a song. And so it's easy to do. Well, the songs are close to that. I mean, they're not perfect. Because back in the day, King David didn't have the same kind of music that we did. We do but but but the songs have this sort of nice little phrasing that sort of fits 

Marie Elzinga  

more poetic,

Steve Elzinga  

a little bit more poetic and short little phrases. So remember the song that I came up with my tune? You know, what I was working on my first ever was a C G A minor and F. So I was (trying another song use la lal la la la) saying the first thing I did was okay, does that sound like a happy song or sad song? You know, it sounds like a happy song like you know, so you start looking at the psalms you don't you don't look for songs that say lol was me. And oh God, where are you? And you know, I cry to you but you don't listen and you know, you're not picking sad contemplate of Psalms you're looking for some kind of praise happy song. And you know, Psalm 100 certainly fits that. So it was like okay, we're going to start looking at the praise songs and see start paging through 100 and 150 at Psalm 100 is a really good one. So this sort of work at all. So you just look the words at try to fit them to the pattern you've got so (one more song using Psalms 100). Psalms 100 maybe you sing it through a couple times and how we do it is we sing it through two times. And then at the end we go (Singing the same Psalms again)

Steve Elzinga  

Words are shout for joy to the Lord. And all we're doing is singing. So what we do, and this, this, I guess this makes it a kid's song because our kids love it. We actually so shout so it'd be shout, I say shout it (no he has the kids to shout). And the kids just raise the roof. So, you know, it's, uh, you know, he probably surprised at how well the words fit, it's because Psalms are already songs. You know, maybe it won't fit your tune perfectly, but there's 150 Psalms to pick from. And generally, you can find some in some of the, you know, the words you have to wait a little or put a couple of words in to make it all fit, but generally it goes pretty good. Psalms 117 the whole Psalms is a very simple Psalms. (now singing Psalms 117)

Steve Elzinga  

Notice that the chorus just has like a couple of words. And that's so that the verse has a lot of words and then the chorus goes a little higher, and has just a few words and that's what makes it sound like a chorus and the verses like verses and because I have the verse and the chorus, exact same chords, you can sing it as around. So I'll sing the the first part and you the next. Ok you sing the first part and I will sing the chorus. That is what they did)

Steve Elzinga  

So we came full circle we, we had the verses, we sing the verses with the chorus and then we just end with the first line of the verse. And it is a very simple song. It's only three chords and yet with the harmonies and so on and becomes this thing. By the way, we're going to have all these songs, you know, as part of the course you can just download them and use them Like, along with the lead sheets for all of them as well. Psalms 139 that's a favorite song of many. How does it go. (Singing 139) 

Steve Elzinga  

Yeah, I know this actually better on the piano. Okay, all right. So there's a lot of them. You can you can just listen to them yourself. But as you're writing your songs, just find a simple song. Maybe it's just a verse, or maybe it's just a couple of verses. And you just try out, you know, this first draft, that's we're trying to find one that might work. So use maybe the words of a ham words of a song, and then then you're ready to expand to other parts of the Bible. Other parts of the Bible aren't necessarily sort of a nice song form. You can find a few, we found a few Christmas ones. Probably the first Christmas carol ever son was when the angels appeared to the shepherds. And so we took those words the first really Christmas Carol and I just put them to a tune. So I had a simple tune. (playing another simple tune)

Steve Elzinga  

That's about as simple as you can get is D A and G. And then we started with (Singing that song again) There you go. So had a little tune. It was very simple. Look for another song in the Bible and the word sort of becomes song like. We did the same thing with Luke chapter one The angel comes to Mary. And then Mary responds to the good news and all that the angel said. And in the Bible, it actually says Mary's song, we don't know what the tune was. So we need a little, little pattern going (playing a new tune from the past).

Steve Elzinga  

Anyway goes on and other parts start coming in the bass. We'll talk about that in the next session, how you can then add all kinds of different parts to make your song fuller and bigger and more parts that are happening. So where we both just went to the melody there, typically I would have stayed on that outsole part and the basis would have stayed on the bass part and then three parts just yeah, building the song, building the song, Genesis one so one of the earliest ones we did now Genesis one is just a you know, a verse it's not it was never a song. (playing another song from Genesis)

Steve Elzinga  

by the way, oh is kind of a Hebrew word for I don't know what else words to saying. So I'm missing. Oh, all right. So you can add different parts of the Scripture. And finally, you can try out your own words. Now, that's where it's a bit scary. Avoid cliches, you know, the mountains and the valleys and the glory of God and Hallelujah, I mean, you can use those words. But a lot of phrases are just used over and over. 

Steve Elzinga  

And sometimes people will throw one cliche after another and their song, it's just a run on sentence of cliches, and, and the song is, like, I don't know what it means, or people will just put sort of, you know, we're talking about angels, and we're praising, and then we're this and then we're that and it's like, this random song that sort of looks like someone came up with it, within five minutes, you know, some, some artists will say, you know, it only took me five minutes to come up with these words, a lot of times, it sounds like that, because it's just random, you know, items of random praise items, good songs, tell a story. And that not just like a, you know, here's a story, you know, a guy did this, and then he did that, and then he did this, but it's like, sets up a problem or sets up a situation. And, you know, we're all feeling this way. And, or I'm feeling this way, and maybe you felt this way too. And, and it really gets the emotion of how we're feeling. And then it then it you know, it leaves us on with a problem or with, with a, you know, a hurt. And, you know, what's the answer to this hurt? 

Steve Elzinga  

How does knowing God fit? Or how does it work? Or how does it help? So it's like, you take people on a journey somewhere, and that takes some effort and working, you know, I work on a few songs, and it's like, okay, where's this going? And how's this gonna work? And you know, it's really hard to have this nice, consistent story that follows through if you're using a metaphor, and you stick with it throughout the whole song, and you set up this problem or this situation, and then you come back to it, or you have some kind of an answer. And don't make, by the way, don't make a song longer than three minutes. When you're starting out. I know, when my first first saw songs that I wrote, were like, five, six minutes long. And it's cool to me. I'm like, you know, and do it. And it's like, oh, this is awesome. 

Steve Elzinga  

And you know, but people hearing it for the first time are like, okay, I sort of enjoyed it for three minutes, but now it's getting kind of old. So, you know, I know, it's hard. It's really hard to keep songs short. Anyway, my wife has an example. She hasn't sung it in like 20 or 10 12 15 years, she wrote it. She was starting to write it when she when we moved away from her hometown and so on, and she was missing friends and, and then both their parents died. And she's saying, I don't know if he's saying it, or both funerals are just your father's funeral. And so, and I just sprung it on her at this sporting gear, so she's gonna try to remember what the words are. But it's entitled a hole in my heart. So it's about the longing, and that feeling. And so listen to the first part of it, and you'll get the sense of the problem. I mean, you want people to join in with that problem. (playing the piano and singing).

Steve Elzinga  

So you can see what she did she first made us feel this longing and we all we all miss someone that our hearts broken and we feel it I mean after you. And then Okay, so then then the you know, I suppose you could just jump to Well, God makes it all better. You know, here's the answer, but it's sort of like there's a transition is like, so God, what are you gonna do about it? You know, I'm bringing this to you. So, you know, here it is. And then that segues a little bit into that, well, there is hope and one day it'll be a perfect world. And one day things would be good. And and so it's like giving people a vision out of this despair and down this. And here's the possibilities. So now you see it. But then it doesn't just leave you a pie in the sky. Oh, yeah, everything will be great. It sort of breaks until we get there. It's still Well, yeah, it still hurts. 

Steve Elzinga  

So you can see now that you know that that was her song. I'm working on a worship song where we you know, we come into the presence of God with nothing in our hands. You know, none of our foolish pride. And we're just coming to you, you know, who we are, we have nothing to stand on. And then you know, but we're coming here to praise you. So we come with nothing. We're here to praise you with the little that we have. But then it sort of segues into okay, but we're not just nobody, because Jesus died for us. So we come to you, not just nobody and nothing and with nothing in our hands of our own to stand on. But we come with Jesus Christ. I mean, he's done something for us. So there's something good about this, and we can stand and we're here because of his grace and love for us. And so now the chorus has this up, be kind of feel we are standing with something we're standing with the grace of Christ. 

Steve Elzinga  

And so it's like you're starting someplace. And then you have a chorus that could mean one thing or another. And then you sort of move to where does this go? Where is this going up, this is going down. And now the chorus, the same chorus means something slightly different. So you know, eventually you can get your own songs I'm going to suggest again, because a lot of people write songs and words are hard to get start, you know, start with something that already works. People already love some of these. Pick a hymn that people don't sing anymore, yet the words are really good. It's a good way of preserving the those songs. And under their hymn section, we're going to show you how you can sort of, you know, bring the hymns back to life.

Marie Elzinga  

Another note on that we had a friend who was we have a friend who is a songwriter and he tried to write a song a day. Not that he wasn't He's a bit revert. Yeah, yeah. Because he said, this is like any exercise. If you're going to get good at something, you have to work at it. You can't expect yourself to write two songs in your lifetime. And they're both the best thing that ever happened. How is that even possible? That takes practice, it takes work.

Steve Elzinga  

So write about bunch of them, but be willing to not bring them all to your

Marie Elzinga  

interest between you and God.

Steve Elzinga  

Right. So to bring it back to where we started, just because people write a song doesn't mean you have to use it in a worship. I mean, we've never really even used this song I don't think in our church. So you know, writing songs at first just come from your heart as part of your own worship. So so just give it a try and see what happens.