I remember in high school I attended my first songwriters showcase at a local restaurant near where I lived. I went, typed lyrics in hand not knowing what to expect. I played my song, a crowd of strangers listened and then they offered their feedback. It was a good experience for me to take a song that I had written and to put it out in the world for others to listen to and give feedback.
I am still writing songs on a regular basis. I recently began to think about ways to host a songwriters showcase for worship leaders writing songs. I wondered if there was a way that we could get together and play our songs for each other, offer suggestions, and help. There really is not one real location that we could all meet on a regular basis, so what about online?
So here is how it works.
1. Write a song
2. Record yourself, video or audio, singing the song with whatever accompaniment you like.
3. Upload a video, or audio file your song to your blog. (Or video hosting site like Youtube or Vimeo)
4. In your blog or in the video notes add a link to this page, not this site.
5. Leave a link to your page in the comment of this post.
6. View and listen to others songs, and add comments
I hope that this will offer a great chance for some connection between songwriters, a chance for some genuine feed back, and a way to get your song out there. What do you think?
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Jason- Thanks for being the first entry other than myself. I like the song. Thanks for sharing.!
This is demo of “Forever Faithful,” a new tune I finally finished. I’ve yet to use yet during worship. I actually would like to right a hooky, lead line to play during the progression at the end of each chorus. Normally, I just sing the “forever faithful” line over that outro, but I left space in the demo so I could riff over it and find something I like.
I enjoyed writing this one…can’t wait to use in congregational worship.
I used to write quite a bit.. I’m not a disciplined writer.. don’t have time with a full time job in the freight business but this word “respond” just kept ringing in my head.. we have to respond to God’s love..not just accept it or even just talk about it..we’ve got to move and live and breath it.. I know this is a very raw home video but I like the song.. I’ve got to get more of the old stuff that friends and I wrote years ago and share those too..hopefully will have a better video of that… I welcome feedback. I think my church will “respond” to it..sorry.. I couldn’t help it…
Todd, I really like the song! The transition of the end of the verse into the chorus . . . nice! Did you develop the words out of a bible study, or what scriptures did you develop this out of?
Blessings!
Jason
Also, are we going to post chords and lyrics for us to look at?
Jason
Jason, I would encourage everyone to share as much as they feel comfortable with. Posting the lyrics would be nice. I would be glad to send you any of the chord charts for my songs.
For this particular tune, I didn’t draw from any specific study or particular scripture. While these things are evidenced all through scripture (and borne out in the life of a believer,) and I didn’t really look for some textual to kick it off.
For song, I was trying to do something sort of old/new. I like writing songs that sound like hymns…there are lots of folks doing that, now, and so many of them are so good…I really enjoy writing them myself.
My original idea was to write a song that would consistently say “Forever faithful and sure.” I wanted that to be the end of every line. A songwriter pal of mine suggested that I not be quite so tied to that idea and focus more on the ‘FAITHFUL’ than on the second words. So, from that point, my thought was to think of description words that support “faithful” and didn’t cause the song to stray thematically.
I had 2 verses and a chorus. Another pal of mine helped me w/ a phrasing problem in the chorus and a few weeks later I did the third verse and bridge. (I hate third verses. And bridges. They’re so hard to do well!)
I’ll be happy to make charts available. Let me post it somewhere and I throw the URL up here, if that’s okay.
I need to write another worship song real soon…
[...] favorites that has become favorites for others too. This is actually my first entry on the “Online Songwriters Showcase” I’d love [...]
[...] Blog. Have a song you’ve written and would like feedback or input? Share it on the Online Songwriter’s Showcase. Last week we had 4 entries.. check them out and leave your [...]