Singing “All I Need” should be easy for everyone. This song centers around the A in the middle of the staff. For me, this gives my voice a very relaxed sound and is easy to sing… However, it is also easy to fall a little flat, so watch out. The great thing about writing melodies in this range is it gives a lot of room for harmonies. Both men and women should be able to find easy to sing harmonies with this song. Feel free to experiment and if you need to adjust the key of the song to give it a brighter feel.
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“All I Need” in your worship service.
“All I Need” is written to fit in the part of the service where the Gospel is the focus. This song really focuses on the idea that all we need is the good news of the Gospel to get through the tough times. I think that this is a message that can really apply to everyone and to every Gospel reading. Just like all the songs on this album; this song is written to focus the congregation on the word of God.
The tempo and instrumentation for this song should help out with this part of the service. Many congregations will be coming out of a praise atmosphere before the get into the Gospel readings. This song is a medium tempo song and will help the congregation transition from the praise mindset to a more Gospel contemplative mindset. Taking your congregation on a journey from praise to Gospel meditation is the sign of an effective service, and this song can help with that.
Think BIG
When getting ready to play “My Praise”… think BIG… then make that a little bigger… and then slow it down. This song is really meant to get a big spacious feel to it. One of the ways this is accomplished is by bringing the tempo of the song way down. So if your drummer has one… you may want to set the click track in their ears, just to keep from rushing.
This song does work well as just an acoustic or piano and vocal song. However, I think the real magic happens when the entire band is playing along. Feel free to let your lead guitarist fill in the spaces with some great impromptu riffs… this song begs for it:) Overall, you want to really feel the entire congregation settle into a big feel when worshiping with this song.
Liturgical content for “My Praise”.
“My Praise” Starts right off with a great verse from Isaiah 41:10 “ So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (NIV). I’m sure you will hear that message in the first verse;) From there we go into the main idea for the song at the chorus. This features scripture from Jeremiah 17:14. Really the chorus is almost a direct lift from Jeremiah and is an absolutely amazing verse to know. This verse is one of my favorite verses to think about if I ever need reassurance.
The song then continues into the 2nd verse; Psalm 20:6 and into a strong bridge, Psalm 18:2. Although I strongly considered changing the words of the bridge… I finally decided to leave the scripture text alone, and trust that God sent us the correct version. Overall this song is full of strong scripture readings that should help to inspire anyone who needs reassurance that God is the one for our praise.
Singing “My Praise”.
Singing “My Praise” should be a fairly easy task for just about anyone… well, as long as you have good breath control. The range of this song is fairly small and doesn’t have many large jumps. With the exception of a short bridge, the melody for the verse and chorus doesn’t go above the C#, so the range of the song should feel relaxed and comfortable.
The only difficulty with this song may be the long notes. The long sustained “A” on the word “Praise” does extend for a little long. So make sure the singers are ready for a little breath control… or you could also speed up the song. Either Way, this song does have a large feel to it.
Unlike some of the previous Moment of Worship albums, the background vocals are not very prevalent on this album. I did manage to get a high harmony on all the songs of this album. However, they are fairly low in the mix. With the song centering around the middle “A”, a high male voice or low female voice should be able to find some great sounding higher harmonies.
Listen to “My Praise” on YouTube.
“My Praise” in your worship service.
In the grand scheme of a worship service there is often a time, right after the gathering songs, where you have a praise song. Now, when I have worked as a worship director this is always where I would try and put a fast uplifting song. So that means, I have a fast gathering song and a fast praise song right next to each other… not very dynamic. With “My Praise” I wanted to go for a praise song that was big, slow, and worshipful… I think I got it.
If you have the type of service where the pastor speaks right after the gathering songs, maybe they give announcements, then “My Praise” can help to facilitate the emotional transition from a spirited gathering song into a set of readings, which often comes after the worship songs in the order of worship. The large feel of the song and long melodies should help to engage your congregation and set a sense of peace. So after the song is over and the congregation sits for the first set of readings, they will hopefully be transitioned into a peaceful mindset instead of trying to come down from the excitement from a loud praise song.
Listen to “My Praise” on YouTube.
Liturgical content for “Draw Near”.
As always, “Draw Near” is full of liturgical content that makes this song a great choice for worship services who want to stick close to scripture. The chorus of the song, and main idea, comes from Psalm 65:4, “Blessed are those you choose, and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.” (NIV). This matches directly with the chorus of the song; “How Blessed have I been Lord, You choose to draw me near, You give me all of your grace and blessing.”
The first verse of “Draw Near” comes from Isaiah 55:6-7, and the second verse comes from James 4:8. Both of these verses discuss how we are cleaned as we draw near the Lord. I think this is a natural progression of salvation for us to go from unclean to clean as we draw near the Lord and become “filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple” Psalm 65:4 (NIV).
Listen to “Draw Near” on YouTube.
“Draw Near” in your worship service.
As you may guess… “Draw Near” is not only the first song on Summer Worship 2016, but it is also written as a gathering song for you worship service. It is meant to have a big and exciting sound, while still being easy to sing. I have found that is can be tricky to find songs that are energetic but still singable by an average congregation. The fast energetic songs are also, often, in a higher register, have too many words, or are just difficult to keep up with… Hopefully this song can help you fill that gap.
“Draw Near” is great for younger congregations or especially youth events. The overall feel of this song really has an all out rock sound to it. Although you are never too old to rock out… The energy of the song will probably lend itself to a younger crowd really well. Additionally, this song would be great for a congregation that will get up and move around. If your congregation is stuck in fixed pews they may not be able to really get into this song. Try to have space available for folks to move around while playing this song. It is certain to inspire some energy with both the congregation and worship band.
Listen to “Draw Near” on YouTube.
Playing “Go Out in this World”.
Although I specifically try to write easy songs to play, I have heard that some drummers have a difficult time figuring out what to do with “Go Out in this World”. I had an idea this may happen when I was recording the parts… but they just sounded so fun. The drum set is a variation on your typical Bossa Nova drum beat. If you’re not sure what that is, look up some Bossa Nova drum beats and get your coffee pot ready for a long night of playing:) I also added a lot of shakers and hand drum parts to give the song a lively feel. However, this song can be played with just drum set and/or just hand drums.
As with the other songs on this album, I played the guitar parts with a capo on the 2nd fret and wrote out the chord charts for non-capo instruments. Hopefully that will make playing this song easy for all chord instruments. Additionally, take a close listen to the bass part… I recommend listening to it, because it is really just a fun octave slide part that doesn’t necessarily follow the chord progressions. I decided to just do octave slides on the “E” with a hold on the “B” at the verses. This was not only really fun to play, but it gave the entire song a great vibe. However, playing the chord progressions on the bass works too.
Go out in this World
Liturgical content for “Go Out in this World”.
As always, these songs are written directly from bible verses. The chorus of this song comes directly from Mark 16:15-16. In actuality, this song is written so we can follow the command of this bible verse. I thought a great way to get folks to follow the bible… is to write a song that is fun and easy to sing!
Other bible verses that I used for the verse parts of the song are Ephesians 2:8 and John 1:12. After writing the chorus I figured, I should justify why we should proclaim God’s name. It is hard to find better reasons to proclaim his name than; receiving perfect love, receiving the gift of grace, and being a child of God. These are some of the greatest gifts we receive from God. If we are going to proclaim Him, then let’s let the world know why God is sooooo great!
Go out in this World