New Music

Sometimes I feel like the way I write music is a little peculiar. I don't sit down and strenuously work out music, like a boxer going 12 rounds with a melody and chords. Some songwriter work that way, battling the music, using their intellect and music knowledge at every turn to ensure that their songs have the best possibly melody and feel and progression and arrangement. 

For me, songwriting is like a an epiphany. It is like this short, excited burst of creativity where melody and chord meet to form a song that I am usually really happy with right away. I generally don't sit down and work on all the intricacies of a song. Maybe that is why I am not an accomplished songwriter.

I'm not saying that I'm lax about it either. During that creative burst, I consider many possibilities, especially lyrically, to figure out how express a certain concept a certain way. Actually, even that isn't always accurate. Sometimes I just write words that fit with the music, to establish a mood, and then figure out what it is actually about later. It can be a pretty mysterious process for me. I am not always sure where it comes from.

Monday I was sitting at my desk in the office, picking the music for the weekend and chording out charts for the weekend, and a song hit me. Within about 30 minutes, a rough version of the song was completed. I went back later and did some lyrical changes and figured out how to arrange the whole thing, but overall, it was complete after the first go. This new song, I realized, is about our expectant excitement for God's new kingdom to come, and the realization that in many ways it is already here in the present tense. In no way did I set out to write about that. I have definitely been thinking about it since Easter, but I didn't say to myself "I should write a song about the present and future kingdom of God."

So in that sense, songwriting is, for me, a mystery. And it is a very fun one that I feel very lucky to be a part of.