Songwriting 1

**Fenny West** Thu 31 Jul 2008, 9:59 pm

Introduction to Song writing- the why, who, what, when, how, what does it take?

As the title suggests, this is just an introduction to song writing. The ideas espoused here stem primarily on my experience as a singer/ songwriter and worship leader both in the UK and Ireland. It is also based on my intimacy with God who has deemed it fit to equip me with this gifting to use to build up His Body before He reappears. I am therefore not writing as a sage. Songwriting is a vast and intricate subject. I do not think that this work will do justice to it but it can provide a good spring-board for any aspiring songwriter.

What is it?

Songwriting is a craft of writing songs or turning carefully crafted words or poetry into songs. The skills involved in this craft take time to develop.

Who Does the writing?

Few people are gifted with writing the lyrics- words of a song. They then look for some musician to put music to it. It then becomes a song. At other times there is a piece of music that is looking for a lyric that matches it. For instance an instrumentalist could be a good composer of music but bereft of the skills of a lyricist. He/she could collaborate with a lyricist and become a formidable alliance. Even fewer people are gifted with the ability to write good songs- lyrics and music and be able to sing it and make a huge success of it. This is why we have those who are specialists at singing; they have trained their voices very well over year and are able to carry a song to the utmost height. Every songwriter needs such a singer, who can interpret the song and lift it "beyond the veil". There of course some mega stars who can write the song- music and lyrics and can sing and the perform the song with the same degree of virtuoso as the singing specialist. Obviously these are also very few indeed. Often two or more songwriters can collaborate to make a great hit. Examples are Tim Rice and Lord Lloyd Webber in the circular world and Gerald Coates and Noel Richards in the Christian music scene.

Whereas I do not consider myself to be a mega star, by the grace of God I am a singer /songwriter and have written 100s of songs mainly in the Christian/ Gospel genre; many of which are inspired by the Bible. In fact some of them are Scriptures set to music like the Psalms. See Psalms Set To Music or Scriptures in Songs

https://christian-talk.forumotion.com/praise-worship-f25/i-love-you-o-lord-t1958.htm

https://christian-talk.forumotion.com/praise-worship-f25/undivided-heart-t1521.htm

http://www.voicesnet.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Development;action=display;num=1209237948

This is part of a book I have written.