Jenni goes to Cambodia

Just letting you all know that Warnbro Worship team’s first full time missionary is leaving us next week. Jenni Robbins is heading off for 6+ months in Cambodia.

Please be in prayer for her and you can follow her adventures on her blog : http://jennirobbins.com/

iPad for Worship

Recently I got an iPad 2, which is a wonderful thing in so many ways but especially useful for the worship musician. Actually all of the stuff I’m talking about isn’t necessarily specific to the church music setting – you could use it just as well in any live music environment.

One of the first things I thought the iPad would be useful for is to display my chord charts. I have a big library of chord/lyric charts in PDF and Word format and so I thought it would be great to display them on my iPad instead of having to print them out each week, with just a simple swipe between songs.

I’ve found an app which does not only that, but so much more. OnSong is a fantastic app for iPad (and iPhone), which allows you to import all your chord charts from PDF, Word, and others. These files can then be sorted into collections (books), weekly set lists, or sorted by artist, key, or topic (once you have your library set up). Your existing files can then be easily displayed in whatever order you want, changing page with just a swipe of a finger (or not… see below). Files can be imported through iTunes software via Wifi, through a ‘cloud’ service like DropBox or MobileMe or there is a search box which can search online for songs. You can also add sticky notes on top of your displayed files for what ever extra notes/reminders you need to write.

So as a program for displaying your files it works a treat, but this software has so much more potential. If you convert your songs to the OnSong format, you will then be able to access a whole raft of very cool features such as transposing the song into whatever key you want, adjusting fonts, sizes, and colours, a clickable chord library, metronome, linking to audio files and much more. You can even add a monitor out to your iPad and use the software to control lyric projection – it will project the words (without chords) on a nice background while still displaying the chords on your iPad. Not sure I want that kind of responsibility controlling the words whilst playing guitar and singing, but it is a very cool feature! I’ve attached a bunch of screenshots I took at the bottom of this post.

The only frustration I have with this software is that the process for converting your PDFs into Onsong file format is a little buggy. It would be great if it worked smoothly every time, but there generally needs to be quite a lot of further editing of the files in order to get them to work. I’m getting the gist of it but it’s still a bit of a slow process. Even so I think it’s worth the effort, and even without the conversion it’s still emminently useable just for displaying my existing PDFs.

Finally I just want to mention something that takes this software from being just very cool to being super awesome. With an AirTurn BT-105 bluetooth page turner and my trusty old Boss FS-6 dual footswitch I now have handsfree control. The two pedals can be used to move back and forwards through my song sheets without having to stop playing my guitar. Brilliant! I’ve posted a photo below from their website below which is pretty similar to my setup.

If you’re a musician with an iPad already then you owe it to yourself to check out this inexpensive software. If you’re a musician without an iPad, well it’s one more reason to think about getting one… (I’ll mention some of the other cool music apps I’ve got sometime soon.)

Finally, here’s a YouTube video I found which demonstrates a few features of the software :

Search My Heart

Here’s a new song we will be previewing before the service this Sunday :

This is from the new studio album from Hillsong United – Aftermath.

Haven’t got time to do a full review but I think this is one of the better albums to come out of Hillsong in recent years. In general it has a slower, at times more ambient, feel than a lot of their other stuff. And this is a good thing. Lyrics are creative, Biblical, and inspiring. The instrumentation is fantastic – some great guitar sounds in there for those who have ears to hear I’d love to know what gear their guitarist is using (? Strymon El Capistan?). Anyway, this is definitely an album worth getting hold of and one whose appeal grows with each subsequent listen. Certainly at least 2 or 3 tracks here that are potential for doing in church. Top stuff.

Sing a New Song

Here’s a quote from a great article on worship music on the excellent blog of  Daniel Kirk from Fuller Seminary :

I also believe that when the Psalmist says he will “sing a new song,” he is not actually asking the people of God for the next 4- or 5,000 years to sing his new song–old song that it is to us.

In fact, I would argue that what we see in scripture is that new song is exactly what we should expect any time that God is at work in the world. Yes, Koessler is correct: worship begins with God. But the worship we sing is, as often as not, about how that God in heaven has intersected tangibly with the world down here. Worship is not about the God who remains afar off in the heavens, it’s about the God who has, or should have, acted here on earth for the good of God’s people and all humanity.

Put differently, a church with no new songs to sing is a church where God is not at work.

A culture that cannot express its encounter with God in its own idiom is a culture where the gospel has not taken root.

And, if we’re not careful, an insistence of the singing of only the old songs might become a convenient theological cover for the reality that our own lives need a fresh visitation, that our eyes need a new vision, of the Kingdom of God come near.

 

Tips and Things About Worship

One of my favourite worship leaders on the net is Vicky Beeching, from the UK. Coincidentally we are doing one of her songs in church tomorrow. She has an excellent blog which is well worth following. Here’s a couple of recent posts which I have found full of valuable wisdom :

• 10 Things I wish I’d known when I started leading worship
• Top Tips about creating a set list for worship
• 12 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Songwriting

And Vicky plays a Gretsch White Falcon guitar, so you know right away she is at the cutting edge of contemporvant worship (has anyone noticed how many worship guitarists have Gretschs?? and I’d be one of then if I could afford it – lol)

In the midst of those posts I discovered this hilarious, cutting video. It’s all about ‘growtivation’

Worship Cafe

Just a reminder to all Worship team members that we have a worship team gathering tonight 23rd November in the church cafe at 7:30pm. Hope to see you there!

Hillsong Chapel – Yahweh

Over the last week I’ve been listening to the newest release from Hillsong in Sydney – Yahweh.

This is the first album they’ve recorded in their chapel, and it’s a more organic acoustic sounding live recording of some of their most well known songs. Never fear though guitar lovers, there’s still healthy doses of sweet electric guitar in there, dripping with delay (I couldn’t concentrate on the book I was reading whilst listening to “You Hold Me Now” – found myself getting lost in those guitar sounds…)

In general I love the arrangements on this album. Very open, with moments of loud congregational singing and free worship. Some of the standout tracks are Hosanna, The Time Has Come (especially the free ending), Saviour King, This is Our God, and You Hold Me Now. The album closes on Salvation is Here, which works surprisingly well as an acoustic number (minus the complicated bass riff) – I’d really like to try this one sometime.

Anyway Yahweh is a great CD and I’d encourage you to check it out. Look forward to seeing more sessions come out of the Hillsong Chapel in the future.

Here’s a video clip of the title track, which gives a good taste of the feel of the album…

Best of 2010

Last night I was in iTunes creating a playlist of all the new songs we’ve introduced to Warnbro Church in 2010. It has been a great year for our team with more new songs than ever before. We’ve also drawn in music from more diverse sources instead of relying as much on Hillsong (although we have done a couple of songs from their latest album). Perhaps appropriately since our new Pastor is coming from there (really soon we hope), we’ve drawn more from some of the best stuff out of the USA, including Jesus Culture and Misty Edwards from IHOP.

I’d love to burn a CD of this playlist for the whole church but I doubt that’s legit (would be a great way to get everyone to know all of the songs though!) so I’ll just list them here and you can create your own playlist if you like.

2010 has been a great year – God has really been moving in our church, but I believe it’s only a small taste of what He has in store for us in 2011!

• Holding Nothing Back – Jesus Culture
• You Won’t Relent – Misty Edwards / Jesus Culture
• Forever Reign – Hillsong
• Awakening – Chris Tomlin
• Your Love Never Fails – Jesus Culture
• Light of Your Face – Misty Edwards
• The Power of Your Name – Lincoln Brewster
• Like Incense – Hillsong
• Won’t Stay Silent – Compassionart
• Revelation Song – Jesus Culture / Kari Jobe (coming November 2010!)
• Oh Lord You’re Beautiful – Jesus Culture / Keith Green
• None But Jesus – Hillsong United

The last 2 on the list are older songs that I can’t remember if we’ve done or not so that’s why they made the list.

Light of Your Face

Here’s the new song we are doing this week.

We jammed it out for the first time at the Worship/Prayer meeting last night.

The song is by Misty Edwards, who is one of the worship leaders at IHOP in Kansas. Check out their 24/7 Prayer Room webcast.

Youth Worship

Just some ill-defined thoughts and fishing for ideas here… what do you think is the essence of youth worship? Or what elements/style of worship most appeal to younger generations between 15 and 45??

I don’t think it’s necessarily high tempo or high energy music (although I enjoy that and think there is a place for it, especially as an introduction or in times of celebration)

I don’t think it’s necessarily being true to the most up-to-date music genres (although that is an important consideration and extremely dated music styles are very bad). I think there’s a place for current music – hip-hop, R&B, metal whatever (especially at the younger end of the spectrum) but I don’t think that’s the essence of what youth are after..

I’ve noticed in listening to “youth” oriented worship albums over the past few years that there actually seems to be a majority of slower, reflective, emotional songs (for example compare any year’s Hillsong United CD with the main Hillsong live album – there’s usually more up tempo songs on the non-youth one, or it feels that way to me.  Same is true of Jesus Culture)…

Could it be this is what appeals to younger Christians – more emotional reflective songs with space and freedom to express ourselves to God? The challenge is to tap into this vibe but still singing songs which with the solid theological content of the great songs of yesteryear… I believe many of the current crop of youth worship songs are doing this, with verses drawn straight out of scripture.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this subject??

Old School Worship

This week we’re stripping it back a little and doing some old school worship songs.
This one’s a classic from Keith Green that people who remember church in the 80s might be familiar with… but we’re doing the Jesus Culture arrangement so as to retain a little bit of 21st century cred

Enjoy…

If you liked that you might also like the other classic 90′s worship anthem we’re bringing back… so make sure you’re at Warnbro on Sunday!

Call to worship

Image via Wikipedia

Psalm 95:1-7 (NLT)

Come, let us sing to the LORD!

Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come before him with thanksgiving.

Let us sing him psalms of praise.

For the LORD is a great God,

the great King above all gods.

He owns the depths of the earth,

and even the mightiest mountains are his.

The sea belongs to him, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land, too. 

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,

for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. 

Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!

You Won’t Relent Background

This is the new song we are introducing on Sunday. It’s from Jesus Culture, off their Your Love Never Fails album. I’m just watching the DVD of it as I type this. It’s much better on the big screen, but you’ll have to make do with the YouTube clip :

As first glance the lyrics may seem a bit unusual, compared to many of the praise songs we do. I’d encourage you to check out this link, where Brian Lusky discusses the theology behind the lyrics. Well worth reading.

FYI, the bible passage this song is drawn from is Song of Solomon 8:6-7 :

⁶ Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one’s house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

You Won’t Relent

Another great song from Jesus Culture – You Won’t Relent.

Here’s their version of it :

And here’s my version of the main guitar riff, which is repeated throughout virtually the whole song.

Below is a brief tab of what I’m playing there. Chords are C#m, A, E, F#m for pretty much the whole song – chart with lyrics is on the chord charts page. Sounds better if you let the bass notes ring out. Played with a light distortion and volume down up bit so you can crank it as the song progresses. Also a quarter note analog delay (of course)…

————————| ———————–| ———————-| —————0—-|

———-4-5-4——–| ———————–| ———————-| ————0——-|

——–6———6-4–| ——–2–4–6——-| ———————-| ——–2———–|

—–6——————| —–2—————-| ——-6—4—-2—-| ———————|
–4———————| –0——————-| —-2—————–| —–4————–|
————————| ———————–| -0——-0—-0—0-| –2—————–|

Worship Chicks

Here’s one for all the ladies out there : worshipchicks.com. To quote their blurb :

WorshipChicks is a forum for conversation and growth among worship-leading women (and their allies).

Definitely worth checking out – there’s a ton of good advice on there … and some of it might even be useful for boys as well I guess we might be the “allies”

Hillsong on YouTube

A useful link here to the Hillsong Worship team’s YouTube channel, with heaps of video tutorials on many of their songs (just a shame there’s no tab on the guitar vids, as it’s not always easy to work out what he’s playing..)

Check it out here

Awakening

Cool new song from Chris Tomlin we will be doing soon…

Chord charts

Just to let everyone know that more files have been added to the chord charts section of this site.

Just click the link above to take you there….

Paul

Welcome 2010

I know it’s been 2010 for a month now, but everyone knows January doesn’t count – Feb is when school and uni and ministries start up again in earnest. Jan is time for holidays, watching the cricket, lazing on the beach, recharging our batteries for the year ahead…

More than any year this promises to be a year of the unknown – who knows where God is going to take us all? Regardless I’m trusting that God has a plan, and we could be in for an exciting ride…?

Our revamped team structure kicks in as of next Sunday, so expect to hear from your team leaders in the next few days. We still do have a few people taking time out from the ministry for various reason, so keep everyone in your prayers.

We have a bunch of new songs lined up to introduce this year. Tuesday practices will mostly focus on these, with a quicker run through of older stuff if necessary. As time goes on we’re hoping to get more and more songs onto the Chord Charts section of this page, so you can always have access to the music. Also check the YouTube section or search in YouTube itself if you don’t have access to CDs or MP3s of the songs to listen to.

One of the key songs for our team this year we will be introducing in the next few weeks – Lincoln Brewster’s The Power of Your Name. I’ve added the chords/lyrics to the Charts page. And if you haven’t heard it before, the video below has the music. This song has some of the best lyrics ever, and hopefully will impact our church in a powerful way… try and get familiar with it so we can get off to a flying start when we play it in the next couple of weeks…

All Because of You

Cool Norwegian worship song