by Shalon McGaffinBut how do you keep those older songs…well, not so old? How do you keep the youth connected to the hymns?  How do you breathe new life into songs? Even if you have been singing a song for 10 years (or a hundred years such as the case may be), how do you keep it fresh and relevant to today?

New praise and worship songs are great – the Bible clearly exhorts us to sing a new song to God! But sometimes I find there are those ‘golden oldies’ that always hit the mark!  For instance, I have yet to see our Church not sing more exuberantly and not raise their hands in worship anytime we hit the chorus of ‘Shout to Lord’.

I am a fan of ‘reworking’ the ‘oldies but the goodies’.  That might mean adjusting the chord changes or maybe writing an additional bridge or adding a chorus. I have found that doing this breathes new life into older songs helping to connect  generations as well.

One way to breathe new life into the older songs is by adjusting the chord changes.  Note that you want to be very careful when doing this; you don’t want to change every chord of the song and you want to be sure to choose the right chords.  But simply replacing one or two chords with different ones could be that little something will be added to breathe new life into the song.

 

Relatives

I highly recommend getting at least some basic music theory under your belt.  You’ll be surprised how useful a tool it can be for you. In music every Major chord has a relative minor (a minor third below)…and likewise, every minor chord has a relative Major (a minor 3^rd above).  These are very useful for this purpose of breathing new life into songs. 

Three semi-tones (or half-steps) below C is A, which means they are relatives. So therefore, a C Major chord has a relative minor of A minor (and vice versa). Try out a song and replace the C Major chords with A minor chords. Your ear (and the ears of people whose musical opinion you trust) will play a vital role as well.  Sometimes it just doesn’t sound good, but if it does sound good in certain places, try it out next time you sing the song at church.

  

Substitutions and Extensions

Again, a music theory course will open your eyes to new and another tool is chord substitutions.  One example of an easy chord substitution I’ve learned is using your bVII chord to replace your V (dominant) chord.

The dominant chord (the V chord) in C Major is G major (the fifth note of the major scale), and the flat 7 chord is Bb major (which is not typically used in western harmonies in typical praise & worship songs).  But in the key of C, if we try replacing a G major chord with a Bb major chord, it opens up new possibilities.

Chord extensions (adding 7ths 9ths, 11ths, 13ths… on top of your triad) are another great way to add rich flavours to your chords. 

Here’s an example of a song with some new chord changes. (We’ll stay in the key of C Major for the sake of example.) Just remember, sometimes it works great, other times…not so much.  Just use your ear and your theory knowledge to add new sounds and breathe new life into songs.

 

 Angels We Have Heard On High

Edward Shippen Barnes | James Chadwick © Public Domain CCLI Song #27721

 

A Traditional Version

 

C                          G            C

Angels we have heard on high

C                            G              C

Sweetly singing o’er the plains

C                               G     C

And the mountains in reply

C                           G               C

Echo back their joyous strains

 

C      Am       F      G        C      F      G    

Glo——————————————–ria

C                C/G   G

In excelsis    De – o

C      Am       F      G        C      F      G    

Glo——————————————–ria

C                C/G  G     C

In excelsis  De    —    o

 

 

 

A New Arrangement using relative minors and chord substitutions (…played in a rock feel perhaps

 

C                          Bb          Am

Angels we have heard on high

Am                         Bb            C

Sweetly singing o’er the plains

C                               Bb    Am

And the mountains in reply

Am                       Bb              C

Echo back their joyous strains

 

C      Am       F      G       Am     Dm    G    

Glo———————————————-ria

Am               Bb  

In excelsis    De – o

C      Am       F      G        Am     Dm    G    

Glo———————————————-ria

Am             Bb           C

In excelsis  De    —    o

Tags: praise and worship, Theory, Worship Ministry

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Worship Ministry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.