Melody

A while ago we attended a wonderful night of worship at the Sydney Opera House led by Keith & Kristyn Getty and their guests CityAlight. And the CityAlight singers came on with just acoustic guitar and piano, and we sang Yet not I but through Christ in me. It might as well have been a capella because the instruments were so minimal. And the experience of thousands of people singing together, this wonderful marriage of truth and melody, I can only describe it as profound.

Zephaniah 3 tells us we have a God who rejoicing over us with singing. There are over 400 references to singing in the Bible, with at least 50 where we are directly commanded to be a singing Church. 

We sing truth set to melody. And because we are writing for people to sing together, our melodies need to be accessible and memorable.

CityAlight make a point of writing a melody that is strong enough to be carried by a small church with one or two instruments. A lot of churches do have great musicians and sophisticated lineups, but if you’re a smaller church where you just have piano or acoustic guitar, when you take away all the riffs and band arrangements, does the song still hold up?

In a way, it’s kind of a blessing to be a songwriter in a smaller church, because if your song works really well with just voices and one instrument, it’ll probably work well anywhere!

Keith Getty, the writer of the incredible melody of 'In Christ Alone', makes the point that a song with a great lyric and a great melody is going to go a lot of places; a song with a great lyric and a not-great melody is not going to go very far at all.

What makes a melody great? It’s hard to define but think of the praise song ‘Praise’ and the joy of everyone singing out that chorus together. Consider the shape or the journey of the melody of Amazing grace. Think of the soaring in the chorus of How great Thou art. Think of the ‘security’ of Yet not I where each verse you come back to ‘To this I hold’ – it’s a launchpad for a declaration. Think of the robust majesty of ‘In Christ Alone’, equally matched in both lyric and melody. Spend some time looking at great songs and ask, why is this great?

How can we develop our melody-writing chops? As an exercise, you could take the lyric of an old hymn or song, and try and write a new tune. And then write a new lyric to your melody. Just as we talked about sitting down and thinking of song titles, sit down and try and write many, many melodies.

Do you always lean towards the same intervals? Try mixing it up, do things you don’t normally do.

While not a worship writer, apparently Paul McCartney would write unique basslines and then write melodies over the top. That’s an interesting approach.

One thing we must talk about is the range of the melody you’re asking people to sing. Basically think A below middle C, to D. Aim for a range that works for everyone. It’s usually about an octave or just over. A song with a wider range enforces a much more limited number of keys you can play it in.

Male songwriters, please consider the female singers in the room. If you set your song in a particular key and then you want to jump the octave in the bridge or the chorus, know that while you head into the stratosphere, all the women in the room are going to go down the octave. So what is intended to be the soaring moment of the song is greatly diminished for us. Whereas, with thought and pastoral consideration for the whole congregation, a great melody in the right key will be a soaring moment for everyone.

Jonas Myrin says that we’re looking for something inspired, something that makes people want to sing. After one chorus, you want to sing along.

There is such joy in the Church singing together. Keith & Kristyn Getty write, “We know that sense of throwing your head back … to sing a great hymn with every ounce of your being, and the feeling of losing interest in a mediocre one. That is why for a songwriter, it’s striving day after day for months (or years) to compose that one melodic idea that is fresh, compelling, and might touch another person’s soul.”

Let’s take time to dig deep, prayerfully and worshipfully, as we seek God for new songs for the Church to sing.