How to Make Praise and Worship Music More Creative

7 min read

01 May

Introduction

“In the beginning, God created…” everything. In my blog “Inside a Great Arrangement”, I discussed how God created the musical scale by way of the overtone series. If you read in Genesis 4:21, you’ll see that Jubal either invented or was guided by God to devise stringed instruments and reed and/or pipe (flute-like) instruments. As you read through the psalms, you’ll find that David wrote many of them to be played on differently styled or tuned string instruments. He also used wind instruments, reed, pipe, and trumpet type.

The trumpet was more than just a ram’s horn. Yes, there were the commonly recognizable ram’s horns, but the trumpets that Moses and David used were about 18” long, and made of silver or other metal (Numbers 10:2; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 3.12.6). For a musician like David, a random note played on a ram’s horn wouldn’t work at all.

There were also drums and cymbals. The drums were often called timbrels and were small, hand-held instruments. Some had jingles like a modern tambourine and others were just single-headed drums. Cymbals could be brass bowls with handles that were clapped together or flatter versions more like modern cymbals.

There were, of course, stringed instruments, often referred to as psaltery, harp and/or lyre. The exact shape and sound are hard to determine. In fact, one of the stringed instruments may have actually been bagpipes. It was named after its gourd shape and is most often translated as lute or something similar.

The singers and musicians that attended the tabernacle in the desert and the temple in Jerusalem were accomplished musicians; we know that because that was their ONLY job. They didn’t show up Saturday morning and run through a fake chart a couple times.

History of Church Music

First, I’m going to lump together any contemporary praise and worship music (new or old), traditional church music, and some Biblical references to praise music. The reason is that the purpose of music in the church is twofold, to exalt God and to express our love for Him.

Second, this isn’t going to be a detailed, chronological account; I will be selecting some highlights to help you to make praise and worship music more creative.

Let’s start with Moses’ song after the Red Sea crossing. There’s a good chance that is was a call-and-response song, because it says in Exodus 15:1-19, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying:…”. In fact, it may have been that Moses called out a line and the people repeated it with no melody. A call-and-response rap song! (The term “rap” was used since the early 1900s to mean “to talk” and was applied to music only in the 1970s.)

Miriam’s song and dance (Exodus 15:20, 21) included timbrels, those hand-held drums, some with jingles. That tells us that the song was rhythmic and not slow. Somber songs don’t usually have rhythm instruments as accompaniment. It was, most probably, a single, short melodic line, so it was easy to learn.

That hymn that the Apostles sang probably was also a single line, possibly a call-and-response style. There were no recorded timbrels, so it was likely slower.

Let’s jump ahead a few hundred years. Single line melodies ruled for all that time, especially in western music.

Bagpipes and certain stringed instruments, like a lap dulcimer, have drone pipes or strings. They are tuned to certain notes and are sounded as a background to the melody. To hear samples of drones, listen to Scotland the Brave on bagpipes and Soldier’s Joy on a dulcimer.

These instruments are still popular in places, but some church musicians wanted to make their praise and worship music more creative. String and pipe drones couldn’t change, but human voices could. A type of singing called organum, after the sound that early organs made (4^th century A.D.). The droning changed “chords” to better accompany the ever more complicated melodies, although the concept of chords was still a couple centuries away. Here are a couple samples: Alleluia and Sederunt Principes.

Then came a method of writing called polyphony in which there were more than one melody being sung or played at the same time. As that style progressed, “accidental” chords were forming. Listen to one of my favorites, Sicut Cervus (As the deer pants for the waters…)

Now, remember, chords weren’t the driving force of the music. For more than 3,000 years, the melody, or combination of melodies, was the bedrock of music.

If you were to study hymns and contemporary praise music written even as late as the 1970s, you would find a wide variety of chord structures that followed and supported the melody. Even a lot of pop music was rich with melodies and counter-melodies. Lyrical examples include Scarborough Fair and Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is? (especially toward the end). Many others had instrumental counter-melodies. (So, why am I citing secular music? Because there’s no Christian music that I know of that shows what I’m talking about.)

Application

So, you ask, what does this all have to do with making praise and worship music more creative? Everything. The first paragraph in this blog revealed how God is creative. Of all the things we offer to God, our communication with Him should be our best. The examples I’ve given are extremely diverse. So, here are a few ways to make praise and worship music more creative.

Stay away from YouTube. And any other popular platforms where you see how other people make their music. They have done the most to contribute to the deterioration of music being offered to God.
Study music. You, and everyone in your praise band, should know how to read notes, time and key signatures. Yes, even guitar players. Everyone should know what notes make up which chords. That would: 1. Improve a guitarists chord playing (some of the “chords” I’ve seen being played should be played only for color, not as standard). It would also help them choose positions that promote the movement of the chord progression. 2.Improve a vocalist’s ability to sing a song the way that the composer actually intended it to sound like, harmonize well (especially if there could be more than two parts or someone wants to add that “jazzy” color note.) 3. Enable a keyboardist to play appropriate inversions, chord alterations, and arpeggios. 4. Enable a bass guitarist to play appropriate arpeggios (broken chords) and passing tones.
Practice. Practice and rehearsal are two different things. Professional musicians practice at home, improving what they know, learning new things and making sure that they know their parts perfectly. Then, they get together and rehearse, making sure that the parts go together well and that it sounds the way the leader wants it to.
Widen your view of what instruments make up a praise team. There is one church in my area whose praise team consists of guitars, keyboard, accordion, ukulele, pan pipes, tambourine, drums and, of course, vocalists. Look around your congregation. Who plays a horn, violin or cello, harmonica, accordion, ukulele, pan pipes or tambourine? No, you won’t be able to use all of them all of the time. And, for sure, you won’t sound like any of the popular praise bands. But, why would you want to? God is looking for people to reflect His creativity.
Related to #3 - Widen your view of how the instruments are used. Not everyone has to sing the melody, so not everyone has to play the same rhythm or melody. Use some of the newly discovered instruments for filling in the spaces with phrases that emphasize the melody and/or chord progression of the song.
Although the words are important, and the easiest way for a congregation to join in worship, I believe that it’s important to Allow the instruments to offer their own praise, either as a special offering with no singing or as a purely instrumental version of a verse or chorus. J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel were pioneers in church music in the 18^th century. Among their contributions was the discovery and use of chords. If you listen closely to some of their work, there are what sound like jazz chords. A large part of their church music was all instrumental, allowing the instrumentalists to offer their praise. A practice is a lot of more liturgical traditions is the inclusion of an instrumental interlude just before the last verse of a hymn. This is the organist’s, and other instrumentalists, offering. It also often included a key change to add more power and beauty. I’ve heard some interludes that would take your breath away.
This may be the hardest – Try to break the style headlock. First two definitions:
Music, technically is organized sound. That’s why rap and drum circles are called music.
Art, including music, has two basic parts – power and beauty. There are a bunch of in-depth studies and articles and books on art, but it come down to power and beauty. It can also be said to be composed of tension and release.

If we are to be offering our best to the infinitely creative God, the music we offer should be art. If music is all emotional (beauty) with no power, then it’s a song, but not art. And vice versa. Switch up the styles you use. You could do Gregorian chant, country gospel or ramp up a traditional hymn with a horn section or guitar solo. (My favorite example is from Handel’s Young Messiah. Go to time mark 37:30. The electric guitar player is playing the violin part, with a few carefully chosen embellishments).

“In the beginning, God created…” everything. And we were made in the image of God. Let’s not insult Him with half-hearted efforts, but rather let us make our musical offerings reflect the gifts God has given us.

And, of Course, if you need help with some of this, I’m available.

Creative Praise and Worship Praise and Worship Church Music

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