I would like to welcome you to my current progress in my final recital; the foundations of 8 pieces and as this is my final recital before I step into the 'real world' I wanted to stay within the boundaries of Contemporary Christian Music(CCM). There seems to be a great misconception with CCM that is is all simple, similar sounding and even that it happens to copy Pop music (see meme below). Much of this can be attributed to the unique circumstances of CCM, predominantly it's importance not as a solo piece of performance media but a tool to aid people in worship, as well as other things; A concept I am studying in my Honours Dissertation this year. While I don't think this to be true, as my reference pieces will hopefully show you, I still am hoping to test the boundaries of different elements within Christian Music while also playing at my own creativity and personal sound.

 

The main area I wish to focus on in is Worship, characteristically defined as solemn or passionate songs designed to aid in a persons personal connection and worship with God, often very lyrically driven and emotionally driven and/or hymnal. Although I also want to prove that not one emotion or sound should be used for worship music.

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Typically in a church setting, as stated before, there is a desire for the music to be as least distracting as possible while still evoking deep emotion, this can be hard to balance, but by streamlining the setlist, wisely choosing, and adapting the songs and the performance something amazing can happen, and that's something I wish to attempt in this project. As Worship teams are often picking and choosing songs, I have opted to write my pieces as I originally planned, then adapt them to all flow together for my final recital. Some wonderful examples of albums in particular that flow well include the recently released Paradoxology by Elevation Worship and one of my personal favourite albums We Will Not Be Shaken by Bethel Music.

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Each of these pieces I created differently in an attempt to test what methods worked best for me, as well as just having to adapt my composition technique due to unique circumstances or roadblocks. Personally I find lyric writing and melody composition the easiest and most enjoyable aspects of composition (especially as I am not well acquainted with multi-note instruments) and have difficulty creating chord progressions that match what I envision, and sound good with my melody, so I tend to write the lyrics first with a melody in mind, create a chord progression over time and then rework the melody, and sometimes lyrics, to suite the final concept. However, in a video featuring Worship leader and composer Jeremy Riddle, he said that the lyrics and melody should always be the most important part of the song and while I agree, it also leaves me conflicted wondering if my preferred process jeopardises that. Another thing that I think can be conflicting if not approached correctly is a composition method I have adopted wherein I simply record myself singing 'free worship' over another worship song, or even just singing freely over a tune with a similar concept or chords that I like.

 

Something you may notice as we progress through the pieces is the value and importance of the lyrics and that they all revolve around similar concepts. Indeed as the central focus of the christian faith is having God at the centre and being able to put aside performance and emotional response, so too does musical worship mean sacrificing personal agenda and the pursuit of musical creativity and exploration in some spheres. That is not to say I haven't tried to make beautiful and new music, but in the context of worship and the church, music is a tool used to bring the congregation closer to God, to provide an outlet for us to express to God what we may not be able to put into words.

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Practically this means I am thinking about the congregation , the church, their musical capabilities and role as a participating audience as well as how the worship music supports the aims of the greater church. Spiritually it also means knowing what I want to express, what I think God is speaking to me about and what the people listening need to hear.

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With regards to my band, even that brought with it a unique set of challenges. As I wanted this to be an authentic worship set that captured the true emotion and spiritual intent behind the pieces, I recruited members of my church to perform my recital. Like most ministries within the church, the vast majority of the worship team is consistent of volunteers, meaning each individual's level of skill and knowledge of music vastly varies and as such the approach to teaching and implementing worship music is also very different.

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I found that much of the time I was both overestimating and underestimating each individual's capabilities in different areas. For example, the original sample audio I gave to my performers was MIDI audio of my sibelius scores. While this may have been fine for my musicians, my vocalist admitted that she could not read sheet music and although I gave her a score, the lyrics and melody, as there was a large disconnect between each of these resources for her because simply put, this wasn't a skill she needed in the context of vocal worshipping historically. In the worship team, people are provided with the full recordings of songs to learn from and memorise. 

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