How To Write A Christian Song When You Feel Like It
Imagine this:
You wake up to a call from the choirmaster of your church asking you to avail the church with a Christian song since everyone knows you as a songwriter.
Here is the problem:
You really don’t know how to write a Christian song, at least just yet.
Continue reading this post to learn how to write a worship song, how to write a Christian song, as well as how to write a gospel song.
Does this look like the answers you are hunting for?
Before we get started on the how-to, let’s establish…
What Makes A Christian Song?
At the core of Christian songs is a message that exemplifies personal religious experiences and stresses the importance of salvation.
It is a song that essentially preaches Christianity’s faith and beliefs. We can further classify Christian songs into the following genre;
- Praise and worship
- Hymn
- Gospel
- Christian hip hop
- Christian rock, among others.
If you have always wondered what difference exists between gospel, worship, and Christian songs. By now, you ought to have a better understanding.
Both worship and gospel songs are a subgenre of Christian music.
Since they all belong to the same bracket, learning how to write a gospel song is not essentially different from how to write a worship song and how to write a Christian song.
Thus, I will use all three terms interchangeably in this article. Don’t fret, they all refer to the same thing.
Have you got that, right?
Now;
Let’s proceed to the meat of the matter.
Revealing How Any Beginner Can Write A Christain Song With Ease
What’s the central theme of your song?
What you have to decide before writing the lyrics is the theme of your song. This requires brainstorming ideas. To make this stage easier, you can consult the following sources for ideas;
- Read your bible
- Listen to the preachings of your spiritual leader
- Explore personal experiences or others.
- Look at your relationships.
- Let your imagination wander.
These suggestions would help you discover the theme of your song. Once you figure out this part of the process, writing a good worship song that your audience would resonate with gets relatively easier.
Maintain a healthy spiritual life
If you are writing a song bordering on Christianity, you need to be in constant communication with God. You can’t write a pleasant gospel song if you are not intimate with God, or so I think.
Read your Bible regularly, listen to the preachings of your pastor, engage in discussions that feed your understanding of matters in Christianity.
Have you read the Songs of Solomon? Or the Book of Psalms? They are significant parts of the bible to source inspiration.
Listen to your favorite gospel songs
Writing a Christian song may seem overwhelming for those who are just starting out in this genre. You may struggle with song structure, the demonstration of the message of the song, among many others.
Therefore, it helps to listen to the songs of others in this niche. Take notes as you listen to their songs and deconstruct the songs to the best of your knowledge.
Examples of gospel songs that can inspire your songwriting are as follows;
- Good Good Father – Chris Tomlin.
- Good Grace – Hillsong United.
- Forever – Kari Jobe.
- 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) – Matt Redman.
- Reckless Love – Cory Asbury.
- Hosanna – Hillsong Worship
Write the song
The following cues would be of great help to you when writing the worship song.
- Avoid Cliches
- Irresistibly melodious chorus
- Sing from the heart
- Structure the song
- Edit and edit
Avoid cliches
Outstanding Christian songs contain powerful lyrics. Not only are these words powerful, but they pull the attention of the audience uniquely. For instance, Kari Jobe’s Forever songs contain words, such as “The Son of God was laid in darkness, A battle in the grave, The war on death was waged.”
Cliches such as “Jesus, you love me”, among others, have long passed their shelf lives and are considered meaningless.
So, run away as far as possible from those overused words.
Catchy hooks
Improve the quality of your song by crafting an interesting and infectious hook that your audience would find quite easy to sing.
Unless your song sticks to the mind of your audience, you may find it difficult to traverse the trap of oblivion as a newbie songwriter of Christian songs.
The hook is the most repeated part of any song, and it is the part of the song that usually births the title of the song. So make it singable, memorable, and catchy to keep your audience hooked to your song.
Sing from your heart
I recently published a post on how you can write a song from the heart, you should find time to read it for a better understanding of this concept.
Songs that are written from the heart show depth and connect with the audience in an honest way. Listeners find resonance in such songs and they are more likely to become their personal hymns.
Structure your song
Decide on the sequence you want the listener to go through as they listen to your songs. Know that there is no right or wrong way for structuring your song.
The most common song structure is Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus. Nonetheless, you are free to choose a structure that differs from the established norm in the industry. The upside to using a common song structure is how it creates a sense of familiarity when people hear your song for the first time.
Edit
Great songwriters take a disciplined approach to songwriting. Frustrations of edits, re-edits, re-writings, and a never-ending cycle of improvements pave this approach.
Let’s face it;
It’s boring to read the same words over and over, right?
Through constant evaluation, you would get the insight necessary to make your songs into fantastic pieces of writing.
Useful Tips On How To Write A Worship Song
- Demonstrate the song with your body language.
- Find your muse. There are different songwriting processes, there is no right or wrong way to it. Decide on what’s most convenient for you.
- You can record your songs at any time. Once you find inspiration, act on it immediately.
- Be open to collaborating with other songwriters. Your writing would improve by taking cues from the songwriting process of other writers.
- It can be occasionally frustrating to write songs from scratch. Refuel your drained energy by setting aside breaks in between songwriting to make your writing more productive.
Why Do People Like To Listen To Gospel Songs?
- Gospel songs are perfect for fending off anxiety and keeping calm.
- Listening to gospel songs helps people to feel sober. This, in turn, leads to mental clarity, enhanced performance, and a happier soul.
- Gospel songs are great for nourishing our spiritual life.
- Worship songs break the boundaries imposed by age, color, or race. Anyone of any age can listen to these songs as the lyrics are friendly to everyone.
- Christian songs help to tame the savage beast in people by helping them achieve spiritual cleansing while bopping to their favorite genre.
Can Anyone Learn How To Write A Gospel Song?
Before I answer your question.
Christian songs don’t exist in a vacuum. Anyone who knows how to write a song of any type can learn to write gospel songs.
So, how to write a Christian song is a skill that anyone can learn insofar you grasp the elements listed in this article.
The End
Knowing how to write a Christian song is a skill that can keep you relevant in the music community for as long as you want.
Another thing;
The money trucks will keep on rollin’ up to your front door. Do you like the sound of that?
With that said, I hope you found enough inspiration to get you started as you set out to write songs for the Lord!
Read this content to uncover how to write a country song.
