Songwriting
We place a high value on our worship, many lives have been changed by God during intimate worship times. Furthermore within the Vineyard there is a great wealth of knowledge and ability regarding songwriting. Over the years we have done our best to 'bottle' these and make them available worldwide. Here you can find a selection of online materials, and links to relevant training products such as DVDs and CDs on songwriting.
Use the songwriting links on the left to browse the different articles and products available.
Fundamentals
It is imperative to understand how Vineyard worship works, our theology and practices if you want to write worship songs that will fit in.
The Leading Worship In The Vineyard booklet is a fantastic booklet written by Dan Wilt focusing on the history of Vineyard worship and the values that it is built upon. This is not only geat for worship leaders but is also invaluable for worship song writers too. Best of all it is FREE to download!
Download Leading Worship in the Vineyard (PDF) (572kb)
Vineyard Values Overview is a brief document that covers the key worship characteristics in the Vineyard church.
Download Vineyard Values (PDF) (116kb)
Technique
Attempting to teach the complete skill and art of songwriting is a huge task. There are many courses and books (BIG books) available for this, some of which are are listed in the Recommended Reading. Here we have included some basics that we feel are particularly poignant to writing congregational songs.
Good lyrics and Song Vision: An article by Brenton Brown that calls us to focus on the content of our songs and also focus the lyrics themselves.
Download it here (176kb)
Writing Fresh Lyrics - A very succinct but useful article on the subject of writing fresh lyrics.
Download it here (88kb)
Inspirational The Importance of Song Writing
By Brenton Brown
Psalm 33. - ‘Sing to the Lord a new song’.
God tells us to sing new songs to Him. God is the most creative dude on the planet! Since we’ve been born into His family we’re going to start creating right? - although not everybody gets to write songs on behalf of everyone else. . . Singing new songs occurs 9 times in scripture, and 6 of those times it is a command.
Download the complete article here.
Products
Featuring Brian Doerksen, Brenton Brown, Kathryn Scott, Matt Redman, Andy Park, Tim Hughes and host Dan Wilt.
Learn the craft of worship songwriting from some of the most influential worship writers of our day. Songwriting For Worship: A DVD training experience invites you to explore how these songwriters address such issues as song inspiration, writer's responsibility, song structure, lyric writing, melodic development, re-writing and much more. Insightful interviews offer more cutting edge training that is sure to motivate both the seasoned and emerging worship songwriter.
Click Here to Buy
Study Tools
Vineyard Music Resources are delighted to introduce the new study tools to accompany the popular Worship Leading and Songwriting for Worship DVD’s.
These CDs consist of the Study Guide and Facilitator’s Guide and are designed for personal use, or in a group setting for a powerful 7-week training course!
Each CD contains the following:
• Printable PDFs of the Study guide and Facilitator’s guide
• A collection of full-colour PDF articles on developing your craft
• Video training clips with respected teachers
• Free PDF issues of Inside Worship™? Magazine
• QuickTime and Adobe Acrobat Reader
Get the DVD and the Tools CD together for a complete resource.
Recommended Reading
There are lots of books on songwriting, lyrics and melodies, here is a list of books that we have had recommended to us by some well-known songwriters:
Tunesmith - Jimmy Webb (ISBN 0786861312)
The Craft Of Lyrics Writing - Sheila Davis (ISBN 0898791499)
