Where have all the chords gone?

I love Christian Worship music. Not only is it the most important type of music that is made (note: type, not style!) but it is something that I really connect with and that in turn helps me express worship to my Father in Heaven.

However, I do get increasingly frustrated at the number of worship songs there are out there - and especially new worship songs - that are still using the same chords as all the others. For me as a creative chap it really gets in my way as it comes across as lazy and of the attitude of 'I know this works, so I'll just do it again'. Harsh? Possibly.

Lets get technical for a minute and have me back this wild accusation up with some evidence here. The chord sequence that seems to be used the most in all Christian worship songs is the I, V, VIm IV chord sequence (i.e. the root chord, the 5th, the minor 6th and then the 4th chord). If you were in the key of G, this would translate to G, D, Em, C (or for a minor variation the V chord sometimes has the major 7 in the bass - i.e. G, D/F#, Em, C). If you are a guitar player, go get your guitar and play those chords and they will probably sound familiar. Why? Because they are so overused!

There may be some people out there who would suggest that in a worship song, the only thing of real importance in the lyric - as long as they are sound, then who cares what the music is doing as long as it is not distracting from the theologically correct words. There is some truth in this I'll admit - as a worship song with great music and poor words is not really going to serve any purpose expect to make 'Songs of Fellowship' Volume 97 slightly fatter. But I believe music is something that can engage not only our intellectual with the words, but also with our emotional through the music. A great worship song needs to be equally balanced with fine music and awe inspiring lyrics - and when this is executed by superb, God-fearing musicians then for me it allows me to do what Jesus intended us to do - and that is to worship God freely.

In everything I do at the moment, I am constantly reminded of this word excellence. I don't want to do anything half-heartedly but want everything to be the best it can be empowered by God. In the same way, when we write worship songs lets not settle for the same old chords, the same tired phrases but let us use the creativity God has placed within us to craft new sounds for God's glory.

Something big...

I have quite a few American friends and for some reason I think they have the bizarre idea that I don't like their country and the things it stands for (it is probably because I make a lot of jokes like that - and we do seem to have a different sense of humour!)

It may therefore shock them to know that I love America! I have no idea really why and while I do not completely agree with some of its administrations actions on the world circuit it is a country that never ceases to fascinate and excite me. Call me a geek but I love learning stuff about the USA, I love looking at maps of it and I love the thought of going there (not that I get much chance)! I used to work for an American company and I loved connecting with people from the land 'across the pond'.

I think the thing that really blows my mind about the USA is the vastness of the country. The USA consists of fifty states and most of them are bigger than the UK. In England if you drive for 6 hours or so in any direction you have gone out of the country or hit the sea; over there, you can drive for days and days and you are still in the USA!

Deep within all of us there is a desire to know something that is larger than what we understand and feel comfortable with. Some people look at the universe and the expanse of space and get their mind blown at how minute we are. I simply look at a map of the USA! Through all of this and especially at Christmas time it makes me marvel at why God would be interested in little ole me - I mean on this scale, small isn't even in the right league to describe me! Yet God is interested in me and has a plan for my life.

Now that blows my mind.

The most important music

I read something which struck me today. In the cover notes of Paul Baloche's album A Greater Song the president of Integrity music, Michael Coleman, has written an introduction to this CD (which is an excellent CD I might add). Something he said really hit me:

"There is one thing we do on earth that we will continue to do in Heaven. That is to praise and worship God. That is why we view life on earth, for those who live Jesus, as choir practise for Heaven. To say that praise and worship is the most important category of music is an understatement. In light of that fact, there is no more important activity of the human heart that to praise and worship God."

I often get quite bogged down with how many Christian worship leaders there are out there - wondering if in fact they are just doing it because they really just want to be a pop-star or in a famous band; there are so many worship songs out there - and I wonder if the authors of those songs are just doing it to be amongst the top Christian artists. And yet when I read the snippet above it makes me see that perhaps I am being overly cynical about the whole worship music movement.

Michael Coleman is right: there is no more important music than music that honours and worships God. So isn't it right then that there are stacks of people out there wanting to write Christian songs? And isn't it also right that there are stacks of bands out there wanting to play Christian music? The devil really has his way when it comes to music most of the time and it is about time we stood up to that and used this most powerful tool even more to praise and worship our God in heaven.

Yes of course - if you write or play Christian music then do it with the heart that wants God to be lifted up more than anything else. But shouldn't people like me be encouraging others more to get out there and lift up the name of the Lord with music? I think I should. I think I should be flexing my writing muscle even more. So what if there are a million others doing it - the most important music on earth is music that lifts God up and if I can contribute to that and get in on that, even in a small way, then I want in.

I've actually got a couple of songs on the way that I've been working on. As soon as I get chance to whack them down, I'll pump them up here...

Me, myself and I?

I've been married for nearly three and a half years and I am now a Father - which is all very cool. Call me a bit slow but with all the stuff that is going on in my life right now it is causing me to re-evaluate what life is all about - especially concerning me.

Just after I got married I got a bit of a culture shock. Perhaps I am not all there but after the honeymooning of marriage went it started to sink in that my life was no longer just my own any more. I was in fact part of a team now - and I had committed to that team for the rest of my life. Any decision I made, any money I spent, anything big I wanted to do in my life wasn't just my decision any more. And that scared me a touch. So now I have a child! And again, it hit me today that I now share everything I do with two people now. I can't just swan off and please myself - there are other lives at stake now.

As a Christian, this kind of living is not that unfamiliar to me. Jesus Himself instructed us to 'take up our cross and follow Him' - or in the Message translation:

"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am."

This is from Luke 9 and just stirs something within me. Often we'll spend our entire lives trying to make things happen, be a certain person, do a certain thing - but God simply tells us to forget about that for one moment, fix our attention on Him and He'll sort us out. I love wisdom like this - the complete opposite to what the world would say, but just crazy enough to work :).

Funnily enough I think I used to be better at putting other things in front of my own desires even before I was married. Perhaps I just got slack in my old age. But there are a few things I am very sure of. Firstly, God knows and God sees more than I ever will and I want to let Him do the leading; Second, I am seriously blessed with my wife and son; And thirdly, perhaps I need a gentle reminder that I am not the centre of my world - and if I was, it would be a pretty messed up one at that.

Daddy

Well, if you are pregnant for nine months or so then sooner or later something kinda crazy is gonna kick off. And sure enough, last Monday my wife gave birth to our first son Ethan Joel Matthews. The labour was pretty intense and lasted for about three days and he had to be born by Caeserean Section but when he was born it was quite an incredible thing to see something that has been living inside your wife for nine months that you helped put there. There aren't a lot of words that can describe that.

And so the journey of parenthood begins. I'm pretty tired already, but can't wait to get to know him and find out what makes him tick.

A true miracle, and all praise to my Father in heaven for little Ethan.

The value of information

I have to admit I've always found it a bit odd when people get shirty about people like the Police keeping information about us. There are many arguments for it and none of them seemed to make much sense to me - until the other day...

To be honest in that I never had a problem with people like the Police having information about me stored on their computers. It all seemed like a good idea to me - especially as I have nothing to hide. If the Police want my DNA on file it can clear me of being involved in crimes and work for my benefit. If all our DNA is stored on file then any crime can be easily solved right?

However my confidence in this argument has been significantly shaken over the recent controversy over CD's of peoples information being lost in the post. If you didn't spot this one in the news, someone from the child benefit agency copied the details of millions of peoples names, addresses and bank details onto a couple of CD's and sent it unrecorded in the mail. The CD's got lost, they were not encrypted and the data could quite possibly end up in the wrong hands. I say possibly of course because no one currently knows where they are. Oops. In fact - very big oops.

It makes me think that even though organisations like the Government and the Police strive to be careful with sensitive information, they make mistakes - and in this case a very serious one. And when they do the information that we've been so happy to give over to them may end up in the wrong hands - which is exactly what we do not want. I trust the Government and the police - I don't think a day is coming when someone evil at the head of either of those organisations is going to start meddling in my personal information for evil purposes. However, I am now slightly disturbed that other people may get in there and do the meddling for them if they can't keep a lid on the information I've been so eager to hand over.

I don't think this realisation is going to be a life-changer for me; I'm always careful with my personal details - but I think it has given me much more understanding as to why we need to be a little bit more careful about information about us and why just saying that because the organisation keeping the information can be trusted it still doesn't mean it is safe to let them have all my information.

Lovin' it

My wife and I popped down to Gunwharf Quays on Saturday for the grand switching on of the Christmas lights. Well, it wasn't that grand and it wasn't that slick, but the lights did go on - and I suppose that is something. To be honest, that is not really why we went. A friend of mine who is the worship pastor at Family Church here in Portsmouth told me that their youth band was playing as part of the festivities and so we popped down to see what all the fuss was about.

Well, let's be honest - the youth band were definitely the best thing about the event - but that wasn't hard! The music they played was phat, busted style, Hillsongs worship music and was needed as it was absolutely freezing! The guys and girls who played made a good band - they worked well together, they knew their tunes and had a lot of confidence up there. The music wasn't all that slick - quite a few mistakes, but that actually didn't seem to matter.

The thing that I really took away from it was that everyone up there was having an absolutely brilliant time. They were passionate about what they were singing about and they were not afraid of showing the entire of Gunwharf Quays that they meant it. In a world where young people are often portrayed as being couch potatoes who don't really care about they world around them, these guys really broke the mould - in fact it the mould was in tatters on the floor by the end.

It reminded me of a blog post by a mate of mine on his site Three Days. He was trying to work out in his head why events like Soul Survivor was so popular with young people. His conclusion was passion - the people up front were passionate about Jesus and didn't mind anybody knowing it. And that is what these guys did. Certainly gave me as a worship leader something to think about...

Ordinary People

The bible is rammed full of God using ordinary people to do absolutely extraordinary things. My wife and I watched the film 'Night at the Museum' the other night - and while not entirely my kind of film the main edge behind the story is that Larry, the main guy had the lost the belief that ordinary people could do extraordinary things - and of course, Hollywood helps him to overcome that.

I've been thinking recently about the whole being ordinary thing - especially in relation to being a worship leader. There are many worship leaders out there who we'd class as a bit extraordinary and are very well known and very well respected and I think that while that can be a great encouragement to many I can sometimes find it a bit of a discouragement as it serves as a reminder of the fact that many of us, me included are oh so ordinary. There does seem to be a stack of people out there who are hankering for that opportunity to become an extraordinary worship leader like Matt Redman or Paul Baloche, whose music is used as an aid to corporate worship throughout the world and get invited to lead at very large and very prestigious gatherings of God's people. It seems to boil down to the fact that a lot of people think that you are a good worship leader, or you have 'made it' if you have ascended to those dizzying heights.

This is all put into perspective for me when I hear someone like Matt Redman talk about things like this - because, from what I can see, the man does not ever view himself as a 'great' worship leader or someone who has 'made it'. For him it seems he is doing what God is allowing him and providing him opportunity to do and ensuring that his heart is right every step of the way. In a sense it must actually be really hard for people like him sometimes to be 'ordinary' with God as every time he leads worship there are probably 80,000 people in the congregation telling him he is not!

Again for me it comes down to heart: if your heart is to be the most prolific Christian songwriter the world has ever know and get as much international acclaim as your ego can muster then I don't really see much room for God to be glorified in that - as it is all about you. However, if your heart is to be someone who serves God in all they do and is happy and content to do the small things God has given you to do (as well as the huge) then that is where God can break in and make something extraordinary out of our ordinary.

I think for me that is where I need to keep my heart in check - as I sometimes can get on with the small things in the hope that God will lavish me with bigger things in the future. Man that attitude stinks! When did I get so important that God needs to do anything for me?! If we are truly people with a heart after God and a passion for His worship then it doesn't matter whether we are leading six people into worship or sixty thousand - God can use an ordinary heart like that for extraordinary things.

Money money money

There is a lot of stuff going on in the world at the moment to do with money. Oil prices are high, the dollar is plummeting, fear over banks' ability to lend money and oh yeah, me and my wife seem to be a little short of it too.

I don't really have a proper job anymore - I do some hours for my church and I'm trying to set up the music mentoring project (which currently doesn't pay me). I was doing some freelance work for my brother-in-law, but business is tight and there is no work at the moment. So when I came to crunch the numbers on our outgoings I found we had a teeny weeny gap in what was coming in and what was going out.

Actually, it was quite a lot - and as I looked at the numbers my only thought was 'God, I am going to need a little help on this one.' Surprisingly, it didn't actually worry me at all - as I feel confident that God has put me in this place and if He wanted me to stay there, we'd need to have some money to keep it that way. So I was speaking to our church senior leadership team about this and we committed it to God in prayer.

About six hours later, I got a phone call from our church administrator saying that Sure Start (who use our church building in the week) have agreed to give me over a months paid work to make a CD for their Dad's Project that they run. I'm not kidding - literally 6 hours later. And who says God takes ages to answer prayer! I couldn't quite believe it. So not only has God provided for me and Marianne financially for the next few months but He has done it in a way that allows me to make music doing it! More than that - if this had come along at a time when business for my brother was good - I wouldn't have had time to do it.

There is nothing left to do here, but sit down, point to my forehead and say genius. God is the one who never lets us down and always knows what He is doing. Legend.

Madness

Well as I am sure you'll have all noticed, tonight was Halloween. I don't know whether it is because we have just moved house to an area of Portsmouth called Somers Town which is more densely populated but we seemed to get stacks of kids coming to our door asking for sweets. They were all quite friendly though and when we explained that we were Christians and didn't celebrate Halloween by dressing up as witches and stuff they were pretty cool with that and didn't extend us the honour of going through with the 'trick' part of their plea.

It did strike me as odd though - as I was walking back home this evening - and passing many people dressed up as witches, vampires and other occult figures that there seems to be quite a lack of understanding about what they are doing. To me it is clear that the enemy is something that is as real as the hair on my head - and messing around with stuff like that is something that should not be taken lightly. I give them the advice I'd give anyone who is about to drink a bottle of engine oil - make sure you know what you are doing before you do that.

I guess that is it isn't it - if you don't think there is anything else out there - good or evil, then why bother worrying about it? After all - it is only a bit of fun right? Well, the greatest trick Satan ever pulled was to convince people that he didn't exist. I think it is about time people - more specifically the church - stood up and exposed him for who he is.

We'll Sing

One of the things I really want to do on this blog is keep track of (and keep myself motivated to write) new songs that I am writing. The song here is one that I've been working on for a while and have finally got round to recording for my own records.

It is a song that came from my heart of wanting to express a little about what we do when we meet together and sing songs of worship. Often it can get overlooked as to why we sing at church - we just do it. I wanted to express here why I think it is important, why I do it and what I want to express to God when doing it.

I wanted to try and write something quite congregational here - as often my songs tend to be a little hard to sing. So we have some simple melodies and reasonably straightforward chords too.

Anyway, here is a recording of it - my first in Pro Tools (I am a die-hard Logic fan you see!) and it sounds OK - if a little tame and unadventurous. Plenty of time for that though...

Ramped

So the busy weekend was certainly busy and I seem to have come down with something exotic (and quite phlegmy) - probably because I got quite tired! Never mind, would definitely do it again.

YouthQuake was a great laugh - the young people who came along certainly seemed to enjoy it and, although it is hard to tell, seemed to engage with lifting God up. There were some issues with the sound which made it quite hard to lead worship - and it reminds me of how cool it is to be able to lead regularly in a place where you have spent time getting things like foldback sorted out. But hey, it was still quite cool and it was a real honour to be able to worship with such a quality bunch of guys and girls. They are truly awesome.

Then a good wedding where I was leading the worship and then playing in the evening band. The service went a lot smoother than it could have done, as we had a limited amount of time to get ready and the happy couple seemed pleased so that was cool. The evening was also a great laugh - especially as the band was battling one of those 'play too loud and we'll shut the power off' level meter things that was built into the venue. The band always loves playing for my friends as they always have a good time - which is more of a witness to them than they probably realise.

Another plus was that my wife came back to our house (now that we have a kitchen) and I hadn't quite realised how much I have missed her.

So a more relaxing week (hopefully) of some DIY and other stuff. I am looking forward to a chilled out weekend this weekend. That is definitely long overdue...

Busy busy busy

I got a busy weekend coming up...

Firstly tomorrow (Saturday), I am leading worship at an event in Winchester called YouthQuake. This is a workshop / worship event that happens in Winchester Cathedral every couple of years and is run by a old friend of mine. I absolutely love leading worship - especially when I get to play with my band of merry men and women, who are just excellent at what they do. All in all it promises to be a really cool day and I am praying that we can really connect with the young people there and lead them into a place of worship.

I always find it quite hard the week leading up to events such as this - I am so aware of things that can distract me from doing the job I feel called to do. The thing the devil wants is for me to be feeling guilty or distracted about something as I go into this and so when things have been tough this week it has been tough to look immediately to God rather than get annoyed...or worse :) My heart for this event is that we as a bunch of worshippers can really engage with these young people as this can often be difficult when we don't know them and they don't know us. Really I just want to see God move - and pray that I don't get in the way.

The business doesn't stop there though - oh no. We get back from Winchester late on Saturday night and then on Sunday I am leading worship for a friend who is getting married in London (in fact we have a practise for this tomorrow before we leave for Winchester). Then I have to play in the evening reception in a funk band I play in called the FreeStyle Funk Collective. All in all, should be a great weekend of playing - but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be ramped by the end of Sunday.

The best thing is that I get to see my wife on Sunday and I haven't seen her for a week while she has been staying with family due to a decorating situation here at home. All in all I am quite looking forward to this weekend...

The great british weather

I'm an Englishman - born and bred - and one thing I've always noticed is the ability for English people to get the weather into every conversation. One of the top news stories at the moment is that is 20 years since the 'Great storm' of 1987 and it seems that we English just love to harp on about it.

This was brought home to me when I was having my haircut a few weeks ago. I go to this quality barbers in Fratton called 'Latif' who is from Uzbekistan but does a superb haircut. So as I was in the chair admiring his work a chap comes to the door, who must be a regular and greets Latif with a hearty British hello. Now Latif speaks good English, but he definitely prefers to get on with the job rather than make small talk. So after a quick hello with the man at the door silence falls on the barber shop. It was quiet for a good minute or two, so much so I thought the chap had gone until, low and behold, he launched into his 'catch all' conversation starter: "So how about this weather we are having at the moment eh?" Latif was fairly unimpressed and the chap then moved on, probably not quite understanding why the conversation didn't bloom into life at his mention of a few spots of rain.

The funny thing is, I do that too - especially with people who are not from this country - and I have no idea why. It seems to be built into my very core. 'If conversation dries up, talk about the weather' - what makes us like that?

Life is more than the weather people, it's about time we thought of something else to natter about :)

Uncle Gaz

The last few months have been very odd for me as both my wife and her sister are pregnant - now that is some nice planning there. Well last night my sister-in-law gave birth to a healthy little girl called Ella May and apparently all doing well. Hugest congratulations go out to all three of them.

The crazy thing for me is that it now means that my wife is next. Uncle Gaz is feeling a bit odd right now as I've never been one of those before. Blymey, what is Daddy Gaz going to feel like??

Train me up scotty

Tonight was the first night of worship training at Kings Church where I am the overall worship leader. We run these evenings as part of a 12 week course that allows people who have an interest in being part of the musical worship of our church to come along, learn about worship and have a go at playing with other people in the context of a contemporary worship band. We make people go through the worship training before we get them playing on a Sunday to ensure that the team is all on the same page spiritually and the music is kept to a high standard.

Tonight was the first session we had of this academic year and we had close to fifteen new people turn up which was awesome, if a little overwhelming when I have to try and coordinate all that. However, it actually turned out to go much better than I thought and the guys who came were really up for having a laugh as well as worshipping God.

People have often said to me that it is kinda harsh making people go through this to gain access to the worship team that plays on a Sunday. I just don't see it that way at all. First of all it is a huge responsibility to have any part in leading the most public regular meeting of any churches calendar and I think that requires we are 'selective' with who we put up there. Not to say we purposely exclude people, but we give time in allowing peoples attitudes and motives to come through, as those are more important than whether they know every Matt Redman song in the book. Second, I think that it allows us to really manage the quality of everything we do as a church. Often visitors come into church and are really put off with the fact that everything seems to be either stuck in the 1960's or is just really bad quality - like the microphones don't work, the preacher sounds so bored he is putting everyone to sleep and the man singing is really out of tune..... of course some sweeping generalisations there, but you get my point. I think that everything that is done in church should be done to the best possible standard and in a way that does not distract from the True and Living God - the reason why we are doing it in the first place.

And if that makes me harsh, then harsh me up baby.