Worship Songwriting Masterclass

Unlock your creative potential and elevate your worship music with expert guidance on chord progressions, lyrics and spiritual expression. Perfect for both beginners and seasoned songwriters.

This course is supported by the textbook 'The Worship Songwriter' and it contains the following sections.

1. Song Ideas - This section will provide lessons on how to develop worship songs by finding inspiration in multiple forms. It explores mining text for key words that draw the listener in.

2. Musical Foundations - This section is a series of music theory lectures that provide a basic understanding of chord theory and then progresses into a review of music genres and grooves. Worship music is both a genre and pulls from many others. Example songs both popular and worship are provided that demonstrate this point.

3. Lyricist Toolbox  This section provides lecture material that explores that lyric craft. It breaks down rhyming and different patterns using in lyrics. Literary tools such as alliteration, metaphors, and similes are explored for their impact on lyrics.

4. Capturing the Sound - This section will introduce students to the use of digital audio workstations using Ableton Live 12. It will demonstrate the process of recording an original worship song from start to finish.

5. Visualizing the Word - This section provides a brief overview of video editing software, using TechSmith Camtasia, to create a lyric video. These videos can then be published on YouTube and other video platforms for aiding music teams in learning.

6. The Roadmap - This section will discuss the practice of formal music publication with both chord charts and music scores. It also demonstrates the worship song registration process using CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) for song registration and chord chart publication.

7. The Power of Two - This section discusses the importance of collaboration and its impact on improving song development. It provides example original songs using both a lecture format and a demonstration discussion by the instructor and his wife. (songwriters who publish music under the artist name: 'Lionheart Praise'

8. The Command Center - This is a technical discussion of a free open-source application developed by the instructor. It was written in .NET MAUI / C# and runs on both Windows and Android OS. The application is called 'SongSetMaker' The application installation files are made freely available in this course.

9. The Living Section - This final section describes the final steps in bringing an original worship song to the worship team and Pastor for review. It reviews the rehearsal process for five original songs and provides insights from other seasoned artists in the usage of worship songs on Sunday morning.