New Song: Our God Is Love
This weekend we’re introducing a new song at our church, Our God Is Love, by Hillsong. It’s the first track off of Hillsong’s newest album, A Beautiful Exchange. I look at this song as pretty much a picture of God’s love, what He does for us because of that love, and our response to that love. That’s speaking of lyrical content. Musically, the song is dance-tastic. When you sing this song, you can’t help but be happy. The rhythms, the beats, the chord progressions and melodies are totally alluring.
I was having tons of fun practicing the song with my team last night. We’re pretty much playing the song like it’s played on the record. Same tempo (121 bpm) and same key (F#). Now, whenever I introduce a new song, I’ll try to make sure it’s in a proper singing range for the congregation. Sometimes I’ll have to lower a song a half-step or so. For instance, when we introduced Sing Sing Sing by Chris Tomlin, I lowered the key from E to C, that’s two whole steps! Or when I introduced With Everything by Hillsong, I lowered the key from B to A. For Our God Is Love, I figured we would just play it in the same key as the album. It’s kind of high, but it’s singable and fun.
As far as the drums are concerned, our drummer didn’t really compromise. He’s playing the same thing as the album. Like a lot of Hillsong’s stuff, the beat makes the song. It might sound kind of weak without it, unless you find a good alternative. For the intro, my guitar player is actually replicating that techno-ish pad sound they have. It doesn’t sound exact, but it for sure gets the job done.
There’s obviously tons of things to consider when introducing a new song (key, tempo, rhythm, lyrical content) but one of the main ones is key and singing range. You always have to keep your audience/congregation in mind when introducing new songs. I know as the worship leader, I care for the congregation I’m leading for and I want them to have a song to sing. One of my goals is to effectively create a safe and comfortable worship environment for them. If they’re forced to sing super high, they most likely won’t sing at all. The songs need to make sense, they need to be applicable to peoples’ lives, they need to be easy to sing, and most importantly, they need to be in a good singing range. Brenton Brown gives a good breakdown on choosing good keys. Click here to watch the video >>>
There’s obviously been times I’ve picked the wrong key for a song. It’s not a big deal, just see what needs to be corrected and try a new key next week. That’s the beauty of it all, for us worship leaders, we’re all “learning to lead”.
