NEW MUSIC
JOY IKE Bigger Than Your Box
HILLSONG YOUNG AND FREE III
BETTER BY SUNDAY WITH PCO Continued from Page 94
not you. If you stand firm on this point, you’ ll communicate how important it is to honor the whole team by using the block-out calendar regularly, and the team will be happy to help.
DON’ T KEEP HUNDREDS OF SONGS VISIBLE IN YOUR SONGS TAB. The average church can effectively only sing several dozen songs before they start disconnecting and feeling lost. Your musicians can also feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of songs that can creep up in your database in PCO.
Fresh from her participation in the worship collective The Porter’ s Gate last year, this multihyphenated songwriter-pianist-singer offers a fourth solo album with the warm pop-soul tones( one gets used to the hyphens in genrebending artists) of“ Stay,” a meditation on Psalm 139.“ No place I hide that You cannot go, no place, no shadow that isn’ t Your home.” The second track“ By the Fire” starts with deceptively mellow solo piano before kicking into a driving samba for the second half. Other songs tackle themes of encouragement and romantic devotion.“ Walk” expounds on Micah 6:8’ s instruction that we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.“ Give a Little” breezes by with accordion and castanets. The stop-start acoustic guitar and string bass of“ Full” back a cautionary tale about know-it-alls.“ You’ re so full, you eat yourself.” In these days when so many songs loop the same four bars over and over, it’ s a sheer delight to listen to music crafted to start in one place and then go somewhere else. The Philadelphian’ s robust alto drifts between bright Sara Bareilles-style pop, Alicia Keys’ tuneful R & B, and moments of modern gospel. Strings and brushed toms augment the piano base, hooky as anything you’ d hope to hear.
This second generation Hillsong band follows up their Dove-nominated“ Youth Revival” album with this stirring collection of synthpop / EDM praise. All the elements of modern electronica are in play, from harmonizer, to chipmunk octaving, to wind-up with bass drop, with a variety of vocalists. Nor do they skimp on the music, with seventeen tracks, including three“ Selah” transitions. Topics include surrender(“ When I let go, then I’ m alive”), trust in God for our needs( on“ Every Little Thing”).“ Just Jesus” is a testimony song. Some tracks praise an unnamed“ You”(“ Let Go”) but most are more explicit(“ Just Jesus”).“ Jesus Loves Me” delightfully reworks the children’ s song into a powerful anthem of praise. It’ s a solid collection of memorable songs that will sound great blasting from your headphones or singing together with your worship community.
Robert Berman Robert is a Sunday School teacher, music nerd, and acoustic guitar enthusiast. He lives in rural Tennessee with his wife and three boys.
The solution? Use the“ Hide” button on the Songs tab( to the far right of the song title on each line) to hide the songs you haven’ t used for several months. This will archive the song within your account, giving you access when you want it, but won’ t take up precious room on your main Songs page. And you can always“ un-hide” a song when you need it again.
Since the Songs page on PCO shows 100 songs at a time, try to keep your main Songs page less than 100 songs long. Your team will intrinsically start to identify with the“ main songs” more and own them, instead of swimming through an endless sea of worship material.
Utilizing PCO can be easy if you are willing to invest a few minutes that will have a huge impact on how your team prepares and leads the church in worshiping God. Don’ t miss your chance to build excellence into your worship ministry with these quick tips. Go lead worship well!
Mike Graff Chief Creative of internationally-acclaimed Coresound Pads, and worship musician / leader for over 20 years.
CoreSoundPads. com
August 2018 WorshipMusician. com
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