SONGWRITING
EXPANDING YOUR COLOR PALETTE | Kevin MacDougall
There are many colors. Various hues covering down the perfect shades for the song, and options—it would seem clear to any observer
a vast spectrum of possibility. A seemingly more like we have taken to only ordering a that the painters had imposed limitations on
unlimited number of shades to behold. few basic colors in bulk, as though we had themselves, and thus limited the range of
no other choice. Rather than mixing pigments expression of their own art.
And that’s why, when you paint a room and experimenting with specific ratios, we’re in your home, it has to be just the right showing up to the task with a small box of Consider:
shade—incorporating all of the tones that crayons, just as we always have. And if that’s •
will complement the specific room you’re the case, it’s fair to say we’re not progressing painting. You expect the color you choose to within the form, and not developing our craft.
If the church is a “city on a hill” that “cannot
be hidden,”
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precisely convey whatever it is you mean to
If the church seeks to reflect the Creator of
the universe, and
convey within that space. The chosen color Perhaps the reason I see color in relation can be an opportunity for self-expression. It to music is because I have synesthesia (a the full experience of life in truth and
can bring balance to a room. It can make the sensation produced in one modality when vulnerability…
room comforting and unifying while also making a stimulus is applied to another modality, as it intriguing and engaging. It can honor other when the hearing of a certain sound induces Then it stands to reason that the church should
objects and fixtures within a space, contrasting the visualization of a certain color) but I think the be eager to explore the broadest spectrum
with them and complementing them. example holds up either way. of color available. Creativity itself must be the
•
If the church wants to resonate with
pursuit of any community which gathers to
I think about “color” in relation to music a lot. Imagine a city with a public space devoted to Color is a wonderful metaphor for the tools at its painters. Each week, they gather to observe the disposal of a musician, and particularly one and reflect on the city, and then they paint. And As some have noted, the first thing scripture
who writes songs. The potential color palette of with all the possible tints at their disposal, it even tells us about God is that God is an artist.
the artist is limitless. would be weird if the painters only ever showed “In the beginning, God created…” It is the first
up to paint with primary colors of red, blue declaration made in the book of Genesis. And
But when it comes to songwriting, and and green. Perhaps a few who did that would we are surrounded by the resulting beauty. All
particularly the chords and chord progressions really perfect it as a signature style, but if most creation resounds with it, echoes it—a chorus
we employ, it can be less like we are chasing everyone was doing it—despite all the potential of wondrous diversity and harmony. Everywhere
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January 2020
honor the Creator.
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