KEYS
[ GO FIGURE: WRITING AN INTRO | Ed Kerr ]
If you’ve been following my “Go Figure” series been heard in the chorus. Measure 3 changes Moving on, Example 4 below shows a phrase
here, you probably recognize that I’m an advocate chords as the original did, but it’s impactful to that ends the verse.
for musicians making worship songs their own. use these varied chord lengths. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great musical exercise In listening to your favorite recordings, you might In Example 5 here you see how the melodic
for you and all the players and singers on your have noticed that many times an intro is reused rhythm can be changed a bit to create new intro
worship team to scrutinize a recording of a song after the first chorus. This is known as a “reintro”. material. Sounds familiar yet sounds different
and then present it as closely as you’re able to Play a chorus of “What A Beautiful Name” and from the original.
that recorded arrangement. It’s a different kind then play the new material in example 1. I like of musical exercise, though, to take that song that. I think I’ll use it this weekend!
Example 5 has those 8th note pickups into the
and give it your own arrangement. In this article,
first measure. If you were to use this as your
I’ll look at how you might go about creating an This new material could be harmonized a little reintro after chorus 1, there’d be some nice
original intro for a worship song. differently using a common rhythm called a musical momentum realized, like in Example 6.
“push”. That typically means that you play the
The most popular song on CCLI right now is second chord in the measure on the “and” of This might feel like way too much analytical
“What A Beautiful Name”. Let’s see what sort of 2. Same new melody. Different chord changes. thinking to you, but I suspect you and I might
original intro could be created for this song. I’m See Example 2. hear a similar evolution of ideas if we could sit
going to look over the leadsheet for the song and
in a recording studio as arrangers/musicians/
see what melodic fragments seem conspicuous. When there’s a pushed figure like this, the bass songwriters worked out how they were going to
Here’s one that ends the chorus: player will often play a stream of 8th notes. present the song.
This magnifies the impact of the pushed chord.
Example 3 here shows some accents that might These creative exercises are so exciting to be
work well. part of. Wouldn’t you like to experience this
Those 2 notes used for “the Name” could
excitement with your team and share your
be incorporated into a new intro for the song. Since intro material is often reused as a song’s original arrangements with your congregation?
Check out the option in Example 1. arrangements evolves, you could use this bass I hope so. Look for melodic ideas to develop
activity after the second chorus of the song, within your songs. Experiment with changing the
If you were to use this for the intro, your listener setting up the energy of the bridge. You could harmonic rhythm accompanying those melodic
would hear familiar melodic ideas from the tune even utilize the pushed rhythm with the chords ideas. There’s no end to the musical possibilities
but not long phrases of the melody. Note that of the bridge to tie your intro/reintro musically to available to you and your team.
I also changed the harmonic rhythm that had the bridge.
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EX. 6
October 2017
WorshipMusician.com