What Worship Songwriters Can Learn From The Nashville Music Scene

By Jon Nicol

Here's a guest post I wrote for DavidSantistevan.com. If you've never read David's blog, you need to. He's writes thought-provoking and practical stuff there for worship leaders. Here's a bit of the article:

After talking about it for 5 years, I finally overcame my fear and started traveling to Nashville to write, network, attend workshops, and just soak up whatever mojo is in the air down there.

I wanted to be a professional songwriter.

One of first lessons I learned there was this: I’m not writing for me. I always had to keep in mind someone else would be singing this. And there were rules about that–don’t make the artist look bad, keep the range singable, don’t get political, keep the theme universal.

Also, write something fresh and unique.

No wonder most songwriters drink.

This aspect of the Nashville approach to songwriting is frustrating, but necessary. And it’s something we as worship songwriters need to grasp:

Our songs are for other people.

Here are some Nashville “rules” that could serve us well as we think about writing worship songs for other people...

[read more at DavidSantistevan.com]

Photo - Chris Greene - Stock.xchg

January 6, 2012