Michael Walker
From St Paul's Church, Carlton, Nottingham
What traditional hymns do you use in a contemporary worship set?
Any ideas and arrangements would be very welcome.
Michael
Thanks Martin, I'll look up the When I survey tune you mention.
Have to disagree with I stand amazed in the presence. I know what you mean about it going on a bit but I love it.
Come now fount of every blessing is great - especially the new arrangement by Nick Drake
How great though art 4/4
I stand amazed (great song!) (4/4)
Holy Holy Holy (Lord God almighty, early in the morning)
About to reintroduce O for a thousand tongues
All creatures of our God an King (Dave Crowder arrangement)
When I survey (Tim Hughes version)
Amazing Grace (Tomlin has a new arrangement with tag)
And can it be (Gareth Robinson Arrangement is good but so is orig tune)
Praise my soul the king of heaven - can really drive this
Thine be the glory - can drive it
Before the throne of God above - classic!
Oh come let us adore him refrain
Turn your eyes upon Jesus refrain
And can it be - just use the chorus' as refrains
Sometimes you need to take some of the chords out when playing on guitar.
Should keep you going for a bit!
Thanks Chris
Some great ideas there. I heard a good arrangment of Holy, Holy, Holy at new wine a couple of weeks ago ...could have been when you were leading :-)
ha it would have been I was the only that used it! :)
Thought it was....
I used it the Sunday after we got back and it worked really well.
Great stuff!
- Be Thou My Vision in 4/4, rocking it up
- How Great Thou Art - Paul Baloche version
- I Stand Amazed (using Eb. F | G straight out of chorus works well. You go to the Eb on 'love for ME')
- Praise to the Lord the Almighty
- Love Divine (going to try the Rend Collective version in the fall)
- All Creatures Of Our God and King (uptempo)
- When I Survey/You're Beautiful (http://worshipatcrookes.bandcamp.com)
- Thine Be The Glory (at Easter)
- Nothing But The Blood (occassionlly)
- Jesus the Name High Over All (Gareth Robinson rewrite)
- Before the Throne of God Above
- All People Who On Earth Do Dwell/Doxology
- Here Is Love (version from 'Rain City Hymnal')
- It Is Well (once or twice)
- Amazing Grace (textbook)
If you want to hear some great arrangements of hymns, visit:
http://www.marshill.com and go to their media/music section
http://www.resound.org - download Rain City Hymal for free
http://sojournmusic.bandcamp.com - Some great arrangements/rewrites of hymns
In regards to arrangements, try and spice things up a bit with chords and instrumental motifs. Only change the tempo of a hymn if it is singable (ie: Love Divine doesn't work in 6/8 as it sounds cool but is too fast to sing... trust me!).
Cool arrangements are just that - cool - but don't detract too much from the lyrics. I once did a reggae version of 'O Come O Come Emmanuel' at Christmas. I didn't realise there were going to be 360 at the gathering and nobody could really sing it as the melody didn't fall in the right place at parts. It got a very mixed review. Unfortunately, our team rector (vicar) wasn't favourable to the idea!
I try to pick out parts of the melody/lyrics I can use as tags/choruses within the song when I want to draw attention to something. Repeating lines works well. On 'Praise to the Lord' we often sing 'So let the Amen! Sound from His people again' several times as it re-enforces the lyric. Also, repeating 'with Christ my Saviour and my God' at the end of Before The Throne of God Above works well.
Hope that helps.
Hi, same as those above really, so not much point reiterating the Amazing Graces etc.
But there are a couple of others that work really well too.
I Need Thee Every Hour
Abide With Me (though tends to be quieter acoustic and piano)
Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine
Great is Thy faithfulness
All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name
Crown Him With Many Crowns
All To Jesus I Surrender
I will sing the wondrous story
Take my life and let it be (can really build this)
Jesus shall reign (Duke Street tune)
To God be the glory
When peace like a river
There is a place for hymns, obviously, but you'd be amazed just how well the stuff goes down in the right context.
I can send over WordDocs of the chordsheets and ideas for what we use for these if people are further interested in using hymns in a band setting, as we tend to use a couple in the modern style service each week.
I'll second Chris' suggestion of the DCB version of 'All Creatures Of Our God And King'. Brilliant arrangement, and the acoustic guitar riff is really nice too.
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"When I survey" to the tune "the water is wide"
Be thou my vision.
our last minister really liked I stand alone in the presence which I despise with a passion! How horrible how tedious!