Capturing the Sound of a Nation?

September 7, 2009

I got this great question from Robin Luff recently about ‘capturing the sound of a nation’.

I’ve included my reply but I’d love to hear your thoughts too – please leave a comment below.

Hi Andy

Have you got any advice in ‘capturing the sound of a nation’???…… I
lead worship in a small congregation in North Wales where Welsh is the
first language of the majority of the population. Hymns from the last
revival still carry the heartbeat of God and expression of life in the
current church, modern worship songs (stuff from delirious, hillsongs,
godfrey birtil, brian johnson, chris quilala….) are sung in our
church, some of which are translated into Welsh but these don’t carry
the rhythm and ‘welshness’ that would come from inherent welsh worship
songs….. I’ve written a few but am struggling to carry the ‘modern
feel’ with the shape of the welsh language …. and capturing THE sound
which says ‘I’m welsh, I love God, move Holy Spirit”……. Sorry, very
difficult to explain exactly what I mean but you’ve managed the fusion
of celtic sound with modern worship….. Any help you can offer from
your experience in Ireland?

Robin

My Reply:

Hi Robin

That’s a great question.

I don’t have any definitive answers but here are a few pointers that have shaped what I do along the way.

1. Don’t try to sound like someone else.

I go to a Vineyard church (www.causewaycoastvineyard.com) and although I’ve been part of the worship team here for almost 10years most of what I do outside of that local context is not in the Vineyard network.

A few years ago a friend of mine took me aside one day and gave me
some direction about music & songwriting. He said ‘Andy, you’re
like the fig tree planted in a vineyard that Jesus talked about -
although you are planted in a ‘Vineyard’ don’t try to produce ‘grapes’,
don’t try to write songs and make music to fit that mould – be like a
fig tree and produce the fruit/songs that come naturally’.

For me at the time it was very liberating. It’s more of a principle than a ‘how to’.

2.
Another useful piece of practical advice a prophetic guy gave me was to
simply record my personal private worship sessions because every now
and again something would pop up that would be for wider ‘public
consumption’. The idea was that the ‘sound’ would be captured. By sound
I mean the heart-beat kind of thing – if that makes sense?

3. I intentionally sing with my own accent as much as possible.
Over the past few years I have been intrigued by the worship described
in heaven (Revelation 7:9-10). It appears that in the midst of all the
expressions of praise going on that the worshipers were still
identifiable by their God-given ethnic identities (‘every tribe and
tongue and nation…’).

For me, part of that is singing in my
own voice and finding other ways of authentically worshiping as someone
from my particular culture. This doesn’t necessarily mean returning to
traditional music to express that, like David we do ‘serve the purposes
of God’ in this generation, but still there is something to be drawn
from our roots.

I hope that helps. It’s just a few ramblings from someone who is journeying the same quest but by no means has it all together!

Cheers – Andy

Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts…

Posted by Andy | Filed Under General Musings | 1 Comment