Category: Contests

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Contests Production music Quirky Rock and/or Roll

Everybody Get Diakonian!

At some point last week, reality hit me and I cursed myself for agreeing to compose an infectious dance/pop song about the changing role of the deacon in the CRC. But nothing inspires like a deadline, and here I am today, October 1, with a sparkling new recording called “Everybody Get Diakonian!”

This song was written to publicize the “Diakonia Remixed” proposal of the Office of Deacon Task Force which will be considered at next summer’s General Synod. In a few days, we’ll release the song and the song files as part of a remix contest. For now, just listen, enjoy, and maybe even dance a bit: MP3.

1. Diakonia—what’s that mean?
You say, “it’s all Greek to me.”
But when you hear it with new ears,
maybe you’ll catch the Spirit.
Cause it’s being Jesus’ hands and feet
in a world so full of need.
This world is groaning for release: open your ears.
Jesus is calling you to hear.

2. Diakonia used to be
a lonely band of deacons.
But the way that they see it now,
it is me, it is you, it is everybody working,
helping our neighbor, doing good deeds,
showing the love of Jesus.
You don’t think you’re needed? Open your eyes: take a look around.
Cause sometimes it seems that there’s no hope when everybody wants to break it down.

Well, it used to be, in the CRCNA,
that deacons served and elders led the way.
Are you ready for a brand new feelin?
Everybody get DIAKONIAN!

Would you be freakin out
if I told you you’re a deacon now?
Let that spin your head til the room is reelin.
Everybody get DIAKONIAN!

Serving God is everybody’s business.
So get busy, get jumpin in it.
Throw your hands up to the ceilin.
Everybody get DIAKONIAN!

West coast, East coast, city, suburb,
Young and old of every color,
Indonesian, Friesian, Navajo, Korean:
Everybody get DIAKONIAN!

Remix, rethink, redeem, reboot;
remember that our God renews
us all to a new way of bein.
Everybody get DIAKONIAN!

By the way, I’m pretty darn proud of rhyming “Korean” with “Diakonian.”

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Church Congregational Songs Contests

Lord, Now Let Your Servants – piano

I was really pleased to find out that one of my songs has been chosen to be included in the Gospel Coalition’s Songs for the Book of Luke project. It’s a big honor.

They’ll create their own arrangement for the recording, but I didn’t want the rest of you to be left out. Here is a piano accompaniment for the song, with SATB vocal parts on the chorus: PDF, MP3.

If you want just a lead sheet, you can visit the original post.

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Contests Production music Quirky

CD Baby and Me

A few days ago Simon and I sang for you our new song, “Clouds So Fluffy and Free.” The next day I saw an ad for a CD Baby jingle writing contest. Suddenly, “clouds so fluffy and free” became “CD Baby and Me.” Serendipity? Fate? You be the judge.

Speaking of judging, if this doesn’t win the contest, it will prove, once and for all, that there is no justice in the world. It’s a bonafide earworm. Of course, I’ve been listening to this 30 second bon bon over and over again for two days, so it may be more a matter of it being stuck in my head than the song being catchy.

After recording it in pristine 24bit sound, I decided that an old record player version was also called for. Enjoy them both for maximum enjoyment.

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Contests Demos

Carry Me

In 2001 a call went out from a new group called Crimson Bridge for songs that would fit their style. I seem to remember them wanting something to the effect of

  • songs from a Christian perspective, but necessarily only for Christian audiences
  • themes that dealt with the weightier issues of life and faith
  • mature perspective (i.e. teeny bopper songs wouldn’t fit this group of women)
  • something their multivocal group could sink their teeth into

I don’t know that I ever heard back from them. (You wouldn’t believe how many people request songs and then don’t even respond to your submission. At least have the decency to acknowledge that you received the submission; preferably you should take the time to let them know why their song didn’t fit the project. But no, I’m not bitter.)

I came across this demo the other day and gave it another listen. I’ll be up front and say that the demo is cheesy. Fair enough. But I still kind of like the song itself. It’s written from the perspective of a person who is at an undisclosed juncture (illness? midlife crisis? failed relationship?) and is praying one of those nothing-to-lose honest prayers of doubt and faith that mark such crossroads.

I know this kind of straight up CCM pop is not everyone’s cup of tea, but expand your hipster horizons and give it a listen: Carry Me, MP3.

VERSE 1
The days are filled with coffee,
and the nights last for days.
You never know where your life is going
But I didn’t think it would be this way.

How could I have seen it coming?
What could I have done to prepare?
Of all the places I thought I’d end up
it would be anywhere but here.

CHORUS
If Your love moves mountains,
and Your love soothes seas,
then I need Your love to reach down
and move and soothe my soul. I need your love
to carry me.

VERSE 2
Who am I to question?
I’m in no place to make demands.
But you’ve led me into this wilderness
and I’m trying to understand:

Should I see hope on the horizon?
Should I find comfort in the past?
Right now I’m in between
and I don’t know how long it will last.

CHORUS

BRIDGE
Your love has brought me here today,
to a place where I can’t see my way.
O Lord, there’s nothing I can do
if Your love doesn’t carry me through.

VERSE 3
Nothing in this world is forever.
It burns like dew in the morning sun.
But longer than the earth will spin
Your love goes on and on.

CHORUS

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Finale demo

A Gluttonous Feast of Rejection, Fourth Course

Update 3/22/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

Our fourth course, a dessert of dismissal and dejection, is a tune for Stephen Starke’s text, “Jesus, Greatest at the Table.” This 8.7.8.7.8.7 Maundy Thursday text was the last one of the batch I wrote, and  at first I felt it was the weakest. It sounded too similar to a tune in Sing! A New Creation (I’ll never tell which one) and just wasn’t grabbing me. But this is was a situation in which experience and perseverance outweighed youthful enthusiasm and raw talent. I kept fussing with the draft over the course of a few days and now, though perhaps not the most beautiful belle at the ball, it is quite a pleasant, singable tune.

Pleasant and singable, or just a really nice personality? You be the beholder: MP3.

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos Finale demo

A Gluttonous Feast of Rejection, Third Course

Our third course of anticipated rejection is a new tune for “Blest are the Innocents” by Sylvia Dunstan. This text is about the Slaughter of the Innocents, when Herod killed every male under two in the hopes of killing Jesus, the prophesied King. So it’s no upbeat ditty, to be sure.

According to an article in Reformed Worship, Dunstan wrote the text with the 10.10.10.10 tune  SLANE (“Be Thou My Vision”) in mind. The editors of Reformed Worship, who are also the editors of Faith Alive’s new hymnal, feel that SLANE’s positive associations will be in tension with the grim subject matter of the text. In the RW article they suggested using SLANE in a minor key arrangement.

I stayed pretty close to SLANE in my new tune. It’s in C minor, which is the relative minor key to SLANE’s Eb major. It has four phrases in 3/4 time that unfold similarly to SLANE. It’s mostly pentatonic, which is what gives SLANE its folk flavor. The main difference is that I never let my melody peak on the high Eb in the third phrase. This might sound like a small deal, but pentatonic melodies are all about the shape of the line. Letting a melody slowly blossom to the highest note of the scale is a way of really making a melody soar. (Keith Getty, I know what you’re doing.) I decided that for a text of this nature, never quite reaching the melodic goal would convey the brokenness of the subject matter. It’s a subtle touch, but I think it works.

You be the judge: MP3, PDF

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos

A Gluttonous Feast of Rejection, Second Course

My second bid for rejection starts with a text by Brian Wren, “We Are Your People.” It’s dense enough of a text that something too groovy wouldn’t fit it comfortably. On the other hand, there’s always a need for tunes that bridge the gap between straight-laced hymn and rockin’ praise tune. What I came up with is chordal enough for a guitarist or even worship band to play, but also even enough that it could be led effectively at the organ. (“Gather Us In,” anyone?)

I like that the tune is more or less modal, yet keeps sliding out of the mode’s center. (You can cast your vote in the comment section as to what key you think the song is in.) What holds things together are the strong sequences that follow a subtle inner logic. They guide your voice to the next pitch even when you don’t understand why. Listen or look and let me know what you think.

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos

A Gluttonous Feast of Rejection, First Course

Why am I like this? I’ve been rejected by Faith Alive more times than a bacon salesman at a vegetarian convention, but here I am submitting four more songs to them. It started with an email that read:

Calling all composers, Work continues on the upcoming hymnal Lift Up Your Hearts: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs to be published by Faith Alive Christian Resources in 2013.  As we finish making our selections we noted a couple of texts that we would like to find new tunes for.

The first text listed is “As In that Upper Room You Left Your Seat” by Timothy Dudley-Smith. The meter is 10.10.10.10, which makes the poetic lines long enough that the syllabic stress can be all over the place. The trick is to write music that is fluid enough to accomodate changes in text stress between verses, but not so much that things turn to mush. So I wrote a melody that focuses on the arc of each phrase, and doesn’t worry too much about meter. In fact, I don’t show any time signatures and I’m thinking very seriously about taking out the bar lines.

Take a look (PDF) or listen (MP3), then give the folks at Faith Alive a call and tell them that their hymnal will be nothing without this tune. But still, I fully expect it to be rejected.

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Congregational Songs Contests

Without Love

Last, but not least, is submission #4, in which Greg gets down with his bad self.

Here’s what Faith Alive was looking for:

1 Corinthians 13: 1-4  and 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 : The memory work from 1 Corinthians appears in two successive units.  I’m kind of thinking rap for this.  Could be cool—and it needs to speak to 4th and 5th graders (the new young teens!)

Here’s the move I busted: MP3, PDF

This is just a demo to get the idea across, but I plan to make the final recording sound a bit like Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” (minus the cursing and violence). I’m guessing Eminem and Rihanna aren’t going to put out a scripture song album any time soon, so if anyone knows Toby Mac’s or KJ-52’s people, let me know. I think this could work for one of them.

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Congregational Songs Contests

Don’t Be Afraid

What would a set of children’s songs be without a round? Submission #3 keeps things from getting square.

Here’s what they asked for:

Mark 5: 36b: This is a very short verse.  Need a catchy chorus-feel that will work well with kindergarten and grade 1

Here’s what I wrote: MP3, PDF

Like “The Colors of the Covenant,” the first half of this is scripture and the second half is application–but this one is in super compact form. My hope is that this song will roll around in kids’ heads when they’re feeling scared. Kind of like “God is Bigger than the Boogie Man,” but without the talking vegetables.