Category: Demos

May We Thirst in You

Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

“I thirst” is the 5th word from the cross and the 5th song in my series of songs on The Seven Last Words. As I contemplated this short sentence, I was struck by a few things. First, Jesus–though God–still felt all the physical needs of being human, in this case, thirst. But that thirst points out a deeper spiritual question: How can the One who described himself as “Living Water” be thirsty?

I was always taught that having a relationship with Jesus would fill the “God-shaped vacuum” in my soul–my journey would be over and all the longings of my heart would be filled. I’m not so sure about that anymore. In fact, it feels like faith is simply the beginning of a journey on which there will be both thirsting and quenching.

The fact that Jesus felt his thirst in the midst of salvation’s work leads me to believe that it’s okay for me to continue to feel restless even as I have peace; unsatisfied, yet fulfilled.

1. Lord, you are the only well
From which living water flows;
But you were thirsty, too.
You were thirsty, too.

O Jesus when we thirst,
May we thirst in you.

2. We drink and the living streams
Well up within our souls,
Yet we are thirsty, too.
We are thirsty, too.

O Jesus when we thirst,
May we thirst in you.

Congregational Songs Demos FAWM 2020

Set Us Free

Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

This fourth song of the “Seven Last Words” project has Jesus speaking some of the most desolate words of the Bible: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34) So why is my musical setting so upbeat? (“Irresistibly catchy” is what my son called it–and I think he meant it in a good way.)

The words Jesus uttered from the cross are actually a direct quote from Psalm 22. Back in Jesus’ time, they didn’t have Psalm numbers, so they just used the first phrase as a title. So Jesus was giving us a clue–“look in Psalm 22.” There we find the Psalmist surrounded by enemies but ultimately saved from the grasp of death.

If Jesus could trust God even on the cross, certainly we can cry out for deliverance even in the middle of pain, doubt, and despair.

We have suffered, but have not been forsaken;
brought low, but not left alone.
We’re surrounded by darkness, despair of the night,
but not without promise of dawn.

We will trust in the Lord.
God will set us free.
For the death that surrounds us is rising to life.
You will set us free.
You will set us free.

Stay with us in our darkest night
Stay, Lord, stay. Lord, please stay by our side.

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Demos FAWM 2020

Love One Another

Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

#3 in the “Seven Last Words of Christ” series. The Gospel of John tells the story this way: “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27)

It is touching that Jesus was taking care of his mother even while he was dying, but it is not surprising; John’s Gospel is all about love, from the famous “for God so loved the world” to the new commandment of the last supper, “love one another.” So a song about these last words of Christ should make us consider who our family is and how we can love them best.

Here is your son.
Here is your mother.
Here is your sister, father, and brother.
Hear Christ’s command:
love one another.
Love one another.

Choir Church Congregational Songs Demos FAWM 2020

By Your Side

Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

“By Your Side” is song #2 in my Seven Last Words of Christ series. This one is based on Luke 23:43 “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” We understand what these words mean when Jesus speaks them to a criminal dying next to him on a cross, but what do they mean for us today? In this song, we respond to Christ’s words with dedication: Yes, Lord, we want to be with you in life and death, in paradise or cross.

May we remain with you,
Lord, when the day is o’er.
For we desire nothing more
than to be by your side,
than to be by your side,
O Lord.

Church Congregational Songs Demos FAWM 2020

Forgive Us

Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

This Lent, Pastor Nate is preaching a series on the seven last words of Christ. I’ve committed to writing a short song to follow each of the seven sermons. The first is Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” With each of these songs, my goal is not to restate the words of Jesus, but to let people reflect on them. For this passage, I thought that a simple response of confession would be most appropriate.

1. Forgive us. Forgive us
for the sins that we have done
and the ones whom we have harmed.
Oh, forgive us. Forgive us.

2. Forgive us. Forgive us
for the ways we’ve caused you pain
again and again.
Oh, forgive us. Forgive us.

3. Forgive us. Forgive us
for the sins we won’t forgive
and the sins we won’t forget.
Oh, forgive us. Forgive us.

Church Congregational Songs Demos

All Who Have Ears

There is a recurring refrain in the book of Revelation: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” As Fuller Avenue Church worked through the letters to the churches of Revelation this fall I kept thinking that someone should write a song based on that passage. It’s the perfect prayer of illumination.

Three months, two false starts, and one new computer later, I decided that I should be the person to write that song!

As you can hear from the above demo, the song can be sung simply–a cappella or with guitar or piano accompaniment. But it can also be sung in canon, with as many as five voices singing simultaneously. (A singable chorus in five-part canon that doesn’t sound stodgy is no small feat. I hope you appreciate what I’ve done for you!)

If you can’t believe your ears, I invite you to look at the PDF.

Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Demos

Lead On, O King Eternal

Necessity is the mother of invention, and in the case of this Sunday’s service, I needed an arrangement of “Lead On, O King Eternal” for worship band. Henry Smart’s tune is triumphant, bordering on a march. That doesn’t work well with pop music instruments. So I softened the march rhythm and gave it a bit of a groove with a jangly electric guitar line a la early Elvis Costello. It might be the perfect blend of old and new; it might be an awkward marriage of substance and style. I will report back on how it works.

Interested in downloading the leadsheet? Go here.

Art Music Demos

Proof of Concept

I’ve been a fan of M.C. Escher for a long time. One of the things that fascinates me about his art is how he meticulously worked out his tesselations on graph paper before incorporating them into a finished print. These “proof of concept” sketches were a necessary step in creating his mind-boggling works of art.

In the same way, I’ve had a number of Escheresque musical ideas that have been simmering on the back burner for some time. Yesterday, I was able to record a quick demo–a draft that would allow me to figure out some of the logistics for a later piece. In the end, it didn’t work. So be it. That’s how one learns.

Can anyone guess the musical concept I was trying to implement?

NB. The name of this experiment is “tempo canon.”

Choir Church Demos Live

Jesus, Be Enough – SATB Choir, Piano, and opt. Flute

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date November 14, 2019
No Comments on Jesus, Be Enough – SATB Choir, Piano, and opt. Flute

Last year I attended a songwriting retreat that focused on writing Christmas songs for too often overlooked themes. Great writers like Liz Vice, Matt Papa, Eddie Espinosa, and Latifah Alattas applied their skills to theological ideas like the union of heaven and earth in the person of Christ and the dark side of the Christmas story such as the slaughter of the innocents and the flight to Egypt.

It was at this retreat that I wrote “Jesus, Be Enough.” In the year since, I’ve wondered what this song wants to be when it grows up. Now, just in time for Christmas, it has decided that it would like to be a choral anthem! Above, you can listen to a rough demo I recorded at choir rehearsal this evening. To download it for your choir you can visit my website: https://gregscheer.com/product/jesus-be-enough/.

Church Congregational Songs Demos Retuned hymn

The Song of Moses and the Lamb

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date August 30, 2019
No Comments on The Song of Moses and the Lamb

The sermon at Fuller this week comes from the story of Moses’ birth and adoption by Pharoah’s daughter (Exodus 2:1-10), exploring Moses as a foreshadowing of Christ. As I looked for appropriate songs to sing, I came across a once-popular hymn by William Hammond called, “Awake and Sing the Song.” This hymnic rabbit trail led to the original 1745 publication of Hammond’s poem that featured no less than 14 verses! The rabbit trail continued to Revelation 15:2-4 in which the harp-wielding saints sing the “song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb.” Pure worship planning gold.

The Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration of the Lamb (1425-29)

Naturally, I felt the need to write a new tune for it–it’s who I am. I knew the text called for a tune as rough as a sea chanty, as epic as a murder ballad, and as joyously raucous as a shape-note hymn. What I came up with is a pentatonic melody that is equal parts “What Wondrous Love” and “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” I’m quite pleased with it. (And that’s not always the case after singing a dozen takes of a new melody while recording a demo.) I was also pleased that I was able to work in my favorite phrase from the original hymn, “we, his miracles of grace.”

The one remaining question: does it need a chorus? Musically, it feels complete without it, but thematically we are being called to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, but we never do. The actual song appears in Rev 15:3-4:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

I have a chorus drafted. If enough people request it, I’ll add it.