Category: Demos

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Demos

Come to Me

As you know, I’m a song maven. I search high and low for good songs, and when I find them I make a point of creating accessible arrangements/editions and telling everyone I know about them. Here’s my latest find:

“Come to Me” (PDF, MP3) is a song that began it’s life at the turn of the last century when a woman by the name of Lizzie Akers wrote words for a hymn set to music by J.M. Black (best known for “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder”). 109 years later Michael Bleecker and some folks at The Village Church in Texas wrote new music for Akers’ text and added a chorus.

It’s a simple song, and that’s one of the things I like most about it. Too many modern worship songs are difficult for churches who don’t rely on a praise team exclusively. This one is well-crafted and singable by a wide range of churches. It’s also heartfelt, but substantial. The Church needs more songs that combine the heart and mind.

I arranged the song in a four-part hymn-style. Nothing fancy–just enough to help the song jump the world of chord charts and enter into new church territory.

Categories
Demos Rock and/or Roll

2013 Spring Cleaning: Prayer (God in Heaven Above)

During college, I had a long season of doubt. On Sunday December 6, 1989 at 10:13pm of that season, I wrote this song. What I think is especially interesting in hindsight is that I wrote my song of doubt in the form of a prayer!

Listen to the MP3 while reading the lyrics below:

God in heaven above (or in my heart below)
why keep me waiting for love?

If I were to see you would I know you?
If I were to know you would I love you?
If I were to love you would you love me too?

If I were to strike you woul it hurt you?
If I were to leave you would you follow me?
If I were to hate you what would you do?

God in heaven above (or in my heart below)
why keep me waiting for love?

If you think of me keep me in your prayers —
I need some help with things down here

If you would approach me I’d be listening
When you’re passing by me you can stop with me
When my heart is hungry maybe that is you after all.

If you’re feeling lonely you can talk to me.
I know just how lonesome one can feel.
If you really knew me would you still love me, after the fall?

God in heaven above (or in my heart below)
why keep me waiting for love?

If you think of me keep me in your prayers —
I need some help with things down here.

Categories
Choir Church Demos Psalms

2013 Spring Cleaning: I Cry Aloud to the Lord

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

Sometimes spring cleaning can get downright dirty. In this case, my men’s choir composition based on Psalm 142, “I Cry Aloud to the Lord,” is sung by Greg, Greg, Greg, and Greg. I apologize in advance. On the other hand, it’s pretty fun to hear what I did 20 years ago when I got a hold of a 4 track cassette recorder.

Listen to the MP3. You may want to look at the score to have any idea of what the piece is supposed to sound like!

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos Psalms

Creation’s Chorus (Psalm 148)

Update 12/11/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

I’ve had this song hanging around for over a decade, and due to a contest sponsored by Fuller Seminary (Brehm Center/Fred Bock Inst. of Music) finally decided to polish it up and send it out the door.

Psalm 148 is a call to praise three parts, starting with the heavenly realms, moving to the creatures of the earth, and finally calling all people on earth to praise the Lord. I’m not the first to write a three verse setting of this Psalm, but I’m probably the first to use a hip hop/black gospel style and an alternate third verse that modernizes the kings, princes, young and old of the original Psalm to scientists, theologians, bards and politicians!

This is a one-hour demo (that is, a 2.5 minute demo that took me about an hour to record), so try to be forgiving: MP3. (I know what you’re thinking: “couldn’t you have spent a few more of those 60 minutes tuning your guitar?…”)

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 115: Not to Us, O Lord

My head is in the Hallel Psalms (113-118), so this morning a little praise chorus just sort of began singing in my mind. I had to write it down.

Now, if this were the early 90s I would have a hit rocketing its way up the CCLI charts to shine like a star next to the songs of Graham Kendrick and Geoff Bullock. But this is not the 90s. And I’m still not sure if I’m going to include it in this project.

The trick is that the songs need to be sung reflections on the Psalms that can sit alongside complex instrumental interludes, something like Bach’s chorale preludes. So I don’t know if a sweet little bon bon of praise will be the right thing for this project. I’m happy to be convinced one way or the other. Take a listen and let me know if you think it’s a keeper: MP3, PDF.

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 114: Tremble Before the Lord

A few years ago I wrote a setting of Psalm 114 called “The Hills and Mountains Tremble.” I liked it, especially compared to the settings of Psalm 114 that are available. (There aren’t many.) I didn’t want to use the same setting in my new Hallel Psalm music, but I also didn’t want to close that door entirely, so I wrote something in the same key and with lots of echoes to the previous song. Here is my Taizé-like refrain, a musical summary of the major theme of Psalm 114: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 113: From the Rising of the Sun

I finally decided to bite the bullet and do FAWM. What is FAWM, you ask? It stands for February Album Writing Month, and people who take part make it their goal to write 14 songs in 28 days. You can check out my page here: http://fawm.org/fawmers/gregscheer/.

For this year’s FAWM, I plan to write music around the “Hallel” Psalms (Psalms 113-118). For each Psalm there will be a song (that’s 6 songs), padded by instrumental interludes (7), and interjected Hallelujahs (5), for a total of 18 pieces of music. Part of the reason I decided to take the FAWM challenge this year is that I feel the need for a big project to keep me excited about life. It also coincides with a Cardiphonia project centered on the Hallel Psalms, due at the end of the month.

Now, on to the first post:

The first half of Psalm 113 is lots of beautiful creation imagery, but the second half contains some things that don’t fit as neatly into a modern worship song: God raises the needy from the garbage dump and places them among princes; he gives the barren woman children. I boiled this down to three themes in verse 2: God gives us a place at the table, a place in the kingdom of God, and a place in God’s family.

People at fawm.org get the MP3, but you, dear readers, get the PDF, too!

[Trivia for those who have too much time on their hands: this isn’t the first time I’ve set Psalm 113 to music. A few decades ago I wrote a whole cantata based on the Psalm for a church in Elterlein, East Germany.]

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos

We Are the Children of God

This summer I got an email from one of my blog readers alerting me to an upcoming song contest. (Thanks, Dean!) The contest is run by Grandfather Home for Children.  You really should check out their website, because they do wonderful work with abused and abandoned children.

As the deadline approached, I started looking through my songs to find some things that fit their three categories: traditional hymn, contemporary song, and children’s song. Sure, I found some songs that fit the bill, but I felt that I was taking the easy way out by submitting only old songs. (In Ninjago terms, I wasn’t unlocking my true potential.)

I started to think about the kind of song an abandoned or abused child would want to sing. I didn’t think an orphan would want to sing about being an orphan, even though there are lots of Bible passages about God being the father of the fatherless. Instead, I thought they’d want to sing about belonging and being part of a family. And of course, that’s what we all want.

Then like a bolt of lightening, it hit me: I need to write a simple children’s song about being a child of God. Not only is it cool that God adopts us as children, it’s even cooler that this makes us siblings–blood relations in Jesus. The great thing about this song is that it’s a song we can all sing–we’ve all been adopted into God’s family through Christ–but, of course, it has an even deeper meaning for the context of Grandfather Home for Children.

MP3, PDF

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Demos Global

All of My Heart (Adoração)

Update 1/15/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve taken it upon myself to introduce the Brazilian writing duo of Rubem Amorese and Toninho Zemuner. They write beautiful, singable, meaningful songs. In Portuguese. But with a resolute will and the help of Google translate, I forge on, transcribing and translating some of their songs.

The latest is a simple song called “Adoração.” Because the song is so simple, the translation was very difficult. Every word had to be just right. As a matter of fact, I’d like a little feedback. Here’s the first verse in Portuguese:

Te adorarei, te adorarei
Com todo o meu coração;
Com toda a sede do meu viver,
Com todo o meu ser.

Te adorarei, te adorarei
Com todo o meu coração;
Com toda a minha razão e amor,
Com todo o meu viver.

As you can see, the first two lines of each half verse are identical. Normally, the fourth line would rhyme with the second line, but in this song they’ve bound the two half verses by rhyming the last line in each half verse. This creates an unusually long wait for the rhyme completion for a simple song. I respected the integrity of the original and followed their pattern. At first it didn’t sound right to my ear, but after I spent some time recording it, it began to feel more natural. Yak, yak, yak. See for yourself.

Listen to their original: MP3

Look at the translation: PDF

Listen to my demo at the link above.

Look at the leadsheet at the link above.

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Demos

Open Our Eyes to the Word of Life

Bruce Benedict and Cardiphonia crew are releasing another compilation. This time the theme is liturgical music. I’ll post a link to my song, “The Body of Christ” that will be included on the CD when it’s released in a few days. In the meantime, here is a brand new one that didn’t make the cut: Open Our Eyes to the Word of Life.

It’s a prayer for illumination to be sung before the reading or preaching of scripture. Even though it’s a compact little song, the lyrics include each person of the Trinity and conclude with the idea that we should not only be hearing the Word, we should be doing it, as well. Not bad for 18 measures. The first part of the song can be sung as a round, a cappella or using the chords in measures 21-24. But the likelihood of people singing a new song as a round is low, so I added a “Hallelujah” round after the main text. This can be sung directly following the first part of the song, as it is on the demo, or it can be separated and sung elsewhere in the service.

Give it a try: MP3, PDF