What CCM Means to Me, Part 3

What CCM Means to Me, Part 3

Combining Two Loves into Songwriting

So I was a pretty decent writer and a poet in school, and I was learning jazz improvisation in the school jazz band. Both of these are creative endeavors on their own, but I considered songwriting, which combined the two things I loved to do.

My First Song

My first song was written to the tune of the theme song for the TV show M*A*S*H*, and my lyrics were about my idea of being God for a day, some of the things I do. I started writing other songs, but they weren’t that good.

Then I bought a songwriting book called Words and Music by Jimmy and Carol Owens, who were Christian songwriters. That book gave me a lot of tips lyrically, but musically I needed to learn more, especially music theory.

I knew a little about making melodies having played piano, but I didn’t know how they put the right chords in place to help their melodies. So I tried to figure out where I could learn that.

Playing in a Group of Musicians around a Piano

When I was a freshman in high school, I auditioned on trombone for a traveling music group sponsored by a bible college and got accepted. So the summer before my sophomore year of high school I got to rehearse for a week and then travel with a music group for ten days.

It was a really good opportunity for me to be around other Christians and musicians my age. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and we all had a really good time.

We rehearsed for several hours throughout the day. When we had free time, sometimes we just gathered around an old piano upstairs in the cafeteria and sang CCM songs together.  Each person would take turns playing and singing a song they knew and everyone else would join in.

When I got a chance to play my song, it was a good feeling to finally have others who appreciated the song I loved to sing and play. I think they were impressed and accepted me even more. I felt humbled yet proud, rewarding that I had worked so hard on that song in order to be a part of that moment.

My Director, A Songwriter

The best part about that experience was the director of my group wrote the songs we were playing. I got to know him, his story, and some of the songwriting and music arranging process.

I was really inspired that someone was actually making a living singing, playing piano, and writing songs!

Writing Original Songs

When I got home, I started writing more songs on my living room piano, and started performing them in my house as much as I could. I did this all the way through high school, whenever I was home from college, and after I graduated college. I wrote a few songs in high school and a lot more in college.

Writing Modern Hymns to Scriptural Themes

I was studying the Bible and so wrote a lot of Biblically based songs out of my life experiences. I aspired to be a modern day hymn writer for the church, or at least someone who would write music to lyrics from scripture and scriptural themes.

I sang one of my songs at a talent show for high school students. It was a rush of nerves and excitement as I released it to them! I got several compliments on it afterwards. That really helped me realize I had something special there! So I kept writing and writing.

Writing Songs in the Practice Room

Honestly, I spent a lot of time writing and working on my songs in the practice room instead of practicing trombone, piano or vocals as a music ministry major. So I wasn’t as good at those other things as I should have been.

However, I don’t regret the time I wrote songs. I needed to do that to get better at it because that’s what I really wanted to do with my life: songwriting!

Writing Melodies to Scripture

One time I wrote melodies to several memory verses for a Psalms class as an opportunity to stretch myself. Those scripture choruses really helped me through tough and lonely times in my life while I was struggling to find my place in this world.

 

More to Come

I’ve got more to this thrilling story coming up next month, so please come back again! Also, I am working on self-publishing a book of short stories about my first summer as a teenager. It will cover a lot of similar cross-cultural type themes that I have covered in this blog so far, and beyond.  It should come out a week or so before Christmas, so be looking for that as well.

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Thanks. Guitar Shane.