Making New Songs Stick A SongCycle Excerpt
Chapter 19 New Songs, Part Two A Process to Make New Songs Stick If you re skipping around and didn t read the last chapter, here s the summary: Creating a connection between your church and the new song is like giving a great gift to a really great person. Add 3,500 more words, and that s pretty much Chapter 18. At the heart of it is intentionality. While that chapter was all about why we need to be intentional as we introduce new songs, this is where we get down and dirty with the how. By the end of this chapter, you ll have a solid plan to consistently and intentionally launch new songs and make each one stick. In Chapter 9, The Learn Phase, we talked about the five steps to intentional connection: Selection Introduction Teaching Repetition Movement 113
In the last chapter, the metaphor of gift-giving further explained the selection, introduction and teaching steps. Between those two chapters are plenty of strategy and theory. Now, let s focus on tactics the practical steps to make a new song stick. To make it even more practical, the workbook includes The New Song Launch List. You can access that from Appendix B. Selection As a worship leader, you understand the importance of choosing the right new song for your church. This chapter assumes that you have picked out what you think is the right new song. But let's face it. We've all selected what we thought was a winner only to have it fall flat with the congregation. More than once I've heard an "incredible" new song at a concert or conference and rushed home to implement it. Whatever magic or mojo that song had in the other setting was gone when it got to my church. Songs are like that. Context and culture matter. You need to assess whether a new song will work great in your setting with your people. Now, before I go public with a new song, I like to take a few steps to make sure it is going to connect: 114 1. Spend time with it. Live with the song for a while. Play it while you drive. Strum it on your acoustic guitar or bang it out on the piano. Envision your congregation singing it. Is it sing-able for them? This time is also important for you to internalize the song. You ll be better equipped to teach others when the time comes. 2. Solicit feedback. Run the song past a few key people to see if it resonates with them. Seek a variety of people ones who will be honest. Don t just play it for those you know will love it, or tell you they do. If you have a submission or approval process (i.e., all new songs need to be approved by elders or pastor), that needs to happen now. Don t
invest too much time and energy into the song before you get approval. 3. Introduce it to your team. Look for ways to get your team to experience the song. E-mail them a link to the song on YouTube or other online source. Take five minutes out of a rehearsal to play it for them. Once you ve whetted their appetites, get them the chart and recording at least one or two weeks before you begin rehearsing it. Encourage them to learn the song by the time they come to that rehearsal. 4. Expose your congregation to it. As your team is getting to know the song, you ll want acquaint your congregation with it. Here are a couple of ways to do that: Play the recording during pre- and post-service times, just to get people familiar with it. This method is more passive and subconscious. When you first introduce it, people won t say, Yeah, you played this two weeks ago as I was walking in. Hopefully, though, it will have created a little familiarity and openness to the song. Take it a step further and play it live during the pre-service time for several weeks. This is a great tactic, and not just for exposing the song to your congregation. To find out more about playing new songs during the pre-service, check out Appendix D: Five and a Half Tips for Teaching New Songs. Once you re confident that this song is right for your congregation, you will want to make sure you get the right box (the arrangement, key, form, and tempo) and great wrapping paper (excellence, art, beauty, musicianship). We covered this in Chapter 18, and the worksheet will help you get these pieces into play. Introduction Now you are ready to officially introduce the new song to your church. During this time, you will want to think about building anticipation and a great presentation. In most cases, that means putting the song in front of your congregation in a non-participatory way. That is, don't throw it right into a worship set the first time you ever do it in the service. 115
Anticipation & Presentation Anticipation actually starts when you expose your congregation to the song via the pre-service, for example. But remember, that is fairly passive and most people won't begin to connect with the song until you intentionally put it in front of them. The goal in this introduction phase is to make them want to hear it again. And who knows, they might even want to sing along with it. Here are a few great places in the worship service to present a song. Not all of them may fit your context, but one or two will. 1. Opening Song Open the service with it, if the song fits as an opener. Since you are just presenting it and not actively looking for participation, you will want to keep people seated. 2. Special Music/Offertory Most churches do some version of "special music." What makes it "special" in some churches is often not clear. The point of it usually is for people to be edified or ministered to in some way. This is a good place to present a new song. You can tell people that you will be incorporating it into worship in the coming weeks, if you want. 3. Communion Many of the new songs we choose (hopefully) will include some retelling or celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. Consider using your communion celebration to present a Christ-focused song. Oftentimes during the preparation or passing of the bread and cup, it is fitting to play a new song that people can just listen to. If the song has more of a celebratory feel, consider closing the communion celebration with it. 4. Message Prep or Closing/Response Occasionally, I will have a new song slated for introduction that fits with my pastor's message. I will either tee-up his sermon or close it out 116
with that new song. Again, it's presented as a ministry song something people listen to as a way of preparing for the message or reflecting on it afterwards. In Appendix D, you can get more ideas and practical advice on how to use new songs in these settings. The New Song Launch List helps you to plan out exactly how you will present a new song for the first time. Teaching & Repetition The next two steps to making a song stick are teaching and repetition. By now, you understand the concept of high rotation for a new song. A big part of teaching anything is repetition. Worship songs are no exception. However, besides repetition, I will also literally teach a song. It might go something like this: "Last week as we celebrated communion, the worship team sang a new song for you. This song is a powerful expression of our need for the cross of Jesus. We'll begin singing that song regularly as we worship together through music. But before we do, I want to take a moment for us to learn it as a congregation." At that point, I "teach" the song and invite the congregation to try it with me. If you are in an attraction model church or a highly formal setting, this may not work. But in most churches, people will welcome the gesture. It says, "It matters to us that you're an active part of our worship gathering." If this is intriguing to you, you'll definitely want to check out Appendix D, which goes into more details on how to teach a song during the worship service. After intentionally teaching the song, the only power tool you have left for getting the song to stick is repetition. As you work through creating this SongCycle method for your church, you will begin to determine how often new songs get repeated. The New Song Launch List will also help you spell out the early repetition of a new song. Movement The next step to making a song stick is to move it forward in the cycle. The stickiness achieved by high rotation can be lost if the song is rotated 117
too long. We talked about this at length in Parts 2 and 3, but it's worth a reminder here: don't let the song overstay its welcome in the Learn Phase (Tier One). Launching Your New Song Below are the questions and checklists that you will encounter when you download the New Song Launch List worksheet. It s part of the workbook that you can access in Appendix B. For most of you, it will be helpful to chew on this list now before you actually start the process. (A few of you have already read the Quick Start Guide, downloaded the workbook and are going to town on creating your own system. It's a wonder that you're even reading a page this far into the book.) The worksheet helps you to think through all the logistics of introducing a new song, including the when. Determining actionable steps with deadlines is a potent tool to making things happen. It helps us with two problems we can encounter when introducing new songs. One, it's tempting to speed up the process because we want to launch a song now. Two, it's easy to let the process slide and not walk the new song through the steps. You re more likely to stick with a plan and see results if you set deadlines for each step. Here is the content of the worksheet to get you thinking about how to organize this step: New Song Launch List The Purpose: Why is the song a part of our catalog? What need does it fill musically and thematically? Projected Date to Begin Rotation: Working backwards from Begin Rotation Date, what steps will I take to build anticipation? Include dates when applicable: How/Where will I first present this? 118
Opening Song Special Music/Offertory Communion Message Prep or Closing/Response Other: Projected Date: Before presenting this, how will I expose the congregation to this song? (Check which apply) Pre-service/Post-service playlist - Dates: Pre-service Performance - Dates: When/how will I introduce this song to the team? (Check all that apply) Burn a CD of the song Dates: E-mail a link to the song on YouTube or other online/cloud source - Dates: Introduce the song during rehearsal(s) Dates: Provide charts and a recording, physical or digital - Dates: Do I have the following things ready before I introduce the song to my team? Trusted feedback has been gathered on the song The songs has been approved by leadership (if applicable) My own personal practice and listening - I'm ready to teach it to the team 119
Default key(s): Default form/song map: (e.g.: intro, v1, v2, ch, v3, ch, br, ch, ch, outro) Charts in the right key that match the default form I ve created or purchased a reference recording (mp3 or CD)* Charts & recording are ready to be distributed either hard copies such as a CD, or digital copies (PCO, Dropbox, etc.) On the first week of rotation: Where is the best placement for the song? Will I teach it? How? When? Do I have musicians scheduled that will help create a great first impression? High repetition after introduction How many times will I schedule it the first month? Specific dates (if known): How many times will I schedule it the second month? Specific dates (if known): *CCLI s Rehearsal License allows you to make copies of CDs or distribute mp3s legally. Be legal. It s the right thing to do for the songwriters and publishers that bring us our music. 120