Well, 7in7 was tough this year. In case you don’t know, 7in7 is an exercise some of my friends started in which we write seven songs in seven days. You have to start from scratch every day. And you have to finish. It’s a really draining process, but I did better than in years past.
This year was hard because I was leading worship on Sunday, it was my one week home in the middle of tour so I really needed to be plugged in with the family, and I got sick halfway through. Still, I ended up with 5 mediocre songs, two good ones, and one really cool piano part that I’ll save for later.
The interesting thing this year was where the songs came from. One came from studying that I’ve been doing for almost half a year getting ready for this song. So that makes sense. One came straight from the Bible but to finish it, I ended up doing a lot more studying on how the Bible describes a man who is blessed. Another was a worship response to a verse in the Bible. One was a response to a very difficult study my wife and I are doing right now. It ended up digging into topics that I would have never attempted to write a song about. All in all it was once again an awesome experience.
If you’re a songwriter, keep track and we’ll announce the next time we do it. Maybe you can take the journey with us.
Todd
Love this exercise! But I’ll decline from joining in next time. I appreciate music, but know very little about it…sort of like computers.
Hi Todd, What an exciting journey (and challenge)! I am the music director at my church, and my youngest son sings lead vocals and plays acoustic guitar. Although I have two music degrees, I have never been successful at writing music. My son, on the other hand, just turned 17, and churns out an amazing amount of music! He writes with a depth of passion and sense of urgency reminiscent of the late Keith Green. Two years ago, our church did a Christmas collage and used your remarkable work, “Do You See What I See”. He fell in love with your music and has been an enormous fan ever since! I pray that he can accept the challenge the next time it comes around, and I especially pray that he can meet you some day. Blessings!