What NOT To Do When Writing Songs For Your Christmas Production This Year

Over the years, I’ve had dozens of musicals sent to me which were an original Christmas production at some church. Upon listening to them, my first reaction was to feel sorry for the poor audience who had to sit through forced rhymes, cryptic lyrics and mangled syntax. The fact is that most people who write songs, never seriously study the craft of songwriting. They mimic what they hear on the radio or try to copy some similar song with no real grasp of the fundamentals of songwriting. (The same thing holds true for praise and worship songs foisted on unsuspecting congregations – but that’s for someone else’s worship blog).

Writing a song without understanding the fundamental craft of songwriting is like looking at a beautifully constructed house and saying “I can build one of those”, when you know nothing about structural support, how to use a miter saw, or which type of fastener to use on the joists. You can just jump in and might get something that resembles a house, but the quality would be questionable at best.

So where do you begin? The first place to start is with the idea or approach. Some ideas are not worth writing. Above all, don’t state the obvious. Don’t let the song describe what the scene was just about. You’ll bore your audience. They want to get inside the character and feel what the character is feeling. You’ve got to look for ways to get beneath the surface. Get down to the emotional level – without being sappy of course. One of my favorite examples of this idea is found in Disney’s musical film, “Newsies”, where one of the newsies, who is an orphan, watches as the other kids go home to their families while he has to spend the night on the street. Sitting there alone, he sings this song to himself. (Here you need to see the lyrics and hear the song:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM0vBaS2KEI  - ignore the typos. I wanted this audio version)

The sheer craft in this song is amazing. It works on so many emotional levels. The kid is lonely, but instead of saying “I’m lonely” or “I wish I had a family to go home to”, he says it in the subtext without actually saying it. “Aren’t you glad nobody’s waiting up for you?”
(Subtext: He really wishes someone cared enough about him to wait up for him.) He’s finding his purpose and fulfillment in his dream of going to Santa Fe. This is what I mean by finding an emotional level or statement in a song. You don’t have to use subtext to get there, but you should get down to the heart of the matter. Once the kids left and he was all alone, the audience was aware of his situation, so for him to sing about being lonely or wanting a family would be just stating the obvious. Unfortunately, it's the obvious that most amateur writers choose to write about, most likely because they haven't been trained to look beyond the obvious as a part of the songwriting craft. They built their musical “house” without any craftsmanship and, though it looks like a song and sounds like a song, it is very uninteresting and unappealing with nothing to emotionally connect the stage character to the audience.

Find a solid idea or approach first - one that connects emotionally with the character. Your song will be much better when you do.

A Brief Introduction

Since this is my first blog entry, I thought it was probably best to start at the beginning and give a little background as to how and why this blog came to be.

I worked for 26 years in the Christian music recording and publishing industry – first as Director of A&R for Brentwood Records, then as Creative Director for Brentwood Benson Music Publishing. During that time I wrote and arranged dozens of cantatas and oversaw the creation and production of hundreds more. In the late 90’s I stared going to New York and seeing musicals on Broadway as well as catching many of the touring shows that came through Nashville. As I would watch these shows and be moved by the music and the stories, I kept asking myself “Why can’t we do this kind of musical in the church”? No cantata (even the ones I had written) ever moved me the way a Broadway-style musical did. That was when the dream was born of writing a Broadway-style musical for the church. As time went on, the dream was expanded from just creating a musical to creating a company that produced dozens of them.

I finally started the process of incorporating and creating Church Musicals, Inc. in August of 2002. In November, I was told that my label, Brentwood Records, would be shut down in January of 2003 and they basically turned me loose at that point to pursue other interests. Within 2 days, I was having lunch with the President and VP of Brentwood Benson Music Publishing and was offered a job. It took 6 months to materialize because the company was being purchased by BMG, but it finally happened. During that 6-month period, I wrote, arranged and recorded my 3^rd Broadway-style musical (I had actually written 2 for Brentwood Benson while I was working for the record company.). This time, I owned it – which was a great feeling. I launched Church Musicals, Inc. with that musical, “The Gift” (based on O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”) and I was off and running.

As time went on and I saw how well the musical had been received, I knew I was on to something and that this would be a unique business that would meet a definite need.. Since I was employed full-time at Brentwood Benson, I put the growth part on the back burner and let it simmer. Fortunately, the company just ran itself with no marketing or promotion on my part. People would just find me on the web and commerce would take place. I often wondered what would really happen if I put time and energy into it. I assumed I would do that when I retired – which was steadily drawing closer.

Finally, in January of this year (2011), I left Brentwood Benson and knew immediately what I would do. I hit the ground running and haven’t looked back. It’s been exciting and exhilarating to see things take shape. Church Musicals is filling a definite void in the church music market and, though Broadway-style musicals are a niche, it’s a great niche for a small entrepreneur. 

I was recently interviewed for an article in the Baton Rouge Advocate and the lament from church music directors who were looking for Broadway-style musical was that there was nothing available from the major publishers. (Hey! I’m over here!!!) Anyway, you get the picture. So, if you or anyone you know is looking for high-quality music theater for the church, check out www.churchmusicals.com . The website is brand new and more musicals are on the way.

Of course, with an internet-based business comes all the necessary social networking necessary to promote it. Thus ....a blog! Hopefully, this will be interesting, helpful, informative and fun. Stay tuned......