Songs written for the 2021 12 Song Challenge.
April: Spirit Of The Holy God
The challenge for April was to write songs about the Holy Spirit.
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May: Shout Your Praises
In May we were challenged to write songs inspired by a songwriting hero. I had a few ideas, and in the end had to go with the first song I submitted, inspired by Jacob Collier. Another writer from the 12SC group called Phillip Laycock kindly played the electric piano part.
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June: Making All Things New
The June challenge was to write an ‘Ebenezer’ song about the COVID-19 pandemic, after the memorial stone reminding them how God had helped the Israelites. I found it a really tough challenge, but in the end got a song which works quite well.
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July: We Come To Meet With God
For July we were challenged to co-write with someone we hadn’t written a song with before. I had some music in 5/4 time and put a call out for a lyricist not afraid of exotic time signatures. Jonathan Pain came to the rescue, with some simple heartfelt lyrics.
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Several people thought that 5/4 would be tricky for most people to play, so we also did a version in 6/8.
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August: Maker Of The Universe
For August we were challenged to write ‘God songs’; songs of divine agency. Basically putting God at the centre, rather than ourselves. Thre was a ban on the words “I”, “we” etc. I wrote some lyrics pretty quickly, and although I didn’t like them at first after some tweaking a song emerged which is probably OK.
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September: Jubilate lyrics
The September challenge was to take lyrics from the huge Jubilate collection, preferably ones with no existing music, and write music for them. I chose some beautiful words called ‘In The Streets Of Every City’ by Michael Perry and arranged them for an orchestra. Unfortunately die to copyright restrictions I don’t think I’m allowed to post the recording with words online, so here’s a version with just the melody.
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October: Singing the Psalms
As autumn set in we were challenged to put music to a Psalm – either using the words verbatim, or taking a Psalm as inspiration. In particular we were encouraged to tackle the difficult Psalms, for example the ones about hating ones enemies or asking for God’s vengeance! I’m afraid I wimped out of that and wrote a song based on the ‘May the Lord…’ sayings in Psalm 20. It turned out to be more than a little Celtic blessing influenced.
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November: December songs
In this confusingly-named challenge, we had to write songs for December. Either Christmas, or Advent, or general December songs. I had a little guitar line to which I put some simple lyrics, and made this cute Christmas song. The glock solo was a request from another 12 Song Challenger.
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Other songs
These songs were written in 2021 but not submitted for a monthly challenge.
I’ve Been Lost
This was another song written in May for the ‘Hero’ challenge, inspired by Hem.
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Peace
One more for the May ‘Hero’ challenge (it was a good month), again inspired by Jacob Collier.
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Incredible God
Written in August 2021, inspired by the huge soundscapes of fellow 12 Song Challenger Chloe Rose, who was kind enough to provide vocals for this recording.
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We Come To The Table
A jazz-inspired communion song. I had some fun playing horns on this recording.
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Listen When I Cry
A song written for the October Psalms challenge, this lo-fi lament is based on a few different Psalms.
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Your Heart Is For Me
Based on the words from Matthew 10.
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We Have One Father
A song about disunity in the church.
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You Have Been Good To Us
In this recording I sing something different to the words in the leadsheet for line 5 in the chorus. I haven’t quite decided what that line should be, but the leadsheet version is nearer to the final words than the recording.
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