Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Song picks from "have it your way" at TBC

Last weekend, we didn't plan or select any of the music. That's right. We walked onto stage with nothing in hand.

Instead, we took requests from worshipers all three services. It was a little nerve-racking not knowing what was going to come up. But the musicians and lyric tech did a phenomenal job. No crash and burns.

Here's how it played out...

1. I explained what was going on.
2. I invited people to raise their hand for me to call on them to give us the title, lyrics, or melody line of a song they'd like to submit.
3. We paired up the hymns and paired more recent songs together.
4. I had them vote with the applause-o-meter — so we had them vote between (for example) Amazing Grace and The Hallelujah Chorus. Whichever won...we put into our song set for that morning.
5. We took a total of 8 songs...and voted half of them off the island, leaving just 4. If there was a tie, then I kept the 5th song, and we did it at the end of the morning after Jim spoke.
6. I turned to Lisa, she said what key and we launched.

Special thanks to my wife — the musical glue for me, Thad (drums), and Stephanie (vocals). And a special thanks to Matt (lyric tech) who pulled up the songs on the fly and followed nicely.

And here were the results folks...

3rd Hour
Ancient of Days
Open the Eyes of My Heart
Shout to the Lord
Holy, Holy, Holy
Amazing Grace

2nd Hour
Days of Elijah
I'll Fly Away
Awesome God
Revelation Song
In Christ Alone

1st Hour
He Lives
Amazing Grace
Days of Elijah
Everlasting God
Speak O Lord

What's interesting is that I had to PROMPT for an additional hymn in the 2nd and 3rd hour. That surprised me. It also surprised me that Days of Elijah made it in two of the three hours. Sometime soon I'll give you some insight into the song that may surprise you.

2 comments:

  1. I die a little on the inside each time I play "Days of Elijah." I feel like I'm playing in a cheap, Christian Cruise ship band.

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  2. And I was sad that Days of Elijah didn't make it into the 3rd service line up! (my hand was raised for it!) Last week I had two people ask me to pass along to you that they wanted to sing it again! Hope they were in the other two services - and that before you burst everyone's bubble with your insider info, you'll do it for 3rd service, too! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

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