Over the years we’ve offered numerous seminars on songwriting at the WorshipGod conferences, taught primarily by Steve & Vikki Cook and Mark Altrogge, but also by guests that we’ve had at the conference.
I thought it would be helpful to put them all in one place, so here they are. Whatever stage you’re at in your songwriting journey (and we never seem to “arrive”), I think you’ll find something here that will inspire you to be more faithful with your gifts.
Mark, Steve, and Vikki will be returning with more thoughts for songwriters to this year’s WorshipGod conference: The Gathering, Aug. 10-13. I expect the website and registration to be up within a couple weeks.
UPDATE: All the messages and pdfs from our conferences on songwriting can be found by going to this page.
27 Responses
Hey Bob, thanks for putting these all together in one place. I’m really looking forward to listening to them. Any plans for another invite to re-write an old song?
Tim, We’ll probably have another rearrangement contest this year. Thanks for asking.
Fantastic! So glad you grouped these in one place.
I think I’ve listened and relistened to all of these over the years and heartily concur.
I’d throw into the ring Paul Baloche’s incredible book God Songs and if your readers want some more general songwriting advice there’s a lot to be learned from The Beatles (shameless self promotion for my blog! – sorry!!)
looking forward to this years seminars…
Thanks for posting this, Bob. I’m planning a songwriting retreat with my worship team in April and hope to utilize these for my teaching. Helpful.
Bob, this might be covered in these seminars, but my thought has always been this:
There are already so many great song writers that God has gifted out there, whose songs proclaim Christ and a right view of God, why spend the time writing my own songs?
Is that wrong thinking, or would you say that writing songs is not for everybody?
Joey, I’d say both. God is always stirring up fresh ways of communicating the eternal gospel, but I’d also affirm that songwriting isn’t for everybody.
Bob, thank you for your ministry, and especially this post! Not only has it helped me personally, this will help my worship team in preparation for a songwriting event this fall!
I’m so glad I get to listen to these at work, but could you also possibly put up a PDF summary? I’m thinking particularly of “Principles of Songwriting.” Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Jonathan, I’ll try to find the pdfs to post. Thanks for asking!
I’ve already listened to the first recording and I really enjoyed it. :)
It does seem that these resources are for those who are already on their songwriting journey. How do I start from ground zero? What resources would you suggest? (Preferably some free internet resources. )
Do I need to be musically talented to write songs or need to have musically talented friends? I can’t play any instruments. Can I just write words?
What advice would you have about how to start when I’m kinda afraid to start?
Thank you. :)
Amirah, I would pick up the book Å by Paul Baloche and Jimmy & Carol Owens. Your can certainly look for musically talented friends and ask them to set music to your lyrics. Many of the hymns we sing today started out just as lyrics. Also, the two messages Why God Wants you to Writes Songs, and What Will Your Next Song Be? would both be helpful for a new songwriter.
Thanks! I’ll check those out.
Hi! I’m really interested in many of the links you posted, but they all seem to redirect to a 404 “Page Not Found” error on http://www.sovereigngrace.com. Has that site been updated recently, and were these audio files moved somewhere else? I’ve been hunting around but can’t seem to find them. Thanks!
Nathan, thanks for letting me know. We did move our audio files. I’ll see what we can do to update them.
Hi Bob, any chance these audio files have turned up? I listened to these many moons ago but would love to refresh my memory!
Many thanks.
I’ve just found some of these on http://worshipgodconference.com/past-conferences/
Fin, that’s the best place to find the songwriting seminars. Thanks for asking!
Hi Bob, I can’t seem to find the link to some of the conference audios anymore. Is there any way we can have copies of it? Thanks so much
Thanks, Josh. Yes, those links are broken. Go here and search for “songwriting.” http://worshipgodconference.com/past-conferences/