Want to Become a Better Songwriter? Here’s Help

songwriting_small_laura_callaghan_loOver 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.

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27 Responses to Want to Become a Better Songwriter? Here’s Help

  1. Tim Bolognone February 11, 2011 at 12:17 PM #

    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?

    • Bob Kauflin February 11, 2011 at 3:31 PM #

      Tim, We’ll probably have another rearrangement contest this year. Thanks for asking.

  2. Bobby Gilles February 11, 2011 at 1:05 PM #

    Fantastic! So glad you grouped these in one place.

  3. Matt Blick February 11, 2011 at 2:31 PM #

    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…

  4. David Santistevan February 11, 2011 at 4:25 PM #

    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.

  5. Joey February 13, 2011 at 10:05 PM #

    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?

    • Bob Kauflin February 14, 2011 at 9:13 AM #

      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.

  6. JC September 9, 2011 at 10:46 AM #

    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!

  7. Jonathan Edwards March 29, 2015 at 1:06 PM #

    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!

    • Bob Kauflin March 30, 2015 at 4:43 PM #

      Jonathan, I’ll try to find the pdfs to post. Thanks for asking!

  8. Amirah July 11, 2015 at 4:34 AM #

    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. :)

    • Bob Kauflin July 11, 2015 at 10:32 PM #

      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.

      • Amirah July 12, 2015 at 1:44 AM #

        Thanks! I’ll check those out.

  9. Nathan January 27, 2016 at 12:42 PM #

    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!

    • Bob Kauflin January 27, 2016 at 2:38 PM #

      Nathan, thanks for letting me know. We did move our audio files. I’ll see what we can do to update them.

      • Fin Langman June 16, 2016 at 3:43 AM #

        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.

      • Fin Langman June 16, 2016 at 5:01 AM #

        I’ve just found some of these on http://worshipgodconference.com/past-conferences/

        • Bob Kauflin June 16, 2016 at 10:19 AM #

          Fin, that’s the best place to find the songwriting seminars. Thanks for asking!

  10. Joshua Rafols December 7, 2017 at 2:38 AM #

    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

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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