Uncommon Singing

Well here it is my second try as I didn't save the last post I was half done and disappeared in blogger land.   Something about being a hack on my wife's blog doesn't really make for efficient use of time as my experience and knowledge level of blogger software is very limited,  so let's try again.    My wife the flowerlady is very creative in many disciplines, eg.  scrapbooking, quilting, painting, drawing, writing, songwriting, drama, dance, speaking, teaching, mothering etc.   However, I'm very singular in my creativity and that is mostly in the art of making music.   So, as she invited me to blog for Sunday her travel day back from Allume, here is my gift to you her readers on her behalf of something I really enjoy and hope you will too.

My topic is uncommon singing, and in particular it's uncommon in that you are not singing someone else's song, you are going to sing a new song to the Lord.   You are going to express your heart to the Lord through song using simple chords to accompany yourself.   To do this first get to your instrument either guitar of piano or find someone who can play these if you can't, and if you haven't learned yet I'll give you piano lesson basic for playing chords to spontaneous singing.

    C         D            E            F             G           A            B

So you are going to play to chords on the piano to accompany yourself, the C and the F chord.   Now for a little theory lesson.  Most songs are made up from scales, and in particular the major scale, unless you are playing jazz.   A scale is a set of 7 notes that repeat themselves going from low to high that are certain distance in pitch apart that is consistent.  
The C scale is played on all white keys so it is the easiest to start with to play.   Chords are made of 3 notes for basic ones that play every other note on white keys in key of C starting on each note.   (Note if you are a guitar player use D and G as F chord is a pain.  This is the one, four, progression based on D scale.)

                                                                                            

So a C chord starts on first note of scale C and is played C   E   G

The F chord is built on the 4th note of C Scale which is played F  A   C.   Note the C is not shown above B on diagram but on a piano C will apear above B on the piano.    

So on your piano middle C is the C that is under the label of the piano manufacturer in the middle of the piano above the keys.   Play C   E and G with your thumb, middle and pinkey fingers on Right hand (RH),  using your left hand play a C below middle C 8 white keys below to play bass using your left hand thumb.       Now you are  going to play your chord in the classic rhythm of pop music.   You are going to count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, and repeat, 1 and 2 and, etc....   You are going to play the C chord (CEG) with your RH and the C below with your LH thumb, on beat 1 and the and of 2 and hold chord down inbetween.    So   1 and 2 and  3 and 4 and.    Then you are going to move to the F chord and play F A C with your RH thumb middle and pinkey and the F below the C you played with your pinkey, playing on 1 and the and of 2 and holding down the notes inbetween.   You can use the right pedal on your piano to make the chord notes smoother together and hold, lifting up the pedal everytime you change from C to F chord and F to Chord.    This movement from C to F and F to C and back to C to F is called a chord progression and one of the simplest progressions at that called a I  IV (one four) progression because the chords are built on the 1st and 4th notes of the scale.    

So now you have your accompaniment playing C and F chords on beat one and the and of 2 using sustain pedal to connect and hold the notes lifting up inbetween each chord, and now you start making up melodies in the heart to the Lord.    Simply turn your heart and singing voice to the Lord and sing to Him how you feel about Him, sing your thanksgiving to him, sing about the character qualities your love about Him.   Eg.   You are faithful, you are awesome,  you are forgiving,   You are compassionate.      Or sing verbs you feel towards him,  I love you Lord, I worship you Father,   Jesus I love you because you first loved me.   And if you are stuck for praise words and feeling words take the words of Scripture in the psalms and sing them to your C and F chord progression.    Sing and make music to the Lord and enjoy Him, because He really does enjoy hearing your voice and your love expressed through music.   If anyone knows how to upload music to a blog let me know, as I could share some examples of myself and my students doing spontaneous singing of the scriptures if anyone is interested.  It's a lot of fun both making up the rhythms for the chord progressions and the chords themselves as well as come up with the melodies on the fly.   

Blessings on you and your households as you make music, and in some cases just a joyful noise to the Lord today!

Firemusicman, hacking the flowerlady's blog