Joys of Co-Writing

Tonight I couldn't go to sleep. Well, not yet, anyway. I just couldn't settle in without reflecting on an awesome blessing God has graciously given me recently.

I've lived most of my life within the framework of serving on a team. Can't recall Dad or Moma ever calling our family a team, but that's how we lived. Working together, at home & Dad's business, we learned quickly to give and take (mostly to give!!!!). I can now see that the Lord was equipping me, not only for having a family of my own, and for ministry, but also to learn to give-and-take in this so-called songwriting.

The Father amazes me again and again...for instance, here's an email I sent Tim Juillet August 10th, 2008:

I'd love to see what the Lord does, Tim. I'm definitely stronger on lyrics than music. Have you co-written before? Tell me about yourself, and what your hopes and dreams are, before the Lord.

Let's commit to honor the Lord in all we do and say...that's wayyy more important than any song we could ever craft!

There are some guidelines I have for co-writing...here are a few:

1) Write what you know, from personal experience or at least what you've learned from others;)
2) If it doesn't soar, let's put it on the back burner. Maybe re-visit later.
3) Be tender-hearted, but thick-skinned. Brutally honest.
4) When we decide a song is finished, neither the lyric nor music can be used with another song.
5) Keep each other updated. Ex: we don't want to both enter the same song into a contest. Waste of time and money. (and one of us waste a song that could have been heard)
6) I hate deadlines. The few songs I've tried to get demo-ed for a deadline (contest) were rushed.
7) Pray, pray, pray.
8) If I send you a lyric idea, I will tell you if it's complete, as is, or if it's a seedthought....there are some pieces I work on for months, and I believe there's not much room for tweaking (too dear to my heart.) Others, I'll say tweak or toss. Sometimes there may be one phrase, or even one word that is "worthy" of building a song on. I'm ok with that. Totally!!!
9) The rights to the song are 50/50 if there are 2 writers. If we bring in another writer, it would be 33.34/33.33/33.33 ;) and so on. (I have one song that had 4 of us writing!!! arrrrgh very hard, but worth every bit of it!)

There are other courtesies I haven't covered, I'm sure:) but that's it, off the top of my head.

About me:
I've been married to the love of my life for 23 yrs. Barry is pastor of adult ed at Houston's Second Baptist Church, North campus. We have 9 kids, ages 6-22. Although I've only been writing for 3 yrs, I believe the Lord is requiring me to write! It's for my spiritual livelihood, to be able to express the greatness of God in the universal language of music. I want to encourage and strengthen the body of Christ, and subtly teach His character through words and music. It's my desire to reach out to those who need to know that there is hope for today. And I believe the Father wants to reclaim some of His sheep who have wondered away from Him. If a song He puts in my heart can be an instrument, I want to be obedient in writing every day.

I'm affiliated with BMI and CCLI. And I'm a grandma:) 5 wk old Jacob is my tiniest heartthrob!!!

Now it's your turn!

God bless you, and I mean that!!!
:),
eva
ps If you have a lyric idea, give me a shout! I'll get started on it. If not, I can send you a few ideas.

Well, we didn't really talk much until toward the end of September. But God then met with us, and we're building a song that lifts up the Lord Jesus...what could be better? My part (lyric) is pretty much done, as I've hesitantly sent bits and pieces to Tim. It's been an excellent experience, and I can hardly wait to hear the finished product!!! I'll share the link once it's ready! Yay, God!!!

btw, here's some of Tim's work...beautiful music, for our beautiful Lord!!! I pray you can meet with the Lord as you listen/watch:

www.youtube.com/timjuillet


PS: Toward the end of writing our song, we were down to a very special part of it, and Tim wrote this:

Like you might go into a very spirit filled church, & the music minister might pray a prayer that uses direct reference to s scripture. It might be cool to find a scripture that specifically will work here...? hmmmm...

Well, that wasn't hard!!! I go into a very spirit filled church every week. And our pastors & other leaders have no problem proclaiming the Truth as they pray. (And God led me to the right passages to use there...thank You, Lord!!!)