twist

Twist music ministry conference in on soon. Dominic Steele is teaching. The music is always great. There will be a free 'J is for Jesus' concert for the kids. It will be a fantastic weekend.

I'm running three of the many workshops: Music for preschoolers (Saturday), Changing the musical culture of your church (Sunday) and Lyric Writing (Monday). I've done the first two for the last couple of years, but lyric writing is brand new. I'm quite excited about it. I'll be talking about things I love: rhyme (in all its wonderful forms), meter, fresh expression, biblical teaching that engages the emotions, processing and theologising our experiences of God so that they can edify others.... Is it just me, or do others find this stuff exciting too?

Andy Judd from Garage Hymnal offered me this little rhyme to use to explain the significance of iambic metre. Read it out loud stressing the capital letters and you'll understand.

i WANT to BE a SYLL –a- BLE,

with EM -pha- SIS on TWO;

but IF you SHOULD put STRESS on ONE:

the LINES will SOUND like POO.

Now try it the other way round…

I want TO be A syll –A- ble,

WITH em -PHA- sis ON two;

BUT if YOU should PUT stress ON one:

THE lines WILL sound LIKE poo.


Cute, hey? Come to Twist and learn to write like that!

Anyone planning to be there?