The story behind the song arrangements
This week we’ve released 13 new MultiTrack backing tracks. Andy has already written about the challenges faced with taking recordings made for worship albums and radio play and re-shaping them for the local church but here we share a more detailed look at what we’ve done with each of the new recordings. Click on the audio arrow below each description to listen to a 30 second sample.
Break Every Chain (Jesus Culture / United Pursuit) – William Reagan
This is one we had to think about very carefully arrangement wise. Some of the recorded versions of this track are 7 or 8 minutes long and would have too many repeated sections for congregations without huge numbers of people. So the song is still 6 minutes long but we’ve paid lots of attention to the sections you can jump around, so there’s opportunity to do each song part big or little, short or long. Super chord chart here.
God’s Great Dance Floor – Martin Smith, Chris Tomlin, Nick Herbert
Here’s a song that’s actually really difficult to do live without a backing track! We’ve put this one in G to make it more singable and easier to play too. Plus, to make the vibe even happier we’ve majored on the disco bassline. Enjoy! Super chord chart here.
Heart of Worship (When the Music Fades) – Matt Redman
This was actually one of our favourite tracks of this batch to produce. Although the song is 17 years old now it’s still one of the most used modern worship songs across the globe. The original version was very stripped back so we’ve added some really musical ‘hand in glove’ parts to create a full band dynamic in some parts of the song without loosing the gentleness of the theme. Super chord chart here.
Love the Lord – Lincoln Brewster
This song has a pretty tight arrangement anyway so we’ve kept it fairly close to the original, and still in the key of G, but with it being multi track, it does mean you can solo any part which makes it much easier to isolate and copy. Super chord chart here.
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) (Hillsong) – Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, Salomon Ligthelm
This is another song that’s often too long for most congregations in it’s original recorded format so we’ve made it more succinct at just under 5 minutes, but still kept the wide ranging dynamics. So by jumping around the sections in the player you can do a big long version, a shorted quitter version or anything in between. Super chord chart here.
Overcome – (Jeremy Camp) – Jon Egan
This is a really useable congregational song with a wide range of big and little dynamic moments. Again the original is quite long so we’ve made a little more succinct but with plenty of opportunity to jump around big and little sections to make it usable for your church. Super chord chart here.
Abide With Me – a new version of the classic hymn
Whilst the tune remains the same, the chords have been rearranged by Greg Jong of Grand Vanity (who also produced this track in a slightly darker band based arrangement that creates some lovely tension that underscores the theme and lyrics really well). We’d definitely suggest you get hold of a copy of the Super Chord Chart for this song as a number of the chords modulate outside the key.
Beautiful Things – Michael and Lisa Gungor
We kept pretty much to the standard arrangement here structure wise but added a few more electric and acoustic guitar parts to widen the dynamic towards the end of the song. Super chord chart here.
Purify My Heart (Refiner’s Fire) (Vineyard) – Brian Doerksen
Another older song that still remains very popular today. We’ve tried to put together a very musical band based version with some nice, usable instrument parts and easy to follow tag sections. Super chord chart here.
This is Our God (Hillsong) – Reuben Morgan
This is one of our favourite Hillsong tracks right now in terms of usability. We’ve kept it in E and added lots of instrument layers so you can change the dynamic simply by muting some of the parts for lots of flexibility. Super chord chart here.
Waiting Here For You – Jesse Reeves, Chris Tomlin, Martin Smith
For this song again some of the recorded versions are very long so we’ve made the arrangement slightly more succinct to make it usable for small congregations (4 mins 42) but crucially we’ve changed the key to D to make it singable for men and woman without having to use the octave jump in the big sections! Super chord chart here.
Your Great Name – Michael Neale, Krissy Nordhoff
We’ve kept this song in the original key of Bb as it’s pretty singable as it is but altered the intro and outro sections to make it more usable for a live church band. Super chord chart here.
You’re Worthy of My Praise (I Will Worship) – David Ruis
One more classic worship song here that we didn’t have in the catalogue before. We’ve kept it in G to make it easily singable and playable but we’ve recorded it with some loops and electronic elements alongside the live band instruments to give it slightly more modern feel. Super chord chart here.
