An attempt at songwriting

Many of you who have talked to me in the past year have heard me complain (most likely several times) about the fact that most of the writers of worship leaders are male. Being female, it's really annoying to have to transpose everything into a key that doesn't make me screechy. I have whined about this for a long time (sorry to all the recipients of this whine, I'll try not to repeat myself so many times).

But recently something has occurred to me. I am a female. I am a worship leader (well, a worship leader in the works, anyway). I have a decent theory and composition background.

I am not allowed to whine if I don't do anything about it. So I'm doing something about it.

Also, I think it's really cool for a church to have some music that is indigenous--rather than just singing what everyone else is singing all the time. There's definitely a place for songs that everybody knows, but at the same time, I think there's a place for a congregation to have some music that expresses what's going on in that community.

So I'm trying.

This song is called "Glory." It's based (loosely) on the liturgy of the second movement of the Ordinary of the Mass. The basic concept of the movement is "Gloria in excelsis Deo"--Glory to God in the highest--and then it goes on to list a bunch of reasons that we give God glory.

Anyway, I hope to actually write 5 songs that can be used together--kind of a worship mass--based on the concept of each movement. More on this to come.

For now, here's my first attempt.