Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Another Song of Mine

Well, here's the next one.

May the Sound of Thanksgiving He Hear
It may be able to be said that I'm doing the song a disservice by putting it out in early "rough" form. Let's not fret over it. This is my "information home" and this is who I am. There are more useful things to do than to take time to socialize with others on any less of a personal level. I am not a socially needy person, and when I do it, I feel like doing it in a meaningful way. So, check out my song.

I've been trying to wrestle it into something in the last week after playing it and giving it some space to grow for the last year now or so.

How interesting it's turned out. My goal has been to come up with something interesting to share with believers that exists within a scriptural context, and then get the attention of some unbelievers when the opportunity presents itself as well. Wow, I've got a long way to go. And there is truly a whole lot of experimentation going on with this one, especially in the "recording techniques" department.

I'm not unsatisfied with the words but many of them will change. For instance, the white horse itself does not conquer but it's Rider conquers. For the most part I wanted to get some adequate words down so I could finish building the song. Some I will change and rearrange. I don't really think the last four words of the song work, but on the other hand their meaning is almost perfect for me.

Just though I'd share it. Lots more to be done with it but I've got to move on to the next one now while continuing to allow the time for my skill level to continue to grow. It's very time consuming getting these things recorded, hopefully this will suffice for now.



______
*

Your great abundance Lord is pure and true.
Which the radiance of Your Son has lit my pathway to.

Those precious living Spirit given things that only come from you.

Then they go back from whence they came.
As the fruitful lips of thanks, giving praise to Your name.

You’re the potter we’re the clay.
We are what Your hands have made.

2.)
Behold Your anger You have turned away.
And restored us to the peace for which we first were made.

You have granted when in faith we come that no one then gets turned away.

Apart from You we wither and we fall
But when joined to you we stand within in Your all in all.

Lord we thank you for the call.
______________________

(Chorus)
As Your Word performs its purpose here
And as its finished work returns to Your ear.
May the sound of thanksgiving You hear.


May the glory of the Lord draw near
And its finished work return to your ear 
And may the sound of thanksgiving you hear



______________________


3.)

Abiding in my heart Your gladness through
Brings a wonderment more powerful than wine that’s new.

You have rescued us from darkness, brought us safely to Your kingdom through.

Your truth is there to say the course.

As the hope you’ve placed within us Rides a mighty white horse

Who conquers faithful and true.

...thanks to You

4.)

The anointing you have given me has healed my soul.
From Your power that’s within me now Your seed does grow.

And the garment which You’ve clothed me in Your spring of living waters flow.

Your mercy is the shade by day.
And by night your flaming fire castes my fears away.

And I am finally whole.

(Chorus)

___________________________________________

We are what Your hands have made.
You’re the Potter and we’re the clay.
We are most wondrously made.
So, may the sound of thanksgiving You hear.

___________________________________________

11 comments:

Todd Saunders said...

My daughter was not available to sing high harmony since she's been home from school sick since last Tues. with a double decker cold. So I did it myself(sounds kind of neat anyway). She's enjoyed laying in my bed listening to me piece this thing together this past week.

The ending just sort of came last night when I was finishing up. The whole thing is musically incomplete but the general idea is down.

Todd Saunders said...

Thanks for your time and curiosity by the way.

Todd Saunders said...

And so...

It finally came to be about 9pm last night. I wanted to get a decent recording of this tune finished because I had no idea when I could get back to it. My daughter had just passed on the offer to help me add some high secondary vocals here and there so, just to cheer her up, I sang them myself in a high falsetto voice. she got a charge out of that. My daughter's been home for a week from school with this cold she has...we know she's not going to school the next day, and she can't sleep because she's been napping all day. I finished this tune down to about the last two minutes of it, wanted to get the instrumental tracks in place so I could listen for a few more days and get back and finish it when I could find the time. I knew some ideas would pop-up, I just didn't know when. I was struggling to get the rest of the instrumental parts down correctly, which is especially apparent at the end when the instrumentals get all jumbled-up. But I had already bounced it into the rest of the mix before I noticed those screw-ups, so it was too late. Like alot of other srew-ups.

The daughter finally falls asleep and quits talking to me so I can fially get something done. I wanted to be done with this tune for now, I'd worked hard on it.

So I thought I would just quietly get some token vocals down at the very end of the tune, because I didn't want to wake my daughter up.

So it sounded logical that I should put that last repeating chord progression in. I couldn't resist. And then, well, I had to add some piano stuff in there to fill it out. The new piano stuff I came up with was the perfect line for the vocal part to close the tune with. I had the lyrics sitting there and the concept had, too, already exposed itself earlier in the tune. And then, "bing", the closing of the tune presented itself in the piano stuff I was puting in there. It's melody was just a logical extension of some of the other melody and secondary lines throughout the tune. But now I had to really get loud. And I had to do it about 30 times, to get it right, just like every other vocal part(and it still lacks alot). So I did and luckily my daughter never moved a muscle, allowing me to finish. I'm yelling over and over again and she just kept sleeping. So it got done. Not very convincingly, but it got done. Now I'll let it season abit and come back to it again, lots of hard work in the meantime, and eventually pay someone who knows what they're doing to do the recording.

Kind of hard to believe how it all came together last night.

It all started by sitting down to write a song of thanksgiving to Christ, a year or so ago, and it actually made the trip and wound up as one. I was having my doubts about it for awhile, believe me.

And so, for what it's worth, there it is.

Anonymous said...

Wow Todd, your song is awesome. It makes my spirit sore in thanksgiving to the Lord! Alice

Todd Saunders said...

Hi Alice. It was pretty noisy the other night around here. Glad it hit the spot for you. I appreciate that.

Todd

Todd Saunders said...

And I've since redone the whole thing. I got rid of all the excessive reverb. I was experimenting, trying to cover up for weak vocals, and I bounced it in and couldn't get it back out.

I'm trudging up the learning curve with this recorder. Doing alot of experimenting. But ten hours later and I'm still not done with the "redo". It's almost worth just leavingthese early experiments the way they are for awhile. Very time consuming. But at least now it will be a lot more listenable. And I am getting alot faster at it.

Only Look said...

Man that was awesome brother. I cant tell you how tremendously blessed I was by your song of praise and thanksgiving. I just had a thought...if it is possible, can your daughter close off the song singing, "Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee." as she sort of fades out. What a blessing brother.Thanks for encouraging us in your heart for the everlasting God who upholds us so that we may thank Him for everything.

Praise God!!

Only Look said...

What deep and truly meaningful words they are to me as well as I pray them with you to our amazing God of Grace.

Todd Saunders said...

Oh, you're too generous Brian. You display a lot of patience here with my rough recording skills.

What a blessing that the Lord allows us to be encouraged together in words and music.

I'm so glad you stopped by.

Jim said...

Todd, I really like the harmonic track you have laid down with the piano. It is light and uplifting with a hint of reflectiveness.

The words of course are meaningful and edifying.

The song truly has a contemplative feeling to it.

Thanks for sharing it!

Jim

Todd Saunders said...

Jim,
A "hint of reflectiveness" is interesting. Maybe if I start looking at that style of 'piano together with vocals' in "that" way, then I can get more comfortable with it, because I was really struggling as to how they should co-exist in that style. In other words, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't sure exactly how or why.

Well, glad you liked it, and I appreciate your positive feedback Jim.

Todd