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God of this City
So, I'm really quite taken by the awesome Bluetree song 'God of this CIty', recorded on the recent Passion album. We're doing a social justice series at the moment, so the context that this song was written (in the midst of a concert by a Christian band in a brothel) and the lyrics are so appropriate to our local church. We've used the recorded version as an audio backing for a slideshow of pictures of our city. But now I'm really keen to introduce the song congregationally.
The problem is, I'm finding it really hard to sing. It's not the range that I'm struggling with most, although the song has a big melodic jump into the chorus. I can just about move the key to fit something I think is within reach of our mainly Asian congregation.
My biggest problem with the song is the end of the word 'City' in each line of the chorus. Chris Tomlin, in his fantastic Texan accent sings something more like 'cit- aaaay-aay-aa-aa-aay', which sounds great, especially with a huge band behind him, and, most-often, a stadium-sized audience in front. But with my British accent I sing what comes out as 'Citeee-eeeeee-eee-eee-eee', with my more acoustic band and a much smaller group of people ends up sounding rather less than anthemic.
So, should I sing like a Texan? Or just end the line much earlier, with a big pause after? Or add in extra words? Or....? What do those of you who have led this song do?
Another similar song is "This Is Our God", also recorded by Chris Tomlin, which has in the chorus, "Mmmmmm.... mmmmmmm... this is our God". He makes it sound awesome and I.... well, let's just say I haven't used this one congregationally yet either!
Applying this question a bit wider, any suggestions in general on how to lead songs that have words or phrases that are really hard to sing?
Am thinking of doing God of this CIty end of next week, so any quick response much appreciated.
The problem is, I'm finding it really hard to sing. It's not the range that I'm struggling with most, although the song has a big melodic jump into the chorus. I can just about move the key to fit something I think is within reach of our mainly Asian congregation.
My biggest problem with the song is the end of the word 'City' in each line of the chorus. Chris Tomlin, in his fantastic Texan accent sings something more like 'cit- aaaay-aay-aa-aa-aay', which sounds great, especially with a huge band behind him, and, most-often, a stadium-sized audience in front. But with my British accent I sing what comes out as 'Citeee-eeeeee-eee-eee-eee', with my more acoustic band and a much smaller group of people ends up sounding rather less than anthemic.
So, should I sing like a Texan? Or just end the line much earlier, with a big pause after? Or add in extra words? Or....? What do those of you who have led this song do?
Another similar song is "This Is Our God", also recorded by Chris Tomlin, which has in the chorus, "Mmmmmm.... mmmmmmm... this is our God". He makes it sound awesome and I.... well, let's just say I haven't used this one congregationally yet either!
Applying this question a bit wider, any suggestions in general on how to lead songs that have words or phrases that are really hard to sing?
Am thinking of doing God of this CIty end of next week, so any quick response much appreciated.
Tags: chris tomlin, god of this city, singing
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike on -
For the record, I wasn't trying to sound Texan for the sake of it, it's just that the 'ay' sound is so much more singable that 'eee', at least for my voice and ears.
But you're right, the song is appropriate and I think our church will be able to worship with is, so I'll give it a go.
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Permalink Reply by Toby Stokes on -
I've encountered this issue. I introduced this song a couple of weeks ago have done it in both B and A I prefer B for my voice but that is still quite high (I generally come down one and a half tones with Tomlin songs cos there so high).
The chorus bit I agree is quite awkward as no seems to know what to do. I tend to americanise the pronunciation as I just find it easier to sing. As for the length of the note I cut it short and then maybe gently sing "yeah yeah" on the last two beats. It sounds pretty similar (and yeah yeah actually has more meaning than ay-aay-ay before someone starts that argument! )
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Permalink Reply by Paul Childs on -
The problem with just going for it, even if it does seem a little awkward, is that, as soon as you get to that part of the song, all focus shifts from worshipping God.
One minute you're singing along and thinking "God you're really great/lovely/super etc..." and the next, after you've hit the awkward bit your thoughts become "Oooh - that sounded a bit funny didn't it? I wonder why that bit didn't work. I'll have to watch out for that next time. I wonder if everyone else had trouble too. Why did the worship leader choose such an odd song. Perhaps I'll get used to it if we do it more often..." and so on.
Here's some advice which can be applied to leading songs or reading bible passages with difficult names in:
Be confident that you are correct and don't falter or worry about how it sounds. If people see you doing it with confidence, they will just accept that you are right and follow suit. Practice in advance - so you are not suddenly surprised by a difficult bit when it rears its ugly head on the day.
Also - get feedback from a broad cross-section of the church. If you're really getting into it, but it turns out that the rest of the church really hated it, then it's probably best to ditch the song, no matter how much you like it.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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Wow. Thanks for the great response, everyone. Really appreciated the different perspectives. I should have posted this ages ago!
I feel like I have a way forward now. I'm going to have a listen to the original and then give it my best shot.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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Just to let you all know, we did God of this City and it went really well! Some good comments afterwards, and people seemed to really engage with it after an initial 'new-song' hurdle.
We sang it in Bb (the bluetree chord sheet from their website us in C) but it still seemed too high. Tomorrow we'll try it in A and see how that goes.
We sang the chorus melody as written (as naturally as I could), but it still felt a bit forced, so I'm now opting for just singing the first note of the 'y' of city.
Anyway, just wanted to make sure I fed back to you all, in the spirit of accountability :)
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Permalink Reply by David Shields on -
Hi - our (excellent) guitarist jonathan has been hunting for this. He enrolled me, and I'm hunting too, but so far no joy. Could you *please* point me at the website / download link for this - he's raving about it, and busting a gut for us to do it in our worship band, but our search fairies seem to have deserted us.
Failing that, could some kind soul forward the score to me? I know the band are supposed to have said they'd put it for free download for worship groups, so I don't feel like I'm ripping them off.
Many thanks
David
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Permalink Reply by Gav on -
yes it is a great song indeed! im sure we will use it at some point.
david email me and i'll send you a score.
ball_gavin@hotmail.com
God bless,
gav.
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