You Can Write a Song

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: YCWS

Program Code: YCWS190002S


00:20 Hello and welcome
00:21 to 3ABN's Praise Him Music Network.
00:26 This is, You Can Write A Song,
00:29 and our featured songwriter is none other than Lanny Wolfe.
00:33 Yay!
00:34 Hi, Yvonne, so good to be here.
00:35 Oh, Lanny,
00:37 you are so preeminently qualified
00:40 to be our featured songwriter.
00:43 You have done so much.
00:45 What's special about this program for you?
00:48 What's special is the fact
00:49 that even though I've taught songwriting
00:52 as a two-year course in colleges for over 26 years,
00:58 and the students have then gone on
01:02 to write their own songs.
01:04 I'm a songwriter.
01:05 I'm a songwriter and a teacher, so I love to teach.
01:09 A lot of good songwriters are just songwriters,
01:12 but I'm a teacher.
01:13 And so it's great for me to have the opportunity
01:16 to take what I know about songwriting
01:19 and some of the corn that's in the crib,
01:21 and teach people who think they have no idea
01:26 about how to write a song, but really could and can.
01:29 Well, I've got my pad here.
01:31 Ready. And I'm ready, so teach.
01:33 Let's go.
01:34 We're going to talk about
01:35 simplicity and repetition today.
01:37 Wonderful.
01:38 Fabulous. Can't wait.
01:45 You may have never thought of yourself as a songwriter.
01:47 You love gospel music.
01:49 You may sing in a church choir or on the praise team.
01:52 You have a 40-hour week job.
01:55 You are a stay-at-home mother.
01:57 You are a soccer mom.
01:59 You're trying to get your kids through school.
02:02 You may be in your summer years.
02:04 You may even be in your winter years
02:06 and have never given a second thought
02:08 to the fact that your involvement
02:11 in gospel music would go beyond just loving it.
02:16 I'm here to tell you that even though
02:19 you don't play an instrument,
02:21 and even though you know
02:22 nothing about the music part of it,
02:25 you can write a song.
02:26 So you can take care of the word part of it,
02:29 the lyrics part of it.
02:30 Let's talk about some folks
02:32 who have not thought of themselves
02:35 as a songwriter or have not followed in a path
02:39 to produce either lyrics or music.
02:42 Frances Jane Van Alstyne, 1820 to 1915.
02:48 At six weeks of age, she incurred an eye infection
02:52 and was treated by a quack doctor
02:53 who applied mustard poultices to her eyes,
02:56 causing her to go blind.
02:58 She wrote her first poem at age eight
03:01 about being blind and refused to feel sorry for herself.
03:04 Oh what a happy soul am I
03:07 Although I cannot see I am resolved
03:09 that in this world contented I will be
03:13 How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't
03:16 To weep and sigh because I'm blind I cannot
03:21 and I will not and I won't
03:25 This young blind girl zealously memorized the Bible.
03:29 Yes, you heard me right.
03:30 She memorized five chapters a week.
03:33 Even as a child,
03:34 she could recite the Pentateuch,
03:36 the gospels, Proverbs, song of Psalms,
03:39 and many Psalms chapter and verse.
03:42 At age 15, she was sent to the New York Institute
03:45 for the Blind,
03:47 which would be her home for 23 years,
03:49 12 as a student, 11 as a teacher.
03:53 She at age 23 was addressing Congress.
03:57 At 44, she met a well-known composer,
04:00 William Bradbury, who told her,
04:03 "I think you can write hymns."
04:06 He suggested that she attempt to write a hymn for that week.
04:09 And in three days, she returned home,
04:12 submitted her first sacred song.
04:13 So she did not write her first hymn
04:16 until she was 44 years of age.
04:19 And only because a well-known composer said,
04:22 "I think you can."
04:25 Sometimes she would compose seven hymns in a day,
04:29 dictating them to her husband and her half-sister,
04:33 reportedly dictating 40 hymns in one particular day.
04:37 Over the next 51 years of her life,
04:39 she wrote 8,000 hymns
04:43 and used over 200 pseudonym names,
04:46 so that she would not bring too much glory and honor
04:49 to any one name.
04:51 And, yes, you know some of her hymns.
04:54 Pass Me Not O Gentle Shepherd,
04:56 Savior, Safe in the Arms of Jesus,
04:59 Near the Cross.
05:01 You probably recognize her by the name Fanny Crosby.
05:06 Mrs. Knapp came to her house one day
05:08 and Mrs. Knapp said,
05:11 "I have a new tune for you, Ms. Crosby."
05:14 And so Fanny got down into a rocking chair.
05:18 And head down into the chair, knees on the floor,
05:22 and Mrs. Knapp played.
05:34 And when she finished,
05:36 Fanny lifted herself up from the floor and the chair
05:39 and she simply said, "That's blessed assurance."
05:43 Fanny was brought before presidents in her day.
05:47 One president thought he would ask
05:48 a really clever question.
05:50 And he said, "Fanny, if you could have one wish,
05:53 what would that be?"
05:55 Without even flinching,
05:57 she responded that I would not receive
05:59 my sight on earth,
06:01 as I want the face of my Savior
06:03 to be the very first thing these eyes see.
06:06 And now you understand why she would write lines
06:08 in her songs such as,
06:10 visions of rapture burst on my sight.
06:14 She lost her young daughter
06:17 and she stood by the graveside
06:19 with her husband holding his hand.
06:22 And she stood there and she sang...
06:23 This is my story
06:26 This is my song
06:29 Praising my Savior
06:31 All the day long
06:34 That was Fanny Crosby,
06:36 the greatest hymn writer of all time,
06:39 and she never wrote a note of music.
06:42 She wrote all the words, 8,000 hymns.
06:45 John W. Peterson, 1921 to 2006.
06:49 He was an air force pilot in World War II.
06:53 When he was 31, he graduated
06:55 from the American Conservatory of Music
06:58 and he started writing songs.
07:00 He wrote 1000 songs, 35 cantatas.
07:03 They impacted the church from the 50s through the 70s.
07:07 He wrote songs. You know some of these.
07:10 It Took a Miracle, and surely goodness and mercy
07:14 shall follow me,
07:15 and how rich I am since Jesus came my way.
07:21 Bill and Gloria Gaither, they were school teachers.
07:24 Majored in English. She taught French.
07:27 And so Bill Gaither wrote the song,
07:30 He Touched Me when he was 27 years old.
07:34 It was not until he was 39
07:37 and received a Dove Award for the song,
07:40 Because He Lives and songwriter of the year,
07:44 that he decided to quit his day job.
07:47 All that time that he was writing songs
07:50 and the Bill Gaither Trio were traveling,
07:52 he was still keeping the day job
07:54 in Alexandria, Indiana.
07:56 So next person,
07:59 you're looking at him, Lanny Wolfe.
08:01 Good at math, good at art.
08:03 I got a scholarship to Ohio State University,
08:07 thought I should be an architect.
08:09 I thought I was going to get Frank Lloyd Wright,
08:13 I can't even say his name, a run for his money.
08:16 And so I started taking lessons when I was nine.
08:21 Took two years. My piano teacher left.
08:24 He said, "Oh, I'm going to move."
08:26 I don't think he moved.
08:27 So he just got rid of me.
08:28 So I started improvising.
08:30 Actually, I learned how to play chords
08:32 from John W. Peterson's books.
08:35 And so my first song I wrote when I was 15,
08:38 didn't think of myself as a songwriter,
08:41 was God is Wonderful.
08:43 Taught in Columbus Public Schools,
08:45 went to teach at a Bible college
08:46 on the West Coast.
08:49 Went back to school, got a third degree.
08:53 The first two were in business.
08:55 And now I'm going back to school,
08:58 getting my first degree in music education.
09:00 Because I felt like if I'm going to teach
09:03 young people at a college level
09:05 how to be ministers of music and songwriters and musicians,
09:08 I need to know what I'm talking about.
09:11 So we got a contract with the Benson company
09:14 and moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1968.
09:19 Was there for six years.
09:21 All the time I was there,
09:23 I was going to night school
09:25 at Southern Illinois University,
09:28 getting my second masters, this in music education.
09:31 I taught students. You know some of them.
09:34 Geron Davis, He wrote Holy Ground.
09:37 Dan Dean, Phillips, Craig and Dean.
09:39 Jeannie Tenney, artist and singer
09:43 of the song she wrote, One Night with the King.
09:46 You may have seen the movie.
09:47 Her husband, Tommy Tenney, wrote the movie.
09:51 Vicki Yohe, she appears on TBN and Benny Hinn crusades.
09:56 Vonnie Lopez sings with the Kurt Carr Singers.
09:59 Recently featured on CBS as the world's best.
10:02 Chris Degen, presently worship leader
10:04 for World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio.
10:07 And lastly and certainly not least,
10:09 she was a shy pastor's wife in Brooklyn, New York.
10:13 And the church started small on Atlantic Avenue.
10:17 I was there and now you know the church is a mega church,
10:21 Brooklyn Tabernacle.
10:22 And you know the Brooklyn Tabernacle choir.
10:25 So I went to Carol Cymbala.
10:26 And Carol, she doesn't know what she's playing,
10:29 she just plays it.
10:30 She might be playing this chord.
10:37 And I'd say, "Carol, that's a such and such,
10:39 that's an E augmented 11."
10:41 She has no idea what that is.
10:43 Her gifting is just, she plays by ear.
10:47 She has this wonderful ability to voice voices chorally.
10:51 So I went to Carol and I said, "Carol, you can write a song."
10:55 And you know what?
10:57 She did. And she started writing.
10:59 And since then, she's written so many songs.
11:03 He's Been Faithful.
11:05 Carol Cymbala wrote the song that so many churches use
11:07 at Christmas time, Happy Birthday, Jesus.
11:10 So I'm telling you, yes, you, you can write a song.
11:15 "Well, but, you don't understand.
11:18 I'm too old."
11:19 And no, you are not too old.
11:21 Let me tell you about what some folks did
11:23 and accomplished at certain ages
11:25 in what you might call your summer or winter years.
11:29 Harry Truman didn't even take an active part in politics
11:33 until he was 51
11:34 and ended up being president of the United States.
11:37 Stradivari,
11:39 the most famous violin maker of all time.
11:42 He didn't make his first violin until he was past 60.
11:46 His violins sell for millions of dollars,
11:49 one violin.
11:50 U.S. Grant was a failure at the age of 40.
11:54 A few years later,
11:56 he was president of United States.
11:57 General Douglas MacArthur came out of retirement
12:00 at the age of 61
12:02 to lead the allies to victory in the Pacific in World War II.
12:07 You know the name, Grandma Moses.
12:10 She didn't begin painting until she was 78 years old.
12:14 And her paintings are so costly of her landscapes.
12:18 She was painting until she was 101.
12:22 Michaelangelo, his great work of art,
12:25 St. Peter's Cathedral,
12:27 the largest church in the world.
12:28 He didn't even start this project until he was 72,
12:32 and he was still working on his masterpiece
12:35 when he died at the age of 89.
12:38 John Thompson, a New York banker,
12:41 he founded the Chase Manhattan National Bank
12:44 when he was 75.
12:46 Yes, and every month I pay my mortgage to the Chase Bank,
12:50 and I pay my credit cards to Chase Bank.
12:52 Thank you, John Thompson
12:54 for founding this wonderful bank
12:56 that owns the company store and my life.
12:59 Henry Ford took over the presidency
13:02 of the Ford Motor Car Company
13:03 for the second time at the death of his son
13:07 when he was past 80.
13:09 And, lastly, Benjamin Franklin
13:13 helped frame the Constitution of the United States
13:15 when he was 80 years old.
13:17 You are not too old.
13:19 You are never too old.
13:21 So today, I'm going to teach you
13:23 about how to write the easiest gospel chorus
13:26 you can write.
13:28 Remember, I want to remind you, Fanny Crosby only wrote lyrics.
13:32 So I'm not concerned about the music side
13:35 of the equation.
13:36 I'm only concerned about lyrics at this point.
13:39 She wrote 8,000 hymns. Wow.
13:42 Songwriting is a marriage
13:43 between the lyrics and the music.
13:45 We will concentrate on lyrics today.
13:48 Some songs have a collaboration.
13:50 We say co-writing.
13:53 Some songs that you hear today
13:55 have five and six people co-writing.
13:58 Some of them are the writers.
13:59 Some of them are the music people.
14:01 So I read this once where it said,
14:04 "To be successful, study successful people."
14:08 So as a novice songwriter,
14:10 I studied a lot of successful songwriters.
14:14 Probably one of the strongest influences
14:16 on my early writing career was Bill and Gloria Gaither.
14:21 So I'm going to teach you what I learned from the Gaither
14:24 what I call the AAAA format.
14:28 So Bill is going to write a song, one idea.
14:32 Get all excited go tell everybody
14:34 that Jesus Christ is King
14:39 Well, now what do I do?
14:40 And Gloria said, "Well, I mean,
14:43 if you can't think of anything else,
14:44 just repeat it."
14:45 Okay.
14:47 Get all excited and go tell everybody
14:49 that Jesus Christ is King
14:53 Well, I got two lines out of a chorus.
14:57 Okay. I need a third line, Gloria.
14:59 Well, it worked two times.
15:01 Try it again. Line three.
15:03 Get all excited go tell everybody
15:06 that Jesus Christ is King
15:10 Okay, line four.
15:12 Gloria, she interrupted me,
15:14 "No, no, no, Bill, you're pushing.
15:16 Line four cannot be the same thing.
15:19 It's going to get monotonous, it's going to be boring.
15:21 And so he had to come up with what I call
15:23 an extension of the idea.
15:25 Jesus Christ is still the King of kings.
15:30 So line four is not a whole new idea,
15:33 it's an extension of his idea of the first three lines.
15:37 So AAAA prime.
15:41 And so Bill is going to write another song.
15:44 It's going to be like.
15:46 All God's children
15:52 Gloria says, "You know what to do."
15:54 All God's children
15:59 Bill says, "Now I know what to do."
16:01 All God's children
16:08 And Bill is thinking, "I know what not to do.
16:11 "So I've got to have an extension of that idea."
16:14 To be God's children You've got to be born again
16:18 So that fourth line is not something new,
16:22 dramatically new.
16:24 It's just an extension of the idea
16:26 of what the first three lines are talking about.
16:29 So Bill Gaither, I love this chorus he wrote.
16:32 Jesus, we just want to thank You
16:39 Now I know what he's going to do.
16:42 Jesus, we just want to thank You
16:47 I know what he's going to do.
16:49 Jesus, we just want to thank You
16:55 And I know what he's not going to do.
16:57 But what he did is,
16:59 Thank you for being so good
17:02 So you understand what I'm talking about.
17:05 Line four is just not the same as the first three lines,
17:08 but it has some relationship with the first three lines.
17:11 It extends the thought.
17:13 So here I am.
17:14 I'm going to be a songwriter.
17:17 I got this thought.
17:19 Jesus, be the Lord of all
17:25 In the back of my mind, I can hear Gloria saying,
17:28 "Just repeat it."
17:30 It's all okay, Gloria, I will.
17:31 Jesus, be the Lord of all
17:36 And because I'm a good student,
17:37 I know what Bill Gaither would do
17:39 on the third line.
17:40 Jesus be the Lord of all
17:46 The kingdoms of my heart
17:50 So my line four is just a continuation
17:53 of that thought completing the sentence.
17:56 So now Lanny Wolfe is a songwriter.
17:58 Hello?
18:00 I wrote my first song at age 15.
18:02 And so here I am.
18:04 I'm writing choruses like, Jesus Be The Lord Of All.
18:08 And I'm here to tell you
18:10 that song ideas are just everywhere.
18:14 In the Bible, just read scriptures.
18:17 I have what I call a moment of truth.
18:20 That scripture has been there all the time,
18:21 but you may read it on a certain day
18:23 and it just jumps out at you.
18:25 And that's what this scripture did.
18:27 This scripture was,
18:29 "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world."
18:32 Whoa!
18:34 Greater is He that is in me
18:38 Greater is He that is in me
18:41 Greater is He that is in me
18:45 Than he that is in the world
18:49 I didn't even have to come up with a thought on line four.
18:53 It's just scripture.
18:55 And I'm sure if Bill Gaither would have had
18:57 that same moment of truth,
18:59 he would have written that chorus.
19:00 And you and I would have written it.
19:02 He would have written it the same way
19:03 that Lanny Wolfe wrote it thinking Bill Gaither.
19:08 Greater is He that is in me.
19:10 Wow.
19:11 You know, and so this song was pitched
19:16 to the Oral Roberts organization.
19:18 They used it as their official closing song
19:22 for six years, 120 stations a week.
19:27 So I've written 700 songs.
19:29 I've written 14 musicals.
19:32 And some of those songs have had great visibility.
19:36 More than Wonderful got song of the year.
19:39 Sandi Patty and Larnelle Harris gave it great visibility.
19:42 Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place
19:45 has been sung all over the world.
19:48 And so what happens is,
19:50 some of these songs
19:52 have had greater visibility than others.
19:54 But of all the songs
19:55 that Lanny Wolfe has ever written,
19:57 probably Greater Is He
19:59 has had the strongest financial impact
20:03 in terms of the music catalog of Lanny Wolfe songs.
20:06 And to think
20:08 I didn't even think of the idea.
20:11 I didn't even write the lyrics.
20:13 They're already there in the Bible scripture.
20:16 Now, I want to talk about a variation
20:18 of the AAAA prime format.
20:21 Okay?
20:23 You got it in your head what you're going to do
20:24 with AAAA prime.
20:26 And so this format is what I call AAAA prime
20:31 and it's doubled.
20:33 I'm gonna love Him
20:37 I'm gonna love Him
20:40 I'm gonna love Him All of my life
20:46 So that's not all the chorus. I'm just going to double it.
20:49 I'm gonna love Him
20:52 I'm gonna love Him
20:55 I'm gonna love Him
20:58 All of my life
21:03 So this is actually still AAAA prime,
21:10 and all I did was double it.
21:13 So I want to push the envelope here.
21:17 See, I'm not sure I can actually write
21:19 that chorus AAAA prime.
21:22 That may be
21:24 a little too challenging for me.
21:25 Well, if so, I've got an easier chorus
21:30 that you can write.
21:31 The format is
21:33 AAAA.
21:41 You can't make it simpler than that.
21:44 Four lines all the same.
21:45 Now I have not done this often.
21:47 And I'm saying that I don't do it often
21:50 because if you're not careful, you can push towards monotony.
21:53 It can get boring.
21:55 So I wrote this song called, Lord, I Want To Go Home.
21:58 All of these choruses that have this simplicity
22:01 and repetition in the chorus,
22:03 especially with AAAA prime format,
22:06 all of the nitty-gritty details are in the verses.
22:11 Like in Greater Is He, all the details.
22:14 Satan's like a roaring lion
22:16 roaming to and fro Seeking who he may devour
22:19 the Bible tells me so
22:20 Many souls have been his prey to fall in some weak hour
22:23 I'm so glad...
22:25 So all of that detail, if you have a simple chorus,
22:28 then the verses are not crying to be simple.
22:30 The chorus is simple, the verse is not.
22:33 I think of the verse as like a six-week or six-month trial,
22:38 where you've got all the lawyers,
22:40 all of the witnesses, all the testimonies,
22:43 all of that going into six months maybe.
22:46 And then you have a five-minute rebuttal
22:49 right before the jury goes out.
22:51 So an AAAA prime chorus is the five minutes summation
22:56 that the lawyer wants to make sure that you,
22:59 innocent, innocent, innocent,
23:01 innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent.
23:04 That's all he wants you to think about.
23:06 Innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent.
23:08 I repeat, innocent, innocent, innocent.
23:11 You've been listening to six months of boring
23:14 as far as testimonies come.
23:16 But before you go to that room,
23:18 innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent, one.
23:21 Innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent.
23:23 So that's exactly what these choruses are doing
23:27 with this AAAA prime.
23:30 For a Realtor, it's location, location, location.
23:34 For a songwriter writing the easiest chorus
23:38 we can write, it's repetition,
23:40 repetition, repetition, repetition, prime.
23:44 Hello.
23:46 So this chorus the song is, Lord, I Want To Go Home.
23:48 All the details are in the verse.
23:51 And so the chorus, all four lines are the same.
23:55 Take a listen.
23:56 Lord
23:59 I wanna go home
24:04 Lord
24:07 I wanna go home
24:12 Lord
24:15 I wanna go home
24:20 Lord
24:22 I wanna go home
24:27 Now I don't often use this technique
24:29 because if you're not careful, it won't work.
24:32 It works in this case
24:34 because the music is interesting.
24:37 The music has the magic.
24:39 The progression is there and it's driving,
24:41 it's driving, almost militant.
24:44 So that's why it works in this case.
24:46 So using this what I call AAAA prime
24:51 for most of the examples
24:53 we've been talking about, you, yes, you.
24:56 It doesn't matter how old you are,
24:58 how young you are.
24:59 Doesn't matter if you've never even thought
25:01 you could write a song.
25:02 You, you can write a chorus
25:05 using AAAA prime.
25:09 Take any idea, any phrase, any scripture,
25:12 plug it into this format
25:14 and come up using simplicity and repetition.
25:17 And remember, write, write,
25:21 write, write, write, write.
25:23 Do you realize that most classical composers
25:27 threw away more than they kept?
25:30 Because they kept writing until they felt
25:32 they actually had what they wanted.
25:34 So write, write, write.
25:36 Throw away, throw away, throw away.
25:38 And for sure, don't quit your day job.
25:41 Don't come back next session and say,
25:43 "Oh, I wrote this chorus.
25:44 I'm going to quit my job."
25:46 No, you're not. Hold on to your day job.
25:48 If God gives you a gift, protect it.
25:50 Don't listen to your mother's praise.
25:52 "Mother, I just wrote this new chorus."
25:53 Don't listen to her.
25:55 She'll think that you are the greatest thing
25:57 since peanut butter and certainly than Lanny Wolfe.
25:59 So you can't listen to anybody in your family.
26:02 They think you're fabulous.
26:03 "Oh, you should have been a songwriter 20 years ago."
26:07 So don't listen to your family's praise
26:10 and always have paper,
26:14 pencil, cell phone handy,
26:18 ready to write or record.
26:19 Because remember, you, yes, you, you can write a song.
26:30 That was such great information, Lanny.
26:33 This whole idea of the AAAA prime.
26:38 It's so simple.
26:39 Simplicity and repetition.
26:41 Simplicity and repetition and anybody can do it.
26:44 You don't have to play a guitar or piano.
26:47 All we're worried about right now are lyrics.
26:49 Yes, that's awesome.
26:51 Now you have an assignment?
26:52 I do have an assignment. Okay.
26:54 Your assignment for this next session coming up
26:57 will be to pick any idea,
27:00 pick any thought, pick any phrase,
27:03 pick any scripture.
27:05 If you can't come up with your own,
27:06 read your Bible and pick out a scripture
27:09 and give me about four or five of those phrases
27:14 in four or five different choruses
27:16 where you're using AAAA prime and that's it.
27:22 Get your pen out and get to work right now.
27:24 That's awesome.
27:25 What are we going to learn in the next program?
27:26 Next program, we're going to talk about
27:28 the power of repetition.
27:30 Oh, that's awesome.
27:32 Power of repetition. That's awesome.
27:34 I'm so looking forward to this
27:35 because I really want to learn how to write.
27:38 And I know that there are so many of you
27:41 who are saying, "You know, maybe I can do this."
27:44 Maybe you can.
27:45 Maybe there's something that will allow me to do this.
27:49 God will give us what we need if we just ask.
27:52 And then we have structure.
27:55 Absolutely. Thank you so much, Lanny.
27:57 Been a pleasure.
27:59 Know that you too can write a song.


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Revised 2021-11-08