Participants:
Series Code: YCWS
Program Code: YCWS200002S
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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. 00:36 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 02:09 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 02:54 who applied mustard poultices to her eyes, 02:56 causing her to go blind. 02:59 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 03:10 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, 04:30 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, 04:40 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, 07:16 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. 08:22 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. 09:40 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. 10:23 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." 10:56 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. 11:43 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. 11:51 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. 11:58 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 12:45 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." 14:46 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. 15:22 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. 16:30 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 17:51 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. 18:03 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, 18:22 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 18:42 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 19:56 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 20:19 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. 21:32 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. 21:54 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 22:24 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, 23:02 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. 23:24 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. 23:35 For a songwriter writing the easiest chorus 23:38 we can write, it's repetition, 23:41 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. 26:20 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. |
Revised 2021-11-04