Ethnomusicology day three

Day three we knew what we were doing. After the typical African start time "Remember everyone: 2 o'clock sharp!"... meaning 2:30 that we really got going... we sang through the completed song from the day before and then returned to the stop that we hadn't completed then. One person would start singing and another would carry the tune along. Eventually the words and melody came together, but we wanted to be sure that it would be a good song.

Music geek time: some of the songs here change meter mid-song. When the islanders did that in the middle of this song (a rendition of Revelation 4:11) it was really messing with my ability to sing the song...

So I asked "is this a good song? Will it be difficult to sing? Will lots of other people learn it easily? Can we change it so it's easier?" And to my surprise they said "this is easy! Don't worry! It will be easy to learn, we just have to work through it and be sure of the rhythm."

And then the song was completed. We got to the end and everyone was smiling. What great ideas! Wonderful words! (straight from the Book) We can sing this at home now! We recorded it on my phone and then continued on.

But starting the next song was difficult. The passage we were using was longer, some of the phrases needed to be discussed to choose the best words and express the idea well. We prayed several times and read the passage multiple times before concluding that the words were how we wanted them.

Philippians 4:6-7 is a great passage to meditate on. It's wonderful to consider how when we trust God and praise him in prayer His peace can rule in our hearts and minds. But putting this thought to music wasn't coming easily. We were tired and it was warm. The babies/children in the room were getting tired too. We pressed through and tried hard to create something. Then we prayed again. This wasn't happening easily.

And just as it was time to wrap things up and a couple of the ladies were already packing things together the melody was coming. It sounded similar to a song I'd heard (copyright isn't really a thing here) but it seemed to fit with the ideas. And tomorrow we'll continue to craft the song.

Just participating in this songwriting workshop inspires me to create songs again. I'm not necessarily gifted in crafting original songs but it's a wonderful way to express the soul and ruminate on truth.

Tomorrow will be the last day of song creating and we'll record the completed songs. Pray that as many islanders as possible come and participate in this exciting process!