A Young Person’s Guide to Congregational Songwriting

This three hour retreat is for pre-college age—approximately 12 – 18 years old—songwriters who want to learn more about writing songs for worship—hymns, praise songs, and choruses.

Date:

Saturday, February 25, 2017 from 9:00AM to 12:00PM (EST)

Location:

Covenant Fine Arts Center Room 135, Calvin College
Grand Rapids, Michigan

We will begin by exploring the unique voice of the congregation. Next, we will study the traits that make a quality congregational song, using examples from a wide variety of song styles. Finally we will look at participants’ songs. Each attendee is invited to bring one or more songs to sing and discuss with the class.

The songwriting retreat will be led by Greg Scheer, a music affiliate at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. He has written hundreds of songs, compositions, and arrangements, including some in the new Lift Up Your Hearts hymnal. He has taught songwriters in private lessons, college classes, and at the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship songwriting seminar.