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We normally think about copyright as protecting authors' rights to cash. But there are two far more important purposes behind copyright law - the right to correct identification of the author, and the right not to have your work changed without permission.

I'm reminded of the story of 'In Christ Alone'. The organises of the Chelmsford Clergy Synod on 4th May 2006 changed one of the lines of In Christ Alone.

The original line was 'Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied'. They changed 'wrath' to 'word' - 'the word of God was satisfied'. Rev Chris Newlands, the Bishop’s chaplain, admitted that it was changed to be more inclusive. Obviously speaking about God's righteous anger at sin rubs some people up the wrong way.

But the songwriters understandably objected - and since then requests to change the words of the song have been knocked back. They are, by law, well within their rights to decide what their song will say.

After all, it's their name connected to the song, their teaching authority behind the words, and their reputation at stake. To change these words is a bit like me walking into a book shop and substituting a couple of pages of Don Carson's latest masterpiece with some ideas that I think are better. Don would be, rightly, outraged. It's no different with songs.

Copyright can be abused, but I'm glad that people can't change songs without talking to the author. I'm glad that heretical groups can't take the NIV and publish a version which looks the same except for some 'improvements'. Copyright can serve us well in an era of mass production.

Of course, accidents happen. We realised recently that we have been singing the wrong words to Richard Bewes' adaptation of 'I Vow to You'.

"I vow to you, my Saviour that where your feet have trod
I will serve and always follow you my Jesus, my God"

The correct lyrics are:

"I vow to you, my Saviour, that where your feet have trod,
I’ll serve and follow faithfully, my Master and my God! "

I would like to thank Rev Bewes, Jubilate Hymns, and Hope Publishing Co. for their graciousness in helping us to rectify their oversight. You can get the whole hymn at www.jubilate.co.uk.

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The thing about creativity is that you need to make space for it.  If you clutter your life and mind with busyness, routines, tasks, chores, and noise, you are not giving creativity a chance to breathe.

So in October 2010, as we set about writing the new album ‘Unity’, we each dedicated good amounts of time to letting creativity breathe in our lives. Contradictory though it may sound, we were disciplined about creativity. Although songs sometime come to you very quickly in the writing process, our experience is that this is more the exception than the rule. An initial idea or lyrics may come very quickly, as may the shape of the song. But lots of hard work is required to distil those ideas into a coherent piece of art that takes you on a journey and gets under your skin…

We met in pairs and threes and wrote over tea in our living rooms. We took trips to a couple of beach houses in threes and fours, and let the environments inspire us. The songs sometimes started with half-finished ideas we had lying around, sometimes with a simple melodic fragment, sometimes with a lyric, and sometimes just with a drum groove. With ‘Fairest Lord Jesus’, for example, it was just the suggestion of writing a song in E flat that gave birth to the song. It was wonderful for us to approach songwriting from so many different angles and to be reminded anew that no approach is more correct than another. Even more than that, we were reminded anew that we are just the vessels for these songs – they came from God.

With more than double the number of songs we’d need for an album demo’d up, we convened in January this year to decide which songs would make the album. There were so many factors to consider. Was the song saying something unique theologically? Could a church sing it? Was it catchy? Would it help create a balanced album, or did it sound exactly like the rest of the songs? After a tough voting process, we entered the pre-production period with a list of thirteen songs, aware that we could cut a couple if needs be – not because the songs wouldn’t be good enough, but because often in the pre-production process, it emerges that, for any of the reasons above, a song just may not fit an album.

But it is hard to put a full stop on writing a song. The writing continues up until the moment you press record… So in the next blog we’ll take you inside the pre-production room!

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Some lovely person told me once that they loved Garage Hymnal's songs because we don't write "Me" songs, we write "We" songs (meaning that our songs are in the first person plural ("we praise") not the first person singular ("I praise")). They thought this was good because it emphasises that we are singing as a whole church, not as self-centred individuals.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that, actually, the split is probably about 50/50.

Many of our songs use the plural voice:
-Hallelujah: "so WE sing, hallelujah"
-The Light has Found us: "WE're not walking in the dark"
-Come Lord: 'Come Lord Jesus and save US'

But then again many of our songs use the singular voice:
-Father's world: "This is MY father's world"
-Take my life: "Take MY self and I will be ever only all for thee ..."
-Holding on to me: "MY father's holding on to ME"

Indeed many of the great hymns use the plural. But also many use the singular to great effect 'That saved a wretch like me', 'When I survey', 'And can it be?'.

So are we (and the hymn writers) out of step with the Biblical songwriters? You might be surprised that the answer is no.

The first example of congregational singing I can think of in the bible is in Exodus 15 when Moses and Miriam lead Israel in singing their first song together as a newly redeemed people.

Ex. 15:1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD. They said:

I will sing to the LORD,
for He is highly exalted;
He has thrown the horse
and its rider into the sea.

2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise Him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

It's certainly not private worship - it's as public as you can get (a whole nation!!). And yet Moses opts for the first person common singular voice. The unity is implied by the unison voices; the personal responsibility for what is being said is implied by the singular pronouns.

And a quick computer search through the psalms reveals some interesting stats.

Verbs: 777 first person singular (I), 568 second person singular (You), 92 first person plural (We)
Pronouns: 118 second person singular (You), 83 first person singular (I), 8 first person plural (We).
[Obviously this is a rough indication because I haven't analysed the context of each, but it gives some idea]

So it seems that whether we sing, or I sing, it doesn't seem to matter. The choice is normally determined by the content. Some ideas are easier to express in the singular, or lose their impact in the plural (offering God 'my silver and my gold' is more of a challenge than offering 'our silver and our gold', the second sounds like we're graciously giving God access to our corporate church bank account, but keeping our personal wallets in our pocket!). Sometimes the choice is artistic 'I'm not walking in the dark' or 'Our father's holding on to us' just sound weird.

The main thing is that, whatever the grammatical subject, the primary subject matter of the song should be God. The important thing is not the grammar, but the theology. Who looks good? Are humans exalted or humbled? Is God the focus or my own feelings?

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