Ideas for the Christmas Worship Song "I
Adore You"
by Don Chapman
In 2007 I re-recorded "I Adore You"
(the Christmas worship song I wrote with
UK worship leader Tim Light) for WorshipFilms.com's Complete Christmas. I wanted to take it up a "pop"
notch and added more groove with drum loops,
electric guitars and a fancy orchestrated
ending.
I emailed the track to Tim Light and he recorded
it in his hometown, the cozy and quaint typical English village of
Romsey, in producer and fellow worship leader Phil
LeCheminant's studio. Phil then emailed back
Tim's vocal as a WAV file. (Here's a video Phil produced that shows scenes from Romsey, including
the amazing ancient abbey in the center of town.)
My friend and longtime
collaborator Ingrid
DuMosch added background
vocals in Seattle
and emailed me her tracks.
I then emailed the tracks
to an engineer
I had used for years in
Nashville to mix
the song. When I got it
back, I really didn't
like the mix at all. Not
that it was necessarily
bad, but as Adam Fisher
put it, it sounded
like it had been mixed
in 1995.
Since Adam had done a great
job mixing Half
Past Forever's independent
release Take a Chance on Something Beautiful
(Chris
Sligh's band) and the CD
found it's way into
stores all across North
America, I figured
he'd give me the modern
mix I was looking
for. We haven't looked
back. Adam and I mix
all the music you hear
at HymnCharts and
WorshipIdeas.
I've finally gotten around
to creating charts,
sheet music and tracks
for this new version,
which you can download here. If you'd like to try this new version with
your praise band, here
are some tips:
1. Use a full band. You'll need at least a keyboard, electric
guitar, bass and drums
to pull this off.
And it wouldn't hurt to
be familiar with
drum loops, but more on
this in a moment.
2. Try using a wurly or other electric piano for the keyboard,
instead of playing the
piano.
3. The fancy orchestral ending is optional. If you want to include it, I've written
out the keyboard part as
well as the strings.
4. Two types of drum loops are included. First, there's a simplified drum loop that's
5 minutes. It's just a
plain loop so if your
drummer gets off, there's
no problem getting
back on. Then there's an
advanced drum loop
that has musical elements
like arpeggiated
synths and the fancy orchestral
ending. You'll
need a proficient drummer
to use this loop
because if you get off
you're toast!
The video above is the
Brookwood Church band
and choir doing "I
Adore You" on
Christmas Eve.
More about I Adore You:
Back in 2003 I had a worship
songwriting
contest at my WorshipIdeas.com
website. The
winning entry was "Our
God Reigns"
by UK worship leader Tim Light (you can download his song for free at WorshipIdeas.com.)
In 2004 Tim visited the
USA and led worship
with me on a short church
tour. One afternoon
I suggested we write a
Christmas praise song
since there aren't many
out there. In a few
minutes we co-wrote "I
Adore You"
and it was a surprising
success - downloaded
by over 20,000 churches
that Christmas season.
The song fills a definite
need - Christmas
can be an awkward time
for contemporary worship
leaders - churches go from
singing Here I
Am to Worship to God Rest
Ye Merry Gentlemen.
I love Christmas carols,
but, like hymns,
the lyrics are generally
ABOUT God, they
don't help you sing TO
God like most worship
songs do.
We hope that "I Adore
You" will
help give new life to your
Christmas worship.
Tim and I both strive to
write songs that
are easy enough for the
average person to
sing while hopefully having
lyrical substance
and catchy melodies.
Add I Adore You to any
Christmas praise set.
You might want to use it
as a special solo
the first week of December
to teach it to
your congregation, then
let them sing it
the rest of the month.
Download a free MP3 and
chord chart for "I Adore You."
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