Rehearsal Notes

Next week, I fly to Columbus, Ohio, to encourage a worship and creative team. I’ll be rehearsing them and leading the Sunday services as part of the training weekend. In preparation, I’m sending them notes on one of the songs we’ll lead. It’s a song they know well, so I want to teach them some approaches to giving it new life.

It’s a song many of you have probably done, as it’s in PCO’s top 10 songs. But it’s a song that a worship team can have difficulty “pulling off” with a similar energy to the original. It’s Phil Wickham’s song House of the Lord. I thought sharing my notes with the Fertilizer community could be helpful.

This song has TONS of energy, life, and joy in both the accompaniment AND the vocals. It’s primarily achieved by a subtractive approach, meaning the space you add is as significant as the notes you play. Take a listen to the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8uKldEUrPE.

Here are some arrangement details that make it feel alive:

INTRO

All the singers do “the huge clap” to visually reinforce the groove. Notice the juxtaposition of the beat with the melodic riff and the SPACE in between everything. The space is plentiful, and the beat plays off of that space. The energy is HIGH! But the tempo is only 86 BPM, so if you aren’t playing with a click, you’ll be tempted to make it too fast at the expense of the groove.

VERSE 1

Everything goes away to create space for the vocal. There’s some rhythmic piano (which I’ll probably mimic on acoustic guitar) and a clap in the track. A REASON for this arrangement choice is to HIGHLIGHT the TRUTH of what we’re saying. The only reason we have for JOY is what God has done. And the vocal styling is “halal” - boasting and aggressive, not delightful and pretty.

CHORUS

Because the VERSE was so sparse, the effect of the band coming back in at the beginning of the chorus feels like a wave crashing. The cymbal crash, strings, electric guitars, and piano deliver this sonic punch!

VERSE 2

It’s almost as small as VERSE 1 but with a steady drum groove added. And then again, space for the second half - nothing but vocals and pad, finished with a build on the last measure.

CHORUS

It’s sonically identical to the first CHORUS but ends with a “fake ending.”

BRIDGE

Space again. The best songs have an enormous dynamic range, meaning the DIFFERENCE between the loudest and the quietest parts of the song are immense. Think about songs like What A Beautiful Name, Great Are You Lord, and Great I Am. It’s not just an instrumental change for change’s sake. It again creates space for us to FOCUS on WHAT we’re singing. What God has done and who He calls us is another REASON for JOY!

Musically, the first pass is pads and some fun harmonies on certain lines to add punch. The second pass brings the drums in but with an open, non-groove groove. This particular recording goes right into the CHORUS, but I like to DECLARE the truth one more time in full groove and celebration.

CHORUS

Full drums and harmonies fill this CHORUS, with only a little pad joining the second half. But don’t miss this tiny nuance that makes the punch (clearly my overused word of the day!) for the final CHORUS stand out: a lift on “Shout our Your praise!” Everything stops to make room for what’s coming. Again, they add space to make what’s coming next stand out.

Final CHORUS

Lots of movement from the team helps accent the feel of this song. If we’re doing it right, at least one dad in the crowd will get the urge to take his children and do a little circle dance up front. He won’t, but he’ll get the urge…maybe one day.

The Story

Do you know the story behind this song? It’s so fun. Phil was crabby, grumpy, and frustrated. It was 2020, and there was a lockdown. What we had known as ordinary (gathering to worship) now seemed criminal. His wife admonished him to sit down at the piano to worship, so begrudgingly, he began singing, “there’s joy in the house of the Lord.” He realized the truth in his declaration, even though it started as tongue-in-cheek. Then, he began to write about who God is, what He’s done, and who we are in Him. Forty-five minutes later, House Of The Lord was written!

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

Rehearsal Notes (Nº 404)