Kirk Ward

Last week, I set up a Nimbit online merch table in order to sell mp3s, CDs, and other merch should I go into the T-shirt business. (Maybe I can offer some Little Knots gear, too.) If you can't see the store directly under the header, you might not have a current version of flash installed...

Tip #8: Share the song with a group you can worship with. This is where I take the step of sharing the song with my church. If you are not a church musician with the luxury of a captive audience, then you could share the song with a prayer group, house church, or a group of friends...

Tip #7: Share the song with someone you trust with the role of editor. Ask a friend to listen to the song and give them permission to be honest. I like to share my song with a fellow musician and a non-musician. I usually share song ideas with my Dad and my wife...

Tip #6: Look for the hook A hook is a musical phrase captures the attention of the listener and "hooks" them into listening and remembering the song. A hook should be clearly presented, then repeated and developed throughout the song...

Tip #4: Turning melody into text. Sometimes I start with a chord progression or a melody, and I don't have any words yet. This is especially difficult for me. The best thing to do is just experiment with different phrases, even if the phrase is non-sense...

Tip #2: Go back to what your high school english comp teacher taught you. Start with free writing. Let your thoughts flow onto a page without criticism. Don't think too much. After that, viciously edit and revise. Move parts around to see if it works better...

My friend, Parker, wrote a song that we sang in our worship service this past weekend. It was fun to help him take an idea in his head and flesh it out. The artist reflects the image of the Creator as well as the image of the Incarnate Redeemer through the Spirit's influence...

In preparation of the Groove Clinic that I'll be doing in a few weeks on June 26, I've been researching a bit on the sound of the Congolese music that we sing in our church. We do a style that is called "Soukous" which is a play on the French word for shake...

I have to give a talk this summer to our summer ministry teams about reconciliation music. Here's the gist of what I think that I'll say. Why reconciliation music? John shared the High Priestly prayer of Jesus with us in his gospel...

I was so confused in high school when Mark Jenkins, my bible study leader said this phrase, "It's all about Jesus." I was a religious teen. I read the bible and learned all I could about God. I prayed and tried to live right...

I was just in London on vacation this past week when my friend Chris dragged me to a pub to talk about a situation they have at their church. They are facing the old debate of how to interact with professional musicians. How should a musician be compensated? What is a fair rate...

In our worship committee meeting yesterday, Barry was sharing from the classic John 4 passage of the woman at the well where Jesus says that his worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth. This was a response to the Samaritan woman's question to Jesus about worship and culture...

This weekend we will be having our first ever (in my 5 years at NCF) Youth Sunday! Our Youth Director, Otto Scott, has been working with these young musicians since last summer. In March we had a special Friday night worship time in which the youth band led an hour of music by themselves...

I just spent the morning sitting down with Mama Agnes, Mama Cecilia, and Mama Sarah who are Burundian singers. They wanted to share a song with our church so I was meeting with them to learn the song and to have a plan for how we'll do it on Sunday (how very American of me!)...

We had a bass shortage recently, so I made an infamous announcement in church. I told the entire congregation that I would give free bass lessons to anyone who would volunteer to play in church. I received an overwhelming response of 10 or 15 people who expressed a desire to learn to play the bass...

Today we started our 2 service format. It was exhausting, but I think it was really exciting too. It felt so cool to see a small group gather at 8 am to worship this morning...

Last night, I posted on my facebook status that we were going to watch this movie and I got several responses from people about it. I guess that goes to show that this was a significant movie for more reasons than the untimely death of Heath Ledger...

Friday morning, I got to hang out with Jacob at Sawhorse Studios. We were able to spend several hours building stuff onto a tune called "I Am My Beloved's". It's a tune that goes from being extremely delicate and ephemeral at the start to being a cranked up groove at the end...

My church is entering into some dark days. There are some families that are in serious trouble. There are people who are desperately sick. There are people who are lost. My wife and I both felt the weight of the curse on us last night. There's not much that we can do for these folks...

Mambo Sawa Sawa from Genocide Prevention Month on Vimeo. This is a video about Justin who attends our worship site in South City. Check out all my friends in the African Choir at the end! I think that this was filmed at a service a few months ago that I happened to be there for...

I realized this weekend that I haven't written a new song in a year! Ack! We actually sang that song this past Sunday, "Your Presence Is Here." I'm not sure why the muse has departed. It could be that I am concentrating all my creative juices on the 12 songs that are on the new CD...