Theme and Variation: A Page from Classical Music

I’m a huge fan of classical music.

… I know I have some explaining to do.  This is a worship guitar site, so why I’m bringing up music written by a bunch of wig wearing dead guys… especially when they wrote pieces that take half an hour or more (*cough* Messiah *cough*) to perform?  After all, many of us lose people if our songs hit the six minute mark.  How can we practically apply classical ideas to worship?  (Outside of insane guitar virtuosity of course.) 

Well, there is something we as worship guitarists can learn from these composers, it’s a principle called theme and variation.  It’s real simple, don’t worry, and it applies to us.   In crafting music, classical composers often presented a musical theme at the beginning of a piece, then subsequently placed variations or changes of that theme throughout the piece.  These changes create movement or flow, while at the same time keeping something consistent that listeners recognize. 

In modern worship music, we’ve got the theme part down.  Most modern worship writers, (Tomlin, Redman, Hughes, etc.) intentionally present catchy themes that people pick up on quickly.  The problem comes when there’s no variation… it’s almost like watching grass grow for five minutes… we all know how exciting that is.   Now I’m not suggesting changing the melody, consistency there is good.  What I am suggesting is varying the instrumentation, and guess who’s best able to do that… us.

One of the best places to present variations is in the verses.  If a song has two verses, look for ways you can change your playing between the first and second, (or third) verses.   On a fast song for example, I may play the first verse with delay filled arpeggios that fill the spaces between the lines of the vocals.  During the second verse, I may play whole note open chords with a tremolo effect.  I could also drop out and let the bass and drums carry the verse.  Or to accent what they’re doing I might just strum the rhythm of the song while muting with my left hand, creating a scratching effect.  (In essence, I’m becoming a percussion instrument.)    

In choruses, you can get away with playing the same parts over and over, since they’re more of a corporate refrain.  But if you repeat a chorus 2 or 3 times in a row, you may want to find ways to build it from beginning to end

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Good Examples of variation in worship songs:

Salvation is Here
Hillsong United
Album: Look to You
Verses one and two are back to back.  Notice verse 1 is carried by the rhythmic jangly guitar part, and as a variation in verse 2, the second electric comes in playing aggressive octaves.   

You Never Let Go
Matt Redman
Album: Passion Everything Glorious
The first verse is driven mostly by the acoustic, with a swirling pad behind it… (I believe it’s created by a guitar and wah used as an ambient effect.)  The second verse has an electric with an octave style effect which answers the lines of the verse. 

Unchanging One
Todd Agnew
Album: Reflection of Something
Verse 1 is acoustically driven with the electric providing the high fill notes.  Verse 2 has overdriven power chords panning back and forth between the left and right channels.