Anju Ebanks

Here’s what I wrote on the scrap of paper I started this song on.

Song vision – reveal adoptedness, ask for God to make it real

Is it true that you came to save me?

Is it true that you came to take me home?

To give me your name a new identity

a place in your home and in your heart?

What I was trying to do in these initial thoughts was to capture the heart of an orphan.  I think orphans lack a sense of self, a sense of identity and are desperate to belong but even if they are adopted they still carry a deep sense of abandonment. I want to recognise this deep need and ask God to meet it in this song.

Next I find it useful to ask myself what is the vision for this song? The answer to this question helps me to gather my thoughts and to clarify the song writing process.  The theme for the new song  I’m writing is ‘Ask God to reveal my adoptedness and make it real.’  I recently found the piece of paper that I had originally written the vision for this song on.  The first thoughts or expression of the song make interesting reading, I’ll share the words in another post.  When I’m stuck and or  reviewing the song the song vision helps me to keep it focused and moving in the direction I originally intended.

I think the starting point for writing a song varies hugely depending on your personal strengths and preferences. Musicians will probably come up with chords and melodies first, while lyricists will come up with words first.

My personal approach swings between the two, sometimes I have a great chord structure and the melody sings itself,  sometimes I know what I want to sing about and the musical part takes a bit more time.  I can find inspiration from a drum beat or a bass line and sometimes I am inspired by someone tinkering on the electric guitar.

I’m currently writing a new song, in the next few weeks I’ll share my song writing  journey with you.

If you have a sore throat and need to sing through it there are a few things you can do.  Firstly if you can rest your voice you should, you don’t want to damage it.  If you feel that you can sing through or you have a few days to get your vocal chords fit and healthy I would steam 3 times a day for a couple of minutes.  My vocal coach says that steam is the only thing that gets down into the chords and it can help the healing process.

Another thing that I do when I feel that a cold is coming is use saline nasal drops. The drops wash out the back of the nose where the cold virus incubates.  As soon as you or some one around you starts sneezing use the drops until the sneezing stops.  I managed to avoid colds for the whole of last winter by doing this.  Although I’ve just had a virus that I couldn’t shake.  It works most of the time.    

Knowing that we are effective in ministry can be a real confidence booster.  I spent many years leading worship and not wanting to know what the Lord was up to because I felt that it was none of my business to know what God was doing in people’s lives.    Having said that I was lacking confidence because I really didn’t have a clue if what I was doing was of any use to the Lord or the people that I was leading in worship.

We don’t need to know the details of what is going on in people’s lives but to know that what we are doing is effective is encouraging.

Have you heard people say  ’you can’t see the wind but you know it’s there because you can see the wind moving the trees’ I’ve found this so useful. When you are leading worship look for the wind in the trees.  Are people engaged and worshipping? Can you visibly see people being ministered to by the Holy Spirit, have their expressions changed?  Do they look more peaceful? Are they deep in worship with their arms out to God and clearly connecting?

Another way to know that God is moving is to ask people you trust for feedback and yet another way is to encourage testomonies so that we are all encouraged.

I’m finding it difficult to gauge how things are going in one setting that I’m leading worship in at the minute so I have started to ask the team that I’m working with what they feel is happening.  Now I’ve realised that at the end of the session they are encouraged to write down what the Lord did for them and said to them, so they don’t forget.  I’ve seen everyone that can write, write something down.  This is my wind in the trees for that situation.

Always check your motives when asking for feedback and receiving encouragement.

Last week I led worship in a lovely church in Battersea.  The congregation were lovely and there was a real sense of community.  I was leading worship and John Ryeland was speaking so the emphasis was healing, healing and more healing. 

As I led worship, you could feel, hear and sense the power with which the Holy Spirit was ministering to members of the congregation.  It is such a privilege to be involved with worship in this way.

John spoke really well, he is very funny and has a wonderful ability to win over his listeners, in fact I think he has us all eating out of his hand very quickly.  John and I have been exploring prophetic singing, he says lets sing about this and I say ok (I really appreciate his direction).  Once John had taught us about healing he invited me to sing prophetically, the team moved around ministering to people. 

The congregation were clearly moved and many of them received healing from the Lord.  We listened to many testimonies about what the Lord had done.  One lady said that she had met so powerfully with the Lord that she knew she would never be the same again,  another lady said that she had felt full of fear but no longer felt fearful and that the Lord had calmed her fears and another lady said that she felt the Lord had healed a long term condition that she had been suffering from.

In the words of my pastors woo hoo!

This conference is for anyone who wants to know more of God’s unwavering, fully committed, all encompassing love for them.

This is a good topic to write about. In so many churches you find that the female worship leaders are having to push their voices to try and hit notes that are difficult, this is not because they can’t sing very well. It is because the Key of the song is too high for a woman.  My vocal coach says that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, meaning that if you don’t have the full picture you can find yourself tied up in knots  (I’m explaining because I didn’t really understand the saying until I met her).

We are given a natural vocal ability, we can move past our natural ability but that will take time and training.  Some of the songs that we sing at church are complex which means that they won’t always fit into our natural range, this is where technical singing comes into play.

So lets talk about our natural voice, you know that place where what you’re singing is neither too high or too low.  I struggled with this one for years. I felt that I couldn’t sing because I couldn’t hit the high notes or any notes sometimes!

I discovered that the reason I was struggling to sing was because everything was pitched so high. I think that is mainly because the worship scene is dominated by male worship leaders, bless them, naturally they are going to sing within their vocal range and so they should.

Women are typically divided into three groups: soprano, mezzzo-soprano and alto.

• Soprano -The soprano is the highest female voice.
• Mezzo-soprano-The mezzo-soprano is the most common female voice.
• Alto-The alto voice is the lowest female voice.

(I have generalised here as there are many sub-categories to the three categories above and I encourage you to find out for yourself where your voice fits in)

The most common female voice is not the highest  in the female range so why are we (women) singing in uncomfortable keys?

Girls if you are leading worship at church transpose the keys to keys that you can sing in comfortably.  Make sure you give new chord charts to the band, unless they are used to working with women because they will be used to playing the songs in male keys and it won’t feel like a comfortable set piece for them.  If you don’t know how to transpose enlist the help of someone who does.

When you are singing in a vocal range that suits your voice you will feel more confident about what you are doing and you will have vocals in reserve for the highs in the service when you want to push into the heavens.

Finally when you choose your keys make sure that you pitch the songs as high as possible, you are called to lead men and women in worship so try your best to include both sexes, this is honouring to God and to our congregations.  Guys I challenge you to do the same, pitch songs as low as you can so that you are including everyone to the best of your ability.

Here’s my Christmas present to you, a free track from the album. The song is called “We Give You All The Glory.”  You can download it by clicking on the download link on player on the right.

The song is a favourite with many people who have purchased the album, if you haven’t got a copy you can buy one from this site.

The song begins with piano and vocals which creates a lot of space and then it gradually builds up to an anthem of praise.

I wrote if for many reasons, the heart of the song is to give God all the Glory, letting Him know that we know that if we are moved in worship it’s because of Him, if we are encouraged it’s because of Him, if we are healed it’s because of Him.  I could go on but I think you get the picture.

I hope you enjoy the track feel free to let your friends know about the free download and share the track.