When we create our backing tracks we face the dilemma of people (thinking that they) want the song as close to the original recording as possible and actually creating a track that is actually singable in church and also practical as a backing track. Inevitably that will involve recording it in a lower key than the original, and it will often mean that we remove lengthy instrumental introductions (one of the songs in the latest batch has a 28 bar musical interlude in the original!) and interludes which don’t really work in a church situation, especially with backing tracks.

This is one of the things that distinguishes Worship Backing Band recordings from other multi tracks on the market. We put a huge effort into the singability of our recordings and actively avoid using the original when it has been produced with radio play or large arena style performances in mind.

Here’s the thinking behind our latest batch.

Alive (C) – Aodhan King, Alexander Pappas (Hillsong)

The main thing we had to work on in this song was the range. The song itself isn’t very rangy but in the original most of the melody notes hit around E, F# and G# which is way to high for most congregations. So we moved the key a whole two tones down to C and now they centre around C, D and E which is much more singable. We also moved a few sections to give the arrangement more usable options. The original ends with drums but we did that as a breakdown so now you can go back to a big chorus to finish or still end with the drums by using the jump function in the player.

Christ is Enough (A) – Reuben Morgan, Jonas Myrin (Hillsong)

Here we made a few congregation friendly changes. The key has come down a tone to A and we’ve shortened both the intro and the band breakdown to make the song more congregation singing focused.

Open Up Our Eyes (A) – Chris Brown, Mack Brock, London Gatch, Wade Joye (Elevation Worship)

Here we kept the arrangement as is but dropped a tone to A again to make it more congregationally singable.

Give Me Faith (A) – Chris Brown, Mack Brock, London Gatch, Wade Joye (Elevation Worship)

We changed this one in a few places. Firstly in the original pre chorus there’s an extra 2 beats added which could be confusing for some worship teams so we took those out to make it more easily playable. We also shortened the intro into 4 bars, the original has 5 bridges so we took out 1 of those and finished the song by resolving it back into a gentle chorus rather than finishing on a huge bridge which we thought would be more usable for most churches. If you want to finish on the bridge you can, just use the player to skip the last chorus onto the final chord and it will synch up perfectly.

Open Up The Heavens (Bb) – Meredith Andrews, Stuart Garrard, Jason Ingram, Andi Rozier and James McDonald

This we kept mostly the same as the original but with one 4 bar link taken out to help it to flow more and give it less instrumental breaks to keep it congregationally focussed.

Build Your Kingdom Here (D) – (Rend Collective)

Here we’ve added an intro as there wasn’t one. In the original it goes straight in with verse one. This can be part hard to pitch if you are using backing tracks so we put intro’s on everything to help the band and congregation find their way.

We also didn’t use the 28 bar instrumental in the original. Again our focus with these tracks is always trying to make our versions  the most congregationally friendly we can.

I Surrender (Eb) – Matt Crocker (Hillsong)

As with some of the other tracks here the most recognised version of this song is recorded live in a huge arena, which gives a great feel but very often the arrangement is too long for the average church to sing.  So we abridged the three very long bridge sections (no pun intended..) We took the key down a tone to Eb, added an intro as the original doesn’t have one and took out the slowing down section in the outro. We’ve still achieved the same feeling by using dynamics instead of retarding the timing but doing it this way allows you to jump around the song if for instance you want to repeat the soft chorus at the end or jump back into another bigger section.

For some the key of Eb might be an odd choice for guitarists out there but we felt that was the most congregationally singable key, so if that’s you put a capo on fret 3 and use our C shape EveryKey Chord Charts. It’ll be much easier to play than in E too.

Great Are You Lord (G) – Jason Ingram, David Leonard, Leslie Jordan (All Songs and Daughters)

Here we dropped the key a tone down to G but otherwise not many tweaks here in the arrangement, just a few changes to the link sections so it’s more useable to jump around between sections using the Worship backing Band player and slightly more congregational singable (read less instrumental moments where the congregation cant join in)

Nothing is Impossible (A) – Joth Hunt (Planet Shakers)

Here the song structure was pretty good so we’ve kept it as it is but dropped the key down a minor 3^rd to A as mostly the song is just too high in too many places to be singable in the original key of C.

Lord I Need You (Bb) – Matt Maher, Christy Nockels, Jesse Reeves, Kristian Stanfill and Daniel Carson

This is a rare song where the original arrangement works so well congregationaly, that we didn’t need to change a thing!

Today Worship Backing Band launches 11 new MultiTracks suitable for our MultiTrack  Player, Ableton or any other DAW.

Click on the links below to purchase any of the songs. Buy at least 10 tracks in the same transaction and you’ll enjoy a bulk buy discount.

In this article Andy shares the thinking behind the arrangements and recordings of each of the tracks.

All Who Are Thirsty – G

This was an interesting song to produce, as it’s a lovely example of an old school style simple worship song but there isn’t one definitive ‘studio’ arrangement that most churches use. It’s also the type of song where an instrumental section is extremely useful to use for reflection and personal worship but you can’t make the section too long as you may lose people. So we recorded it in an easy play key, built the instrumental, tag and bridge sections in such a way that can be looped for longer times of spontaneous worship, played just once or even cut out all together for a shorter version.

Always – B

For the most part this is similar to Kristian Stanfill’s studio version but we included a ‘down’ chorus at the end to give the option of making it easier to transition to other gentle worship songs. (Plus, this song always makes me smile because the chorus sounds more than a little bit like Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Cecilia’!)

At Your Name – G

We kept this track fairly close to the Phil Wickham version as we felt it was slightly more congregational than the Tim Hughes version (they both wrote the song) but took it down to G to make it more singable for more people.

Be Thou My Vision – D

This track was a real challenge to produce as there are so many versions of it out there. There are also the various different commonly used chord structures, and some denominations use different verses or even different lyrics within the same verses! Plus, we wanted to try something that was congregational yet band friendly and would fit hand in glove with the rest of the Worship Backing band material. So, we hope you like the version we’ve woven together here. It’s got big uplifting verses, small reflective verses, some nice band link sections and some short instrumental sections at the end you can use for spontaneous worship (or jump and cut out in the player if you prefer).

Forever (We Sing Hallelujah) – A

This track is closer to the Kari Jobe version than the Bethel version but with a number of changes to make it more congregationally useable. We’ve changed the key to A to make it more singable but crucially alternated the song structure quite a bit as the original is nearly 13 minutes long! Our version is still over 6 minutes long so it still encompasses the big and small chorus and tag sections, but we’ve built it in such a way that you can jump around each section to your heart’s content to make the song as long or short as you like to suit your congregation.

Holy Spirit –D

This track, like a number of Bethel songs is singable in a variety of keys but has needed little bit of modification to the structure and arrangement as many of the definitive versions are too long to be useable for the average congregation. So like ‘Forever’ we’ve kept the important big and small versions of each section but built the arrangement in a way that you can jump around to make the song as long or short as you like to suit your congregation.

Never Once – A

This Matt Redman track is a really usable worship song so we’ve kept the structure pretty much to the original but brought the key down to A as it’s often a bit too high for many congregations to cope with.

Sovereign Over Us – G

There are a few versions of this track around but we wanted to be closer to Michael W Smith’s slower version as we felt the tempo better reflected the theme and lyrics of the song. That said, harmonically we went with Aaron Keye’s original chord structure (Aaron wrote the song) so the verses start on the relative minor rather than the major root chord, which again adds more tension and helps the music match the lyrics.

This is Amazing Grace – G

Again this is another Bethel based song where many of the popular versions are 11 or 12 minutes and too long for most congregations. For our version we put it in a more congregationally friendly key of G, but chose a slightly extended working of Phil Wickham’s studio version where we’ve structured the bridge (“worthy is the lamb that was slain”) into three sections with three dynamic builds. This means you can do the song as it is at a usable 4 minutes 51 seconds long or loop those bridges and choruses to build the dynamic slowly if you want to create a longer version.

To Our God – G

As per the other Bethel based songs in this batch of releases, most of the best known versions are too long for the average congregation. So, we’ve kept all the parts you need but produced a more usable 4 minute 46 length version that you can jump around as you need to. We’ve also brought the key down to G to make it more singable too.

Tell The World – G

The season to be jolly is nearly upon us and this new Christmas song by our friend Tom Mills is perfect for your own Christmas services. It’s very much a fun, modern, pop style song with a great message too so you can use it as a worship song, performance song, even a kids song as well! You’ll love it!

Click through to watch a video of the song.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve released 13 brand new MultiTracks for our MultiTrack Player. We’ve focussed on big new songs that are hitting the all important CCLI charts plus a few old favourites we’d not previously recorded. These are:

• Beautiful Things – Michael and Lisa Gungor
• Break Every Chain (Jesus Culture / United Pursuit) – William Reagan
• God’s Great Dance Floor – Martin Smith, Chris Tomlin, Nick Herbert
• Heart of Worship (When the Music Fades) – Matt Redman
• Love the Lord – Lincoln Brewster
• Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) (Hillsong) – Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, Salomon Ligthelm
• Overcome – (Jeremy Camp) – Jon Egan
• Purify My Heart (Refiner’s Fire)  (Vineyard) – Brian Doerksen
• This is Our God (Hillsong) – Reuben Morgan
• Waiting Here For You – Jesse Reeves, Chris Tomlin, Martin Smith
• Your Great Name – Michael Neale, Krissy Nordhoff
• You’re Worthy of My Praise (I Will Worship) – David Ruis
• Abide With Me – a new version of the hymn. Whilst the tune remains the same, the chords have been rearranged by Greg Jong of Grand Vanity (who also produced this track in a slightly darker band based arrangement that creates some lovely tension that underscores the theme and lyrics really well)

Super Chord Charts are available by clicking the song links above.

Buy 10 or more tracks and save

Our bundle pack pricing deal means that you will save money when you buy at least 10 tracks at the same time.

Super Chord Charts

We’ve prepared optional Super Chord Charts for each of these releases. As well as giving you the words, chords, drum groove and more, these charts replicate the exact arrangement of our backing tracks. If you’re not great with charting out chord sheets these will be really helpful, especially in our version of Abide With Me where the chords modulate outside the key on a few occasions.

We’ve been raiding the archive and have released another 18 MultiTracks. These include some great but less well known songs as well as the odd classic. Remember that you will need the Worship Backing Band MultiTrack Player to play these songs.

• Lord Let Your Glory Fall – Matt Redman
• I’ve Found a Love (Love Came Down) – Ben Cantelon
• Dance – Tim Hughes
• Send Revival, Start With Me – Matt Redman
• Lead Me – Martin Smith (Delirious?)
• Living For Your Glory – Tim and Rachel Hughes
• God of Justice (We Must Go) – Tim Hughes
• You Are – Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon, Nick Herbert
• Whole World in His Hands (When All Around is Fading) – Tim Hughes
• You (Bigger Than the Air I Breathe) – Tim Hughes, Rob Hill, Jon Mann Smith
• The Power of Your Love – Geoff Bullock
• This Kingdom – Geoff Bullock
• Lost in Wonder (You Chose the Cross) – Martyn Layzell
• Rescuer – Johnny Parks, Nick Herbert, Cathy Parks
• I Love Your Presence – Darren Clarke and Jesse Lane (Vineyard)
• So Near – Sam Lane (Vineyard)
• Surrender – Marc James (Vineyard)
• Sweetly Broken – Jeremy Riddle (Vineyard)

For the latest batch of MultiTrack  backing tracks we’ve chosen 10 recent big songs and given you guys a good mix of Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, Newsboys, Paul Baloche, Lincoln Brewster and Jared Anderson. Interestingly we’ve chosen to alter the key on nearly all of them as most are too high in the original key for the average congregation. A description on what we’ve down with each song is below to give you guys some background about the parts. Hope you enjoy!

Click through to listen to audio samples and to buy.

All Because of Jesus – Casting Crowns / Steve Fee

Came to My Rescue – Marty Sampson, Joel Davies and Dylan Thomas

Cornerstone (Hillsong) – Reuben Morgan, Jonas Myrin, Eric Liljero.

Crown Him – Matt Maher, Chris Tomlin and Ed Cash.

God is Able (Hillsong) – Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding

Great I Am – Jared Anderson

I am Free (Newsboys) – Jon Egan

Offering – Paul Baloche

Today is the Day – Lincoln Brewster

Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies) – Scott Cash, Chris Tomlin and Ed Cash

Buy all 10 and get an additional discount applied at the checkout.

Here is the lowdown to each of the tracks

All Because of Jesus
This was a track that is fairly unsingable in the most well known version. So we took it down two full tones to C but then took a lot of care to keep the brightness in the voicing so it keeps its sense of energy.

Came to My Rescue
In terms of instrumentation this sounds quite similar to Hillsong’s original version but we changed some of the parts, particularly in the last big choruses to add an even greater sense of tension and release with the song getting bigger and smaller. We also slightly changed some of the song structure to make it a bit more concise and shorter as a version for the average church. Even so to get the full sense of ebb and flow its still a full 5 minutes long, and of course you can repeat any verse/chorus/bridge section you want to within the player.

Cornerstone
This song is going to be around a long time and we wanted to do it justice. So we’ve got male and female vocals with some fabulous harmonies and lots of layered guitar parts to give it that authentic big Hillsong sound. We did bring the key down to Bb to make it more congregationally accessible and again shortened it slightly for usability’s sake (still 6.20!) But the main thing we did we give you two optional endings! So if you want to use the instrumental refrain you can, but if you don’t there’s a bar of dead sonic space after the first ending which easily gives you enough time to jump to the next song in the playlist without it sound awkward.

Crown Him (Majesty)
In this backing track we took the song down a tone to B as again its just too high for most congregations. But we also stuck fairly close to the feel of the instrumentation with lots and lots of guitar/keys/strings layering to get that MASSIVE sound in the bridge.  However we decided not to go for the key change at the end mainly because again unless you’re in a large gathering, most folks can’t hit the notes in the original C# key let alone D#! However with the Worship Backing Band player you can of course manually change the key yourself! Remember – use  the S and X hotkeys to go up or down.

God is Able
This is another song we’ve put down a key to A to make more congregationally singable but still keep the original feel in the instrumentation and the parts. So everything in there including the riffs lead lines and solo.

Great I Am
For this one we took the key down a tone to C but added lots of extra guitar part layering that’s not in the original version to add to the sense of dynamic build as the song progresses.

Offering
Paul Baloche tends to write most of his songs in congregational keys so we kept this track in the original in F and stuck mostly to the arrangement with all the motifs and parts you’d expect. Again there is some extra layering to add to the dynamic but we did change the ending slightly to take out the unusual chords in the album version, just to make it as accessible as possible to the average worship band players.

Today is the Day
Accessibility was the key for this backing track, so we’ve brought it down to C but spent a lot of time on the guitar voicings to give it that Lincoln Brewster feel,  with plenty of  widdle-tastic riffs and licks to keep you busy especially towards the end of the track. There might also be a bit of Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Black Eyed Peas influence in there too… We did however take out the solo as it leaves most congregations idle with nothing to sing (not anything to do with us not being able to play it of course… Nope , No Siree!) but if you want to solo just repeat one of our chorus or band sections within the player.

Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)
We took this down to Bb again to make it more congregationally singable but crucially we took time to get that same album feel using guitars and keyboards where we assumed most churches won’t have banjo and Dobro players! So that means if you want to replicate those parts live you easily can by soloing a part to pick out exactly what’s going on. Not often easy on Tomlin’s stuff…

I am Free
This was another track that’s way too high for most congregations to sing in the original key so we’ve brought down to C but added a few more layers to make the arrangement even more dynamic. We’ve also added multiple BV voices to the audience repeat in the chorus but put it all into one stem so if you don’t use that part then simply mute it!

We hope you really like the song choice and what we’ve done with the arrangements. Please do comment below to give us any feedback.

Just a quick update to answer some questions about the 10 Christmas Carols we are recording right now as Multi Track backing tracks.

All  are designed to be used in your Christmas services with contemporary full band arrangements in singable keys and in the same style as all the other backing tracks on Worship Backing Band –  I.e not organ music! From the 10 there’s a real mix of big anthemic versions, mid tempo numbers and more gentle carols too. So in other words we’ve tried to give you a real mix of fast and slow stuff to help your carol service ebb and flow and follow a journey.

Big songs include Tomlin-esque Joy To the World and Angels from the Realms of Glory. Brenton Brown’s Joyful Joyful adds in a new contemporary chorus section. O Holy Night takes some cues from Crowder and adds a sense of tension and Hark the Herald, O Come O Come Emmanuel and O Come all Ye Faithful are great mid tempo versions. Silent Night is very gentle but still with a full band arrangement but then The First Noel is really fun and up so there’s plenty of contrast.  And lastly we’ve included Paul Baloche’s Christmas Offering as a more modern song for churches that want to bridge the gap between carols and their regular contemporary worship songs.

But all chosen because they have genuinely worshipful themes and lyrics, not just songs about snowmen. Although I reaaallly did push hard for Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas (joking…well maybe not).

Recording should be finished this week so they should be in the store at some point in October. We’ll keep you all posted as to exact dates and progress. They’ll be available individually and we’ll do a great deal as a pack of 10 which should last you a number of Christmases!

Lastly, even if you have a full band and don’t use them as backing tracks, using the parts with your band could take the time and headache out of building instrument arrangements for your Christmas services.

The songs are:

1 Angels From The Realms of Glory

2 Joy to the World (Chris Tomlin – Unspeakable Joy)

3 Joyful Joyful (New Brenton Brown version)

4 Hark the Herald Angels Sing

5 Silent Night

6 O Holy Night

7 O come O come Emmanuel

8 The First Noel

9 O Come all Ye Faithful

10 Christmas Offering (Paul Baloche)