Melody and chords for Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart in my format for guitar.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Archives For Music
Here are the melody and the chords for Jesus, I Am Resting in the key of G.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Elisha A. Hoffman’s What a Wonderful Savior! in my format for guitar chords and melody in the key of D.
The shaded number in the second line is how I notate a fermata.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Learning to play ensemble music is a great way to develop many basic musical skills, such as rhythm and listening to both yourself and others as you play.
When I was teaching theory classes to young guitar students, I came up with a simple ensemble format for guitar music. In this post, the format provides the notes that are to be played for all four parts of the song God Is So Good.
Each part can be played by one or more students by paying attention to the Roman numeral that tells you on what string to play the notes for that part. Advanced students can try to play more than one part at a time.
Although the music itself is quite simple, working on it with one or more other guitarists can be a fun way to improve your guitar playing!
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
This post provides a link to a PDF that has the melody notes, guitar chords, and the first stanza for Nearer, Still Nearer.
The melody is given with the fret numbers to be played on the second string of the guitar.
See also the audio and PDF of my guitar-cello arrangement for “Nearer, Still Nearer”
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In Part I of this series, I discussed why we should not continue to sing two songs, Jesus, Rose of Sharon, and The Lily of the Valley. This post addresses three more songs that I think have problematic texts.
More Love to Thee is a great song that sets forth our desire to love Christ more. Stanza 3 reads, “Let sorrow do its work, Send grief and pain; Sweet are Thy messengers, Sweet their refrain, When they can sing with me, More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, More Love to Thee!” I do not find any Scriptural basis for asking God to send grief and pain, so I refuse to sing these words. I think we should not sing this stanza.
Another song with problematic wording is Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone. Stanza 3 reads, “Upon the crystal pavement down, At Jesus’ pierced feet, Joyful, I’ll cast my golden crown, And His dear name repeat.” Part of the wording of this text is based on Revelation 4:10-11:
The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.
This passage speaks of the saints casting down their crowns at the feet of “Him that sat on the throne.” The following verses make clear that the Father is in view in these verses because He is the One on the throne from whom the Lamb takes the book (5:1, 7). Because the Father and not Jesus is the One before whom the elders cast down their crowns, we should not sing this stanza because doing so promotes a wrong handling of Scripture.
All That Thrills My Soul is Jesus is another song that I think has some problematic wording. The sentiment expressed by the seven words in the title, which are also the beginning words of the refrain, is wonderful. If I understand these words correctly, however, to sing these words is to affirm that nothing else thrills one’s soul.
I wonder then how often we can sing these words truthfully. If we sing these words but they do not truly reflect the reality of our hearts, do we not engage in improper worship? To address the problem that these words create whenever a believer’s heart is not all that it should be, he should either not sing them or alter them in some manner so that he expresses the desire that such would be true for him.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Scripture teaches that music plays an essential role in Christian worship (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). God demands that we worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24; cf. Phil. 4:8). The words in some Christian songs are problematic because they do not handle the Scripture accurately.
Two such songs are Jesus, Rose of Sharon, and The Lily of the Valley. These songs are based on the same Scripture passage: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters” (Song 2:1-2). Both songs are problematic because the expressions the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of Valley both refer to a girl:
Here the beloved spoke of herself as a rose of Sharon . . . The Hebrew word for rose is [habasselet]. In Isaiah 35:1, its only other occurrence in the Old Testament, it is translated “crocus,” which may be the meaning here. It was a common meadow flower. The lily too was a common flower mentioned often in the Song of Songs (2:1-2, 16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2-3; 7:2). Though in her humility she likened herself to common flowers of the field, her statement (2:1) reflects a significant contrast with her earlier self-consciousness (1:5-6). Her improvement probably was because of her lover’s praising her (1:9-10, 15). (BKC: OT, 1014; bold in original)
I am the rose of Sharon. The bride is still speaking. It is difficult to determine which flower the bride refers to. . . . Crocus appears to be the best translation. . . . As the lily among thistles. The bridegroom speaks. In her humility the bride may think of herself only as a beautiful but humble crocus; he regards her as a lily among thistles. So far as lilies surpass thistles, so far does she surpass other maidens. (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 598; bold in original)
Should we, therefore, continue to sing these songs that express beautiful sentiments about Jesus but do so with plainly problematic use of Bible wording?
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The book of Psalms is the only collection of songs that God has inspired. It therefore has divine authority that we must heed in understanding what God wants us to do in our music. Those who would be disciples in their music must pay attention especially to the commands that God gives concerning the music of His people. In that respect, Psalm 33 is an especially important passage for understanding God’s mind about music because it records multiple commands and explains the basis for them.
Psalm 33:1-5 presents five commands from God concerning our music. The righteous are to “rejoice in the LORD” because praise is fitting for the upright (33:1). Those who would fulfill all their obligations to God and man must continually delight themselves in God in their music because He deserves such praise because of all that He has done, especially for them (cf. 33:18-22), and because such activity befits those who are upright before Him.
The righteous must also praise Him and sing to Him with various string instruments (33:2). Both of these commands make clear that God wants us to use string instruments in our worshiping Him.
Moreover, we are to sing to Him a “new song” (33:3a), which is a mandate for freshness of quality in the music that we sing to Him: “Praise should be spontaneous and fresh—new mercies demand new songs” (BKC: OT, 819). Repeated commands and statements about such songs (Ps. 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isa. 42:10; Rev. 5:9; 14:3) show that this is a vital element of godly music.
These four commands teach that God calls for joyfully worshiping Him with quality music that consists of the singing of words accompanied by string instruments. Repeated references to the LORD (“in the LORD” [33:1a]; “the LORD” [33:2a]; “unto Him” [33:2b; 3a]) emphasize that He is to be the object of such worship.
Finally, we must “play skillfully with a loud noise” (33:3b). This command conveys God’s mandate that believers be skillful in playing stringed instruments, which calls for diligent preparation for such worship of God. It also mandates playing energetically so that the instruments will produce “a loud noise.” To meet this demand, we must worship God with all our might (cf. 2 Sam. 6:14; Eccl 9:10) and do the best we can in playing skillfully.
This command receives considerable expansion in the passage, with the next two verses serving as the explanation of the basis for the command (33:4-5). Four statements comprise the basis for the mandate to worship God skillfully with instrumental music:
- “The word of the LORD is right”
- “All His works are done in truth”
- “He loves righteousness and judgment”
- “The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD”
These statements highlight the perfections of His word and His works. They also set forth His excellent character, especially as it is bountifully manifested in the earth.
Alternatively, this teaching (33:4-5) may be the basis not just for this command, but also for all the preceding commands as well. Either way, the great elaboration of the basis for His authoritative direction concerning our music shows that we must excel in our music because He demands that it be in keeping with the excellence of His word, His works, and His person!
Based on this teaching, believers must continually be involved in activities to become skillful at playing string instruments for the glory of God. Renewing our minds with these truths, our homes, churches, and schools should provide suitable opportunities for the continual discipling of top-notch Christian musicians by those who are already highly skillful and dedicated Christian musicians.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
“Rejoice Hymns,” the new hymnal from Majesty Music is now available! The preface highlights “special features” of “this collection of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” that “has been developed to meet the church need for enthusiastic, vibrant congregational singing”:
- bracketed or written-out introductions to all songs
- a wide variety of new and old songs suitable for worship, revival, prayer meetings, weddings, communion, baptism, dedications, invitations, Sunday school, children’s church, and so forth
- segues of two to three songs to create flowing worship
- last stanza settings complete with diverse harmonizations and modulations for exceptional worship experiences
- occasional descants and choral endings
- scriptural basis for each song
- large musical and textual type for easy reading
A sampler that includes the First Lines and Title Index for all 708 pieces in the hymnal is available as a downloadable pdf document.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
A team of archaeologists makes a stunning discovery. While excavating a desolate site, they stumble upon a vast collection of documents that employs unfamiliar notation. The archaeologists reason that the collection must be of great importance because of the painstaking efforts that were taken to preserve it.
After months of secretive examination by leading scholars, the documents are finally deciphered as ancient music notation. A whirlwind of secretive activity ensues. A team of leading musicians from around the world is secretly chosen and collaborates for months to examine the documents.
Finally, all the documents are deciphered and analyzed fully. Upon rendering the music into modern notation and having it played by the world-class musicians in the team, everyone is stunned by the extraordinary beauty, majesty, and grandeur of the music. Practicing for months, they prepare for an international debut for the music that all the major networks in leading countries agree to carry.
They choose to debut only the instrumental music that they discovered. The rest of the music is kept under very tight security.
The worldwide response to the music is phenomenal. Music experts everywhere deem the music to be among the finest music ever produced. Somehow, the source of the instrumental music remains a tightly guarded secret throughout the entire process.
Many leading Christian musicians who hear the music write beautiful lyrics to accompany selections from the collection. Numerous churches worldwide use the music in their worship services.
A year later, in an international press conference, the team who produced the music then makes known its identity. They reveal that this was the music used when Nebuchadnezzar demanded worldwide worship of his image. They then release the rest of the music, which is immediately enthusiastically received all over the world.
Having accepted the music enthusiastically and used it in worship, what do the Christians who did so do now upon learning of the origin of the music? Do they reason that the music itself is still fine to use, in spite of its original ancient use?
Does the fact that the music was specifically used originally for the worship of a man forever taint this instrumental music that was of phenomenal musical quality? If it were known whether the pieces of music in the collection were composed specifically for that occasion or not, would that change anything?
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
