Use of Pop Riffs in Praise & Worship Songs

everyman · 09-10-2003, 07:36 PM

This topic is an offshoot of a discussion in the thread entitled "Song Selection Each Week."

The question: Do you borrow familiar riffs from secular pop songs for use in praise and worship songs and you give some examples?

Here are a couple of my own examples.

Come and Fill Me Up -- I borrowed the main rhythm guitar riff from Steve Miller's "Swingtown" for the verses and a guitar riff from Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Love Me" for the turnaround.

Come Now Is the Time to Worship -- I borrowed some of the guitar parts from U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)

Hear Our Praises -- In the "hallelujah, hallelujah" part of the song, I use some of the ideas in the beginning of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" -- i.e., repeated riff played louder and louder with digital delay.

benj · 09-11-2003, 01:59 AM

I can't say that I do that consciously. I sort of take things from everything I hear and incorporate it into my playing. I think everyone does. I don't ever play anything verbatim, though.

GMartin2R · 09-11-2003, 02:01 AM

you mean like the lead riffs? i dont know a lot of pop music so i'm not sure what you're talking aobut there. if it's just the lead riffs i'd say use sparingly but in spots you can toss em in. meaning dont just do one of their solos but in your own if you work a few bits and piece into your solo that would be cool... i've done that with a few minor satch riffs... nothing special but soemthing to offset my usual stuff...

Flyguy · 09-11-2003, 05:46 AM

I've used a melody or two (varied) from "pop" music over praise and worship songs a couple times...I don't do it too often though. Sometimes it sounds cool though, to have a different melody (as long as they are the same key - or you can just transpose it if you know your scales) playing then the song's melody. It helps though if the new melody you are playing is "complimentary" to the song, if you know what I mean.

Tony · 09-11-2003, 08:45 AM

One of our favorite songs is a gospel-ish tune called I Will Bless the Lord at All Times. The bass line is the same as the Staple Singers I’ll Take You There.

Good times.

nealb · 09-11-2003, 12:25 PM

we would tend to do some songs "in the style" of ppl too.
sometimes in practice we're just jamming a song through, and end up playing the riff to to some pop song.. or else someone else is like "oh.. thats the riff to" and from that we might apply some of the groove of that song to what we're doing - using some of the riffs/lines as more of an inspiration, rather than using the actual riffs.

psalm63adam · 09-11-2003, 12:49 PM

- Like I said in another thread, we used the riff from "My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit and used it for Ancient of Days.

- We took the part in U2's song "With Or Without You" that says "and you give yourself away", and we inserted it into We Are Hungry.

- There's a relatively unknown outside of my "brotherhood" praise song called "You Are My Life", and I've heard (but never done) someone start it out in the same way as "Welcome To The Jungle" by G N R.

That's all I can think of right now - oh, except for inserting the bridge/instrumental part in Jars of Clay's song "Love Song For A Savior" and inserting it as a bridge in Chris Tomlin's song "Kindness".

jmpeter316 · 09-11-2003, 02:41 PM

I sometimes use the opening riff from "Typical Situation" for "Awesome God"...they both start out in an Em chord, so it kinda works well.

Peace.

Jay

georgeo · 09-11-2003, 05:02 PM

i prolly pick up things subconsciously and play them, but i try not to use any riff that alot of people would be worshipping and then be like "whoa, thats the riff from Irom Man!" or something like that.

i see nothing wrong with using it, just don't take it from the song thats #1 on the pop charts right now or something.

Jay42 · 09-11-2003, 06:16 PM

Hahaha! I do this all the time. I grew up on classic rock so it's pretty much irresistible. I have even thrown in stuff from Ozzy and Led Zeppelin.

And everyman - if you are gonna use some Steve Miller I am surprised you haven't yoinked the bassline from 'Space Cowboy'. Always good for any song with a G-C-D progression (which of course is 85% of modern praise tunes)

everyman · 09-11-2003, 09:19 PM

Jay42, I know what you mean about classic rock. I listen to our local classic rock station quite often figuring out which riffs I can borrow for next Sunday's set. "Space Cowboy" is a good one. I guess you could force that riff into "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" but I prefer to do a reggae beat on that song.

Here's another one:

Friends in High Places -- I've done the rhythm guitar part two ways. One way is to borrow the ole "Johnny B. Goode" Chuck Berry lick. The other way is to borrow the riff from "Judy in Disguise with Glasses."

psalm63adam · 09-12-2003, 01:18 PM

Ah, I'm reminded of another one we do after doing it last night.

We use the riff for Bush's glycerine as the main riff for "We Are Hungry".

Maestro_dmc · 09-12-2003, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everyman

Come Now Is the Time to Worship -- I borrowed some of the guitar parts from U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)

And here I thought this was my own idea. Although I didn't specifically steal anything from that song, I do play the melody as an intro. We do the song in D as written, so I drone the D string while playing the melody up on the G string with that "Edge" delay doubling it. Then I switch to the A and D strings for the 2nd line and the Em resolving to the G with a 2 thrown in to finish it up.

Huh? did that make sense?

My bass player cracks me up, whenever we do Vineyard UK's "Your Name Is Holy" he throws in the riff from Journeys "Don't Stop Believin' "

Nobody can figure out why I keep cracking up during that song

Jay Tea · 09-12-2003, 09:08 PM

Above All Else--We intro'd this with the Sweet Home Alabama riff for a while.

I Will Call Upon the Lord--I don't know if I've ever done this in a service, but I've heard a friend play the Ants Marching intro underneath the verse part.

Awesome God--Never done it, but I always thought it'd be cool to use the Enter Sandman intro.

**Role Modlin** · 09-13-2003, 11:50 AM

When we do praise and worship for the teens we'll incorporate bits of secular stuff into it, especially if it is a mixed crowd with a lot of unchurched kids.
We do a praise jam in "G" and run "Every Move I Make" and "Step By Step" together and throw in the chorus of Third Eye Blind's "Semi-charmed Kind Of Life " and "Closing Time" from Semisonic. It's cheesy, but the kids recognize it and, for the most part, like it.
We also throw in bits of U2 songs into things, and have even covered a couple of them straight.