Do you need variety on an album?

I am in the middle of a series of posts regarding my recent project Portraits of Hope (which by the way is available for a free download at http://www.greghowlett.com/portraitsdownload.aspx).

Today, i want to discuss the topic of variety on a project. I am referring to variety between the songs in terms of style, dynamics, tempo, etc.

It is widely believed among people in the recording industry that there needs to be a lot of variety on a project. But I have tended to resist that belief for a few reasons.

First, I believe that is more important that the music be high quality. Sometimes, variety comes at the expense of quality.

For example, there are some styles that I just do not play well. I am not likely to record a song in one of those styles just so I will have variety. Also, I am not a virtuoso (a person exceptionally proficient in the technical aspects of music). So, I am not going to record highly technical pieces just to prove that I can when I know my best is still not really good enough. It is one thing to play a lot of notes, but it is quite another to master them.

I also believe that too much variety can be a bad thing if the project begins to feel disjointed. I want my music to create an experience. That is hard to do if the music jumps around between a lot of different styles.

But that being said, I have a lot of variety on Portraits of Hope. I decided to go in that direction partly because I needed concert music. In concerts, you definitely need a lot of variety, and before I recorded these orchestrations, I did not have nearly enough.

I also wanted to try some new things. I wanted some more sophisticated rhythms and some faster songs such as “Tis So Sweet” and “Heaven Came Down.” And I wanted some huge songs like “To God Be The Glory”, “It is Well”, and “Ivory Palaces.” I love those huge songs where the orchestra gets bigger and bigger.

Rather than moving the album in these new directions completely, I decided to balance those changes with songs that are even more laid back than I usually play. And I decided to record four of them with single instrument accompaniments. There are people who have all my music because they love the slow stuff and I did not want to abandon them on this project. So, that is why I included songs like “Jesus Paid It All” and “Take My Life and Let It Be.”

Even in the slower stuff, there is a lot of new material. For example, the harmony in “Savior Like A Shepherd” may sound strange to many. I want to talk about this song in more detail in a day or two, but the chords are certainly off the beaten path of what most of us are used to in church music. Some might find this song a little on the dissonant side while others such as myself might really like it.