Review

Have you ever gone through the ordeal of trying to locate the latest worship song in a songbook? I certainly have. And when I finally do find a book with the song I'm looking for, I discover that I have never heard of most of the other songs in the book. I usually decide that it will be months (maybe years) before this song is included in a more useable "collection" songbook, so I buy the book just for that one song. The next thing I know, I have a mess of songbooks that I only use for one or two songs, and on a musician's budget this can be a problem! Well, Integrity fixes this problem with the iWORSHIP NEXT songbook.

The iWORSHIP NEXT songbook is a companion songbook to the iWORSHIP double CD by the same name. But don't let the term "companion" fool you; this songbook is a powerful stand-alone resource. This 33 song worship songbook is loaded with some of today's most popular and widely used worship songs, as well as many soon-to-be-popular ones. When I first opened the book and gave a quick glance at the table of contents, I easily recognized ninety percent of the song titles.

This 244 page songbook measures at 9"X12" and contains familiar songs like: My Redeemer Lives, Hungry (Falling on My Knees) and of course, Shout to The Lord. It also contains songs that have just recently made their way into many churches' repertoires. Songs like Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman, Famous One by Chris Tomlin, and I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe. All 33 songs are arranged for piano, and include words and written melody for vocal and letter chords for the guitar.

An impressive song list is not the only thing this songbook has to offer. It also comes with a bonus CD-ROM that contains printable chord charts and lyric text files. Using the bonus CD-ROM is easy. Just pop the disc in your computer's CD drive and a user-friendly menu appears on screen. This menu allows you to easily locate the files you need, and it will also help you install the necessary software to view them.

The coolest feature of the bonus CD-ROM is the transposable sheet music for all 33 songs in the iWORSHIP NEXT Songbook. The transposable sheet music feature is perfect for vocalists who need to move a song into their range or for musicians who want to play a song in a key that they are more familiar with. Simply open the music viewer software provided on the CD-ROM, choose the song you want to transpose, select your new key and voila!--you have the exact same arrangement that is in the songbook, only it's now in your key!

As a worship leader I am always judging music resources by the usability of their content and this songbook is definitely useable. Whether you are looking for the latest worship songs in one book or you simply need a good introduction to modern worship, you'll find the iWORSHIP NEXT Songbook to be an invaluable resource.

Review by Jeremy Dunn