The conversation started during a rehearsal break. One of our guitarists had been listening to a version of It Is Well With My Soul by a modern worship band and he played us thirty seconds on his phone. The arrangement had a slow build, an electric guitar with a delay effect, and a sparse rhythm that felt genuinely cinematic. It was beautiful. It was nothing like the traditional piano-and-organ version most of us grew up hearing.
We decided we wanted to try something similar for our team. What followed was three weeks of rehearsal attempts, two versions that did not work, and one version that eventually became one of the most meaningful songs in our regular setlist. Here is what we learned in that process.
The First Attempt: We Changed Too Much
The first version we tried was too aggressive about the modernization. We moved the tempo up significantly, added a driving rhythm on the chorus, and cut the third verse entirely to keep the song from feeling long. We also changed the chord progression in the bridge to something more contemporary-sounding.
When we played it in service for the first time, something felt wrong in the room. People knew the song. They had been singing it their whole lives in a certain way. What we had given them felt like a different song wearing the same words. The dissonance between what their ears expected and what they were hearing created a subtle friction that kept them from fully engaging. We played it, it was technically fine, but the room did not respond the way we hoped.
The Second Attempt: We Were Too Cautious
For the second attempt, we overcorrected. We went back to a very traditional arrangement because we did not want to repeat the mistake of changing too much. But a traditional arrangement played by a modern band without the appropriate instruments and room acoustics just sounded underdressed. It lacked conviction. We were playing it safe in a way that made the song feel small.
The Third Attempt: We Found the Line
Before the third attempt, I sat down and listened to the original song carefully. I was trying to identify what was essential to it. Not what was traditional but what was irreplaceable. What, if changed, would make it stop being the song it was?
Two things stood out. The first was the melody. The melody of It Is Well is one of the most recognizable and emotionally loaded in the hymn canon. It had to be treated with absolute respect. No re-harmonized melody, no contemporary melody runs over the top of it that might muddy it. The melody was sacred territory.
The second was the weight of the verses. The song was written by a man who had lost his children at sea. Each verse carries a specific theological weight about peace in the face of loss. The temptation in a modern arrangement is to rush through the verses to get to a big chorus moment. We decided to let the verses breathe. Sparse guitar, very little drums in the first two verses, space for the words to land.
We changed the chord voicings to something more contemporary without changing the underlying harmonic structure. The Chord Progression Generator helped us find voicings that felt modern and full without departing from the original movement. We kept all four verses. We gave the final chorus a genuine dynamic lift with the full band. And we played the melody absolutely straight the whole way through.
What Made the Difference
When we played that third version in service, the room responded exactly the way we had hoped. People sang from the first verse. The sparse arrangement in the early verses created a kind of reverence that made the full band on the final chorus feel like an arrival rather than just a volume increase. A few people were visibly moved.
What we learned is that modernizing a hymn is not about changing the feel. It is about finding a contemporary way to honor what made the original feel. The melody, the theology, and the emotional arc of the song are all non-negotiable. Everything else, including the tempo, the chord voicings, the rhythm style, and the dynamics, can be adjusted thoughtfully without losing the soul of the song.
If you want to explore the full chord charts for It Is Well or other hymns we work with regularly, you can find them in our hymn library. We build our arrangements starting from those charts, and it is a solid foundation for any team doing the same kind of arrangement work.