In church, there has to be a balance between doing things well and giving new musicians a chance to develop their skills. Both are important and unlike baseball, church does not the luxury of minor leagues to develop those musicians.
Category Archives: Music Philosophy
There has been a lot of feedback over on Facebook in regards to my last post, and it made me decide to write one more post about what I see as the problem before I get to the solution. While I appreciate those that have given their opinions and love their passion, a few statements have been made over there that I strongly disagree with.
My wife and I spend $4,000/year on music lessons for my four children. That may sound like a lot but my guess is many of you parents are right there with us. At $80-$120/month for 10 months a year, you can expect to spend $1000/child per year.
Our instinct when we are doing something new is to find people that have done it already and ask their opinion. In some situations, that actually works. But you certainly need to be careful who you ask.
A few years ago, I wrote a very controversial article and as it turned out, included a most controversial statement. I said that “many music historians would say that the development of music can be summarized as an evolving acceptance of dissonance.”
Here is an interesting article I read last week. Take a moment and read it too. http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/225437 The author says some things that I believe to be true but he says them far better than me. In a nutshell, he says this: when you are chronically late, you are communicating something and everyone knows exactly […]
It is pretty inevitable that if you want to be a professional Christian musician, you will end up doing some recording. Now that we are done with some introductory stuff, we are at a point in this series where I want to talk about the financial side of recording and some of the pitfalls.
I am gratified by the response to Looking Up, both from customers who are ordering CDs/DVDs as well as those who are watching clips on YouTube.
Not all the response has been positive of course, and for a variety of reasons. However, the most common negative feedback has been in regards to a mixing decision: many have mentioned that the piano is not hot enough in the mix. In other words, it is often buried by the orchestra or band.
I mentioned earlier in the week that I moved my piano to my office so I could have a semi-permanent studio and generate higher quality videos more efficiently. At the same time, I installed a QRS PNOscan which is a sensor bar that sits under the keys and records what I play as midi. I am going to use that technology to generate a virtual keyboard with keys that light up as I play them. I have used that in videos in the past and want to do it more in the future.
I am finally getting back to this series after a few weeks. In the previous two posts, I started discussing what I would consider to be a healthy mindset (foundation) for musicians to have about money. First of all, I said that musicians should avoid being selfish by pursuing their dreams at the expense of their families, and secondly, I said that they need to get their financial house in order before they start (by watching debt and expenses).
I recently went to hear a motivational speaker discuss the concept of living the way God wants you to live. Most of the audience was older and I sensed that he was talking mainly to them, trying to encourage them not to give up, not to coast through life but rather to make their lives meaningful.