Many of you know that I sold a company called Vitabase last year. Vitabase was my main focus for the past fifteen years. In fact, we built an office/warehouse for it a few miles from my house. When I sold Vitabase, they originally wanted to stay in the building so I could be around to […]
It is that time of the year where we church musicians get have to play Christmas carols. Yeah! Sigh…. I know it is not politically correct to admit it but I am not the biggest fan in the world of Christmas music. Don’t get me wrong—some traditional carols are great (“O Come All Ye Faithful,” […]
I am usually considered to be a conservative Christian musician because most of the music I perform and record is traditional and conservative. I like big orchestras more than bands. I like working with established older songs more than the CCLI top 20. That being said, I do not consider myself part of the conservative […]
Much ink is spilled about the tension between progressives and conservatives in the world of church music. I have written more than my share on that topic but today I want to talk about another uneasy tension that exists in church music: the tension between trying to hold high standards and giving anyone a chance […]
It is fashionable these days to talk about planning your life. By that, I mean planning how you want it to look and then executing the plan to make it happen. The self-help gurus love to give you the formulas for life planning. So do your local network marketing friends. In theory, there is nothing […]
After publishing my latest free arrangement of “Christ Arose” last week, several of you asked for me to discuss it in a video so here it is. I wrote the arrangement in just a few minutes and I don’t consider it to be the best thing I have ever done. The one thing I consciously did while […]
Maybe eight years ago, my wife and I went to a concert that changed the way I viewed music forever. It was in a tiny venue in downtown Atlanta. My piano teacher at the time was on the piano and he had a drummer and a bass player with him. At one point in the […]
After last week’s post about transitioning between songs, several asked me to demonstrate. Yesterday, I recorded this 15-minute video demonstrating the six tips in that article. * Planning ahead * Making modulations easy * Starting all transitions early * Playing fill music while waiting for the leader to start * Giving cue signals to the […]
One of the current trends in church involves how congregational music is selected and executed. In the past, a congregation might just sing a diverse group of stand alone hymns. Today, churches choose songs to support an overall theme and package the songs together into melodies. I like the trend, but it does put a […]
If you have ever spent much time with any of my courses or classes, you have heard me talk about a concept I call the 4 stages of learning. This is not original to me of course, but here are the 4 stages in order from worst to best. 1) Unconscious incompetence – You don’t […]
In a recent sermon, our pastor was discussing what Christians should do when they are in those periods where they are not sure what God’s master plan is for their lives. That is a good perspective. Doing God’s will is not about mystical feelings and fleeces. More often, it is just about doing the things […]