As most of you guys know, the piano has only been considered acceptable in church for about a century. Until that point, the piano was primarily a bar instrument and had heavy baggage associated with it sort of like drums might have today.
Yesterday, the “smart” clock in our house changed to daylight savings time one week early. As a result, while I was getting ready, my wife rushed to inform me that we were running on the wrong time and hopelessly late for church. Nevertheless, we left as soon as we could and got to church maybe 30 minutes late. Almost as soon as I sat down, something embarrassing happened: my cell phone started ringing.
I think practically every musician should learn to play by ear. I know that there may be a few people here and there that just can’t learn that way but most can. It is completely natural to learn music by ear; in fact, it would be easy to make a case that it is more […]
Last week, I posted three tips for accompanying and it has been the most popular blog post ever here. Almost 900 people have “Liked” it and that really helps me by the way. Please take a second to “Like” this post too by clicking on the Facebook “Like” button just under the title above. Now […]
For church pianists, accompanying small groups or soloists is a ultra-important skill that is sometimes a bit neglected. So today, I thought I would give a few tips that are especially geared toward situations where the pianist is not given a written piano accompaniment.
The internet is abuzz with this viral article from Huffington Post about Generation Y.
Not only is it great writing, but there is some real truth there and I
have a feeling it was used in many sermon illustrations this morning
(including my church).
I was working on an illustration in an upcoming class for music school and thought I would share it here as well. It is a representation of a good way to think of modulations using what we call pivot chords.
For those who are looking for work, let me sort of tell you how the process works these days. Last week, we posted a job (office admin/customer service) on Monster.com. In 24 hours, about 100 resumes came in. The ad is running two weeks so I can expect another few hundred resumes at least.
Last week on Facebook, I posted a clip of a very controversial piece of music. Most would not even call it music and I am a bit on the fence myself. Here is a link if you don’t see it below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4 John Cage’s 4’33” is a 4 minute 33 second song consisting of silence. “Written” […]
I am a college football agnostic (meaning I fall asleep if I try to watch a game). I can’t remember the last time a college football game really held my interest (well OK, it was that Boise State/Oklahoma bowl game in 2007 which by the way can never be topped). While I am largely uninterested […]
I always seem to know a few people that are dealing with hand pain from playing the piano. I am not talking about arthritis issues that might affect older people; I am rather talking about people who have injured themselves because of the way they play.