Someone called me a few months ago and asked me if I knew of any pianists that might be willing to travel with his quartet. I will not name the quartet but if I did, a large percentage of you would recognize the name. They travel 40 weekends a year.
A few years ago, I posted this video that discusses how to reharmonize “Silent Night.” If you have not seen it, you might enjoy it. I was watching it and noticed that I would still do these things today. I do not know if that means I have not learned anything in 3 years or not!
Everyone is posting and sharing a video spoof on The Christmas Song right now. The lyrics have been changed to give some bit of insight into the theory behind the song.
Two of my brothers and I have worked together for many years in business. Over Thanksgiving, we got into a discussion of our past and tried to come up with a list of our five dumbest business decisions.
A few weeks ago, I introduced a concept about congregational accompaniment: making it more musically meaningful. Today, I want to discuss that in a little more detail and move in a bit more of a practical direction.
For those of you taking it easy today, consider reading this article about Bach: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/110177/bachs-music-back-then-and-right-now
I am not a child rearing expert, largely because I don’t have the experience to be. I am not qualified to give advice really, and this post is not intended to be that. Rather, it is a summary of some things I have been pondering in regards to child rearing. I am not an expert […]
A few people wrote in after a recent post and mentioned that they feel guilty about changing written arrangements (such as piano offertories or choir pieces). Let me take a moment to relieve you of that guilt and tell you this: the idea that you can’t change music is almost always completely without merit. I […]
In August, we recorded a song I wrote called “This God Alone” in the live taping. The lyricist wants the music for a concert she is doing so I promised her I would write out the piano part (all the other parts are already written out).
Someone emailed me a very good question tonight and I thought I would share it along with my answer.
A few days ago, I wrote a post about how pianists can improve congregational music in church. The gist of it was that pianists should shape congregational music in a way similar to how they might shape an arrangement with dynamic and textural variety and a focus on matching the style to the text.