Several years ago, I recorded a song on Portraits of Hope called “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.” I don’t know what I was thinking when I arranged it. Basically if I am being honest, it is a virtually unplayable, complicated mess. I could not even play it in the studio that day with […]
There is not much that I can add to the national discussion of Billy Graham this past week and I am not going to try. However, as I read an article about his funeral service, I saw a name of a person that has influenced me a lot. The pianist for the service was John […]
I just published a new arrangement on my sheet music page. This arrangement of “My Hope Is In the Lord” is mostly late intermediate but there are a few challenging bars in there. Let me give you a few modifications to simplify those bars. Bar 35: The harmony here is FM7 – Am7(b5) D7(b9). If […]
Read Part 1 here Remember this line from that last post? You can substitute a half diminished chord for a minor chord of the same spelling if it is functioning as a ii chord for a target that is also minor. That is one confusing bit of writing so let me do my best to […]
Someone recently mentioned to me that I have never really discussed the half diminished chord and how to use it –and I realized they are right. I want to remedy that over a short series of two posts. As a quick reminder, a half diminished chord is a stack of 4 notes that are separated […]
I am a bit backed up on things that I want to discuss here. I am going to discuss last month’s “All Hail the Power” arrangement and I want to discuss Finale. I also want to talk about “Soul Rest” and I suppose I will do that first since it is fresh on my mind. […]
Last fall, I recorded five big pieces of music that I am releasing slowly as video singles. MasterBuilder came out last Thanksgiving. Today, I am releasing a second one entitled “Soul Rest,” adapted from “Be Still, My Soul.” This is another collaboration with Ben Botkin and is designed to be a very dramatic piece of […]
Here are links to this entire series: Part 1: My story of abuse (Introduction) Part 2: Seven things you need to know about abusers Part 3: Dealing with victims of abuse Part 4: It started with a crossword puzzle Part 5: Getting help for an abuse victim Part 6: Taking the next step Part 7: My […]
I just published a new arrangement of “All Hail The Power” to my sheet music page. This arrangement is a bit more advanced than my normal stuff and is moderately syncopated. I will be discussing it in a few upcoming posts. I think it is very playable but you just have to get a few […]
Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to. Last time, I introduced the hook that I am using to tie this arrangement together. You might ask how I describe this hook and I am not sure that I know how to answer that question. I would probably say that it is a gentle […]
I really think that if I ever quit doing what I do, I would want to do something in the field of history. I love history. I am also a fan of Dan Carlin, the online history podcast guy (Hardcore History). I just finished listening to his 25-hour podcast series on WWI and I found […]