Read previous installments: Part 1 Part 2 Reading String Reductions (A related detour) Sorry for the delay in getting back to this topic. Let me give you a quick few bits of news before we dive in. I am announcing the 2017 Arrangement Contest winner on Wednesday 11/22. Look for it by the end of […]
For the past few days, I have been recording a set of five songs. I am extremely excited about them because in many ways, they are the most aggressive pieces I have ever recorded. They will be released as videos starting hopefully the end of next month. I am giving away one of my cheats. […]
I am in the middle of the series of how pianists can adapt to new more contemporary music in church and I want to take a small and very relevant detour today and discuss string reductions. The reason string reductions are relevant is because very very often, today’s church pianists are asked to play them […]
Read Part 1 here Last week, I gave a foundational principle about playing modern church music (sometimes called praise and worship or CCM). The principle was this: The first thing you need to learn is how to play the right chords at the right time. Let’s say that you have to make a choice. You […]
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 […]
A few months ago, I published a post where I promised to discuss how pianists can adjust when their church moves from traditional to more contemporary music. Sadly, I promptly forgot about my promise until someone pointed it out last week. Time to remedy that… Let me introduce an idea this week to get you […]
If you are a professional in the arts, you will be invariably get asked to work for exposure. By that, I mean people will come to you with a “great” idea and they will say something like this: This project is going to be huge and seen by thousands (or millions) of people. I can’t […]
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 […]
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 […]
Quitting is sort of frowned upon in our society. Supposedly, quitters never win, blah blah, etc. The truth is that it is not nearly that simple. In fact, let me say this: In business, there is probably nothing more important to success than the ability to determine whether an idea needs more investment or needs […]
About seven years ago, I recorded a series of videos about the song “What a Friend We Have In Jesus.” If you watch all five, you will probably invest an hour but also get an extensive look at how I evaluate music and reharmonize it. Basically, these videos go through the song line by line. […]