Posts Tagged ‘Music’

Keyboards in Worship: Out of Your Element

Recently, I played at my church in a different service than I usually do. They have a different style than the one I am used to fitting into. And to top it off, they were playing a difficult song with an orchestra – something I’ve not done before as a keys player. Yikes! For me, [...]

Keyboards in Worship: Virtual Instruments

Ok, here’s the deal. Lugging around keyboards stinks. It’s almost as bad as the drums. Stands for everything, and good keyboards with good weighted keys are heavy. Solution? Virtual instruments. Basically anything that can replicate a keyboarded instrument inside a computer. Anything from modeling analogue synthesizers to samplers with sound from vintage organs and electric [...]

Keyboard in Worship: My Setup

I’ve been looking around the internet for good references and/or blogs on keyboards in a modern worship music setting. I haven’t found much as of yet, so I wanted to share whatever knowledge I have on this blog. This will be ongoing as I learn and experiment. So I hope some of you find this [...]

Music Like Poetry

I wish more music was like poetry. I’ve been trying to expand my musical library recently. One thing I’ve found is that the best music (for me anyway) is the music that feels like poetry. Music that isn’t so cookie-cutter or systematic. Music that is soulful, authentic, and emotional. Music that forces me to think [...]

Sometimes You Just Have to Do It

Sometimes the way forward is just that; forward. Sometimes the next thing you need to do is the thing that you should have been doing all along. Most times, we know where the next step is, we just don’t want to take it. We feel like we can’t, or aren’t allowed, or shouldn’t. We just [...]

Open or Closed, Part II: License and Free(dom)

I found another portion of the open or closed question. What about open and closed software licenses? Here’s a quick rundown of the license categories (check here for more details): GNU GPL type licenses. Very open. Liberal Licenses (i.e. Creative Commons type, Mozilla Public License). Mostly open. Closed source (i.e. proprietary license). Closed. The more [...]

Catalysts: The Web is Changing the Music Business

Was on ChurchCrunch and I saw this post on the Catalyst Music Project. I got all excited about it. [ Catalyst Music Project | Aaron Keyes from Catalyst on Vimeo ]. So here’s the deal. The music industry is changing. No, it already has changed. Not everyone knows it yet. The Web is empowering the [...]

Turning the Internal Analyze Switch Off

Ok. You’re going about your usual day. You see something related to your work, and all of a sudden, you’re analyzing the heck out of something and you jump into work mode. Ahh! This happens to me with music all of the time! I’m listening to my iPod, just enjoying the tune, when I hear [...]

Looking for Meaning in Music, Part II

In my previous post, I said that music is essentially a vehicle of meaning. Music communicates emotions, but can only communicate so many before something else is added. Adding Layers Adding words to a song makes it more specific. The sounds of music are like broad strokes on the canvas. Lyrics are the details. They [...]

The Place of Art in the Church Part II

The purpose of all art in the Church is to glorify God. When the Church creates art, it is expressing what the soul wants to say to God. It is our expression of what God has revealed to us to be Truth (as in absolute Truth). This can be in a worship song of adoration, [...]