August 28, 2009
Hi all.
It seems like about a year ago, though it has not quite been a month, since I was talking up an interesting article on church music, titled "Congregational Singing and the Ministry of the Word". (You can see the entire article at http://www.the-highway.com/articleJuly98.html)
If you looked at it, you may have found it a "heavy" read. It is that, though I find it touches on so many interesting points, that I remain interested in pulling value out of it and seeing if we can use parts and pieces to inspire actions that will help us win souls for Christ.
Now, the article is 11 years old, and written by a music minister with a Ph.D, who was serving in a large church in Texas at the time. So it is not up to the minute, and it addresses an audience who generally has not been blessed with the abundance of in-depth Bible teaching we have. As always, we are looking for good to hold fast to after we have proven all. I found enough good there to be encouraged to act.
I would be short-changing the article to try to summarize it in a sentence or two, but I think it's fair to say the author makes an inspiring appeal to Bible-based ministers to invest effort to
1) improve church music and church song lyrics so they teach the truth of God's Word in greater depth, and
2) improve the skill level of church musicians.
I would like to visit with interested people to see what value we could draw out and shape from this article. I'll see what I can do to structure something, but if any of you know what to do next, jump in! I know my son, Jonathan, has had some fine conference calls, long distance, for free over the computer/Internet using Skype. Let me know if you are "Skype" ready, or if you'd like to learn how to become so. I would love to try a group phone meeting to look at the article and just chat. Maybe a few half-hour meetings over a few weeks would scratch the itch.
So, again, if you would like to learn how to use your computer as a free, long distance phone, or if you already are set up, let me know, and I'll see if such a meeting would draw any participants.
As for me, the article got my mind moving toward taking these actions:
1. I have begun putting together an email list of people interested in various aspects of church music --- writing, learning, teaching, performing, transcribing ...
2. I am laying groundwork to make a YouTube-type teaching series. There are four categories I'd like to develop:
--a) Videos to teach general music knowledge needed to accompany singing in (home) fellowships [such things as chords, meter, rhythm, keys, music reading, song leading]
--b) Videos to teach fellowship songs and how to play them on GUITAR [I'll show simple and more developed ways of playing several familiar songs on guitar]
--c) Videos to teach fellowship songs and how to play them on KEYBOARD [keyboarding using a chord/ear approach]
--d) Videos to showcase newly written songs and touch on recording, transcribing, production tips and methods [NOT JUST MY NEWLY WRITTEN SONGS ... YOURS!]
The article made me aware of active movements in the past to write scripturally sound hymns. For 200 years from the time of Luther to JS Bach, many thousands of hymns were written. Some were great, many were mediocre; but a LOT of people were trying their hand at writing, and out of that came some very good work. We can be such cowards when it comes to trying our hand at art and music because we are so surrounded by highly produced stuff, we think ours could NEVER measure up. So we never start. That's a problem, and the solution is TO START. Honestly, I did not realize King Solomon wrote 1005 songs (see the article ...). And the notes about the ability of the music ministers of his day ... WOW!!
Furthermore, consider that highly produced recordings are much like highly made up models ... NO one looks (or sounds) THAT good. Well, almost no one ... there are always exceptions ---- but never underestimate the value of personal, real time ministering and music. Recordings may be perfect, but the personal presence of a live minister or musician will always have a unique value.
Here are some action items you can take if you'd like to follow up on this note from me:
1. Please let me know your "Skype status" ... are you set up? Would you like info on it? Would you be interested in meeting some evening to discuss the article or other music issues?
2. Look at the article (http://www.the-highway.com/articleJuly98.html) for ideas we could discuss and use to advance the Christian ministry and music.
A note on email protocol ... I do not plan to distribute email addresses, but I WOULD be happy to pass comments along to folks on this distribution list IF YOU ASK ME TO. I am looking into using social networking tools to allow us to post ideas to each other by invitation, but I need to take baby steps for now, so bear with me. Email seems so .... 8 years ago!!! I guess I'm dating myself!
Love you all
Dale Reichel