I am enjoying living close to work at the moment. It’s a ten minute walk to my workplace three days a week, and this week, I’ve been walking home in order to get some arranging done.
It’s something that I’ve been embracing more since I am not playing my violin as much any more, so this is something that I can use my musical skills in. I’ve arranged a couple of worship songs so far for the songsters at my church, and I’m working on another arrangement at the moment, this time of the hymn “There’s Power in the blood”.
I pulled this song out at a recent Chrysalis retreat and the guys really got into it. As the weeks went on, I couldn’t get the song out of my head, and it turned from this slightly rock, slightly rockabilly version into this kinda jazzy version that I’m now arranging. I’m working through this arrangement and hope to have it done really soon.
After that, I’m thinking I might have a go at a brass band arrangement. Got a few ideas running around, just need to see what would work well.
Great post. Mainly reblogging this so that I’ve got a memory of this so that I can convert this to a violin post soon. Stay tuned.
I promise I’ll get back into blogging soon. Really I will. When it gets less busy. Like October. Or maybe next year. Or the year after… surely there must be some free time by the end of the decade….
This is a quick checklist of things to do, buy, learn and decide before your child has their very first piano lesson. Working your way through this checklist will speed up your child’s learning curve, possibly by months (maybe more!), and once you’ve covered every item below you will be a superbly equipped parent entering into the role of nurturing the growth of a new little (or not so little) pianist. 1. Buy a piano. This may or may not seem lik … Read More
I was thinking the other day. Liesl tells me that it’s never a good idea. But I was thinking that there’s a lot of really bad music out there, and a lot of it is Christian music. Take this video for an example:
Take a real good listen to those lyrics. “He is like a Mounty, he always gets his man, and he’ll zap you anyway he can. Zap!” I’m sorry Sonseed, but you really can’t get much more cheesy than that.
See, that’s the problem with bad Christian music – they try to write a “Christian” song, and it ends up being cheesy, kitschy and just plain wrong. However, there is hope. There is a multitude of musicians out there, who are Christians, who write fantastic music that is up there with “secular” music.
Take for example this little band. They’ve got some great songs, and are really deep in faith.
U2 are fairly well-known as being a very spiritual group, with Bono having a deep Christian faith, but also an understanding that to get his message out to the world, it can’t be shoved down people’s throats, but coming through every facet of their music and lives.
Naturally 7, if you’re not aware, are a band that only use their voice. Liesl and I saw them opening for Michael Bublé, and were amazed. Their version of Can you feel it in the Air tonight is amazing.
And they write their own songs too, like Bless this House.
And remember, every sound they make is made with the human voice. And they’re Christian too – they’re headlining at Easterfest 2011, a massive Christian festival being held in Toowomba.
For something a bit heavier, why not try Underoath? This Christian metal band have played at the big heavy rock/metal festivals such as Soundwave, and are not shy in hiding their faith at those events either.
One of my favourite bands at the moment is New Empire. They’re currently touring with Good Charlotte, opening for them. It’s very much a pop-rock sound, but if you didn’t know they were Christian, it would sound very much like any other band out there.
And there’s heaps more out there too. Everything from Metal to A capella. Ska to Soulful, it’s all there, and it’s all brilliant. All you need to do is go searching for it.
It’s late, and I need to post, so this will be a short one. The band I’d love to see live would be The Beatles. Not only did they form a lot of the “rules” of rock music that bands would come to live by for years to come, but they also broke those rules and did things like write a pop song accompanied entirely by string quartet (Eleanor Rigby) or one accompanied by a Clarinet Trio (When I’m Sixty-Four), yet also did really quite rocking songs. So that’s the band that I would love to see live.
J.S. Bach - great composer or fraud? (Image via Wikipedia)
It’s been a while since I published anything from my field of study (Music Research). That’s because I’ve been researching something groundbreaking that will change our idea of music forever Continue reading “Bach was a fraud!”→
I was reminded of this movie when someone quoted a line from John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” which is performed by Mr Holland and dedicated to his deaf son. It a touching moment in a movie full of them. When I think about it, this movie has a similar hold over me as M*A*S*H does – through the course of this movie, you get involved in Mr Holland’s life. From his first day at work, his attempts to get a football player to play drums, his temptation by a student, and finally his retirement. All through this you get to feel his emotions as he feels them. His anger, his hope, his despair. Plus, it always helps that it’s a film about music – and I love films about music.
Anyway, I’m going to leave you with a couple of clips of my favourite parts. Firstly, the performance of “Beautiful Boy” and secondly his farewell assembly, including the first performance of his symphony.
The first album I ever bought was one I remember because it is one that I regret so badly. I hear all these stories of people who bought these classic albums as their first, and they have great pleasure in remembering how it affected their lives.
My album is far more embarrassing – being Hansen’s first album. it got turned into an art project soon after.
I’m hoping that there are some readers who have similarly bad first albums. Please feel free to share on the comments.
Just a quick one as it’s late, and I need to be up early tomorrow.
My favourite class in college (well, University), would probably have been String Class. This was where we would play for the other string players at uni, and get specific feedback relating to string playing.
I remember my first performance, and I hated it. I felt like I didn’t deserve to be there. It probably didn’t help that string class was joined with the other Music Uni, because “there weren’t enough string players for their own class” (despite there being more string players than brass players, and brass players had their own seperate class). While they may not agree, we certainly felt like second class citizens, as if we were the string players who weren’t good enough to get into their school.
Anyway, eventually, WAAPA granted us our own string class. And it was awesome. It really helped bring the strings together, and start supporting each other. And while there were many things that I would say helped along the way, I would say that giving us our own string class really helped kick start the redevelopment of the strings program at WAAPA.
So that was my favourite uni class. What was yours?
I wasn’t allowed to go home yesterday afternoon. My wife was having a girls only party, and I was strictly told that I was not allowed to go home after church. So I organised with a few mates to get together and have a jam. It was awesome, a whole heap of fun. We jammed over some riffs that we knew, then had a go at a couple of songs which ended up sounding pretty good. I had a chance to pull out some of my heavier guitar tones that I don’t often use in church situations, Dave had a chance to really play his new bass (which he discovered was even more awesome than he originally thought, finding a beautiful dirty side to the slightly bluesy sound he thought he had found), Paul got a chance to play a whole heap of stuff and Isaac got to hit some drums really loudly. It was awesome fun.
One of the songs we had fun doing was “Jesus is Just Alright” by the Doobie Brothers. I think this is one that I might see if we can pull up for the youth band sometime. Would be a whole heap of fun.
Have a listen to that, that will make your Monday go much better. What would your favourite song to jam on be?
Had our youth meeting on Sunday. This was the first Youth Meeting since taking over leadership of the band. Haven’t had much time to work the band as I’d like to, but I’m hoping over the course of this year, I can start to implement some good changes into the youth band. The first service was based upon Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Started with Blessed be your name. A song that we know well, and has an awesome message: “Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise.”
Then One Way – a song that we love to pump out, but haven’t done for a while. I love this because I can get away with some grungier effects on my guitar.
Then this beautiful song by Nathan Rowe from the Australian Southern Territory – Let Justice Roll. Very powerful lyrics here
I’ve fallen in love with Chris Tomlin’s Amazing Grace (My Chains are gone) – start with a powerful song, add a powerful chorus, and it’s brilliant.
We love The Stand, and perform it often. I’ve heard it go into a Hallelujah before, but it’s not quite the right setting for that, so we just do the Stand.
And then we finished off with One Way again.
All up, it was a great service. I’m looking forward to our next service in March, and looking forward to start challenging the band musically with slightly more difficult songs, and get us really working together as a band, while still preserving the fun, passion and energy that we have when we praise the Lord.
Ben Clapton 