Hymns With Friends, Volume 1

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Over the weekend, our church had a Hymn Sing event. We started with a good ol' pot luck dinner and then gathered up for a time of singing timeless songs of faith. I had the idea to record our time together and the recording turned out better than I could have imagined. I had thought about recording some additional vocals or instruments but, after listening to the recordings, I decided that to add anything to it would take away from the vibe. You can listen to the album right here:

The album is available for immediate download from my Bandcamp page. While you're there, you can pre-order a physical CD, which have not been ordered yet. The pre-orders will determine how many CDs I order. When you pre-order a CD, you will get an immediate download of the album for free. Order a bunch for stocking stuffers!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Best Marching Band Show Ever

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This is the coolest marching band show I've ever seen. 

In-Ear Monitors

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Image courtesy of geardiary.com

I wanted to take some time today to discuss in-ear monitoring. Our church uses the Aviom personal monitor mixing system. We are a bit limited with this system if we intend to grow the numbers in our ministry (which we do). We have four mixer stations as well as the input module. Our system is for sale if you'd like to make us an offer. We would like to invest the money into a different solution that might better meet our needs. I spent some time with our producer to re-configure the system so that the four instrumentalists would have a monitor mixer and the singers would have a floor wedge fed from the house board. We had to run some cabling under the stage and re-plug all the inputs and inserts to feed the Aviom A/D converter.

I listed below some of the pros and cons of an in-ear system. I have used Avioms before, so I was able to anticipate the cons and build in some workarounds.

Dear Worship Leaders: Lead Better Songs

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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few days ago, I was listening to some music on Spotify. I love Spotify because I can call up almost anything that has ever been released to the public. This particular time I was listening to some country music that I enjoyed in high school and early college. Oh alright! It was Little Texas. I think they were a great band that had a few great songs, but they were plagued with too many mediocre songs (and interpersonal problems). This post is not about Little Texas, though.

I couldn't help but notice that I remembered every word to every song. I don't walk around in my daily life trying to remember words to Little Texas songs, but here they were like I had just listened to the songs yesterday. Not only could I remember every word, I remembered every guitar lick and motif.

A Successful Kickstarter Campaign - Or Was It?

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I had a friend ask me about my thoughts on my Successful Kickstarter Campaign. He is planning on launching a campaign this summer and wanted to "pick my brain" so to speak. This is a huge can of worms and I don't know why I haven't blogged about it before. Whether or not you pledged to my Kickstarter campaign, this post is not about you. These are just my observations and over-reactions. If you contributed, whatever the amount, I'm so grateful. If you did not contribute, for whatever reason, I'm not hurt.

From the outside looking in, this project looked like a success. I was able to raise $585 over my goal of $3,500. I was able to make a CD that I'm pleased with. From the inside, however, the project felt like a failure. This has nothing to do with money. I'd like to share with you some of the things I wrestled with over the 30-day campaign as well as the successes and, finally, some advice.

The Demise of Congregational Singing

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In recent years, the practice of congregational singing has been on the decline in the Church as a whole. Many practices fall out of popularity due to non-importance, but congregational singing is very important and its decline has led to or is a result of the lack of spiritual fervor in the Church. I believe this de-valuation of congregational singing is due to four things:

1. Consumer culture - We go to church to be impressed or served instead of joining with one another to celebrate God's goodness.
2. Entertainment-driven church culture - By and large, the church has catered to our consumer culture instead of shaping it. The loud music and multi-media presentations encourage little more than spectatorial participation. 
3. Songs that do not encourage singing - Songs promoting weak theology or that are self-centered do not encourage our hearts to sing. 
4. Biblical ignorance or apathy - We either don't know or don't care. Maybe both.

I want to begin a discussion on the why, what, and how of congregational singing to get us thinking toward how to rekindle passionate sung worship in our churches.

We Sing Hallelujah | New Album

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I am excited to share this project with you. I finished it late last fall. If you would like a copy, you can download it immediately in a variety of formats from my Bandcamp page. If you would like a physical copy, you can order it from the MY MUSIC tab above. This page is provided by CD Baby. Alternatively, you can CONTACT ME and let me know how many copies you would like. I can take credit cards via telephone or you can pay via paypal.

Acquired Taste | Jeremy Clay Price

I'd love for you to check out this project that I produced, mixed, and mastered for my friend, Jeremy Price. Jeremy is a friend from college days. He and his Wife, Jen, are missionaries in South Africa. They're currently on sabbatical in Texas and Jeremy contacted me about helping him produce an album. This was a special project for both of us. Jeremy and I played in a worship band together when we were first getting started with worship leading. I hope you enjoy.

How To Defeat Discouragement

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Do you get discouraged? I'm sure you don't, but I sure do. I get discouraged when I feel like I'm pulled in too many directions to be really good at any one thing. I feel the crushing weight of discouragement when I feel like nothing I try to do gets any traction; when my career, my music, or my life feels like it's stuck in the muck.

Stay Focused While Leading Worship

Due to the rise of popularity in "worship music" as a radio genre, leading worship has been romanticized to the point that we expect it to be a completely sublime arena experience, where we as leaders are transported from our solid human form into a vapor floating around in the heavenly places, only to condense back into solid form after "worship" is over, metaphorically speaking, of course. While that might happen sometimes, more often here in the real world, it is like spinning plates while riding a unicycle. We're usually just trying to keep our balance while keeping all of the elements of worship from crashing to the floor.