Your Gear: Don’t Underestimate It

I was just asked by my grandparents to give them a belated birthday list (which is always a cool question to answer), and I immediately started thinking about some guitar gear I had been scouting out for a while. Not only was it fun to do a little window shopping, but it was interesting to note how much I underestimated my current rig. Most guys out there have way more than I do, but when I took a step back and realized how flexible my stuff was already, I was able to scrub all kinds of stuff off of the wish list.

A guitarist can sometimes get labeled as a gear junky, especially if they like writing songs. This isn’t often far from the truth, and sometimes it makes sense to have lots of gear. BUT, before you go blowing all kinds of dollars on new stuff, use what you have as if it was all you’d ever get to use. Get creative with the tools in your hands, and really experiment with your own technique, not just the shiny electronics with lights. The sounds you make come partly from you, so never underestimate that, either.

Music in Other Languages

Here’s a cool exercise for you; listen to worship tunes that aren’t in your native tongue, and translate them. Without having to go into too much detail, I am sure you can already see what kind of value this has. I am currently listening to an album that is sung almost entirely in Hebrew, and I have a Spanish one coming up shortly thereafter. If you have a hard time finding this kind of stuff, browse iTunes. You’d be amazed at what they’ve got on there.

Blog: Resurrected.

Well, I am back. Not with a vengeance, but with enough of something inside that says “I want to do this.” That is all.

Music Debate Results: Part 3

Alrighty! Here are the next round of results from the survey.

When asked how important musical worship is personally (as according to each individual respondent) by rating it 1 to 5, where 5 denotes high importance and 1 means no importance, the responses tallied up as follows:

Average: 4.4 Lowest: 1 Highest: 5

So, it is fairly obvious that you thought this was very important!

Not all respondents disclosed their reasons for their choices, but I’ll post a few quotes from those who did.

“Music stirs the emotions, or has been produced by emotions that have been stirred, and when it comes to worship, all of me should be involved.”

“Music speaks to a part of the human soul that words simply cannot reach.”

“I think that musical worship is important, and is helpful in reinforcing in beliefs, but it is not essential. What music you listen to should not be the biggest influence in your relationship with God, in my opinion.”

“I feel as though musical worship is important. It is a great tool for encouraging and uplifting. When times are hard, there aren’t many things better to do than to flip on some Christian music.”

So there you have it. There are some thoughts behind the importance behind musical worship on a personal level. Do you agree? Disagree?

Music Debate Results: Part 2

Now for some of the logic behind the ratings of the various genres of music. Rather than post full blown answers from several respondents (since most of them were quite long), I will convey the main message that people responded with and supply short quotations.

Some folks, as you saw from the last post, saw every genre as appropriate for use (look for an article dealing directly with this in the near future) in a personal AND congregational setting. One person cited the fact that lyrics in a song are a determining factor in its appropriateness, stating that “Music is music. It’s the lyrics that may seem offensive. But if you take the lyrics out, how can one note be inappropriate?”

Another answer was discussing the idea that certain congregations will simply be attracted to certain genres of music, and that was OK. “…it is not the music itself, but how it helps or fits into the congregation that matters.”

One person responded by directly addressing the Christian Traditional style, saying that they are often directly inspired by Scripture, whereas their more contemporary counterparts can focus on messages that, while encouraging and Biblical, can lack depth and teaching elements.

What are your thoughts?

Music Debate Results: Part 1

Well folks, here they are. The first round of the results from the survey are prepped. I know there has been some anticipation, so here are the numbers. Until we get into the open-ended discussion, most of it will be just numerical values.

When asked about the appropriateness of various genres of music in personal worship on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the most appropriate), the answers were as follows…

Classical)                                 Average: 3.9 Lowest: 1 Highest: 5

Rock)                                       Average: 4.7 Lowest: 4 Highest: 5

Rap)                                         Average: 3.8 Lowest: 2 Highest: 5

Hip-hop)                                 Average: 3.9 Lowest: 2 Highest: 5

R&B)                                         Average: 3.8 Lowest: 1 Highest: 5

Metal)                                      Average: 4.0 Lowest: 1 Highest: 5

Techno)                                   Average: 3.4 Lowest: 1 Highest: 5

Folk)                                        Average: 4.2 Lowest: 2 Highest: 5

Blues)                                      Average: 4.2 Lowest: 3 Highest: 5

Christian Traditional)              Average: 4.0 Lowest: 2 Highest: 5

Country/Western)                    Average: 4.1 Lowest: 1 Highest: 5

Jazz)                                        Average: 4.1 Lowest: 2 Highest: 5

So what can we discern from these numbers? Well, first off, there is a general acceptance of all types of music within a personal worship setting. Some obviously went over better than others, but no average ever dipped below a 3.4 out of 5, which is a sign that we aren’t in general, very picky.

Even more telling though, are the highest and lowest numbers. The highest ones were always 5s, as some of the surveys returned had nothing but 5s in this category. The lowest ones really give you a sense of what is the most popular though. The rock genre not only came in as the most popular on average, but was never scored below a 4. This is probably because Christian rock bands are not only everywhere, but still a relatively new phenomena.

Some anomalies were encountered here, and was evidenced by people’s explanations of their score choices. Several respondents took the question personally, and answered based on their preference, while others answered based on the appropriateness in light of what Scripture says. Neither method was necessarily wrong, but it should be noted that some (very few) scores were inconsistent with the rest. Just know that the goal was to reach an understanding of appropriateness, not preference.

Genres that scored low due to reasons other than personal preference were techno, metal, classical and jazz.

Whether or not you took the survey, weigh in! What do you think of the results so far? (Oh, and believe me…MUCH more to come.)

Audiosurf Overview

Hey folks,

Before I get you the results from the music survey, I wanted to throw this in for kicks. I had seen advertisements for a music-based game called Audiosurf, but never really looked into it or tried a demo. Well, I decided to give it a shot the other day, and almost immediately bought a digital copy. Now, before you shy away because you don’t like videogames, at least read the rest of this and see what it is all about.

Audiosurf is a combination between an old-school racing game (think F-Zero) and Guitar Hero, only you use your mouse and your own music library (or a CD) instead of a pre-determined one. Basically, you choose a song for the game to use, the software will analyze it for intensity and seperate the instrument voices, and will then build a ‘track’ based on it. If a song is more mellow, the colors displayed within the game will be cooler, and the trach will move by slower. As intensity picks up, the game takes on a faster pace, and hot colors replace the cool ones. The point of the game is actually to collect colored boxes. As you collect them they form groups, and any group of three or more is worth points. The hotter the color of the boxes or the bigger the grouping is, the more points it is worth.

Beyond that I don’t want to get into the specifics, because in reality it is quite simple. It is $10 for the full version, with no monthly fees or restrictions. If you like listening to music, this game is actually pretty cool. It has a good interpretation of the songs you load into it, and you can even play it with someone using the mouse AND keyboard. Even cooler is the fact that you can compare scores with people from around the world who have played the same song. Rivalry between pastors, anyone?

You can try the demo and buy the game here. The transaction is all online, so if you purchase it, you will download the game directly from the web store. Have fun!

Music Debate Results are Coming In

As the title says, the results for the music survey that I have sent out are coming in. If you would still like to participate, the deadline for answers is the 25, and I will be compiling all of the data that night. So far, the answers are quite impressive, and I am glad that there was such an awesome response to this. Stay tuned, the myriad of information is still to come!

Contemporary Christian Music: A Debate, Introduction

Well folks, I’ve been slowly working up the courage for this particular topic. As you can guess by the title, I will be picking through the debate that exists between two general camps: those who see that the contemporary style of worship music has a place and is theologically valid, and those who don’t. Some of you think this debate is dead, and to some extent it may be. However, it can stretch even further and we can ask ourselves if we think that heavy metal can really give a Christian message, or if screamo music can portray Christ just as equally as a hynm night.

Throughout this debate, which will be long (I can assure you of that), we will be browsing through the different genres of music and discussing with various people their authenticity and feasibility within the Christian world view. I urge you to give as much feedback as you deem necessary to this debate, because while I might have an opinion or bias, the whole point is to get to the truth of the matter.

I plan on learning a ton throughout this endeavor, and hope you do as well. Stay tuned!

Beyond Relevance

I ran across this awesome blog today through a youtube video a friend sent me, and thought you all might want to see this. I’ve read through the blogs pages, and it sounds like they are just the ticket in the area of church relevance. But, don’t let me ruin their views with my interpretation. Check them out at www.beyondrelevance.com and see for yourself what they are all about. In today’s world, people that think like Richard Reising (the founder of the blog) are very important, and many of us could stand to learn a thing or two from them.