Percussion [You Say Tomatos, I Say Tomatoes]

One of the things about being a percussionist and multifaceted flautist, is that you need to realize that what you do is not an essential part of the modern day “worship band” instrumentation, it’s good to have but is not essential. With that in mind, there are some things that you need to know and also need to be in you as a worshiper specially playing instruments that people don’t quite understand where they belong in the modern day worship band instrumentation. Let’s face it, you are not going to play flute or whistles on every song played [not unless you happen to be in Ireland playing in a pub…..] or tambourine on every song or even congas or djembe.

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Developing A Songwriting Community Through Your Church, part one

“I had tried to visit Woody (Guthrie) regularly… I would usually take the bus there from the Port Authority terminal, make the hour-and-a-half ride and then walk the rest of the half mile up the hill to the hospital, a gloomy and threatening granite building…. Usually I’d play him his songs during the afternoon. Sometimes he’d ask for specific ones–”Rangers Command,” “Do Re Me,” “Dust Bowl Blues,” “Pretty Boy Floyd,” “Tom Joad,”… I knew all those songs and many more.”– Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Vol. 1

What an image: a young, pre-celebrity Bob Dylan traveling 90 minutes one way to trudge up a hill and play a few songs for his dying hero. Many hold Dylan as the archetype for the modern model of the artist: a reclusive rebel, peerless and owing nothing to artists who have come before. The truth is that not only did Dylan feel a heavy gratitude toward his musical forebears and mentors, but he constantly surrounded himself with others in his set, trading notes, swapping tales, helping with gigs.

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Interactive Worship, Part 2

So what theology / methodology / philosophy is the idea of “interactive worship” born out of?

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Becoming A Worship Songwriter: Let’s Get Started

How does one become a “worship songwriter?” On the one hand, groups like the Enter The Worship Circle musicians, say “Anyone can write a worship song.”  They encourage a “just do it” method that begins with studying the Psalms, asking the Lord to show you His heart as you meditate on the passages, then playing chords as you sing the words of psalms. You keep repeating them until new thoughts come to you. You then sing these new thoughts and phrases and “let your worship carry you” into a new song.Then there are those in modern hymnody who advocate for extensive training and awareness in poetry, music and theology, such as Timothy Dudley-Smith, who tells Paul Westermeyer in Tongues of Fire: Profiles in 20th Century Hymn Writing, that what he finds alarming in modern worship songwriting is “The apparent belief that anyone with a guitar can dash off a ‘worship song’ fit to be sung by a congregation to almighty God, without effort, consultation, or revision - and often without grammar, syntax, meter, or rhythm either!” Read more