The Christian Views Of music

[Starise]

3 hours ago, rhomphaeam said:

One of the 10% 

 

@NotAllThere First off I was afraid this might be taken the wrong way online since it's difficult sometimes to convey online. No ill intended from me. It has been a personal peeve of mine when I was attempting to pull music for the congregation that we would sometimes run into this and I either couldn't use the material or I had to transpose it down to even lead it. I'm a tenor with a fairly wide range and I couldn't sing some of it meaning I couldn't lead with it or expect many others to sing it.

As a song to listen to and use as a personal reflection I seen no issue so long as I didn't have to attempt singing it. If another music leader sees fit to make it work I say go for it. I always looked for the most vocally comfortable tunes to play and sing for the largest segment of the congregation which usually varied in age.

This brings up several other interesting points.

 I have come across a few hymns with the same issues. Not as much as with the more recent music though.

The second point is probably not applicable to as large a cross section of people. For anyone who sings in a choir they know everyone has a part and the parts are written in the music. Bass, tenor, alto and soprano. These parts are more encouraged in hymn music. Usually most pertinent to the choir. The congregation often has access to these parts in the hymn books if the church uses hymn books. The congregation can then sing these parts if they know how to read them in the hymnal. So a hymn with a high lead only applies to the soprano. This takes away the need to try to sing outside of your vocal range. In reality many times the congregation are unaware of these extra parts and sing the lead lines or attempt to.

This is one drawback to much modern worship music. There's one lead line. Sometimes a harmony. Not usually. If they can't sing it they can't participate. If they can't participate I don't feel I am doing my job since I want everyone to be able to participate as much as possible.

Edited December 3, 2020 by Starise

[teddyv]

7 hours ago, GandalfTheWise said:

I think I'm missing a reference to someone well known, or else I bear a striking resemblance to some remark.   

If I read the thread right, he was making a joke - thinking that you might be Joe Satriani.

[Marathoner]

12 hours ago, GandalfTheWise said:

(Just realized I'm getting off the trend of this thread.  A quick aside here.)

My main instruments are a Roland A90EX, an Epiphone Korean copy of a Strat, a Fender Twin (late 80s), and an Eko  acoustic bass (made in Italy, which I got used back in the late 70s, and now to my surprise a collector's item) along with a 40+ year old small Gretsch bass amp.  I've also got a banjo sitting around.    I've got an old 3 function analog pedal sitting around somewhere.   For the most part, my guitar tone was clean channel, distorted channel, and Twin spring reverb turned on or off.  Despite all the sounds (which are now vintage I s'pose), I only use a handful on the A90 anymore.

My musical style has leaned toward treating a song as a chord progression and theme to be built on within the limits of one's skills and influenced by one's "style" and "taste".   For example, my hands naturally fit about a 6th on a keyboard with an octave being a stretch.  My strength is rapid passages within a short range of notes.  A weakness is spread out chords and flowing arpeggios because my hands simply can't reach that well.   What's the old saying from one of the Clint Eastwood movies?  "A man's got to know his limitations."  I spend my time practicing and creating what I can be good at doing rather than trying to be good at what someone else is good at.

I just simply find I feel the difference between "live" playing which changes and evolves each time a song is played versus having mastered a series of notes in sequence.  I simply cannot make myself rehearse something to get it "right" but I can play with something time after time shaping and changing it.   One of my favorite guitarists is Ralph Towner.  I fit stuff I hear into 3 categories, "I can play that", "Give me some time, and I can play that", and "I'll never be able to play that".  He's in the latter category for me.   On YouTube, there are a handful of performances of his "Jamaica Stopover" from different stages in his career including one recently from in his late 70s.  (Note a few with that label are covers by others.) Each time it is slightly different.  It's like it is a living growing thing that has changed over the years in his hands.   In contrast, I've heard a couple covers that were near perfect note by note from one of Towner's performances.  They were well done and obviously much rehearsed, but they were too perfect and mechanical.  When Towner plays it, it's like he is having fun and just playing around or goofing around with the guitar.  When these other guitarists played it, it felt mechanical.   

Many thanks for introducing me to Ralph Towner. I'm listening to Anthem - Nardis right now.  

Here are some of my favorite guitarists, in no particular order, with a sample piece one can easily find on YouTube. 

David Tanenbaum, Scarlatti's Sonata K. 336. Tanenbaum has transcribed some of Scarlatti's sonatas for the harpsichord and they sound wonderful on the guitar. 

Doyle Dykes, Nothing's Too Good (For a Friend).

William Ackerman, Processional. 

Eric Johnson, Cliffs of Dover. He won an award for the unique sound he achieved.

Steve Morse, Third Power. 

Christie Lenee, Breath of Spring. 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Marathoner

[GandalfTheWise]

12 hours ago, Marathoner said:

Many thanks for introducing me to Ralph Towner.

It's an interesting story how I first ran across him.  Back in the early 80s, I found a guitar method book by him at a garage sale.  Well before the days of the Internet so I never heard any of his music.  The method book itself focused on holding very complicated chords and practicing various rhythms on arpeggios.  I gave up pretty quickly because I couldn't contort my hands enough to hold most of them.  The ones I could hold sounded great.  I ended up putting that book away.   A good 15 years later, I ran across the lesson book and looked him up on YouTube out of curiosity.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

Another set of music I've run across that I like  is Christian music set to various ethnic styles.  As part of learning Spanish, I found a number of native Spanish songs of various genres that I've really liked.  Here's a few of the YT titles of songs I like.

GRUPO FOLKLORICO CRISTIANO ISRAEL ALELUYA

Tino Picuasi - El Shaddai

Jara Bolivia - El amor de Dios - Tinku

Fiel - Funky - Indestructible 2015

Que huyan los fantasmas - Jesus Adrian Romero // Video Oficial   

Redimi2 - Viviré (Video de Letras) ft. Evan Craft

[Marathoner]

Doyle Dykes is one who adapts hymns and other well-known Christian pieces on the guitar and they sound wonderful. I've never met him but he's known to play at churches from time to time. 

His mashups are well done. Check out "Doyle Dykes (NAMM 2014) - Classical Gas/25 or 6 to 4" for a good sample. He does it on a 12 string which is a treat to hear. 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Marathoner

[Starise]

Those are all great musicians! 

Challenge- Post your own home grown music. Doesn't have to be "pro". 

We lift these other musicians up  when God has given us music right here.

[NotAllThere]

 

17 hours ago, Starise said:

@NotAllThere First off I was afraid this might be taken the wrong way online since it's difficult sometimes to convey online. No ill intended from me. .

No offence taken whatsoever. I perceived it in good humour.

38 minutes ago, Starise said:

Those are all great musicians! 

Challenge- Post your own home grown music. Doesn't have to be "pro". 

We lift these other musicians up  when God has given us music right here.

My daughter has a written a few songs. A mixture of English and Swiss German dialect. She also translated Glenn Kaiser's "Acceptable" into dialect.

Like Shakespeare is supposed to be better in the original Klingon  I think some songs are so much better in the original Swiss German. French is great for rap) High German isn't much use for anything really... 

[Starise]

6 minutes ago, NotAllThere said:

 

No offence taken whatsoever. I perceived it in good humour.

My daughter has a written a few songs. A mixture of English and Swiss German dialect. She also translated Glenn Kaiser's "Acceptable" into dialect.

Like Shakespeare is supposed to be better in the original Klingon  I think some songs are so much better in the original Swiss German. French is great for rap) High German isn't much use for anything really... 

That would be quite interesting to hear in my opinion. 

[NotAllThere]

Then there's my two year old grandson who renders Brian Doerksen's "My King Has Got Scars on His Hands" as  "My King Has Hands".