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Last Sunday, we as believers celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. At our church, we put an emphasis on the day both in extra outreach to the community and in putting together extra music for the service. This year was particularly rewarding in that we as a choir and orchestra stretched ourselves, specifically in one of…

Last summer, I was listening to Ben Everson’s “He Lives,” and immediately thought, That’s the song for next year’s Easter service.   It paints a contrasting picture of the cross in the verses with the bright hope of the resurrection in the chorus.  The music reflects those moods. I enjoyed arranging this for SATB and…

“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”  Zephaniah 3:17 Have you ever thought about the fact that God is musical?  He sings!  ​Now, what that’s like I have no idea,…

I heard it said recently that a soloist is only as good as his or her pianist. While that may be a bit overstated, there’s much truth in it.  Anyone who has sung much in public knows the difference it makes when you have a strong, confident pianist supporting you versus when the pianist is…

Limited time in music ministry forces you to find ways to save time in service planning. One way to do that is plan congregational hymns a month at a time. Here are a few benefits: Planning mode. Only entering that planning zone for hymns once a month. Seeing the big picture of the balance in…

Consider how many times David said in the Psalms, “I will praise.” He chose ahead of time that he would praise God. No matter what! Psalm 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 54:6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy…

I have some friends who recently went through a deep trial as their son underwent treatment for stage 3 high-risk neuroblastoma.  By God’s grace, Braden overcame the cancer, yet there has resulted from the treatments some hearing loss,  specifically in the higher registers.  Braden’s aunt, Julie Jones Potter, recorded a Christmas CD entitled Tidings of…

It’s one of my favorite songs.  Maybe one of yours too. “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” I arranged it for piano & strings for our Easter service this year.  I’m grateful for how it turned out. You can jump over to the store to download it for free.  Whether you just have one violin…

Note: There is a link to a demo of Wednesday’s piano arrangement near the bottom of this post. I posted an arrangement Wednesday with some mixed meter, and I wanted to offer a few thoughts about mixed meter and how to play it. [This post is a bit technical.  If you don’t want the nitty…

One of the great privileges of planning and leading worship in a church is to get a front row seat to how God is the great orchestrator of church life, specifically in using music to build up His church. Yesterday was another day that God put together two great services.   Many in my state…

Just wanted to plant a little thought in your mind for this Sunday, for you pianists. The piano is an awesome instrument from which to worship God without words.   Ok, so really you are enhancing words – words that are familiar or projected on a screen. The range of emotional expression at the piano…

It’s clear in scripture that the purpose of music in the church is to 1) worship God (Psalm 150:3-4) and 2) teach God’s people (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). But when the worship pastor uses the flip-open-the-hymnal-and-point method (or the search-and-click method), just randomly picks songs, he is not adequately accomplishing those goals. Been there. Done that.…

Clutter slows us down. The progress of elimination is that when the table is dirty, you clean it off before you set it. When the life is overloaded, you remove the excess before you move forward. “Out with the old” before “in with the new.” Do you have 3 goals that need to come off…

You have most likely come across at least 5 to 10 new years goal posts.  It’s that time of year – a time that naturally lends to reflecting on last year and making plans for the coming year. There are a lot of great voices on new year plans.  My goal in this post is…

Life has been the cliche crazy around here.  The blog has taken a back seat to a few things. I want to share with you some of what’s been going on with me, but first, I wanted to introduce you to my new toy. A Hammered Dulcimer This summer, I picked up an instrument I’ve…

Maybe some of my perfectionist friends can relate to this. I was working on writing some music tonight, and I was struggling to get the juices flowing, and it occurred to me why.  See if you relate. I realized, though not for the first time, that I don’t like the “draft.” I don’t naturally do “rough draft.”…