Rant

I often tell my Gateway students that I don’t think I make a very good Pentecostal musician. What I’m about to say may sound a bit arrogant, but it’s certainly not meant to. Due to my chosen educational path I’ve been exposed to a wide variety of musical genres, many of which the typical Apostolic musician knows little about. My primary focus all through my college years was traditional “Classical” music, as it’s commonly known. Although piano was always my area of emphasis, I also took advantage of all the vocal opportunities that came my way out of sheer fascination with the repertoire and the technique. Don’t’ get me wrong – I love, appreciate and respect Apostolic musicians for what they do. We live on such a unique corner with regard to our approach to our art. Most musicians I encountered in school – students and faculty alike – were fascinated and perplexed by how we do it – just get up there and play what comes to our minds and ears with, for the most part, no notation of any kind in front of us. But having said that, I must admit that when asked which focus takes the most work and discipline, I have to admit that the traditional, note-reading based focus of traditional art music wins. Maybe I’m wrong, but in my experience I’ve always come to that conclusion.

Back to me not being a good Pentecostal musician. (Yes, I do eventually have a point here….) Sometimes I think I’m just getting old and jaded and that is the basis for my feelings. But then, maybe not. I recently have done some CD reviews for this website that really got me thinking about the issue of diction. I really get annoyed when I have to wear out the rewind button on my CD player in an effort to understand what in the world the artist is singing! And to top it off, (boy, now I really sound old) the balance of music and vocals is horrible! I honestly think some of these people should just make an instrumental album – they seem to place such little importance on the words. When I finally did understand the words (after 15 rewinds), they were good, really good! Too bad no one could understand them to start with! Admittedly, as my brother tells me, I may have listened to too much Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, or Pavarotti, to the point that I’m spoiled – spoiled by excellence and respect for the message of the song.

So where is the origin of this problem? I get it that people want to sound cool – no problem with that. Is it that poor diction/musical balance goes along with that grungy, boarder-line hippie persona that so many groups these days seem to be after? (Oh my, don’t get me started on that issue…) Why wouldn’t you want someone to understand your message? At the risk of alienating all the guitarists out there, after a while, I get sick of non-stop, monotonous electric guitar! I want to hear what you have to say – that will change my life much more than loud, unbalanced music. And I’m not just going to pick on rock – black gospel and praise/worship are just as guilty.

So, I don’t make a good Pentecostal musician, I realize that. But I think we can clean some things up, factor in some excellence. And, NO! we won’t sound “opera.”

Whew. Feels good to vent.