A Simple Question About Downloading

This is (I believe) my last post as well here. I've been on board since last July as well, and have enjoyed the byplay, the back-and-forths, and the good-natured ribbing.

But now it's time to turn things over to a new cadre. And judging by the fact that Sis. Laura Payne is on board, it will be left in very capable hands.

And should one want to follow me anywhere, I'll be next door at Colleideoscope.

That said, I ask the simple question(s).

Question: Do you download music for free, instead of paying for it outright?

And,

If the answer is "yes," then please explain how it is not stealing.

God bless you all . . .

-R

First Impressions

Hey! I'm Laura Payne... new blogger and new big fan of Notes.

I type this, my first, blog with fear and trepidation (LOVE that word) over the whole process. Do you go for the "deep thoughts with LP" route? Or the lighthearted glimpse into your quirky side? Or jump on the conversational bandwagon and interact with everybody else?

It's like that "first day of high school choir" syndrome. You don't want to earn any un-welcomed labels by singing TOO loud or TOO soft or seeming TOO eager...

An unnamed friend and I were labeled the "opera twins" our freshman year of Bible School. I think we were the only two true sopranos in the bunch and thus got pigeon-holed for 1st Soprano every time Wayne Goodine got inspired to do another selection from Handel's Messiah. Our glorious wailing "...and He shall reign..!!!" earned us the honors. My friend, who is now a pastor's wife and has no musical reputation to defend, gets a kick out of that recollection. I, personally, have encountered too much spectacular music in the world to be proud of that!

So, you see. first impressions are important. No one wants to be pegged as one of the "opera twins."

I think about these things when visitors walk into my church. I hope that they are catching us on a good day. Or that the powerful moments of worship were so dynamic that they drowned out the musical blemishes. I'm fighting quality control issues all over the place! It's the challenge of a growing, emerging church environment. In the middle of my unadulterated, free worship to my Creator, I glance at my 3rd row of Sopranos and get SO annoyed at the blah expressions and almost-closed mouths I see! As I'm telling God how much more He deserves than that... I'm interrupted by a random wrong chord on the organ.

As I'm leaving the Sunday service, the warm smiles and comments about how great our music department is doesn't shut-up Mr. Quality Control from yapping messages in the back of my brain.

On Monday I found out that one of our visitors last Wednesday night was a regular singer for Benny Hinn ministries! Argh! Don't get me wrong. I am not star struck nor do I feel that I have anything to prove. However, the whole "first impressions" game started in my mind: "Too bad the whole band didn't play." "Did the song selection seem a bit blah?" etc.. etc..

In those amazing moments of worship where God reveals Himself once again to be sovereign, I don't analyze quality too much. But I also believe that it is God's gifting in action to work towards perfection and excellence. God does care about my first, and second, and third impression. So I continue wrestling. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can quiet Mr. Quality Control for good. One day, with the perfect set of musicians and the perfect group of singers I will be able to worship freely and know that, without any effort, it all sounds perfect. That will be heaven. Literally.

In the meantime, I'm trying to enjoy the journey. Kind of like this blog. I may never create the perfect post, but I want to have fun in the process. Hopefully this first impression doesn't earn me any nicknames. Hey. If we meet in person, please don't call me the "opera twin."
_______________

I am Laura (Demos) Payne... Creative Arts and Music Pastor at Goodlettsville Pentecostal Church, pastored by Tim Zuniga in the Nashville, TN area. My husband and I moved here in March 2007. I spent 9 years as the Dean of Music at Christian Life College in Stockton, CA and then taught part-time for another year and a half. I am a mom to three amazing boys (7, 5 and 3). I have a Masters in Music Education from University of the Pacific and two bachelor degrees, also in music.

I grew up in Athens, Greece (MK) and speak Greek and German. My husband is a Licensed Minister and a Marriage and Family Therapist. He's VERY cool.... and my strength and balance in life.

I would like to pretend that I have a million facinating and meaningful hobbies, like mountain climbing, scrapbooking, playing violin and researching ancient Greek texts, but the truth is my life is TOO busy to do any of the above, even though I'd love to! One day...

Enjoyed the ride...and thanks!

I hopped on the experiment in July, and then agreed to finish out the '07 year...just wanted to say thanks to all for reading and commenting on the prognostications. Thanks to Kent C and all the Notes contributors, and may God richly bless in 2008.
Kind Regards,
Kevin Bradford

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.

New Rules for a New Year

(so sorry for the delay in posting as blogger.com was holding it hostage for not my mistake in capitalization...carry on)

What I’m about to tell you is a true story. Now, I’ve been known to “spike” a story or two for added flavor but what you are about to read is honest to goodness, uncut, blatant honesty.

Prepare yourself.

I’m serious.

But before I launch headway into this let me set the stage. My church, located 10 minutes from the sandy beaches of the Gulf of Mexico in beautiful Clearwater, Florida, is a completely mixed congregation. White people would call it a black church. Black people would tell their friends it’s a white church. Sprinkle in your Asians, Romanians, Polish Jews, and a splash of Puerto Ricans. We got your young and old, your retired missionaries and your just-got-outta-rehab-yesterday rank sinners (not just sinners, RANK sinners y’all).

We are primarily contemporary gospel, but we mix in the occaisional long-hair stuff, Hillsongs stuff, some Jeremy Camp. Okay, mixed congregation so we mix it up musically to try and appease the various musical appetites. Yes, we have rapped. We’ve sung in Spanish. Tim Spell comes through twice a year. We’ve been known to entertain any one of the McCools. We are all things to all men.

But we have our limits.

As a favor to a dear saint in our church we let his young nephew who, according to unchecked sources, had quite a ministry as a traveling country gospel singer. He played his guitar to his own tracks. He was clean looking and all was fairly good until his second song which went a little something like this:

“LIVIN’ FOR JESUS IS BETTER THAN SMOKIN’ MARA-JUAAAAAAA-NAAAAAA!!!!!”

Uh, yeah. I don’t remember much of the other words to the song and, well, that was mostly the gist of the song. There was wincing, dropped jaws from the platform and to be honest I’ve never seen my pastor’s eyes get that big. People were slapping their neighbors mouthing “did he say what I think?” only to hear it repeated again and again and again. For a mixed group, this sorta rocked our socks.

So, okay, I know that yes indeed living for Jesus IS better than smoking MARA-JUAAAAAAANAAAAA (so I’ve heard). But really, could there possibly be a better way to present it? So I ask you, as musicians, writers, authors, singers, praisers, listeners, and the accidental observer: Does this glorify God? Knowing the hilarious God I serve I can almost imagine it seeing how my left ear is higher than the other and EVERY pair of glasses I try on look hideously crooked. The human anatomy is ridiculous. He created monkeys which, c’mon, who doesn’t laugh at monkeys! But does it glorify?

I think of this when I’ve played that game with some of our music team (another testament to God’s amusement). Remember that old Mark Carrouther’s mid-80’s staple “I’ll Be Up Again.” Here’s a sample in case you’ve forgotten:
(Must sing mournfully and heavy handed)

Down on the bottom
All friends are gone
Down on the botrom
I can’t go on
Enemies surrounding me
Laughing at my calamity
Telling me that there’s no way
To reach up to light of day

Yes, I know the song get’s better and talks about getting back up. But does it GLORIFY?
How about “Royal Telephone” or the one about the speckled bird. Or songs I’ve written myself that aren’t testaments to God’s favor as much as they are to my own self absorption.

I love a variety of music. I listen to nearly everything. I’m not coming down on any one or anything. Not even the former country croonin’ toker turned Jesus fan. I’m only saying that my new gauge for the New Year whether it be for writing, listening or otherwise: Does it GLORIFY.

Selah

I have been reading the third and fourth Psalms lately. I haven't been singing them much, although in times past, I have engaged in singing random melodies to Psalm texts. I wish I heard more of that in our churches. Or better yet, through composed melodies to complete Psalm texts, maybe with congregational refrains. It may feel too "liturgical" for our comfort level, but I would argue that it's perfectly biblical.

There are many puzzles in the Bible, but one of the puzzles I enjoy musing about is the meaning of the word Selah. It is unlikely we will ever find out its precise meaning in this life, but it is fun to speculate. I was reading a commentary recently (Peter Craigie, WBC) where the author summarized principal hypotheses of the meaning of selah as 1) a pause, an instrumental interlude or to sing louder 2) for ever 3) Musico-Liturgical instruction (e.g. to bow or prostrate oneself). I have been taught that the meaning is likely a pause, although I believe it is more probably musico-liturgical instruction, from a stylistic or genre perspective, or even the instrumental interlude sounds very plausible to me.

We know so very little of the actual performance practice of the Psalms c. 9th century b.c. -- the actual practice from that era is virtually unknowable. We must examine the performance practice of Catholic and Jewish traditions if we want to find out how these songs were sung originally. And I think it makes sense to incorporate some aspects of those styles in our musical worship. It doesn't all have to be bass, drums and Hammond B-3.

Selah.

Does it matter? Ann mused in a recent post that music matters, but does historical practice of the Psalms matter? And if not, why not?

I, of course, would say that it does matter as we seek to determine what biblical worship really means. I am not saying that we should go back to singing in Hebrew and Greek… (Although it would interest me to do so, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense from a congregational perspective – we do expect to provide an atmosphere where people can worship, and people singing in foreign languages is a bit too far outside most of our saints’ comfort fields.) But as we seek to define and practice a truly Apostolic worship, we should give pause to consider Apostolic liturgy.

Selah.