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Post by Divides the Waters on Jan 13, 2009 22:56:36 GMT -5
You sound like a kindred spirit!
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Post by metalikhan on Jan 15, 2009 2:40:34 GMT -5
After a day of intensely vocal dogs, ringing phones, and very chatty clients, I treasure silence when I write so it's an extremely rare occasion I have any music playing. On those occasions, the music is instrumental only (classical cello, Celtic, miscellaneous global, a little jazz or blues) and the volume just slightly louder than the air moving through the furnace ducts.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jan 16, 2009 8:59:14 GMT -5
Another writer friend just introduced me to www.gotradio.com. You can find lots of different kinds of music. I have mine set to The Big Score (movie soundtracks). It's great fun. They pop in every few minutes with a commercial, but I've learned to tune them out.
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Post by mongoose on Jan 16, 2009 13:25:40 GMT -5
iTunes has radio, and there's something like 20 different religious channels, but I still can't seem to find anything I like that streams well. I do have a good connection, too. UTube videos have no problem playing through.
Speaking of videos and music, the hottest Christian artist right now, IMHO, is Misty Edwards. If you go to google video and search for "Misty Edwards" you can find several professional quality recordings of full length worship sets there, from the annual "One Thing" events. Obviously not conducive to writing, but very conducive to worship.
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Post by torainfor on Jan 16, 2009 16:25:10 GMT -5
I listened to Air1 in Hawaii, and they have streaming audio at air1.com. They're KLOVE's much cooler little sister.
Our worship leader recently discovered Misty Edwards. He wants me to sing "You Won't Relent"--and play the electric geetar part. I'm scared to death, but I'm gonna try.
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Post by mongoose on Jan 16, 2009 22:33:12 GMT -5
This post is about Misty Edwards, prophetic worship, concert or performance worship, and the proper balance between professionalism and sponteneity.
I dunno, but I think the guitar part's probably something like three repetitive chords (on "You Won't Relent"). Her music isn't very complicated, instrumentally. I call it "Modern Christian Folk Rock Chant" for lack of a better term. But "You Won't Relent" must be one of her better and more popular pieces.
I'm not a musician, but I work closely with lead worshipers as a sound engineer, and I'm interested in what is the best balance between attention to excellence in our performance to and for God, vs. getting into the flow of the Spirit and just going with it (professionalism vs. spontaneity). The latter necessitates a lack of attention to what we're playing, to some extent, and the former necessitates a lack of attention to the Holy Spirit, to some extent. That's been my experience, at least. When I'm doing my best work in the A/V booth, I often miss something the Holy Spirit is doing, and when I start to worship, I often miss something I ought to be doing in the A/V booth.
Someone suggested that this is why we need to be professionals, and excellent in our given art, so we don't have to pay as much attention to it while leading in worship for it to lead others into the presence of God. We can lose ourselves in His presence and just jam, and it'll still sound good due to muscle memory or whatever. I would hope we'd be able to do that with material by Misty Edwards and other prophetic worship leaders. These songs have little to recommend them apart from the fact that they're the heart's cry of the bride to and for her groom, and vice versus. So if our hearts aren't crying to the groom and we aren't listening to his reply as we lead in worship using these songs, what's the point?
If we want a good performance piece we'll do something produced by a mega church, with full orchestral and 100 person mass choir accompaniment, all of them professional artists. Or even if our style is rock, there's higher quality worship rock music being produced, maybe by Chris Tomlin or Jeremy Camp or some such, that we could feature in our services.
What these higher quality pieces lack is the gut felt and desperate longing of our hearts for intimacy with God, and the moment to moment spontaneity in their writing that the music coming out of IHOP and such places has. Someone took off during worship, singing and playing something no one had written down anywhere, something God gave to them on the spot, something prophetic. It was recorded, so they decided to use it again, and it eventually became a popular song like "You Won't Relent." And that's how those songs ought to be played in worship, right? almost spontaneously as led by the Holy Spirit.
Of course, you run into the same hindrance with these popular "prophetic" worship songs, after a while, that you ran into with the more professional pieces. Everyone hears them, and tries to exactly reproduce the song the way they first heard it. It gets written down, published, sold, and then bands practice it, going over just what the rhythm and tempo are at measure 32 . . . It gets treated like a concert performance piece. It looses the life, the vitality, the unique feel of the moment that it originally had.
I watched those Misty Edwards videos I mentioned earlier. She did the same medley twice in one day, and did it again the next year, and the year after that, with very little variation between times. It was a very different feel in the "One Thing" events than in the videos of the IHOP prayer rooms, when she led in those same songs in the more intimate setting. When a prophetic or spontaneous song gets cemented into my consciousness and I've memorized every spontaneous word sung or spoken by each band/choir member, I know it no longer has the prophetic impact or edge that it used to have. It's time for me to go looking for a new song to sing unto the Lord, or to write down what He gives to me in that moment.
I pray we can find the balance that is pleasing to God, and that best facilitates the leading of our congregations into His presence, to worship Him.
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Post by torainfor on Jan 17, 2009 1:06:49 GMT -5
Mongoose:
That entire quandary is near and dear to me. I attended a worship leaders' conference once where the speaker talked about excellence vs personal worship. His thought is, you're there to lead. If you can worship emotionally and not distract anyone with sour notes, then go for it. If not, you need to concentrate on the music.
That's where I come from. I don't play well enough to let go. Most songs, we only practice twice before the service. But my personality is more bent toward service than performance, anyway. And when a chorus gets to the chanting level, I get bored. So I see my concentration on the performance as worship.
And I'm grateful the guitar part is so easy! I asked my friend (music major) how to do this, and she basically said to get either the guitar or vocal down perfect so I could concentrate on the other. "All I got is a red guitar, three chords, and the truth"!
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Post by dizzyjam on Jan 17, 2009 2:32:27 GMT -5
This conversation is going a different way than I first started, but to tie both ends together, there is a CD I occasionally put in while writing and keep it on loop when I do so. It's called Deep Waters and is put out by Rick Joyner's Morningstar Ministries (http://www.morningstarministries.org).
This CD was spontaneous done on purpose. Or maybe with purpose I should say. Here's what Leonard Jones the violinist had to say on the flap inside the CD case:
"For many years I've been asked the question: 'When are you going to do a violin CD?' I've always replied, 'Someday.' Well, that someday is here. When Bruce Dailey and I walked into Don Potter's recording studio in Moravian Falls, North Carolina without charts, he went to one room and I went into another, and Don immediately hit the record button.
As we were listening to the Spirit, we knew where to go next. We had to draw upon all the Lord had put within us over the years because we were totally unrehearsed, and could not even see each other.
I feel there is something special in this kind of music. True, it is a little raw and by no means a musical breakthrough, but after listening to our recording, I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. As you allow the Lord to minister to your spirit while listening, I pray that His peace will come upon you."
Personally, I find the album to be quite powerful. And there are plenty of times the music actually goes quite well together! It's very amazing what God can do when we let Him!
So, I put the CD in, hit repeat, and type away.
I'd encourage you to get this CD. For praise and worship I exclusively get Morningstar's music for my personal collection because it doesn't come across as campy to me. I can sense the genuineness of the worship being put forth, plus the Holy Spirit always comes out very strong with these CDs.
Be encouraged,
David James
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Post by gabriel on Jan 19, 2009 9:52:52 GMT -5
I can't listen to music while writing since it distracts me from working. When I listen to music, it gets my full attention. But there is music that jogs my imagination. Sibelius' first and fourth symphonies have helped me create scenes and moods. Carmena Burana (sp?) is a wonderfully barbaric score (I actually don't like the first movement anymore ) that's also helped devise scenes. Not too long ago, I downloaded this killer album off of Amazon that's nothing but traditional japanese music. Flutes, lutes, old-style singing...it's awesome. I love Samurai movies (good ones, at least), and this album DEFINATELY jogs my imagination. ;D If I could find one with traditional chinese music, I think I'd go for that, too, just to complete my love for wuxia and kung-fu movies. Hero was an awesome soundtrack (as well as the one of the greatest movies ever made ), but I think I want something more old-school. Dizzyjam: As much as I love Antestor, Paramaecium, Evroklidon, etc., none of these guys have helped in writing, just in making a car trip or exersice (sp?) enjoyable Ever listen to Horde? For a while, that was all I listened to. I think you and I have similar music tastes. In addition to Pandora, there's last.fm. If they've the rights, they let you listen to a whole album for free for a limited time.
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Post by dizzyjam on Jan 19, 2009 10:28:02 GMT -5
Gabriel, I think we do too. I love Antestor and a friend of mine let me listen to their Horde album once. I've been meaning to pick up Horde, but when it's available I usually don't have the money. But hopefully soon. Hopefully soon. I can't remember how Paramaecium sounds and I haven't ever heard of Evroklidon before. Most of the time I try to stick with the MCM Music lineup because I've never been disappointed with them. I like most of the original people from the Intense label from the early nineties. You ever listen to Mortification? I really like them. They were the first really hard band I had ever listened to before. I also like Tourniquet and Deliverance. What else do you like?
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Post by gabriel on Jan 20, 2009 9:59:58 GMT -5
<< MCM Music lineup >> I'm not quite sure what this is? I've only liked Scrolls of the Meggilloth and Post-Momentary Affliction. After, IMO, they seemed to just float along with whatever was popular in the metal world. Jayson Sherlock, their fisrt drummer, went to Paramaecium after Post-Momentary for their first two albums, Exhumed of the Earth and Within the Ancient Forest. Paramaecium is a slow death-doom band. They're AWESOME, to say the least, and the album to start with is Exhumed of the Earth. There's a new christian metal label kicking around called bombworks records. They're putting out some awesome bands, and then some questioable bands. There's power metal, black metal, death metal, metal metal You should check them out.
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Post by dizzyjam on Jan 20, 2009 15:12:49 GMT -5
MCM is a music label. I say "lineup" and what I mean is the bands they've produced or managed over the years. You can check them out at www.mcm-music.deIf Jayson Sherlock did the first two albums I'd probably like it. I'll see if I can track those down. I think I've heard of bombworks. I will check them out. Thanks, gabriel. I appreciate it.
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paul
New Member
Posts: 46
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Post by paul on Feb 15, 2009 1:33:26 GMT -5
How much does it cost, Jeff? I didn't see anyone answer this - it's free. I've used Pandora for a long time and never paid a cent. I like instrumental stuff when I don't want to be distracted by lyrics, and I like it rowdy, so I started a Joe Satriani station, and rarely get a song with vocals in the mix. I've seen many of my favorite Christian groups mentioned - I'm a rocker, and like bands with a female lead singer belting out the vocals. Anyone heard of Gretchen? Little known, but worth finding. I also like Inhabited, Fireflight, Flyleaf, Red, Decypher Down, Project 86, & P.O.D, just to name a few.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Feb 16, 2009 8:34:51 GMT -5
I haven't heard of those, Paul. It's cool to be able to listen to lesser known bands online.
I think pandora is great for the artists because it introduces us to new artists and then allows us to buy their albums right there with a click. I discovered Fernando Ortega while listening to my Michael Card channel.
Welcome back to The Anomaly after a break, paul! Great to see you back.
Jeff
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Post by seraphim on Feb 16, 2009 13:02:15 GMT -5
This is my streaming musical oasis: ancientfaith.com/They have a music and a talk stream. There are not many places to hear good Znamenny, but that's one. For those who can't tell Znamenny from Valaamo, from Kievan, from Georgian pentatonic polyphons: Here is a link to clip of O Gladsome Light znamenny style: www.musicarussica.com/multimedia/clips/b83_trk104.mp3And another sample: In the flesh Thou Didst fall Asleep: www.musicarussica.com/multimedia/clips/B97_trk15.mp3Here is a full version in Basso Profundo Znamenny of We bow down before Thy Cross: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrdz-UJbVXQSometimes I find certain types of music suggestive of a story or part of one. Like Holst's The Planets, or some songs by Enya. I will listen to them a bit like background music in a movie, and internally "watch" how the story unfolds to the music, or punctuates key moments in it.
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