People Vs Perfection
Oct 29, 2009 Worship Planning
Relating to worship teams and the services we lead what does the following mean to you:
People vs Perfection
Participation vs Performance
Tags: leading, people, Service, Team, Win, Worship, worship team, worship teams
Instrumental Reflections #10- Bridal Entrance and Podcast Test
Oct 28, 2009 Free Stuff, Instrumental Reflections, podcast
This past weekend I had the privilege of providing music for the wedding of one of my former youth. The really cool part is that I was given the challenge of providing original music for the ceremony. This is the original recording of what was chosen for the Bride’s Entrance.
Also, I am using this post to test out the podcasting of Instrumental Reflections. The podcast will include not only these instrumental reflections but also other items, thoughts, videos, interviews etc that I can capture and put up here. What do you think?
Oh.. and I haven’t forgotten about the Christmas Instrumental Reflections.. I promise they are coming soon.
To listen click play!
Click here for the feed for the podcast or here to subscribe in itunes
Tags: bride, capture, Christmas, Click, Instrumental, mp3, Music, piano, podcast, Recording, reflections, sing, song, Songs, subscribe, Thoughts, video, wedding entrance, youth
Creative Artists or Praise and Worship Cover Band?
Oct 28, 2009 How To, Worship Planning
I was reading through various friends facebook updates when this one by Chuck Harris caught my attention:
“The church does not prize originality, but rather cloning, it does not prize freedom, but control.” Leonard Sweet.
It got me to thinking about how we approach worship music in the church. Do we foster an atmosphere of creativity and unleash our members to use their talent in unique and creative ways, or do we throttle creativity by insisting on playing a piece just as it was recorded by the latest worship band? I admit it is much easier to do the second. I also think that we are encouraged to do so by artists and publishing companies because they make it so easy. You can find now an extensive library of resources where the worship tunes have been charted out to mimic their recording. It is easier to learn the music when CD’s can be listened to and are available for easy reference. I wonder though if it has not just made us a praise and worship cover band. Although it is easier, is it best?
I had been thinking on this topic even before I read the quote above. One of our band members, who had been thinking along the same lines, asked if we could try an experiment. He said that we should pass out a chord chart to a song, and let us come up with the arrangement before listening to it on the CD.
I really want to get your thoughts.
What are the benefits of using CDs and pre-written charts?
What are the benefits of doing your own thing?
Which do you use more often? Why?
What are other ways you can foster creativity with your band?
Tags: band, CD, charts, chord chart, Church, facebook, Free, late, listen, Music, praise, praise and worship, Reading, Recording, Resource, resources, sing, song, Thoughts, Worship
Criticism and Praise
Oct 26, 2009 Communication, Devotions and Thoughts, What I'm Reading
I was reading through the google shared items of Michael Hyatt, and ran across an entry he had shared called False Praise and Distorted Criticism by Pete Wilson. Read the whole post, but I wanted to share one thing that the Pete said.
Don’t waste your time listening to false praise or distorted criticism. The praise will go straight to your head and the criticism will go directly to your heart. Both will lead you astray and both will damage the work God is doing in you and through you.
Wow, how true that is. I can point to many times in my life when false praise has blown my head up. I also look back at times where I let criticism crush me. At both points I was worrying about, or basking in what others said about me, and took my focus off of Christ and his work through me.
As Christians, we need to remember that our purpose and our worth comes from Christ.
Tags: asking, Criticism, Google, listen, praise, Reading, Share, Thoughts, work
Suggest Your Favorite Podcasts
Oct 22, 2009 Communication
I was listening to music on my iPhone the other day and I noticed that there was one category empty…. Podcasts. I really hadn’t given much thought to podcasts until I took a trip down to Houston recently. On the way down I was tired of listening to music, but there was nothing on the radio. I stopped for dinner and began to browse through the podcasts in itunes. I downloaded several and had plenty to listen to the rest of the trip down, and back up.
The ones I started with were:
Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast- I really enjoy listening to Andy’s thoughts on leadership. The only thing I do not like is that this one only comes out once per month.
All About Worship Podcast- Wisdom Moon and the guys do a great job making an entertaining podcast. It contains artist interviews, reviews and just some good fun and conversation. Great for worship leaders.
Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast- Since hearing Rob Bell at a National Youth Workers Convention many years ago I have been challenged by what he has to say. Nice to be introduced to other great preachers from time to time.
Those are the podcasts that I started listening to but I know there are other great ones out there. So let me know! What do you listen to? Which ones inspire you, challenge you, or make you laugh?
Tags: Church, iphone, listen, Music, National Youth Workers Convention, podcast, Thoughts, work, Worship, Worship Leader, youth
Christmas Reflections Week 1
Oct 20, 2009 Free Stuff, Instrumental Reflections
Last week I said I would be taking suggestions for Christmas hymns you would like to hear as instrumental reflections. So here is your chance. Leave the name of your song in the comments below. Also be sure to check back on Friday to hear the versions of the requested songs.
Tags: Carols, choose, Christmas, Free CD, help, Hymn, Instrumental, Music, reflections, Request, song, Songs
My Mistake and Our Big News
Oct 15, 2009 Uncategorized
Yesterday I posted something on facebook that at the time was a huge mistake. I didn’t realize it of course, but as the day wore on, and comments started coming in I saw the error of my ways. What was it?
Big news for the Martin household. More details later.
I saw nothing wrong. We had big news happening with us. It made sense to me. What I failed to keep in mind is that out of my facebook friends and followers there are many women who were all of the sudden drawing their own conclusions and speculations as to what our big news was. You can guess what they were thinking. Sorry to disappointed but the letter “B” has nothing to do with this announcement.
The news is that we have found and begun the process to purchase a house. It’s a nice starting home here in Texarkana. I’ll post pictures once everything is final. This is a big step for us and a huge commitment. We would definitely appreciate and covet your prayers as we go forward.
I apologize again for being so open ended and allowing for so much speculation my status update. I will try not to do that again.
Tags: announcement, Appreciate, facebook, facebook friends, followers, house, late, Pictures, Prayer, Sorry, Texarkana, Win
Help Me Choose Christmas Instrumental Reflection
Oct 15, 2009 Free Stuff, Instrumental Reflections
I have very much enjoyed composing and posting the first 9 instrumental reflections I have shared with you. If you have been listening you know that some of the songs are original compositions, and some are original takes on old hymns. Most were chosen because they are my favorites, or say something to me, as I hope they have to you.
I thought it might be a good change though, to give you a chance to choose the instrumental reflections for Christmas. Over the next 6 weeks I plan to record 8-10 Christmas Hymn variations. I plan on writing them on Friday, so each week, from Monday-Thursday I’ll be taking suggestions. I will write a post on Monday asking for your ideas. Leave a comment on that post as to which hymn you think should be that weeks reflection and why. On Friday I’ll choose two and record them. If your’s is not chosen the first week be sure and suggest it the second week and so forth.
Each week I will also draw one name at random from those who entered. At the end of the recordings I will make a CD with the recordings and send them out to those winners.
Rule: Only one suggestion per person, per week. That way one person doesn’t just list all the Christmas songs ever written.
Ok.. sound good?
Tags: asking, Carols, CD, choose, Christmas, Free CD, help, Hymn, Instrumental, listen, Recording, reflections, Share, sing, song, Songs, Win
Worship Planning with Google Wave
Oct 14, 2009 Communication, Media and Technology, Worship Planning
I was invited to a google wave “post” or “blip” or whatever it is called, where my friend was writing a blog post, and wanted some fresh eyes to read over it. He posted his thoughts and what happened next was amazing. About ten other people started sharing thoughts, finding spelling mistakes and making corrections, giving alternate ideas and collaborating on the post.
After watching this for a few minutes I wondered if it could be used for planning worship services? What would happen if someone could start a wave with the sermon and scripture, then let people from all over comment, make song suggestions, give links to videos or tell about a skit they wrote that would fit the topic?
Well let’s find out. First let me say that I know not everyone has Google Wave, and I know this process won’t fully work until it is available everywhere, so hurry up Google! But I think there are enough to give this experiment a try.
I have created a wave for a service we are doing on November 8th. If you have wave add me to your contact list and I will invite you to the wave.
My contact is rgmmusic@googlewave.com
Tags: blog, Google, LInks, Music, people, planning, scripture, Service, song, Thoughts, video, Wave, work, Worship, Worship Planning
Video Tips- One Way to Capture Audio
Oct 7, 2009 Communication, Media and Technology
Video is something I have just started doing at our church. Even though it is new to us as a way to communicate, we are already seeing some awesome results. We started out doing all of our youth updates as a video and have had some fun with that.
To start off with though, all the videos have been kind of funny and light. That changed this past week when our pastor wanted me to video the testimony of one of our members. When doing the funny, light videos it was good to hear what was being said, but with background music and other elements in the video sound quality could be compromised a bit. With the testimony, however, I knew that we had to get the best sound possible.
First you should know we are using two Everio Hard Disk cameras, set up in two locations with different angles. Its a good consumer level camera with a decent microphone. We have not invested in higher quality equipment, extra microphones or any thing else up to this point because we are just getting started and want to build slowly. But I did need to find a way to capture good audio. When telling a testimony, we really need to hear the story.
This is when I got the idea to just use the church sound system. We used the wireless lapel mic as our input. I then captured the audio three different ways. First it was captured by one of the two cameras I had set up; Second it was captured by sending it from the board, to a wireless earphone pack, to the second camera’s microphone input; and third it was captured by a CD recorder running on the sound board. We recorded the interview and I used my computer later to sync up the video, and audio from the different sources.
The best thing would be to purchase a good microphone for the video camera, and I hope that is in our future. However, this way gave great results and did not cost us anything.
Do you use video in your church? If so how? Is it effective? What is your setup?
Tags: audio, Background, Camera, capture, CD, Church, computer, Everio, Funny, late, Music, sing, tips, video, youth
