When I found this clip about the 4th screen I had just heard about this guest post called “Is Twitter the New Town Square?” written by Gavin Richardson for the blog Life Without Pants. In his post he suggests that social media, like twitter, facebook, blogs etc can be the new town square.

In our world of intense individualism social networking may be a place where we can come together and share stories of faith, testimonies, exchange ideas, find comfort and support from other believers that we may never see or know about without social media.

I think this commercial reflects the same thing except the computer has done the same thing that the printing press did. That as technology has advanced we have in fact become more individualized. We need to find ways that technology can help us be more connected to each other, and engaged in the real world, rather than continuing to allow ourselves to live in increased isolation.

What do you think?

Oh.. for more you can always follow me on twitter @rgmmusic or on facebook

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Over the past few weeks I have been sharing the blogs that I read on a regular basis.  Here is the final installment. Read the first and second parts of this series. Also leave a comment and let me know what you are reading.

Techno Pastor

Tommy Bowman’s Worship Dependency

Twitip

United Methodist Reporter

U Preacher

Worship Guitar Guy

Worship is What?

Worship Together Blog

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Right now I sit in my office listening to an itunes playlist. The cool thing is that I created the songlist on my laptop this morning, and my laptop is still sitting at my house. Yesterday I was traveling and listening to a playlist of possible Christmas songs on my iphone, but the list is on my Desktop at work. So how is this possible? Check out simplify media.

One of the cool features is you can invite up to 30 friends to share your playlist with. You aren’t sharing files, you cannot download others mp3s but you can listen to lists they make available. Anyone want to share?

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Leading a youth band is hard. It’s even harder if you are having to lead from the drumset. My friend Jason Huffman who has guest posted here before is looking for some advice in this area. Check out his post and leave a comment.

Jason’s guest posts include

Buying a Drumset

Working with Drummers

Embracing Technology with Youth Bands

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This past week we have been hosting Ike evacuees in our youth center. We also had scheduled our youth worship service. Since our normal place was now living quarters for 112 of our guests, we had to look elsewhere for a place to hold our service. We ended up scaling down and moving the service to our chapel. Our chapel seats about 60 comfortably. While we were a little cramped for space in the stage area, we managed by using a djembe instead of a full drum set and a condenser mic to pick up the vocals. We still had electric guitar and bass but had them run through their amps and keep the volume low. The result was one of the best services we have had in a while. We ended up with an average number for us of about 25-30. Instead of being lost in a large youth gym, everyone was close together, and the band and the congregation were practically one group.

Reflecting back here are the reasons I think it worked so well

1. The band didn’t overplay- Since we were without a real sound system the instruments had to back off and  be below the vocals. Using the djembe helped because it lowered the drum volume, therefore everything else could be softer  and still be heard

2. The band was in the congregation- Practically the bass player and acoustic guitar were face to face with the front row of the congregation. This seemed to help the us, them idea and made it seem more like one group. In our youth center we have a stage and the congregation is separated by several feet.

3. The congregation could hear each other- Since the band was not so loud, it meant the congregation could hear themselves and each other sing. They started out a little timidly, but it caught on and they began to sing, participate and clap more than they have before.

4  We didn’t lose sound- Since we were packed into a smaller space surrounded by brick walls no sound was sent out into vast nothingness of a big room. The bodies absorbed enough sound to eliminate bad reverb but enough sound from the band and congregation bounced around to make it seem full.

5. We didn’t focus on technology- When we usually meet we have screens, PowerPoint, 16 channels of sound, microphones, cords, cables, amps, speakers, and all the other “stuff”. Since we were moved at the last minute we didn’t have time to set all that up. We had minimal sound, our words were printed on sheets and there were no clever video clips to set up the message.

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So, you are ready to invest in a drum set for the youth room because your drummer is tired of lugging all 48 pieces of his kit to the church every Wednesday night.  This is a move I would recommend if your drummer is a consistent part of your youth program and if you foresee his/her presence in the group for a while.  If your drummer in your upstart program is a senior who will graduate in 6 months, this may not be a wise investment.  If you decide to proceed, I would like to offer some suggestions in buying that youth building drum kit.

1. Don’t’ be afraid to buy used.  Buying used is often better than buying new.  An intermediate level drum kit can be purchased used for what an entry level kit can be purchased brand new.  Often these don’t have any cosmetic issues.  If they do, that just knocks the price down even more.  As for cymbals, little can be done to make cheap cymbals sound good.  Buying quality used cymbals online or from a pawn shop is a much better investment than buying cheaper new cymbals.  With a little cymbal polish, they will look and sound a lot better than the cheaper new ones.
   
2. Don’t overlook the cymbals.  Let’s say you have a budget of $700 for drums, cymbals, and hardware.  Often what happens is people will spend $550-$600 on drums and hardware and get cymbals with what’s left.  In worship drumming, cymbals are played as much or more than the drums.  Therefore, it stands to reason that they should be as nice or nicer.  Many times drum manufacturers will offer kits with cymbals.  Typically drum manufacturers don’t make good cymbals.  Avoid these cymbals…they are little more than shiny sheet metal.  Cymbals don’t really wear out, unless they get cracked or broken.  As mentioned above, a used quality cymbal will sound much better than a new, cheap cymbal.  I would check pawn shops, ebay, or online music sites that sell used cymbals and look for Zildjian A series, Sabian AA or AAX series, or Paiste Sound Formula or 2002 series cymbals.  Usually a little cymbal polish and they will be sounding great.  If you can’t find any of these or still can’t afford them used, look for bronze cymbals (as opposed to the standard brass ones).  Zildjian’s ZBT (Zildjian Bronze Technology), Sabian’s B8 series, and Paiste’s Alpha series.  These often come in packs that include high hats, a ride, and a crash, or high hats and a crash/ride, a dual purpose cymbal for entry level kits.
   
3. You can make a cheap drum set sound good, but you can’t make cheap cymbals sound good.  What I mean is that with drums, you can put new heads, muffler rings, dampening materials, and other items into the kit to customize the sound.  You may not have the highest quality hardware (screws that won’t stay in place or lugs that back out, etc) because of your entry level investment, but you should be able to make the drums sound decent.  As for cymbals, aside from putting some tape on them to cut down on the ring, you can’t do much with a bad-sounding cymbal.  Pearl, Tama, Ludwig, Yamaha, Mapex and many other brands offer entry level kits that are made to the same specs as their intermediate models, but with cheaper materials to defer cost.  If you can get one of these, do it.  Most of these start at around $500.  Some brands such as Pulse or Percussion Plus can be purchased for around $300 but quality may be an issue if you want this kit to be in the youth room when the next youth minister arrives.  Regardless of what you buy, a new set of drum heads should be a part of your initial purchase.  Resonant heads (bottom) are less important than the batter (top) heads.  If your drummer plays really loud, I recommend Remo Pinstripes or Evans EC2 heads.  For lower volume, smaller venues, I recommend Remo Ambassador heads or any other single-ply head.  Heads that come on drums from the factory are not quality heads.  They will not sound right and after a few sessions they will sound even worse!

Maybe this will help you get the right kit for your youth building!

Jason Huffman is the Director of Youth Ministries at First United Methodist Church, Palestine, TX

www.reachyouthministries.org
www.fumcpalestine.com

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I love listening to music almost constantly. It has been a challenge though to find a good mix of music that fit my taste. I could listen to the radio, usually tuning into “Air One” the only christian radio I get here in Texarkana, but I end up hearing the same songs over and over. I could turn to my itunes collection but I find the same things happen. I end up listening to the same song or artists or playists.

What I found was “Pandora”. Pandora is an internet radio station put forth by the Music Genome project. After a short sign up form you enter an artist or song and Pandora searches and finds similar songs or artists and plays them. As you listen if you like a song give it a thumbs up, if you don’t like it give it a thumbs down. Over time it selects songs for that particular station that match your tastes. I have many stations saved which I can listen to individually or I can create a mix of all of them depending on what I am in the mood for.

I have found that this helps when listening for new worship songs too. I type in a praise and worship artist or song I like and it continues searching finding different songs through the day. I have found some great new songs, and been reminded of some old ones. There are also links to find out more and even to download the song from itunes.

A special bonus for you iphone users, Iphone has a free pandora application. Download, install, log in and have access to your same stations you listen to on the computer. It even works fairly well on the edge network.

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Last year I began a Tuesday night guitar class for some kids in my youth group who wanted to learn to play. Due to sheer time constraints, I had to discontinue my class. Some of the kids kept practicing while others lost the motivation they got from our weekly sessions. I recently began entertaining the idea of using video recording technology to create short guitar lessons for kids in my youth group. So, I tried it. This format will hopefully be good for those kids like me who hate reading tablature and books. This is approximately a 5-minute video that shows a 4-chord pattern in the key of E that can be played with the same finger pattern in several different positions on the neck of the guitar. This makes it an easy pattern to learn for a young guitar player. It is a perfect pattern for songs in E that use the E, A, B, and C#m chords. I use these chords in playing “Hungry”, “In the Secret”, “Better is One Day”, “Open the Eyes of My Heart”, “Let Everything that Has Breath”, and “Alle”, just to name a few. I hope this will be the first of several short lesson videos your young guitar players can play, pause, and rewind until they get it right. Here is the link:

In true Fork in the Road fashion, what online resources do you use in teaching the students in your youth band?

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One of the most difficult challenges in working with youth bands is dealing with students who are in the beginning phases of learning an instrument, particularly guitar or bass players. This can be frustrating for a youth worker/band leader who is an experienced player because you don’t want to spend a large portion of band rehearsal giving guitar lessons. Also, with a busy ministry schedule and family time, it’s difficult to start giving music lessons on a regular basis as part of your ministry program. So, I am entertaining the idea of using modern technology for teaching purposes.

I don’t know if this will work, but it sounds like it would. These days you can buy a webcam for about $30 or so. Would it be possible to buy a webcam and record one’s self playing various songs? With a webcam a person can see on his computer screen what he is recording. In theory could I record a fair resolution recording particularly with close-ups of chord fingerings of several guitar songs and burn them to a DVD using Windows Movie Maker? I know there are thousands of guitar instruction videos posted on youtube, so I know it can be done. I’m just not sure how.

Do you have any suggestions if I want to proceed with this? Also, will I need to buy a microphone in addition to the webcam, or does a USB webcam have audio capability? Also, would I be violating any copyright laws by recording a few chord progressions on a webcam?

If this works, in an hour or two, you could give an instructional guitar lesson on several worship songs that your students could rewind and play over again. What do you guys think? What advice can you give? Will it be more trouble than its worth?

Jason Huffman is the Director of Youth Ministries at First United Methodist Church in Palestine, TX. For more information visit the youth website www.reachyouthministries.org Or the church website www.fumcpalestine.com

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I have a cell phone phone. Yep. My phone came out over a year ago and I paid a good bit of money for it. I recently got an email from AT&T that said I could trade my old outdated phone in for a new phone as long as I signed another contract and paid $299 for the new one. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy having the latest technology as much as the next guy but for some reason this got to me. Seriously is my phone already out dated in only a year? You see this is only one example of things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Although technology is the worst almost anything you buy now is outdated well before you get it paid off. Buy a car.. it’s outdated. Buy an oven.. a cooler one will come out next year. Cause thats how they get you to buy another one is to create something bigger, better, faster, cooler, so you will throw away the old one and get the new one.

I am so glad that God isn’t like that. I am glad once I accept Christ, once I commit my life to Him and to following Him there is not something better coming along. God says He is the same yesterday, today and forever. No need for upgrades because He is already the ultimate, He has given us all He has and all He is.

I pray as you go about your week that you remember that God is always there and there is nothing better coming along later. You can commit to him because He will always be there and His love never changes.

This week I will be leading worship at our High School UM ARMY Camp in Atlanta Texas. Please pray for them and for the work that will be done both with the clients and within those participating.

As a side note you can now go to my website using the address, www.russellmartinmusic.com or www.russellmartinmusic.net. You can get to this worship website using the address www.forkintheroadmusic.org or www.forkintheroadmusic.blogspot.com

Have a great week.

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