Pumpkin Spice Latte

I'm drinking my favorite drink of all drinks Pumkin Spice Latte !
Holidays brings out a lot of my traditional favorite things....

But there's a new one climbing the charts this season... I noticed the new music down load cards at the coffe shop registers. Have you seen them yet? They look like little credit cards with CD cover art on them. I think these little things may become part of my favorite things for all year!
So I was thinking of giving some out with my Christ-mas Cards this year.

If you love Music, try to give God Music for the holidays. It helps support fellow musicianaries & blesses those who hear it.
Have a Blessed Day!
Lo

Hey what's your favorite seasonal thing?

Weathering Heights

So it's a snowy cold day where I am and I was thinking of writing a song. I took this shot of my guitar in the Chicago snow. It's been years since I've been in the snow. Strange how the chords sounded higher and crisper. I thought that is unusual for my style...I tend to go more for the warmer full toned chords. So I started to think...is the weather inspiring me in a different way?

I started to research the topic and found composers are indeed affected by the weather.

For example the normally romantic composer Richard Strauss wrote the famous
"Alpine Symphony" on his trip to Switzerland. If you listen to this piece you will probably feel the bleakness the composer felt, he was inspired by the icy terrain and the sharp mountains of snow.

So if you're a composer/writer you may ask yourself this... "During what season do I write best?" & "Where were my best songs written?"
Then you'll know... "When & Where" to take your next inspired/composing vacation to "create your masterpiece"

Or, if your a person who loves to listen to music, next time you listen to your favorite piece of music...ask yourself a new question "What season might this song have been written?" Hmmmm

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Music at the soup kitchen

Thanksgiving Day we went to a soup kitchen and performed music there.

It was strange at first, putting happiness out there in the air when so many people seemed sad to even be there...then I noticed somthing, people were bopping their head and others were singing the words. The room seemed uplifted, it made me think of some lyrics I wrote a while back:

"I think I'll sing and watch the music wrap around the room and warm it"

Music seems to have a life of it's own. To prove it's true, try this: play happy music in a room full of people & watch them.....then suddenly change the music to sad music and watch the change in them.....very interesting.

You are the music you listen to..so if we listen to God music? :)

Holiday Music

Is it too early for Christmas Music yet?

Well, the radio stations don't seem to think so. Personally, I think I could hear it all year long.

Holiday music is uplifting and I love to pay attention to the composing styles of these diddies......most of the Christmas songs were composed in bright keys w/uplifting bouncing melodies or just plain ascending notes to create an uplifting feeling. Contrary to the minor chords that create a feeling of downward motion or just a little rainy day sorta feeling.

Fun Fact: "Blue Skies" was composed on a dare, "Betcha can't write a happy song in a minor key?"

So enjoy the music and know generation after generation of musicians/composers have created these happy songs to cheer, uplift and downright inspire us to search out the meaning of the True Celebration of Christ-mas.

Enjoy Your Journey, you only get one.

Thankful for Family

Today is Thanksgiving and I am in Chicago with family. I'm not used to spending holidays with family... thru the years...I've been with mostly with friends in CA or FL or whatever state I was living in. It's nice being with family it feels right. But, being with friends felt nice too. You know that saying "home is where ever you are" well I believe holidays are like that, as nice as you want them to be where ever your are....with or without family.
So what am I thankful for today? All the friends who opened their homes and hearts to me as a person not living near family. Thank you.
And I am thankful for my family being alive and near me today.

Hearing God

So I've been thinking about music and specifically Christian Music, the people who perform it and exactly what-is-our-inspiration?
Ya know often times there's a sort of church-eeze or religious verbage that is used so often to describe our Christian Modus Operandi that it's become cliche'
What I think is so odd about that is all this theology terminology that's over used is not really even understood?
I mean if I said to you..."I write and sing Christian music ... because God told me to."
Would you even know what I was talking about?
If you're Christian, the first response is "of course."
But if you're not, Christian that is, you might say "What?!" "You audibly heard God?"

So here is an example of what "hearing God" means and feels like.

You know when you think you heard someone say your name and you look and no one is there? You could swear you heard someone...how weird is that...you say to yourself "I know I heard my name just now"?
Hearing God is kind of like that, you pray (talk) to God and ask him something or ... even better you just sit and try to listen to him & when the noise of the world & your do to lists finally fade away and you hear quiet....God is there.

That's how you hear God...and when you're a song writer the best moments of your life come in those still moments. Sitting there with your instrument listening to God then some how it's there all of the sudden...something that never existed before... a song!
A new contribution of beauty to this planet...something to leave behind recorded something to cheer up or encourage your great, great grandchildren .