Including Hymn Instrumentals in Your Church Service

Although I am very much a big fan of modern worship songs there is certainly a place for more traditional music.  Specifically I think it would be nice to see different instruments such as the guitar playing instrumental traditional songs.  Times where they are appropriate are during the offering or as a prelude or postlude. 

I recently purchased a DVD instructional video called "Hymns for the Guitar" by Pete Huttlinger.  First I definitely do recommend this as a good starting place to put some instrumental hymns into your morning worship lineup.  Below I will list the pros and cons to the DVD and which songs I feel would get you up and running quickly.

Pros:

• Pete is an awesome guitar player.  Learning from him is truly learning from a master.
• The arrangements of the hymns are not your typical piano style traditional arrangements although they do still sound traditional.  Most of the arrangements use drop d  tuning.
• Most of the DVD is for finger style play which I would expect from a finger style guitarist but I did like that he put one song in there for the flat picker called "Be Thou My Vision" and man it is a simple and beautiful arrangement.

Cons:

• Perter is a good teacher but the production of the DVD was not as good as it could be.  For example, a good director would have told him to go into a little more detail in some of the more trickier chord progressions.  For example, in Be Thou My Vision, in the fourth measure, he is using some unusual chord shapes and he is moving up the neck to the 12th fret.  I had to re watch this spot about 10 times and finally ended up going to the tab to piece it together better.

Conclusion:

Definitely buy this DVD.  A good starting point for the intermediate player is "Be Thou My Vision."  This song offers a very nice and simple arrangement using a flat pick which most players are more comfortable using anyway.  If you are an advanced beginner or intermediate player, don't go for the gusto and pick the most difficult piece.  Remember when you get in front of an audience things change quite a bit.  The part that was easy during practice now seems much more difficult and the part that was difficult in practice can be a train wreck live.  Keep it simple and build confidence and playing skills. 

Here is a bit of advice that has helped me get used to playing solos in front of an audience.  Go totally unplugged, show up to church early and just hang out on stage going through some of your pieces.  This is a great, almost no pressure way to get past the nerves and see how well you do under a bit of pressure.   People will begin to come in and sit down and some will walk past you as you play. You may even get the occasional person to sit down and listen to you.  Once you have successfully made it through your songs for several weeks in a row using this method it is then time to go live.  You would be surprised what a difference it makes.  Its all about attaining that comfort level with the music and your audience.

Pete Huttlinger

I recently ran across an acoustic guitar player by the name of Peter Huttlinger.  Peter plays a variety of different styles and genres all on the acoustic guitar.  Over the past year Pete has apparently  had some very difficult health issues and this has caused his family to be burdened with medical bills.  I urge you to visit his site and buy some of his music.  Believe me you won't be disappointed in his playing!  I don't know if Pete is a believer or not but he has put out several instructional videos on playing sacred music that I would recommend.

Here is a sample of his hymn instructional DVDs:

A Season for Change

As part of my daily devotions, I am reading through the book of Ecclesiastes.  Yesterday, I came across the famous verses we all know in chapter 3:1-12.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain has the worker from his toil?
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;"

Solomon is telling us that change happens as part of God's timing and we as believers must be joyful and continue to do good. I could inject any number of trite expressions here, but I think you get the point. 

For the Christian musician, God's timing often means moving from place to place and church to church. Wherever God needs you and leads you.  I am at one of those crossroads now and I must press on, always moving according to what he has planned and not what I have planned.  Right now that means leaving Mountain View Baptist Church and putting more time into The Matt and Buck project.  It is all for the glory of God so let's make it happen.  Perhaps next month God will put me somewhere else, but that is just another season in God's eternal plan for the Baptist Baritone.

A great message on worship

Pastor Kent had a great message on worship this morning.  He spoke about how a  worship service is not just music or preaching, rather it is music, preaching and prayer.  It is everything in the service which brings praise, honor and glory to God.  Since this is a music blog I thought I would look at this from a music perspective.  The verse he used to show how music and teaching relate to the service was in Ephesians 3:16:

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."


"Singing songs, hymns and spiritual songs."  I asked myself if we had done that today at Mountain View.  The answer I came to was yes we indeed did follow this pattern.  We sang a blend of hymns and spiritual songs. Some of the songs were very traditional, some were a little newer and one was very new.  All of them had words which would honor Christ and worship him directly. God was honored by this.

Pastor also said we should be "singing a new song to the Lord."  This verse is found in Psalms 33:3.  The entire verse says: "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts."  Ok, so again I wondered if we had obeyed this verse in the service this morning.  I would overall have to say yes.  We sang a new song called "Indescribable" by Chris Tomlin.  I did also try to play skillfully with strings.  I am not sure I accomplished this task but I am trying :)  Finally comes the "with loud shouts" portion of this verse.  Well I am not sure on the loud shouts, but maybe I will grow to be a little more free with God to where I can do this type of thing.  "Loud shouts" don't exactly come easy for the average Baptist.

The bottom line is we are blessed at Mountain View to Have a good bunch of people who love to sing.  Our choir is led by Miss Deb who does an excellent job keeping everyone singing on the right page and keeping the choir and congregational music Christ honoring. She makes up the backbone of the music leadership.  I just come in every Sunday and fill in the gaps.  I get the easy job! :)  Thanks Deb for your hard work and thanks choir for you willingness to stand up for Christ by singing every week.

Pray for our music leaders and members as we learn more about what it means to worship the Lord.

 

Sunday Song Service - July 17, 2011

Another great Sunday of praising the Lord and singing his praises at Mountain View Baptist.  The most memorable songs were "Amazing Love" and "How Great Thou Art."  To find our more about Mountain View Baptist visit our web site at http://www.mountainviewking.org.

Music is such a serious topic

Today I want to talk about the music controversy in not only the Baptist Church, but in many other denominations and try to present some Biblical application finding the truth behind the controversy of secular vs. Christian music.  This is such a passionate topic to many but it need not be if you base all your viewpoints on scripture.  It is a problem I continually struggle with as I determine what songs I should listen to and perform.  I will present several questions which have come up in the ministries I have been involved in and try to address each one from a scriptural view point.

Q:  Should a Christian listen to secular music? 

A:  First and foremost every song we listen to should have lyrics which do not in any way harm our relationship with Christ.  Let us examine the following verse:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4:8

This verse has several comma separated sections which start with "Whatever."  The first, "whatever is true" in relation to music means we should focus on songs which are true.  Are the songs you are listening to true and right?  Remember that we are Christians so true and right means Biblical truth.

The second, "whatever is honorable" means noble, being above the darkness of the world.  Is the music you are listening to dark and bringing you down or  does it have a positive message that projects the concepts listed in Scripture.

Honorable Example:  I remember listening to a song as a kid called "Friends in Low Places."  It talked about getting drunk to chase away all of life's problems.  Obviously as Christians, Christ is the person who we lean on and look to to take away our sins and problems in life.  This cannot be found at the bottom of a bottle of beer. So this is an obvious example of a song a Christian should not listen to. See I Peter 5:7 and Ephesians 5:18

The third, "whatever is pure" is probably the most obvious and applicable part of this verse in relation to the music industry.  Specifically sexual purity. 

Pure Example:  Lady Gaga in her song "Summer Boy" says this:

"Nowhere Yeah we're going nowhere fast
Maybe this time, ill be yours you'll be mine
c-c-c-crazy, get your "behind"(not what she really said)  in my bed
Baby you'll be, just my summer boyfriend"

This song speaks of having an affair with a guy over a summer and in no way is there a context of marriage.  God is clearly against sex outside of marriage and calls it sin. I Corinthians 6:18-20 says this:

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

(Note that fornication means Sexual Immorality)

Fourthly, "whatever is lovely" could be translated to whatever is beautiful. Are the lyrics you listen to beautiful to God.  Do they enforce the beauty of God's creation and the beauty of God's morality.  If not then it is time to stop listening to them.

Finally, "whatever is commendable" means that we should listen to songs which are presentable and worthy of praise.  Wow that is a tough one! Worthy of praise to whom?  Worthy of praise to God of course.  Is the music you listen to worthy of God.  Would you be ashamed to have God listen to the songs you are listening to? 

Country songs in particular come to mind when thinking on this.  Many of them even when mentioning God speak of him as "the man upstairs" and use "Lord" in an irreverent manner.  This is not worthy or commendable to God and I would be ashamed to have God listen to them with me.

Q:  Should a Christian listen to secular instrumental music? 
A:  I would like to say yes, with one caveat.  When listening to instrumental music make sure it does not lead you to listen to other types of music which have lyrics associated with them.  For example, I might listen to a blues instrumental piece which is perfectly fine.  There are no lyrics just rhythm, but the band who produced the instrumental may also have other songs with lyrics on the album which do not honor God.  If you like the instrumental, just download the instrumental off the internet and don't get the whole album which have the bad lyrics.  This is just good common sense Christianity from the Baptist Baritone :)

Q:  If I find a secular song which demonstrates principles from scripture and thoughts from scripture can I listen to it? 
A:  Yes there are songs which have Biblical  messages.  A song which comes to mind is "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton. The song speaks only about his son which has died and asks the same question that many Christians ask. But I do exercise a word of caution here.  If you find a song like this then listen to it but be careful not to listen to the other songs from the same songwriter which can damage your relationship with Christ. For example, Eric Clapton also has a song about getting drunk and one about cocaine.  Be VERY careful here because you are in a contested gray area.  Also be careful about causing another brother to stumble.  If another Christian sees you listening to Eric Clapton it may cause him to listen to all Eric's songs  and think it is ok.  Please be very careful and if you feel you shouldn't listen at all then don't.  If you want more information from the Bible about causing another Christian to stumble, see Romans 14:13-23

In conclusion I would urge you to pray about these things and read the Bible for the Holy Spirit's guidance.   Music is a heavily debated topic in Christianity and I hope and pray that you will do what honors God in all you listen to and perform before Him. Keep other believers, including the Baptist Baritone in your prayers so that they may also make Christ honoring decisions about the music they listen to.

Phil Keaggy Concert Update

Tickets are now on sale for the Phil Keaggy concert which will be held on October 15 at Franklin Covenant Church in Franklin, NC.  This is a rare treat for North Carolina so let's show our support and go see him in concert. To by tickets for the event, click on the link below...

http://www.itickets.com/events/264795/Franklin_NC/Phil_Keaggy.html

Good Christian guitar players is an oxymoron?

Several months ago I was teaching a guitar class at our Church and the topic of whether there are any stand out Christian guitar players.  At first it seemed that it was difficult to think of any, but a friend of mine pointed out that he could think of one.  His name is  Phil Keaggy. 

Phil or "PK" as he is often called, has been playing guitar for as long as I can remember and he is really a stand out and stand up Christain.  His quiet and humble demeaner on stage only further emphasize that he is good and doesn't have to tell people he is.  He is really a master guitarist who can play anything from classical to classic rock to the blues.  If you have never experienced the music of Phil Keaggy then it is a must see. 

Phil's Official Web Site:  http://www.philkeaggy.com/

You Tube Video Showcasing his talent:

Worship Service - 7/10/2011

We had a great worship service on Sunday.  Sang a few nice hymns, and a praise hymn, but the highlight for me was singing and praying through the song "Sweet Hour of Prayer."  It was time of praying for the church and those who need the Lord.

We need as a society of Christians to get back to the basics of Christianity.  Prayer, giving to those in need and helping our fellow man whenever possible.  Spreading the gospel is a way to affect our fellow man but we also need to show others what Christ has done for us and show the love of Christ.

Can't wait for God to work next Sunday!

A blog about leading, playing and singing Christian music

First let me give you a bit of background.  I have been singing and playing guitar for Christ on and off for about 20 years and have loved every minute of it.  Currently I am one of two music leaders at Mountain View Baptist Church in King, NC.  Mountain View is a small country church with probably anywhere from 40 to 50 people attending worship service.  If you are in the area stop by we would love to have you.  As you may have guessed by the fact I play a guitar, I am the one who gets to lead the modern praise hymns.

Secondly, I am involved in the Matt and Buck Project.  This is a Christian guitar duet where I sing lead and Buck plays lead guitar.  We are mostly playing covers from Third Day and Rich Mullins done completely with acoustic guitars.  Hopefully I can get a web site up soon to showcase the new group.

Lastly let me say that all I do when singing is to honor God.  I do not sing because I want to sing the latest top 40. I sing for the glory of God.  Period.   

You can check out my web site for other information on what gear I use and so forth.  www.mattcuda.com.