Singing Along the Journey

Music

Posts that relate to making or listening to or thinking about music

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More

Backing in the front way, or new tricks for old dogs

I'm thinking about the past few weeks of my life and all I can see is my beagle, Gracie.  There she is, right in front of me.  I want her to go some place that she doesn't really want to go, but she has forgotten her wilfulness for a moment and she is focused on me -- I have a toy or a treat (most likely, a treat).  Very slowly, I move towards her and because she is in food-anticipation-mode or play mode, she backs up so that she can maintain an ever-perfect focus on the object of her desire.  And, then, before she knows it, she is where I want…
Read More

Today…

I often wonder if I will live long enough on this earth to have the morning of September 11 be like any other morning when I get up and consider the day ahead.  Perhaps, perhaps not. This morning, I will head out onto the Beltway and go to an early morning small group worship service. This morning, in the early hours, I will drive south past the Pentagon.  I will go past a building I pass almost daily now on my way to the beginning of another new phase in my seminary life. Eleven years ago I woke early, getting ready to go to Baltimore for my very first studio…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Why, and on whose authority?

If my mother were still with us and you could ask her, she would tell you that "Why?" and "Who says?" are two questions that I have asked since the moment I first understood how to ask a question.  I was one of those children, you know, the kind who drive all adults around them to total distraction with repeated questions about how the world works and why it works that way and who says it works that way.  Clearly, asking the big questions and living in a world of questions has been part of my spirit since, well, since forever. So it is probably not surprising to anyone that one of…
Read More

One Body, One Song…

In March, I had a chance to attend a conference about singing in the church.  I wrote my personal impressions while I was still there, but now I'd like to talk about a few of the things I learned.  The following is not just for those who work as musicians in the church.   If you go to church, if you have ever gone to church, if you have ever faced a moment when you had to sing in a group and were uncomfortable, if anywhere in your life someone made you feel like you couldn't take part in something just because you weren't "trained", please keep reading.  I think you will relate to…
Read More

It is never about the high note…

Music is, in so many ways, all about the phrasing.  When you experience someone as a "very musical" performer, the technical musical thing that is happening is phrasing--phrasing that best showcases the emotion or meaning of the music being presented.  For the best musicians, phrasing becomes like breathing and requires little thought.  Most of the rest of us work at it most of the time. But one of the most important things we learn, as we learn to phrase, is this rule:  the high note is hardly ever the point of the phrase.  This rule applies to singers and to instrumentalists;  the most important thing about a phrase is its destination...and it is…
Read More

Those little God moments…

For the past 48 hours, I have been in Atlanta attending a conference called "The Singing Church," sponsored by the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  In these past 48 hours, I have sung more church music than I ever imagined possible, I have experienced more different types of liturgy than I imagined existed, and I have had a chance to listen to and meet some people whose books have guided my thoughts and my learning and my transformation over the past three years. I have participated in five separate worship services, sung to guitar, piano, organ, drum, and hung (Korean string instrument that is a little like a…
Read More

Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
Read More

Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
Read More

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
Read More