MODAL CIRCLE OF FIFTHS - JIM FULTON

A Beautiful Life - Tim McMorris

Sometimes Life Is Hard

Sometimes Life Is Hard -  By Kristin 

We never know what's wrong without pain.
Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.

And sometimes when people get hurt,
Even the strongest ones may need comfort.

The Art Of Rectifying Your Musical Mistakes

       [Here's a video of a girl who gets off to a wrong start but gets back on track in no time 
       (to be precise at 1:06 seconds)]

 

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The scene behind your Musical thinking requires:

1. Training your ear
2. Training your musical intuition
3. Bold in making mistakes and rectifying them

1. Training Training your Ear

• listening to wide range of musical genres
• Being able to say what style it is 
• What the time signature is (if you don't know what this is, look it up on Wikipedia)
• learning to analyse a song-
•  to what the shape of the song is:
• where does it become loud or soft?
• Emotional delineation

• learn to see the Musical landscape (Look the picture below which shows the ingredient)

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2. Training your musical intuition

• this depends on your personal perception.
• perception 
• human senses ranked in percentages are                                                         sight = 83%
  hearing = 11%
  touch = 3.5%
  smell = 1.5%
  taste = 1% 

•  so to develop your perception you need to learn to associate one sense to the other, i.e., learn to attach your hearing skill to your Feelings/Emotions and your imagination (which is in turn your SIGHT). i cannot stop to impress more on this..

• Learn to create impressions on your emotions
• this can be achieved when you hear a certain  music and at the first point of your hearing you get a hint of a very small emotion, all you need to do is exaggerate the feeling and enjoy it. You'll be surprised of how music can Move you in an AUTO-MODE
• The more you work at developing your taste to something, the more colorful your yearning's become and the more you extract from the pleasures of this LIFE.

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 3. Bold in making mistakes and rectifying them

• Mistakes are inevitable and so learning what's next is much more important.
• The more mistakes you make by trying to put into practice what you attempted to learn, the more creative you'll be when you really make a mistake.
• The art of rectifying is a step which comes after you learn the Lesson of  "MAKING A MISTAKE"

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Bebo Norman - The Hammer Holds

Who's a true friend

Points on biblical friendship

- We can't make friends, all we can do is, be a friend
- A friend must show himself friendly
- A true friend draws you close to God(not eating up your personal prayer/study time)
- friendship demands the giving to the other not expecting and so demands a flavor of agape love
- An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear
- if friendship with a person draws you to God then retain it, if that leads you to be friends with the world, rethink it!

An interesting article I saw by Dr.Barry liesch

Neutral—An Open Universe for the Christian Artist

I believe in an open universe for the Christian artist.  My contention is that this ought to be our starting point, theoretically, as Christians.  Any chord, any rhythm, any instrument should be theoretically acceptable for worship. The sound of a sax is not more immoral than a clarinet or a violin.  A reggae beat is not more evil than a waltz or a march.
However, for a given group of people, a given instrument or rhythm may not be appropriate because of its associations (I’ll develop this a bit later).  But even in this case, as I wrote in The New Worship, I would attempt to teach everyone to be “strong” (as did Paul) and to accept meat offered to idols (read in place of that “music”)–for, as Paul said, “the earth is the Lords.”  Nevertheless, I would not force, constrain, or cajole anyone to eat meat offered to idols (or listen to any music style) if it bothered their conscience.  Nor would I want to look down on them or make fun of them if they chose to refrain. Paul teaches each of us to be convinced, and to act only from faith (Romans 14:23). But again, teaching people to be strong is vital.  I should even think that any music style should be redeemable.  If someone does something bad with a style (associates it with something unhealthy), the Christian should be allowed, with wisdom, to associate it with something good.


But Not Neutral in Some Senses


In some senses I hold that music is not neutral.  It’s not neutral emotionally. It can arouse emotions and induce physical actions.  It can stimulate you to tap your foot, nod your head, or sway your body. It can convey the feelings of transcendence and intimacy.  Musical sounds are active and alive–sound waves literally hit your body.  You can actually feel loud, low sounds waves hitting your chest.  But the fact that sounds strike your body is not immoral in my view.  I understand that we are often persuaded by our emotions, and music appeals to the emotions.  I would agree that when music is combined with words, music could be highly persuasive, because it heightens the meaning of words.


Music Associations—the Most Troubling Area


 Music associations are, for me, the most troubling area for the Christian community.  In worship contexts, sometimes people are better off not knowing the associations.  For example, if congregations do not know that a particular rhythm is associated with a sexy dance step, it is just appreciated for its energy and vitality without any sexual overtones.  I also think parents have every right to be concerned with the environment, the culture, that goes with a particular music. For example, drugs have been associated with certain musics.  Paul teaches, “Everything is permissible—but not everything is beneficial.” (I Cor 10:23, NIV).  Especially is this the case when unhealthy/ungodly texts accompany music.  The music that captivates and entices us, associated with the lyrics, could indeed become a snare.
With music without words, however, meanings are more ambiguous, because unlike a representational painting, music itself is invisible and contains no concrete images.  There is no interior beacon of reference or meaning upon which everyone can agree.  People can and do draw different inferences (meanings) from the same musical passages depending on their experience and the associations they make with the music.  Our minds are not passive, but active in making associations.
For example, when I grew up in Vancouver B.C. in the early 50’s, there was in those days an understanding that my brother would not play the sax in church because it was associated with dance halls–but the clarinet was OK.  The sax was thought to have a sexy sound not appropriate to convey the reverence due to God. That changed in the 60’s. Today many people positively identify the sax with contemporary worship bands and that particular problem of associations doesn’t exist.
Similarly, my Christian piano teacher tried to dissuade me from using complex jazz chords in church settings, although he had no problem with my playing rhythms originating from ragtime!


Acts 2 & the Tongues of Fire


I would argue that the “tongues of fire” passage in Acts 2 teaches that the Gospel can be preached in any language.   And if the Gospel can be preached in any tongue, then any music style could also be implied, and in fact, be inevitable, because musical styles mimic the inflections, syntax of language. Music reflects language.  Moreover, music is just the next cultural step.  People speak the Gospel and then sing it.


What about Scientific Studies, Dissonance?


As for finding ethical reasons for avoiding certain musics in scientific studies, I find these studies inconclusive.   Certainly, music can speed up your heartbeat, etc., but is that ethical or moral? Plants, they say, prefer classical music.  But what meaning does that have for us?
I hear arguments against the use of dissonance in worship because studies show that babies wrinkle their faces and show dislike when they hear dissonances–but why shouldn’t they!  Dissonance, analogically, often represents pain in music.   Yet everyone experiences pain in life.  We need a musical language which can address all of life, both the pain and the joy. Do we want to excise from Scripture all passages that convey emotions of hatred, anger, and so on?
This is as far as I’m going to go with this discussion right now.  If you want to look into this subject more, I suggest you read Harold Best’s book Music Through the Eyes of Faith. Chapters 12 and 13 of my book, The New Worship, provide more rationale and more scriptural backing for the view expressed here. I also understand that other good Christians have differing views on this subject and I honor them and their views too.
Even more important, study Roman 14 and I Corinthians 8-10, because Paul has much more to say about these so called “grey areas.”

Books recommended by my teacher -  Music Through the Eyes of Faith by Harold Best