I have decided that I am going to build another guitar this summer. If it sounds good enough I might even end up taking it to France with me in September.
Before I get to that, though, I wanted to do something a little different. Yesterday my dad ordered two ukelele kits for him and me to build. They’re coming from Grizzly.com which means they are very little work but you still have to do a little bit of building to finish them up. Plus they were $19.00 each so how could you pass it up?
After that though I think I am going to get a guitar kit from either Martin or US Guitar Kits. It should be fun and rewarding like the last one was. The Martin kit would be much more difficult but that makes things more interesting and educational whereas the US Guitar Kits one would be less work but I would still get to do a lot of the interesting work like shaping braces and binding. It may ultimately come down to price since the Martin one is $70.00 more. We’ll see which one I choose.
I’ll put up pictures of both the ukelele and the guitar when I am done. Maybe I’ll put up pictures of the process as well because I find it fascinating.
June 08 2008 | Building and Music and Personal | No Comments »
I was listening to some music that I bought on iTunes and it got me to thinking about music as a manifestation of worship. Music is one of the best ways to worship for me which is why it makes me sad to think about the state of the Christian music scene. Given, I have found a couple of good Christian artists recently, one of whom attends my home church (Steve Enison) but overall, it just seems as if there is a lack of creativity coming from new Christian artists. These people pop out a ton of songs that generally sound the same and the lyrics are usually weak as well. I find myself listening to a lot of people that are fantastic songwriters and lyricists but they aren’t Christians, what they are doing is not worship.
Why don’t we have people that write good lyrics like those who have written hymns in the past? Why don’t we have people taking more Psalms and putting them to music? I think part of the problem comes from the Church. People are looking for music that sounds happy and makes them feel good so that is the music that gets played in services across the country. I commend popular artists for their use of their musical gift for God’s purposes and I really hope they are focusing on Him when they write their songs.
Not all Christian musicians are struggling though; here are a couple new-ish albums that are good:
- Shane and Shane - Pages
- Phil Wickham - Cannons
I also have to give credit to Ecclesia, a service at my home church. I think that they do a great job of picking music with lyrics that go a bit deeper than the typical Christian radio music. The people that play for them also have strong musical talent and they are using it for God; that is awesome. Keep it up.
February 22 2008 | Church and Music | 3 Comments »
