Blog Re-Design & Update
So, I’ve decided to update my blog and leave Google’s Blogger for “WordPress.” By virtue of you reading this post, you are now aware of that because “jarrodrichey.com” no longer takes you to my Blogspot page, but rather to the homepage. This was also a chance for me to consolidate my personal business website and this site into one setup that is a little more organized and cost effective. I brought over some of the old posts for continuity sake, but mostly to see if it could be done. So, as I said on the other blog, who knows what I’ll post here or what you’ll find.
Yes, You Can Sing…
but it may not sound good.
We all can sing, though. I tell my choirs that at the most basic level, if you can speak, then you can sing. All speech is melodic or musical in some sense. So, you have the equipment to be able to sing. But, how often do we hear people say about a friend or relative’s singing inability that he/she “just can’t sing.” I’ve stopped speaking like that. I believe it is more diagnostic to say that he/she doesn’t have the ability to mirror the sounds that they hear. Not everyone is capable of singing with a professional tone and quality. Not everyone is gifted with singing, obviously. We too often say singing is something that you are/aren’t born being able to do. So, we don’t pursue it or exhaust the possibility that this ability might just need hard practice or cultivation like playing the piano or the violin. The longstanding debate of genetics vs. environment as applied to music is hard to separate. It may be that those who sing well may have had a great environment that was saturated on many levels with music in subtle and overt ways. It may be that you need purposeful and direct saturation of music to help you. You may not have had that in your past.
Regardless, it is safe to say that more people, claiming that “they can’t sing,” could improve their singing abilities by training their ears with singing intervals and learning these patterns and structure of music. It takes a lot of repetition if you aren’t “aurally coordinated.” Just don’t be hasty to say, “I can’t sing.” You just may not have cultivated your ear and learned to work your voice accordingly. No one’s promising an opera career, but you might not be much practice away from singing in a choir at church or in your community.
Focus on THE Family…
Dr. James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family,” is right to want to bring focus to the family. The question I raise in this little blurb is, “Which Family?” Are we focusing on the Richey family or the Family of God—the Church. The Church family is getting the short end of the stick it seems when it comes to focus. As Christians, we should think of our families as an extension of the Church. We don’t think like this though. We put our focus on our individual families in that we must have “family time.” In lieu of weekly church worship and communion we have “family time at the game” or “family time at the lake.” So many factors contribute to this. We have a low view of church and a low view of why we even need to go to church. We are very individualistic. Everything from worship and church revolves around our very own needs and wants. Our individual family focus is fueled by the desire to repair broken and dysfunctional family units. That hyper-correction will only hurt it the long term. Either way, the Christian family will only thrive long term in the weekly life of the Church. That is where they will learn and fellowship with other imperfect people. That is where our families will be encouraged and grown through shared trials and joys. Alone we become wierd people, but in community we are made aware of what it means to live as image bearers of God—in fellowship and peace.
So many things can be said, but family must be viewed in light of the true family—the Church of the Lord Jesus. I want my kids to see our family unit flowing out of the church family. It is the Church that should get our focus when trying to make corrective measures to improve our families. We’ll be better off focusing on THE Church family and give our families time and energy in as much as they are subjected to the church. Not neglecting our individual families but rather learning how to live in them day in and day out because of the greater nurture and admonition of the Church family.
On the March…
In talking with men and women who are more experienced than me in singing the hymns of the faith in the context of a covenant renewal worship service, you hear the term “warfare” and “militant” arise in the conversation. The Church is, of course, the Lord’s Army and whether we fully understand it or not, we gather each Lord’s day to gather in the Lord’s presence and renew our commitment and vigor for kingdom work and service. We proclaim his praise, confess our sin, hear His Word preached to us and then are fed at his table. This army ritual is being fleshed out in my mind gradually as I learn more and more.
So, of course, music should be warlike in some ways or battle tune-esque. Our Hymns and Psalms should be our war tunes that we sing to honor our King and call each other to renewed service in the week after we worship. So, we must rethink the tradition of playing the piano/organ and singing in the style of ragtime, durge, liberace or any other style that would detract from this genre of worship as warfare.
So, we need to think more “March” when we play or sing through hymns. Is this too slow for a march? Is this too fast? Is this too soft and timid for a march to war? Is it too weak? These are things that we need to rethink as we mature in our understanding of worship and worship music. This can and is done well. It just doesn’t happen on accident. It also doesn’t happen in a year either. It has to be a goal. As a musician, who plays and accompanies for worship sometimes, this “on the march” is what I try to call to mind just before I downbeat the hymn or the song.
Florida Fiasco!
Sarah and I were looking forward to going to Florida to the 19th Annual Trinity Presbyterian Family Advance Conference in Destin, FL last week. We were getting packed and ready when Solomon got sick the day before with the stomach virus. Then, the next day, Arthur got the bug about an hour before we were scheduled to drive to Alexandria to drop the kids of with my parents. Arthur was sick on the drive down. Then, Sarah got the bug in the middle of the night and we wondered what to do about the trip. We ended up leaving late from Alexandria and headed to the conference. The conference went well and a good time was had by all. Then Saturday evening, our last night in town, we were headed to have dinner with some friends and our van was rear ended by a Cadillac Escalade and it ended up totaling our vehicle. We were stuck in Florida for an additional 2 days trying to get that sorted. During this time there was a tropical storm, Ida headed right toward the coast and that only made things more eventful. We did finally make it back to Monroe on Wednesday night. It was a fun and challenging weekend. When it rains, it pours. I wonder what the Lord was trying to teach us during this whole weekend. Glad we went, even though things didn’t come close to going like we imagined they would. Sarah and I are okay from the wreck and are still scratching our heads over the craziness of the whole weekend.
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