jeff d

Christmas Music 2011

2011-11-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Two new songs we're going to learn at our next All-Together on Wednesday, December 7. We'll use these this season in addition to some we've done before and some traditional Christmas songs. Click the play button just under each title to listen to the song. Scroll down for lyrics. As always, keep in mind that these are probably not the keys we will use.

"Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)"

"Glory in the Highest"

Great message from Andy Stanley

2011-07-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Are we really going to live out what we say we believe? No excuses or compromises. Good stuff, CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT.

Measuring Spiritual Growth

2011-03-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

This link came in an e-mail I received this week. Thought it was a great reminder. At the end of the day am I more like Christ? Check it out here.

Album Recommendation...

2011-02-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

I recently downloaded Matt Maher's "Alive Again" album. It is one of the better "worship" albums I've downloaded. A great mix...everything from the "pop" stuff you hear on Joy fm to mellowed out & simple acoustic/piano stuff. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. If you're looking for some good music, I'd highly recommend it.
Personal favorite track - #9 "Letting Go".

New Music for Spring 2011

2011-02-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

New music we'll be working on & working into the rotation this spring...

"Today is the Day" - Lincoln Brewster

"Great Are You Lord" - Phillips, Craig & Dean

"Sing, Sing, Sing" - Chris Tomlin

"Christ is Risen" - Matt Maher

"No Greater Love" - Matt Maher

"Hallelujah To My King" - Paul Baloche

More To Come...

New Music for Spring 2010

2010-02-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some songs we want to learn this Spring. We'll be learning "Greatly to be Praised" and "God is Alive" first so pay special attention to those right away. "God is Alive" will be introduced on Easter Sunday and the other one hopefully before then. If you need lyrics, hit me up and I'll e-mail them to you again.

I encourage you to pick up the two albums that most of these songs came from..."Hope Rising" by Fee and "Because of Your Love" by Brenton Brown. Two great albums. We'll probably be doing more songs from both cd's.

1. "God is Alive" by Steve Fee

2. "Greatly to be Praised" by Steve Fee

3. "Because of Your Love" by Brenton Brown

4. "Your Love is Better than Life" by Steve Fee / no link

5. "Nothing Without Your" by Bebo Norman

5. "Send Your Rain" by Brenton Brown / no link

6. "Lead Me" by Brenton Brown / no link

Winter Worship Team Retreat

2009-11-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

Everyone involved in New Life worship is invited to attend this weekend. Sound, Computer, Band, Vocals. This will be a great time to get away and refocus on why we do what we do and maybe even get better at it.

Date: January 22-23, 2010

Time: Begins @ 7 p.m. Friday (supper provided). Ends @ 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Cost: $15 / person. Includes 3 meals and lodging.

Location: High Hill Christian Camp in High Hill, MO. (Just west of Warrenton on I-70. About 40 minutes from New Life.)

What to Bring: Bedding, towels, Bible, pen, any favorite board/card games.

Deadline: Need money by January 17. Anyone under 18 without a parent present at the retreat will need to have your parents complete a permission slip.

If you have questions let me know. Tentative Schedule below.
__________________________________________

Friday – Be there by 7 p.m. (Travel on your own or carpool from New Life)

Dinner @ 7 p.m. (Pizza)

After Dinner – Find sleeping areas, get settled.

8ish – Session #1

After Session – Camp Fire, Sit around and play games, hang out, sleep, etc.

Saturday –
Breakfast @ 8 a.m.

After Breakfast – One-on-One, Session #2, Breakout Sessions for vocals, media/sound, instruments

Lunch @ Noon

After Lunch – Session #3 (media/sound will be free to leave after this session)

Following Session #3 the band/vocals will spend some time learning new songs.

New Music For Fall

2009-09-17T15:49:00.001-07:00

Here are the songs we're going to be working on at the October 3 training session. Be sure to be familiar with them by then. These are in order of the track # on the cd I gave you. If you don't have a cd from me yet, be sure to hit me up for one next time you see me.

1. "No Not One" - Christy Nockels. Lyrics. Audio.

2. "King of Glory" - Chris Tomlin. Lyrics. YouTube.

3. "Filled With Your Glory" - Starfield. Lyrics. YouTube.

4. "My Future Decided" - Hillsong United. Lyrics. YouTube.

5. "In Christ Alone" - Newsboys. Lyrics. YouTube.

6. "Nothing But the Blood" - Matt Redman. Lyrics. YouTube.

Playing Together as a Team

2009-07-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a great post about playing together. Check it out...
http://www.musicademy.com/2009/07/22/50-tips-playing-together-as-a-team/

Mark Your Calendars...

2009-06-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

You've been hearing a lot about our Praise Team training dates that are becoming a regular part of our schedule. I wanted to get the next couple of dates to you well in advance so you can mark your calendars. In addition to July 11, we will have training on Saturday October 3 and Friday/Saturday January 22-23. I realize these seem a long way off but we all know how fast schedules fill up. So please mark them down. Looking forward to seeing you all on July 11. It's going to be great!

CONGRATS!!! (Slightly overdue...)

2009-06-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order for some of our praise team members for recent events in their lives. First, and most recent, congrats to JC Kime and his wife Jessica. Kaci Marie Kime was born last Wednesday (10 pounds 4 ounces). We'll look forward to meeting her soon!

Second, we've got some '09 grads to give a shout out to as well. Glyn Coakley and Meghan Tally both graduated from high school a few weeks ago. This fall, Glyn is heading off to Mizzou (a decision that the Jayhawk in me calls into question...j/k) and Meghan to SLU. Congrats to both of you and thanks for the investment you've made in this ministry during your time at New Life.

Tips on Vocal Warm Up

2009-05-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

Great suggestions from vocal coach, Brett Manning, on warming up. He has lots of great stuff for vocalists. Search for him on YouTube to find more tips. Some of it may seem strange if you haven't worked with a voice teacher before, but it IS good stuff. If you have to, get in a room by yourself, lock the door and practice.

Disciple

2009-05-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here's another band I like. These guys have been around for a long time. They toured and put out albums for years before mainstream Christian radio picked them up. They have a great straight forward rock sound. A little harder than my last recommendation, but great stuff. It's not on their myspace page, but a great older song from them is "The Wait is Over." Check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/disciplerocks

Room For Improvement

2009-05-11T08:21:00.001-07:00

One of the challenges of being a musician (whether you play an instrument or are a vocalist) is to continually improve at what you do. Many times we get to a certain level of musicianship and stay there. Never trying to improve and really master our craft. Some examples...1. You sang in choir in high school, had some vocal training there but haven't done much with it since then. Or maybe you just like to sing to the radio but haven't ever thought about learning how to sing correctly or sing a part. 2. You learned a few chords on a guitar or learned some tab off of the internet but haven't ever really thought about the notes you're playing or how to best play your instrument as a part of a group. I could go on and on and probably all of us would fit into one category or another. Mine is that I get stuck in a rut just strumming away at the songs we play and never really learn anything else on the guitar. My point is that most of us tend to plateau as musicians. We get to a point where we can get by as a member of a church praise team and never think about getting any better. I have a couple of gripes with that. 1. We expect the best, not just average, from other people. If we're out to eat, we expect quality service. If we go to a concert or download a song, we expect it to be the best quality. If you have kids in school, you expect their teachers to do their best, to get better at what they do and provide a quality education. We expect a lot from other people. We expect people to grow and improve. It just seems natural then to expect the same from ourselves in whatever we are involved in. In this case, music. 2. Putting our best foot forward honors God. Colossians 3:23 says..."Whatever you do, work at it will all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men..." Our goal is for God to be honored and glorified through the music. That, in itself, should be enough to make us want to be at our best for Him. With those things in mind...shouldn't we then expect and work toward a high level of musicianship in the praise team? The answer is yes...we should and we will. I've been at New Life for just over four months now and have been observing a few things. One of them being that we have good music. We struggle through a song here and there but for the most part we have pretty good music. This is something that was established long before my time here. A lot of work has been put into making sure that when we come to worship, we have a quality atmosphere in which to do so. So, we could just stay where we're at. We could hold this course and get comfy for a long time. The problem is that we have the potential to have GREAT music week in and week out but we're not living up to that potential week in and week out. This isn't meant to criticize, just to challenge us all (that includes yours truly) to get better at what we do. So, here's what we're going to do about it. Starting this summer we're going to have periodic training clinics for each part in the praise team. Throughout the summer we'll have specific clinics (other than practice on Thursdays) for drummers, guitar players, keyboard players, bass players, vocalists, and auxilary percussion (congas, etc.). The purpose of these clinics is to give us an intensive, focused time to work on improving our skill level. I'm very excited about the potential I see here at New Life. God has brought this group of people together to accomplish a great purpose through music. We want to do that to the best of our ability. All of us, no matter how long we've been playing/singing or how much training we've had, have lots of room for improvement. I'm going to challenge all of us to step it up a notch (maybe even two or three notches) and begin to work on being better musicians. Let's not rest in being good enough. If you've hit a plateau, start praying for God to give you a fresh passion for being a part of this ministry. You'll be hearing more soon about this summer. Here is a great video related to this subject. I'm not saying (as in the title of the video) that my worship team won't practice, because we're just starting this conversation on improvement. It's just good content for all of us to think about. I encourage you to look up some of the scriptures that he references and study them.

Leaving Room

2009-05-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

I recently attended a worship seminar with Brenton Brown. (Author of "All Who Are Thirsty", "Hallelujah [Your Love is Amazing]", and several other popular worship songs.) During the seminar he and his band sat down on stage and went through each of their roles as a member of the band. The main theme that kept coming up over and over was the idea of "leaving room" for the other band members. Each of the members of the band (bass, lead guitar, drums, acoustic) all focused on the fact that to do a little as a part of a band is to do a lot. Everyone on stage can't be banging/strumming/singing away with no thought of those around them. As a part of a band, it is your responsibility to listen to the people around you. Everyone playing a small part, makes something great. Everyone playing loud or playing "busy" just makes noise. For example...imagine for a second that you are at dinner with 3 other people. You're sitting around the table having a conversation. Only, instead of one person taking their turn talking then listening, you're all four just talking away at the same time. Each of you trying to talk over the other. What would that be like? For some of you...an average dinner out with the kids. Seriously though...it would be chaotic, frustrating, just down right annoying! In conversation, you have to give and take. You speak, listen, then respond when it's appropriate. You "leave room" for the other three people at the table to contribute to the conversation. The same concept applies to being a member of a band. You have to listen to eachother, be respectful of eachother and leave room for everyone to do their part. If the drummer is banging away as loud as he can, playing lots of fills and the tempo is all over the place, no one else is heard, no one can stay with your tempo and you're not leaving room for anyone else to do their part. You're dominating the "conversation". If a guitar player is strumming away as loud as she can with the distortion cranked through the roof or playing face melting solos all during the worship set, you're once again dominating the music. There's no room for anyone else to do their part. If a singer is belting it with no attempt to blend with the other singers...you get the idea. We have to all focus on doing our SMALL part to make something bigger as a unit. Each of us (vocals and instrumentalists alike) are in the worship band to serve God and to serve eachother. By dominating the "conversation" or music, you take the focus off of God and put it on yourself. If you want to punish the drums, be the next Guitar Hero or American Idol...start a garage band. When we come to practice and to play on Sunday, we've got to approach our parts with humility and an attitude of service. We have to leave room for everyone else to do their part. I leave you with the theme song of the greatest super hero's to ever walk the earth, The Wonder Pets. "What's gonna' work? Teamwork. What's gonna' work? Teamwork. We're not too big and we're not too tough but when we work together we've got the right stuff. Go Wonder Pets!" I know, I know...it made me tear up too.

Paul Baloche - Performance VS Worship Leading

2009-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

DOWNHERE

2009-05-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm a huge music fan...I guess I'd be in the wrong line of work if I wasn't...anyway, I've been listening to a band called Downhere. If you spend much time talking music with me, you'll find quickly that I have no stomach for over-processed, over-marketed, shallow, pop music. I have no time for music that is written to sound marketable. To sell a song is not the point in writing music...soap box...sorry. There's really no way to truly judge an artist's motive until you experience them personally. Such is the case with this band. I didn't pay much attention until I saw them play live. A live show is usually the deciding factor for me in whether or not I'm a true fan of an artist. I saw these guys about a year ago in Fort Scott, KS. They put on a great show, they are true musicians, very deliberate with their message, and down to earth. Their music is catchy, original, and full of depth and yet you can find it on CCM radio. Go figure...it can be done! Anyway, all that to say...I'm a big fan! Anytime I run across someone that is worth a listen, I'll try to toss them your way.

Check them out for yourself! Good stuff! Personal favs..."Here I Am", "Not About Wings", "My Last Amen".
www.myspace.com/downhere