The Doors Are Open!

Posted by John on Dec 24th, 2006 | no comments

It’s been several months since I wrote about our decision to help plant a church here in Arlington. Well, the doors of Christ Church Arlington were made open to the public last Sunday! Glory be to God, over 400 people attended, including many children! We saw many friends from the community whom we love; our hearts desire is to see them grow closer to the Father through Jesus Christ. As my mentor, Craig Smith (who now pastors a church in Vail, Colorado), told me, “Now you have to shepherd all those people!”

Our senior pastor, Randy Lockley, preached a wonderful sermon on Christ, who is the Hope of Christmas. Our associate pastor, John Horne, (also my local mentor since Craig Smith moved to Colorado) mentioned that he was celebrating three births last Sunday: the birth of Christ, the birth of the church, and the birth of his baby boy, Nathan, who arrived this past Monday. It is a pure joy to work with these godly men. I pray that they remain pure, humble and faithful to Jesus Christ and His Word in the coming years.

During the past few months it has been fascinating to watch the old Butcher Shoppe grocery store transform into a place of worship. More importantly, it’s been incredible to be part of an excited team of believers who have demonstrated a unity of purpose and heart. Forming out of an existing church was like watching a cell divide; it was beautiful. God hand-picked those who would be part of the core group, without question. This past Sunday was the most vivid display of the “Body of Christ” working as a single unit showing love and respect to all in our community who walked through the door for the first time. The halls were alive with laughter, hope, affection and purpose.

Christ Church Arlington is the first branch based out of what used to be Central North Church in Bartlett, TN, which is now appropriately called Christ Church Bartlett. (They didn’t want Arlington to be Central North East!) The name “Christ Church” very simply reflects our mission to know Christ and make Him known. Theologically and historically the teaching is sound and is delivered with gentleness and respect.

I have jumped on board to fulfill two roles. On Sunday mornings I sing background vocals and play the keyboard. The style of music is considered “contemporary”, which is quite appropriate for the group of people we serve. We sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, making music from our hearts to God. It is a joy to work with the team of musicians that God has brought together, led by a kind and gracious man, Tim Nicholson, whose heart is definitely heavenward. Secondly, I will be teaching an introductory course on the church and the doctrines it holds, as well as leading a “home group” Bible study. Those teaching roles will kick into gear near the end of winter.

Becky is so beautiful and warm as she greets many who walk through the door of the church for the first time, including many children who need to find their new classrooms. She also teaches the 3rd to 5th graders. Last weekend was an eye-opening experience for her as she had never worked with that age group. But she is such that even the “tough” kids have warmed up to her. She learned that the kids will respect her if she is willing to listen to them. I love to watch my wife teach!

The kids loved it. Many of their friends were there and they were taught about the birth of Christ. It’s such a wonderful thing to go to a church where I know my children will be taught so much from the Word of God from people who genuinely love them.

All morning long as I walked the halls of the building and shook hands with people I said one thing over and over again, “It’s a good day today!” And it was.

Opus 13: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence/Carol Of The Bells

Posted by John on Dec 4th, 2006 | no comments

How I Record My Piano Music

Posted by John on Dec 3rd, 2006 | no comments

Ok. So you might be interested in my own “Behind the Band” story of how I create the piano music you hear on this site. Here’s a summary:

The first ten songs (The Golden Road, Opus 1-10) were recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, TN. Great studio! A LOT of popular artists have recorded there. That was a cool experience, but it costs over $1,000 per day to record. I needed an easy setup that I could use at my leisure with little expense.

The solution came this fall when I discovered an incredible “little” piece of software called Ivory by Synthogy. For about $350 I ordered the software which came on 10 DVDs totalling a massive 40gb of piano samples. You can hear it for yourself in the new tracks I’ve recently released on this site.

Here are the steps to creating my music:

1. Compose the piano work on my Yamaha GH1B baby grand in the living room.
2. Play the finished work on my Alesis QS8 electronic keyboard (with 88 weighted keys) in my home office.
3. The keyboard sends MIDI information (what notes, when, how hard, how long, sustain pedal, etc.) to my Dell computer via MIDI-to-USB cable.
4. I use Cakewalk Music Creator 3 software to receive the MIDI information and save it to the hard drive.
5. I then tell Cakewalk to send the MIDI information through the Synthogy piano software during playback.
6. I edit the music in Cakewalk by fixing or removing wrong notes, adjusting sloppy rhythms, and tweaking how loud each note is played.
7. Becky (my lovely wife) and I listen to the music over and over again to find ways of improving the song…more editing.
8. When we both feel the song is ready, I export the Synthogy output to a very large .WAV file suitable for writing to an audio CD.
9. Then I use an MP3 Encoder to convert the WAV file to MP3, which is a much smaller file and more suitable for streaming and selling online.
10. I upload and setup the new MP3 for digital distribution on all major music stores.
11. I upload and post the new MP3 on this site.

And there you have it. I found the process easy to use (once I figured it out), which really helped me get away from the “next big project” mentality, and move toward a “baby steps” system. I hope that gives you some insight into how I make this music.