Shiyr (pronounced ’sheer’)

The best new group you’ve never heard of… yet.

They are here in my home studio working to put their prolific-icity on paper, so players, get ready – the charts are comin’. As soon as Shiyr gets their first recordings completed, I will update you here. So don’t forget the name.

Shiyr is Kathryn Henry, Christine Sexton, and Candice Henry, three singing sisters with a heart for evangelism… for reaching the forgotten found. They have true hearts to see God’s children who are simply warming the pews turn their lives towards holy living in Christ. Their music is beautiful – I can’t wait to hear the full band recordings. Until I get my copy… keep checking back.

The Harvest is Here!

Enjoy!

(*Thanks to my good friend, Aaron Parker for the great bass work.)

Or was I?

During my trip to BIOLA to see my friends, I had the chance to reconnect with my favorite professor there, Cliff Hulling (Theory/Jazz). During our talk, he mentioned he has been using my 12-Tone project each year in his theory classes. At the time, I was simply hoping to create interest by writing away from a simple, monophonic style.

There is a correct way to compose a 12-Tone piece of music, a precise way, actually, that involves a 12×12 grid. Think of it like musical Sudoku – with each line containing all 12 notes of the scale, both up and down, non-repeating, etc. Each horizontal and vertical line must be precise to be correct. A freeing rule is that you may repeat a single note (as many times as you like) before moving onto the next tone in the line. I felt like a good direction to take would be toward chords and line as singable as possible… so that’s what I went for. Looks like it paid off. See it here.

Even though I walked the halls and felt strangely out of place, somehow God had reminded me that my time spent there was valuable and useful – and that maybe our reach extends a little farther than we think. (I just thought that was so cool!)

Out of my element

Two friends of mine held a recital today at BIOLA University, Tyler Thompson (Baritone/Tenor) and Emily Helvey (Piano). Delicious was what it was. The four hour round trip was worth every minute, to reconnect with these wonderful people, who make such beautiful music. I only wish I had a better picture to show for the experience… well, that and perhaps a level of talent anywhere near theirs. Tyler, Emily, (and Katie Van Kooten – “collector of countries) are all so fantastically gifted, I’m honored to know them. But, really that doesn’t express it right. What’s more, they are genuinely good people who truly love the Lord. There is the appeal. How incredibly cool to know my friends are still making music, that their music blesses people and their testimonies are increased of God’s generosity with gifts. And while they all are so extraordinary and I’m simply ordinary, we are all part of God’s plan to reach this world for Christ. Glad to be in that with them.

You guys get the cultured, and I’ll go for the common. We’ll meet back here in another 30 months.

CCLI, part 3

Well, my timeline is shifting with regards to sending the materials to CCLI.  I learned that they will certainly include audio files if they are well produced.  (And they want me to send all the stuff at once.)  Since I’ve set aside the next couple months’ free time to work on this stuff, including getting a band together to record my music, I’ve decided to wait to send the materials until I have recordings.  I mean, if I don’t get lead sheets and chord charts right away, I should definitely take what I can get – so lyrics and audio samples it is.  More when it comes on the scene.

CCLI, part 2

I guess I just needed to want it badly enough, because 2 years of zero progress has been trumped by 2 days of true zeal. I’ve completed all the necessary paperwork to become a CCLI “Song Owner.” I plan to send this paperwork to CCLI tomorrow. Soon, the songs I’ve penned should be available through the SongSelect service of CCLI.

At first, all that means is I will have my name in another place on the internet and the lyrics I’ve written will have a place alongside my name, but that’s it… unless God blesses these songs like crazy and churches begin using them on a grand scale. At that time, chord charts/lead sheets/hymn charts/audio samples would be made available. To start, though, the only people benefiting from this will be our Visual Team at church, who will be able to simply log into SongSelect and import the songs directly into the slideshow, instead of typing them all in.

(I’m still excited!)

CCLI, part 1

I’ve also been revisiting the idea of becoming a Song Owner with CCLI, the Christian Copyright Licensing entity. This time around, after doing nothing on it for 2 years, I’ve completed the Song List, W-9, and gotten all my songs registered with ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). I still have to get a few pages notarized before I can apply, but in the meantime, I asked them to check into the Creative Commons License as I’ve been greatly inspired to go that direction with this music. (They are looking into it for me.)

Praise Solution, part 1

I have been working with my friends, Sean and Sandy to develop a new worship resource. Our name is Praise Solution. The first wave of demos starts today as I created these CD-Rs to send to our worship leading friends around the country for feedback before the big, official launch.

I’ve dragged my feet on so many things, it is just nice to be rekindled to action. My prayers go along with this as I believe these resources will tremendously help churches throughout the world as they strive to worship God better. I welcome you to pray for this venture with me as we have really put a lot into making this a reality.