Opposites...

Read this quote on a comment to another great blog, Carlos Whittaker's Ragamuffin Soul. Good stuff. But today the blog wasn't the point...it was the COMMENT by MaRy Mo!!! at the bottom that stunned me...

Check it...
Chad

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel

Dear Levi,

Your arrival came much quicker than I expected. But then again, I wasn’t the one carrying you...your mom probably feels a little differently about it. I really didn’t expect the 9 months to go quite so fast. Then all of a sudden, you were here. Amazing strength, vitality, fingers, toes, the chubbiest cheeks yet in a long line of chubby cheeked Smith kids, and as Ella called it, “a funny little mitten”... hadn’t seen that in the Smith babies yet.

The first time you opened those massive blues, you reminded me, in one split second, why it was I wanted to become a father. To raise Warrior Priests. Just like your sisters, you share some part of that meaning in your name. And I still pray daily that you live up to that.

But all that’s not why I’m writing.

We have to talk.

Man to man.

Remember when I said you arrived much quicker than I expected? Well, the speed of your arrival is a mere snail’s pace compared to the gallop you’ve taken to get to one year old.

Why?

Is there some great event for one year olds no one’s told me about that you just can’t wait to get to? Do you expect to be able to continue this pace through childhood? Pre-school will still be around. The little girls in elementary school will still giggle when you walk past in a few years the way they coo over you now...don’t sweat it. And I saw how you did a Heisman Trophy style stiff-arm to that puppy the other day that ran straight toward you to play...I assure you football will still be around when you get to high school, don’t rush it. And if you’re trying to speed through your early years in order to get to the college scene, we talked about this: if you’re going to go Ivy League, you gotta keep practicing your flash cards because the word list you’re supposed to know when you take your SAT’s and entrance exams is hard. And as for marriage, it’s like a fine painting. You can’t rush art. If it’s going to be a marriage as beautiful as you see in your mom and me, it’s going to take loads of time. And you have to paint it with a very small brush...so let’s slow it down so Mom and I can show you how to paint in the right kind of love. While we’re on the subject, it’s going to take me some time to figure out how to let some sweet girl steal the attention you’re supposed to be giving to beating off the guys coming around to visit your sisters. Remember, we talked about this too.

It all takes time. Slow it down. Time. Slow. Pace yourself.

This first year just went by way too fast and I can’t bear to think of the next few doing the same.

We have to learn so many things together. The life of Jesus. Music. Baseball. Fishing. Techie nerd stuff. It’s all so fun. Don’t rush through too fast...I don’t want to miss seeing your face as you learn them.

All I’m saying is, Happy Birthday, Buddy. But don’t let the next one come so soon.

Dad

Don't go....

REBLOG:: Listening / Musical Influences

So in my blog-trolling, I came across this amazing piece by Peter James on the Hillsong Creative blog.  

Here's the link to the original

...and here is my reprint! 

Enjoy,

Chad

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Musicians we HAVE to get really good at listening. Not just listening, but listening with the intent to learn. It’s one thing to listen to a song on the radio and go “that’s a nice song”. But it’s another thing to listen to that same song to learn from it and analyze every ounce of goodness out of it! We need to get into a habit of doing this to help us grow creatively, to widen our musical knowledge and ultimately make us better, well rounded musicians.

We can actually limit our growth in this area by our musical prejudices or simply our likes and dislikes. Don’t limit yourself by only listening to your favorite style, band, artist etc. We can learn something from ALL good music, full stop. Regardless of style. Don’t limit yourself either to only listening to Christian music. Yes Christian music will edify your soul and spirit which we all need. But music in itself isn’t secular or nonsecular. Yes lyrics can carry a positive or negative message, but don’t simply limit your musical influences just because a band or song may not fall under the ‘Christian’ genres. I’m not saying go out and listen to whatever music you want to regardless of it’s message etc. Use wisdom. But don’t limit yourself musically just because the band or artist may not be ‘Christian’.

To be creative we need to feed our creativity. And listening is one of the best ways of doing this. Limiting yourselves to only certain styles/bands/influences is kind of like a painter limiting him or herself to only one color. Yes the painter can be creative with that one color, but how much more creative can that painter be if they have a pallet full of colors with different shades and tones? How much more creative as musician can we be if we don’t limit ourselves to just one color/style/influence but have a great understanding of all styles and the tones, colours, rhythms etc that accompany them.

So what should we listen to when pulling a song to bits and analysing it? Well for one that depends on what we want to learn from that song. But for starters try analysing the instrument that best relates to you and try to think about these things in relation to your instrument.

1/  What tone or tones are they using?
- How does the tone fit within the style of the song?
- How are they producing this sound and how can i replicate it?

2/  How are they layering the sound?
- Are they using more than one sound?

3/ What effects are they using and why?
- How are they manipulating these effects in realtime?
- How can i incorporate some of these effects into my ’sound’?
- Delays, Filters (e.g. low pass filters), Reverb, Overdrive etc

4/ What kind of rhythms and riffs (parts) are they using and why?
- Are these riffs clashing with the other musicians parts and/or melody?
- Are these riffs leaving room for the other musicians and melody? If so how?

5/ What are they doing to build the song dynamically?
- Are they using the about 4 things: Effects, Tone, Layering, Rhythms & Riffs to do this?
- How can I learn from this and incorporate it into my playing.

Those are just a few things to get you started, I’m sure you can think of more, but that’s more than a good starting point.

As a musician wanting to continue growing and learning I’m always looking out for new bands and influences to help with this. I thought it’d be helpful if I listed a few of my own personal influences. Most of these bands have influenced Hillsong United and our ‘Sound’ as well by the way. Obviously there are more than just these, but these are a few of the main ones that I thought of:

Delirious
Passion Pit
Sigur Ros
Radiohead
M83
Keane
The Killers
Phoenix
Athlete

Anyways, I hope that helps and gets you all pumped to get even deeper into the world of listening!

Pete James