Music and Stuff: An Update

For those who have been tracking with me on the musical end of my journey, and watching me via the cybersphere to see where this is tying in with mission…here’s a general update for you. 🙂

I mentioned a few months ago that I’d been invited to play keyboard and sing at an informal ongoing gig on Sunday mornings at the coffee shop where I do most of my writing, and about the positive reaction from people who didn’t know I could play. That has continued twice a month through the summer, but the owner has held out an offer to me to take the other two Sundays on my own. The only reason I didn’t jump at the chance is that I don’t yet have enough material worked up to cover a 3-hour slot–so I told her I would be ready to do that once I had developed more of a repertoire (remember, for 20 years all I did was stuff appropriate for church gatherings, so I’m sort of starting from scratch on the repertoire).

Meanwhile, to get things going, the owner has given the other two Sundays a month to another guy, a terrific guitarist who has an established reputation here from playing other musical events at the coffee shop–but the owner specifically asked him to involve me in it, also. At first, I sort of chided myself on a missed opportunity, but the truth was I really wasn’t ready to take the whole slot on my own, and my schedule has been so overwhelming that it has been difficult to expand my musical chops. At the same time–between the two gigs, I’m now committed to play everySunday morning at the coffee shop, and there is still plenty of room to grow. I might also mention that the guitarist I spoke of is a mission-minded believer, and we’ve had several conversations about God.

I can’t tell you how utterly poetic it feels for me to be playing in a coffee shop on Sunday morning, when I’ve spent most of my life playing in church services during that time. That alone has had my mind churning all summer long, because I see it as a very tangible expression of being “outside the walls.”

Now, when it comes to mission, there are some people who just formulate a plan and go “get ‘er done,” and I think there’s a time and place for that, and I respect that. I do. But with my particular journey, where I spent over a decade trying to “get ‘er done” and hitting nothing but brick walls, I have really taken the approach of watching what God seems to be doing around me, and looking for ways to participate in that process. I think I’m still in a period of time where God is teaching me and guiding me by experience, so that forces me not to be in a hurry. But this situation has definitely got me asking God some questions about where He might be guiding this. I could definitely see this growing into an opportunity to involve other musicians, and possibly even incorporate a Bible study/discussion with them before we start playing. At the very least, it is a point of connection with the music community that I haven’t had before. And while I feel an urge to do something with regard to mission, I also want to be careful not to force something. My prayer is for wisdom to make the most of what God is laying out here in front of me, and if you pray, I’d appreciate you adding your prayers to mine on this front.

On another front–I mentioned that I was slated to begin an apprenticeship at a local recording studio this summer. That situation has basically stalled and re-started. The studio I was placed in was one of the best in town quality-wise, but they were simply so busy that I couldn’t get in there enough. So the school that is sponsoring my apprenticeship recently made the decision to transfer me to another studio. This is also an interesting development, because while this studio is newer, smaller, and doesn’t have as many bells and whistles, the audio engineer who will be my instructor is…a believer. We share a deep regard for the local music scene, and we have several mutual friends–and I can definitely see this as being yet another connection point. Although I was disappointed that the other studio didn’t work out, I have a strong sense that this transition once again smacks of the Lord guiding my steps. Where, exactly? I’m not sure. I am in this program because I want to develop my own production skills, but I know I would also like the ability to produce other bands and artists. This provides yet another connection point to the music scene where I might one day be able to do that–and I consider that to be as much a part of mission as anything else.

One other development that is worth mentioning–and that involves The Director, who is working on a new short film (I detailed some of the stories surrounding that project here and here.) We’re now in the post-production phase–the part where I have to compose a soundtrack for the film, which went from an estimated 15-minute film to its current length at about 23 minutes. 🙂 Despite the hardships I mentioned earlier about this project, we all have a strong sense of hope and destiny about this film. I noticed during the filming how it managed to draw a whole lot of people we didn’t even know before, and caused them to bond–and how many of these people said before the project was even wrapped that they wanted to be part of the next one. This one project opened us up to a whole new community of people we didn’t even know before. As for the film itself–well, let’s just say it’s The Director’s best work so far, and I’ll be highly surprised if it does not compete in film festivals. When the trailer is done, I may just have to break anonymity and post it here. 🙂

So that’s what’s going on with me. 🙂 Gotta go. I have a gig soon.