Category: Music stories

For the next couple of Mondays, I’m going to dive into some of the…..strange lyrics and stories of Christmas carols. Today, I’m looking at the song, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”.

 

I have to start with the comma in the title. This has always intrigued me. The way it is written is God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. But that doesn’t really make sense, does it? Wouldn’t the comma be before Merry, not after it? Well, I found a NY Times article that deals with this. In the article, it explains that the phrase “God Rest Ye Merry” is explained as “God keep you merry”. OK, that makes sense. But in the over 3 centuries since the song was written, that comma has wandered.

 

OK, so we know what the first line is talking about. But what about this “tidings of comfort and joy” thing? Tidings just means news or information. So it’s news of comfort and joy.

 

The whole song is talking about keeping cheerful and happy because Jesus was born to save us. But why is the melody written in a minor key, if it’s so happy?? It is an interesting choice, isn’t it? Major keys typically sound cheerful or happy, while minor keys sound somber and sad. It’s a unique and interesting juxtaposition that I can’t really find an answer to. Normally, the music reflects the text…but this is a unique connection. What are your thoughts?

 

God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Today is International Dance Day! While I personally am unable to dance on my feet, my fingers definitely dance! Don’t believe my lack of dancing ability? The first time I danced with my wife before we were married, I tried to dip her. I dropped her! She still married me and laughs at my lack of dancing ability.

 

But when we make music, we make it dance! The term used is musicality. How do you take the notes and lengths placed on the page and make them come to life? We make the music dance! Whether that is giving natural accents on the first beat on each measure, or phrase the music correctly, we make the music come to life. We’re not robots and the music shouldn’t sound robotic!

 

As we gain experience and confidence as musicians, we’re able to play faster passages, which makes our fingers dance across the instrument. In gaining knowledge and practicing what to do, making the music dance becomes natural and regularly happens without much extra thought. But at first, it definitely needs to be an extra step for students to learn how to do it well.

 

Obviously in music, there are different dance styles that we play, whether that’s a waltz, bouree, minuet, cha-cha and more. Those pieces are written in a way that the music naturally dances, but as experienced musicians, the idea of making the music dance can be brought into any piece, dance or not.

 

How do you dance through music?

Did you know that today is national take our daughters and sons to work day today? I didn’t, until I found it on a calendar for today. This is fun for me because in teaching from my home studio, my daughters get to see and hear what I do regularly.

 

Being a musician, my daughters have always been around music and what I’ve done as a musician, whether that’s as a church music director, at the piano, guitar or singing. They’ve been able to be around while I’m practicing, participating in children’s choirs I led, and much, much more!

 

They’ve both taken piano lessons. I learned the lesson early on with my oldest that while, yes, I am a good teacher, she wouldn’t listen to me. She thought it was always “fun time with daddy”. To be fair, she was 4! But other people have taught them. My youngest has taken guitar and drum lessons as well. Both sing in choir and both sing pretty much all the time at home!

 

Being an entrepreneur and working from home, my girls are regularly trying to help come up with advertising ideas and help out in whatever way they can. I appreciate that with all of my heart!

 

So while today is set aside as a day to take your son or daughter to work, I get the blessing and privilege of regularly having my daughters around, and it’s something that I’m so thankful for! It truly has been a joy to not only share with them my work, but also share the joy of music with them and watch their musical talent grow and develop as well!

 

If you’re looking for private piano, voice, trumpet, beginning guitar or ukulele lessons this summer, either in-person or online, click here!

April is stress awareness month. We are all under some sort of stress. Maybe we’re students and we’re trying to learn new concepts, make good grades, play sports, make friends and things like that. Maybe we’re adults and have stress at work, stress with relationships, financial stress and more. How do we deal with the stress we’re facing?

There’s plenty of unhealthy ways to handle stress. But making music can be a huge healthy stress reliever. Back when I was in middle school and high school, I had plenty of stress, and when I sat down at the piano, I could feel that stress go away as I played on the keys. Some times, I even played as hard and as loud as I possibly could…and it didn’t break the piano! It’s the piano that I teach lessons on!

Yes, some might say that practicing music creates stress. I’m not talking about practicing. I’m talking about sitting down with music you already know and love, or music that you want to play for fun. This goes such a long way in relieving stress. It isn’t adding more by working on practicing things, but it’s just letting that stress flow from your fingers or out of you mouth when you sing.

Have you found music to be a stress reliever? How has it helped you?