My husband took some video footage a few weeks ago and really wanted to share it on Facebook. He asked me if I would record something. A lot of my recording equipment is out of state right now, in preparation for my New Year's Eve show with my band One Horizon, so I had to use my phone wire and speaker to record the vocals and guitar. I hope you can enjoy it anyways. :) I put this together in less than 12 hours. Anything that can be thrown together in less than a week and then shared on the internet can qualify for a Wacky Wednesday Challenge, don't you think?
On Take Note Tuesday posts, I usually make it a point to hi-light family friendly artists who are still building a following. This week I have made an exception, though. I would like to share a song that a more well know artist did to celebrate the Christmas Season. Her name is Lindsey Sterling. She writes music, plays the violin while dancing and shares videos on youtube on a regular basis. She has 7,342,493 subscribers to her youtube station. I am sharing her video because I like the way that she is not seeking to promote herself with this video, but challenging her viewers to think twice about the response we might have to Jesus Christ during this Christmas season. How the season is celebrated is going to be different for everyone, but I love the way that this artist has made an effort to make her musical creations about something more than just herself. I think that this selfless focus is when music becomes the MOST beautiful. This is what I seek to promote in my Take Note Tuesday Posts. I hope you enjoy her video, until next time, Happy Songwriting.
As my weekday schedule has changed quite a bit, recently (I started homeschooling my 12 year old son), my songwriting opportunities have definitely been less frequent. I have been preparing to sing in church next week, though, so I thought it would be appropriate to share "my" version of an arrangement that I recorded to help me practice. Even though it is very minor, I tweaked a few notes here and there to fit my style and liking. That can be considered songwriting, right? That is pretty much 'all I got' this week.
Here it is. The song, "Still, Still, Still" is an Austrian Carol arranged by David A. Zabriskie and myself.
“Wintertime In Sweden” by Poulsen Photo from freedigital photos.net
Yesterday I reported to all of you about Tiffany's presentation, but I wanted to mention something she spoke of before she shared her 5 tips. She talked about WHY we do what we do as songwriters. She said something that really changed her focus in her work was when she came up with a vision. Her vision in creating music is to, "Inspire others to find happiness and purpose".
I agree with Tiffany, having a vision for whatever it is you may be doing can make all the difference. I am apart of a band called One Horizon. When Tiffany shared her vision I was reminded of the vision we have as a band. We seek to Enjoy, Uplift and Become as we share our music. We even got our graphic designer, Michelle Stott, to come up with beautiful word art that captures our vision.
As the author of this blog I find myself asking, "why do I write for this blog?" The answer comes as another vision or mission statement:
"I want to connect with other songwriters and artists worldwide, encouraging each other to write good music and create good art."
What about you? What do you do? Have you ever decided to make a mission statement for what you do? If so, please share. I would love to be inspired by you and your vision.
Here is a video that One Horizon put together to uplift others during the Christmas season.
