“There are no quick wins in IT, just long term suffering” – My Boss
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Author Archives: Bill
My Creative Conundrum
I feel like sometimes I have the gifting, and the right tools, just not the wherewithal to actually finish out a creative musical idea I have. There is this paralysis that sets in and prohibits me from taking a song from start to finish.
I get a good bridge idea, a good chorus idea. I struggle with verses yet like a child forced to eat broccoli I press on and write one.
I am wondering if I am wired to require collaboration to finish the creative process once it gets started, or if I am just a “musical co-dependent” and it’s a character flaw.
Do any of you struggle with this? What are your keys to overcome limitations? What are the processes you find helpful to push you toward completing a song or blogging, etc.?
Top 5 musical influences
Joel Klampert recently blogged about some of the musicians who have influenced him musically.
I thought I would participate in the community effort to share influences.
Before I dole out my 5, I think it is important to note (pun intended) that I didn’t grow up “radically saved”.
In high school (My BC days) my influences were as follows:
1. Primus
2. Mr. Bungle
3. Faith No More
4. Anything by Danny Elfman
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers
So my influences after being “born again” would be as follows:
1. Paul Baloche
2. Hillsong United
3. David Chapin – super encouraging brother who went on to be with the Lord in 2006
4. Matt Redman
5. David Crowder Band
Who has influenced you? Participate in the discussion on Joel’s site here
Excellence vs. Perfection
I stumbled upon this blog post I wrote last year in another blogosphere and thought it was worthy of incorporating into my own personal blog.
Excellence vs. Perfection
originally posted Mar 12, 2010 10:56 AM by Bill Kunkel [ updated Mar 12, 2010 10:58 AM ]
Below is an excerpt from some training I attended that addressed the difference between perfection and excellence.
Striving for excellence is a different goal than striving for perfection. While perfectionists never seem to be happy with their work, people striving for excellence know when they have provided excellent performance.
Perfectionists:
- Often miss deadlines because “it’s just not good enough” – and it never will be
- Want everyone to believe they are perfect and that their work is perfect
- Constantly question their ability
- Don’t delegate because no one can do the work as well as they can
- Are often stressed and can easily become burned out
Excellence:
- Always doing your best
- Providing exceptional performance
- Meeting realistic deadlines
- Delegating when appropriate
Rather than setting unrealistic goals and expectations of perfection, you need to expect and accept excellence from yourself and others.
I believe we should always be striving for excellence in what we do, not perfection [which is unattainable until we get to heaven 
]. I think that this can definitely apply to musicians, sound production, video, etc..
StudioOne Artist Promo–$20.11 through 1/16/2010
I came across this great deal via the Presonus twitter stream.
Right now you can get Presonus StudioOne artist for $20.11 during the NAMM show (1/16).
I purchased StudioOne Pro last summer, but this deal is great if you are looking for a DAW.
Here’s an overview video of StudioOne Artist from last year’s Namm show.
I don’t get any kickbacks or anything. Just wanted to help promote a great product!
TwitterTools–More plugin
My apologies for my long Twitter digests on my blog.
I’ve since installed the ‘More’ Plugin for TwitterTools that allows you to only show a prescribed amount of tweets before autmagically inserting the more tag.
I found out about this plugin on this blog.
Basically you upload it to the twittertools plugin folder and then tell Twitter tools the threshold. You’ll have to manually edit any created before you install the tool.
Hope you find this helpful and useful.
This week in Twitter: 2011-01-08
- @chrisfromcanada putting “Worship Rises” is our 2011 new music roster. #
- @crystalrenaud This will convert it to PDF http://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp in reply to crystalrenaud #
- @inworship I totally missed this yesterday I don’t even know what happened, but I’m glad you’re feeling better! in reply to inworship #
- @WillDoggett Wonder how their ‘Fax Services’ division is faring? in reply to WillDoggett # Continue reading
This week in Twitter: 2011-01-01
- Merry Christmas and may God bless us all, everyone!
#fb # - @robdoner Let me know if there are any inspired, well-timed, vibrato-filled vocal runs in there.
in reply to robdoner # - @robdoner are you tweeting at me from said bed? in reply to robdoner #
- @robdoner yes if it were you dancing I believe there would be a different sort of “clatter” happening…. in reply to robdoner #
- @PlanningCenter Merry Christmas to you too and thanks for all you guys do that improve music ministries! in reply to PlanningCenter # Continue reading
Song Service: Opening Songs
So I was perusing through our repertoire and noticed we lacked a diverse selection of songs to open service. I really feel the need to do some songs that are more up tempo (The anti “Lead Me to the Cross” 60-95 BPM songs)
I’ve really been impressed in prayer that for our local congregation to try and embody verse 4 of Psalm 100
1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
I’d love to get some fresh ideas for songs to open service with. Some I’ve been thinking of using are:
-
Because of Your Love (Brenton Brown / Paul Baloche)
-
Lift Your Praises to the Lord (Re-Writing the chord structure)
-
My Savior Lives – ( New Life Worship )
I also have an original work or two I’ve been slow cooking. One is called “You Unending Love” it is a song about not forgetting that everything good we have in our lives comes from God alone.
What songs do you open service with? Have there been any songs that you have done that were particularly effective to get the congregation singing? Leave the song title, writer(s) and key in the comment section below.
Thanks!
Getting the Word to Go
Remember in the not so distant pass when people would ask for copies on cassette tapes of messages taught or preached in church? People would take them home and re-listen or share with a friend.
I remember doing that. Listening to messages on my Walkman, or on my 48-mile-one-way commute to work.
That lead me to start ask some questions like:
- Do people in your churches still ask for copies of the messages?
- What format(s) are people asking for them in now?
- Do you still make them available free or for a nominal fee?
- Do you post them in a podcast? Make them available for download?
- Do you re-listen to the messages being brought forth in your congregation?
I can say that it has been a while longer than I feel safe admitting since I intentionally listened to preaching outside of a Sunday service.
What was the last message you intentionally ‘asked’ to re-review?