1st week

It's the end of the first full week of training for the full time teams here in Willmar, and we are glad to have a break.  Since this is the first of the blog posts since starting CTI, I want to give you all an idea of a what a normal day looks like here in Willmar.

We all live at different host homes, some people like myself, have housemates from other teams.  We get picked up around 8 and are at the church where we do all our training by 8:30 and we then have half an hour to do a personal devotions from our CTI packet before we meet up to go over announcements and plans for the day.  After that we have full band rehearsal to go over the songs we learned and worked on the previous day.  After full band rehearsal we break off into sectional practice, vocalists, keys, guitarists and rhythm section.  After sectionals we break for lunch and afterwards have some time for the teams to get together on their own.  After team time we have a full group time to meet and talk about life and ministry on the road with CTI, then we have more full band rehearsals.  Our last organized session of the day is a seminar where we really hammer on what the whole deal means, that is, really taking a time to evaluate and check our current thoughts on ministry and how those may need to change if they aren't truly centered on the Gospel.  Afterwards we head from the church to the CTI Ministry building for dinner before heading home.

The host home I am at is a wonderful family with three awesome kids, 12, 9, and 7.  Sometimes we aren't home early enough to hang out with them before they go to bed, but get a chance to talk the host parents a little which is always great.  Weekends though we have had some cool times with the kids, like today I worked on some legos with one of them.

It's going to be a great experience, so far I can see how God is setting things up to do really cool work.  My housemate was perfectly picked and we've been able to encourage one another and talk through different ideas or thoughts we've had through out the day about the music, the seminars or just our own stories of God.

Always groove responsibly

Not much for words

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible,
     is music - Aldous Huxley

If a composer could say what he wanted to say in words,
      he would not bother to try to say it in music - Gustav Mahler

Music expresses that which cannot be said
     and on which it is impossible to remain silent. - Victor Hugo

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music
       is the greatest treasure in the world. - Martin Luther

All good music resembles something.  Good music stirs
       by its mysterious resemblance
       to the objects and feelings which motivated it -     Jean Cocteau

To play without passion is inexcusable! - Beethoven

Music should strike fire from the heart of every man
        and bring tears from the eyes of women - Beethoven

Music bridges the spiritual and the sensual life - Beethoven

Always groove responsibly

How to keep track of me

So you may or may not be hooked up to various versions of social networks, but I a certainly am.

So just in case any of you happen to be, you can follow me in a few different places.

I have a Twitter account that you can follow, to hear snippets of what I'm doing as I'm running around doing ministry and music

@paulpmq
https://twitter.com/paulpmq 

I also have an Instagram account for those of you visual people out there.  I do love to take pictures at shows, whether I'm watching or performing.  I think it's a really cool way to keep up with what's going on.  you can follow that at

paulpmq
http://instagram.com/paulpmq

You can also see some of the videos I've got posted on youtube.  Including my CTI bass audition!  It's scary to look at that and see how much I've grown as a player!

and as always you can follow this blog, or find me on facebook

Always groove responsibly

Fundraiser fun

Ah yes, the fun of fundraisers, this one seems like it will be more fun, I've been doing more individual fundraising up to this point, and now it's time to plan a fundraiser night.

I'm kind of excited because my my Dad is going to be cooking for it, we'll have a silent auction and a concert.  It should be a fun time, and I'm hoping for a big turn out, partly for fundraising purposes, but mainly because more people at a concert is better.

It's exciting for pretty much all parties involved.  If I know musicians, they want to play and in front of people is always better.  There's something of a conversation between the performers and the audience.  As a musician you get to impart feeling and emotions to the crowd, really as a way of feeling together what could not be described in words.

My Dad has always been excited to cook for groups of people, the bigger the better.  For my grad parties from high school and college he had the best ideas for food, and made sure that he cooked everything fresh.  No, really at my high school grad party he made fresh pitas, by hand, for about 300-400 hundred people.  When I got to my parent's house the day of my college grad party he was cutting steaks, by hand.  So for him to get to cook for a group of people is always exciting.

I also said, silent auction, as an introvert silence is good, but having grown up in 2 small businesses in the house, and all the other ones around our family, I like to chance to have businesses donate but also get the advertisement for themselves.  So I'm only asking places that I have some level of relationship with or know they do a great job at what they do.  So places like my favorite coffee shop, the garage I take my car to, and other businesses that have a good rep are all going to be asked to be a part of the night.

As much fun as fundraising is for me, this one could actually be pretty good.

Always groove responsibly

Preparations on top of preparations

There is a normal level of work for getting ready for something, and then there's whatever I've got going on.  Maybe it's my tendency to dive into commitments and start serious relationships with my work, but it seems like there's a lot I scoop on my plate for this.  Don't get me wrong though most if it's pretty fun.

There's the obvious musical portion, which a normal human being might rehearse for, my nut ball self takes it a bit further.  When I started teaching bass lessons I realized that I had to not just get how it worked, but understand how it worked.  So thus I have been learning my music theory to a little different level than I had.  rhythms, chord progressions, modes, scales and different techniques are all part of the deal now.  Nevermind the volume and breadth of music (mainly bassists) I have been pumping into my brain.

While the music is important, having run a worship team at a college for a few years has drastically changed my understanding of how a worship team works, mainly in the spiritual and discipleship aspects of things.  I have seen how true worship from the team changes the atmosphere.  I have seen how 2 awful musicians (we got better) trusting in God get to see some unbelievable things both during the worship nights and outside of them.

What is the most amazing thing to me looking back, is really how much we would use phrases like, "We'll see what God can do." "It's up to God." Whatever God wants to do with it/us."  We said these enough times that it probably sounded like a joke to those who didn't get it, but to us it was/is a way of life, a creed said in a sentence.  This motivates me to foster the same attitude more and more in myself, especially heading into CTI.

Always groove responsibly

And the fundraising continues

As I keep on preparing to leave for CTI as, what appears now to be the bassist, I am still in the course of raising support for the trip.  There's a link in the right hand corner of the blog that takes you directly to the donation page of the CTI website, or you can click here and donate to a fundraising website.

Its a long process to get funds together for a year and its amazing what God will do when you trust Him, because there is no way I could raise this on my own, but where God guides He also provides.

I'll be posting an update later with info on where I am with rehearsals and things like that.  Music is an awesome way to communicate things with people, and so besides fundraising there's lots of practicing!

Always Groove Responsibly

Highbrow Musicianship

One of the easiest ways for a musician to look down on another musician is to ask if they read music.  It is the ultimate litmus test that divides musicians into two categories, and the funny part is the categories aren't even good and bad.  They are "can read music" and "can't read music."

For me, I read music, I make sure to teach students to read music, I encourage every musician to learn to read music, and read it better.  Proficiency in sight-reading is a bonus, but not totally necessary (even though once you can read, why not read quickly).

The amazing thing is, this idea of, "do you read?" transfers over to faith very easily, and not just that, the excuses for not are almost the same.  If you ask a musician who can't read music, and has no interest in reading music, why they don't, you'll get a litany of answers, they often sound like this: "I don't need to read music to play it."  "I can feel it, why do I need to be told what to play."  "So and so didn't read music." and my personal favorite "you're just jealous that I don't need to have my music written down to play it."

While I don't know of many Christians who would disagree with the idea that you need to read the Word, I know of more than a lot who would argue that you don't need to understand your faith.  The go-to verse?  Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (NASB).  This is a great definition of faith, but it doesn't say have faith and know nothing.  Peter, the same guy who wrote this, wrote that to your faith you should add knowledge (and other things, but these are the base for all the others).  Why would he say that if we don't need to understand even a little theology, if we "can feel God's presence, so why do I need to know theology?" "don't have to prove faith, that defeats the purpose." and the one that gets me going "I don't need to prove what I believe, to believe it."

The odd part is, reading music isn't about not having the ability to play on your own creativity, and having knowledge of your faith isn't about lacking trust in God.  These both have everything to do with gaining a better appreciation for what you have.  As a musician, I read a potion of a score and see amazing interlocking rhythms, call and response passages, harmonies and counter melodies.  If I couldn't read I might never know just how intricate and intertwined a piece really is.

As a Christian, who knows some theology, I can see the interlocking ideas, the cohesive structure of God's Word, the web of supporting commands and teachings, the foreshadowing and the internal references.  I gain a better appreciation for just how amazing God and His Word are.  Really, it makes my faith even greater, because I can grasp the tiniest bit more of how amazing God really is.  

Moral of the story, learn to read music, learn theology, you will be amazed at what see, when you understand what you are looking at.

Always groove responsibly