It's Summer!!!!

 
Well, at least it's summer to me,

Which will mean something to all of you wonderful, wonderful people (who I am so, so grateful for) who faithfully read these messy words I scribble down here:

I'm going to start writing about other things.

Instead of just my usual, weekly post about knowing God and counting 10,000 reasons, I'll be posting more often,

Twice, maybe three times a week.

I hope.

The difference is two or three of those posts will probably not be about whatever spiritual truths I'm struggling (and, at least in some capacity, failing) to discover at that moment.

I'm going to be writing a whole lot more about my music.

Now, it's entirely likely that some of the more spiritual things that I usually write about will work their way into the posts about my music.

It's not as though I can separate God from my work.

My work is dependent on God.

However, it will likely be to a lesser degree,

Or, in some instances, it may not be evident at all,

At least not on the surface.

It's not exactly easy to think of running wires and plugging things together as a deep, spiritual metaphor.

(Unless, of course, God is working on something in my life that just happens to connect to weaving wires around things so I won't trip on them, or plugging things in so that they'll work the way I want them to.)

I will make every effort to reserve Wednesday (or whatever day I am able to post that just happens to be closest to Wednesday) for my usual meditations, counting, linkys.

The other days might be about those things,

But will more likely be about my music.

After all, that's part of why I started this blog -

So I could keep people up-to-date on my music -

And that's most important, comes up most often, during the summer, when I work on my projects.

The other part -

Telling about what I'm learning about God -

I am blessed - privileged - to do every week.

So, bottom line:

I will be posting more often,

But those posts won't be about what my Wednesday posts are about.

That said, it's time for the update I got on here to give you:

As I mentioned in my bio last summer,

The next project I'm working on is another album.

The idea originated with a song I wrote last March called "The Masterpiece".

Around that time, the idea of Ephesians 2:10,

How God calls us "Masterpiece",

Was coming up a lot in my life.

Since I often write about whatever happens to be going on at a given point in time,

I was writing a lot about how we are God's masterpiece.

When I met with one of my best friends toward the end of last summer,

After I'd just about finished (or already finished?) my "Pour" project,

I asked her to pick out her favorite songs.

She came up with several good suggestions,

Many of which I'd never have thought to pick (because of my love-hate relationship with the music I write).

We wrote them down,

Made a list.

I added a couple that she agreed would be good,

Just because they fit with that period of writing,

With that theme of "Masterpiece".

We came up with thirteen in all.

Of those thirteen,

Seven currently have completed accompaniments,

One has an accompaniment but needs one of the chords changed,

And two more have chords but no pattern to play them in.

That makes ten that are sort-of-almost done-ish.

Three need a lot of work done on the accompaniments,

Two need a decent amount of work done on the accompaniments,

And accompaniments are the hardest part of this process for me.

So, will all thirteen make it on the album?

I have no idea.

We'll have to see.

There's also a newer song I'm thinking about sneaking on there,

(Maybe a live version as a bonus track?),

Because (A) I like it so much,

And (B) it drives me nuts to always put songs on my CDs that I wrote an entire year ago -

It's necessary in order for me to get all the work done,

Since I don't have time during the school year to do my music full-time,

But by the time I get to recording the songs,

They feel so old.

I'm not as happy with them as I once was,

Not because they're bad (at least, others tell me they're not bad - I, ever my worst critic, still think they are, at least to some extent, so I don't trust my own judgment on that matter or I'd never record anything),

But because I feel like my writing has improved over the course of a year

And recording songs from a year ago is,

In a sense,

Taking a step backwards.

I do it anyway.

I can't help it.

I love music.

These projects are a lot of fun for me.

(Of course, they're also a good amount of tedious work, but that's a story for another post . . .)

And,

In spite of my reservations about some of the songs,

Others I'm genuinely excited to see recorded.

So I record.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let you decide.

Overall, I think this album will be an improvement on my previous ones.

It's not going to be perfect,

But it should be better.

At this point,

With as few resources as I have,

That's good enough for me.

Hopefully people will still be able to appreciate my music,

Even though it wasn't recorded in a studio,

Mixed by a professional,

Accompanied by great accompanists.

This work is small and imperfect,

Just like me,

But it comes from the heart.

My room's a mess again,

Hoping to start this whole process over again very soon.

Maybe tonight?

Praying for this to be what God wants it to be.

More updates later.