Increase Your Vocabulary: How To Appreciate Art As a Christian


Let's talk about language. "Language?" you say. "I thought this was about drumming!" Yeah. Just stick with me. What's great about music is that it's so similar to a language. In most languages you have actually more than one vocabulary; you have one for listening, one for speaking, one for reading, and one for writing. Let that sink in. Isn't that just crazy how you can understand certain words when someone else uses them but not so much when you use them yourself? Or I've found myself speaking words I don't even know how to spell. (I'm referring to the word "pristine") I bet if you start looking for it, you'll notice differences in your vocabularies. Anyway...

Musicians don't just play music; they listen to it, too. Listening to music can give you ideas about sounds, rhythms, general vibes, emotions, drum fills, instrumentation, taste, melodies, chord progressions etc. The list is practically endless here. You can learn "phrases" or "words" by listening to others! Granted, just like any other language, having a similar context is very important for those ideas to translate well. If this "context" idea is interesting to you, I reference it more in my first blog post about Why The Recording Is Wrong, and this one about drum fills. But my point is: listening to music is an important thing to do if you want to grow in your musicianship.

I think some people can get too particular with which artists they listen to. For example, one may think, "I want to listen to only Christian artists because I don't want to listen to anything that hinders my faith or I don't want to support secular artists, or" - who knows why. Well guess what? You can appreciate art even if the artist isn't a Christian. I will teach you how right here, right now!

There are 4 questions to ask yourself to appreciate any art, not just music, from a Christian's perspective:

1) What is good/What do you like? 
2) What is the main message?
3) What does the Bible say about that message?
4) What do you need to be careful about?/What do you not care for?

The order is important. Instead of complaining about the artists religious beliefs first, let's look at what they did well and learn from that. Then you can compare what the song is about with what the Bible teaches. You might be surprised to find that there are plenty of songs by secular artists that agree with the Bible. Then at the very end, you can share your reservations.

Just because you're a Christian, doesn't mean you have to live in a Christian bubble where you listen to only Christian music. In fact, I'd like to argue that no art is Christian. It's really a matter of the heart behind it, kind of like language. Jon Foreman of Switchfoot has this to say about Christian music:

"None of these songs has been born again, and to that end there is no such thing as Christian music. No. Christ didn’t come and die for my songs, he came for me. Yes. My songs are a part of my life. But judging from scripture I can only conclude that our God is much more interested in how I treat the poor and the broken and the hungry than the personal pronouns I use when I sing. I am a believer. Many of these songs talk about this belief..."

Music is meant to be heard and experienced by listeners. So do musicians a favor and be a listener. You might even expand your musical vocabulary.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Behind the Shield: Drum Shields

Image
It's difficult to have a blog about drumming in church without talking about drum shields. In fact, I'd like to point out that churches are the only people discussing drum shields. If you've ever attended a concert at a venue that's not a church, you'll notice the drummer doesn't have a shield around him. Also, when I googled "drum shield" I found links that cater to churches and worship on the first page. There's nothing wrong with trying to control stage volume. I'm all for it, actually. But is a drum shield the right solution to control the volume of the drums? And what does a drum shield do anyway? For those of you who don't know, drum shields are those plexiglass walls that form a half circle around the perimeter the drums. The idea behind them is pretty simple. Without a drum shield, the drummer strikes the drum; the sound travels in the line of sight of the listener; the listener says, "Wow, that's loud." With t
Read more

Why "The Recording" Is Wrong

Image
Photo by  Reynier Carl Here’s what normally happens to me. Maybe you’ve experienced this too: You’ve got a couple days before Sunday, and your worship leader sends out the songs for the weekend. What should any good musician do? Listen to the recording. The recording is always right. We’re trying to sound like recording because the recording sounds good. If everyone just learned their instrument’s part on the recording, we’d sound awesome. You show up to rehearsal with your part learned to a “T” and what do you know? It doesn’t really sound like the recording. You think, “if only so and so learned their part we’d sound amazing (like the recording)” or maybe “if only we had another person to play this one part, then we’d sound legit (like the recording).” What if that wasn’t the solution? What if you’re the one to blame? What if “the recording” is wrong? Whoah. How can the recording be wrong? I mean, it sounds great after all! Well, here are 3 reasons why I think it’s wr
Read more

The Missing Link: Why

Image
Musicians, great and terrible, all play what they think sounds good on their instruments. But there's a difference between o.k. players and great players even though they're both doing what they think sounds good. Sure, skill, preparedness, technique, and experience all factor in that difference, but there's still something really small but really important missing. It just so happens to be something I have found to be incredibly difficult to explain. Simply put, it's why. We all ask ourselves, "What would sound good here?" but excellent musicians take it one step further and ask, "Why would this sound good?" Have you ever bothered to ask yourself why the thing you want to play sounds good? If not, you're in trouble. I love how there are so many types of music. You can get the same song to sound very different by playing it in a different style. With all the different genres of music out there, all of the different artists and songs, each of us a
Read more

The Gift Of Confidence

Image
There's a difference in my playing when I give myself permission to "be the drummer." That probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What I mean is allowing myself to be the guy who knows what he's doing back there. The guy that knows how to best play his parts. The guy who practiced with the band. The guy who knows where the song is going before it goes there. What is that? It's confidence and authority. I like to call it "being the drummer." So back to what I'm trying to say. There's a difference in my playing when I give myself permission to "be the drummer." I say "permission" because only I have the power to grant that permission to myself. Well why wouldn't I grant myself that permission? Isn't that an obvious thing to do? Well, I'll tell you why that doesn't happen sometimes. If I didn't learn my parts, I don't have my own permission to play like I confidently know them. If I don't know
Read more

My Stick Shtick: Navigating Stick Choice In a Sea Of Sticks

Image
Why on earth are there so many sticks to choose from? And what makes them all different? You want to know? - me too. This is a topic I have been hardcore exploring lately. Here is what I've learned. I think it's important to define different parts of the drumstick (as nerdy as that is) so that you will understand what I'm talking about when I reference it. So take a good look at this diagram of a drumstick. Yeah. That says butt. There are two main reasons why people buy certain types of sticks: 1. how it sounds 2. how it feels Let's dive into the factors that affect sound . Diameter/Thickness - Generally, the thicker the stick, the more power and projection it has. Length - Longer sticks have more torque or leverage (I'm not sure what the right science term is here) but think about it. The tip of a longer stick will travel faster with the same wrist motion of a shorter stick, thus, giving a louder sound (and a different rebound). Tip Shape - This is a big deal. I
Read more