Thanks so much for being fans. I love it when I connect with listeners! It gets kinda lonely in the studio late at night all by myself plugging away at a song concept. I look at it like writing a letter for a message in a bottle, throwing it into the internet sea, and hoping it washes up to someone willing to listen and hopefully get appreciated and enjoyed. Again, thanks you so much!
Reply
I have a life-long stake in music, and just like a person's life, it is a refection of the person making the music, not any one genre of music. As I have gone about categorizing and comparing my compositions, I first started out dividing the secular from the spiritual - 20% spiritual for a double up on tithe for the gift the Lord has given all of us in music, and my own abilities and blessings. As I go forward, I find this dividing line between secular and spiritual gets harder and harder to draw. It seems they are hopelessly intertwined just like it is in life. In the Reverbnation community, there are many different types of music. Each month, I get friend requests from musicians all over the world wanting me to become a fan. Two things guide me as I review their work, are they competent musicians and writer/arrangers and the message. I pull up the lyric sheet, check the bio, play some of their stuff, but always consider if they got holes outside the church waiting in their limousine with weapons and dope, or are they taking a Christian approach attitude and statement on life. Based on this cursory approach, I have friends in many different genres of music, including rap. Both heavy metal and rap get profiling first, but there are exceptions in both genres, and that is a fact. Here is a guideline straight out of the guide book Psalm 100
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
All Men Exhorted to Praise God.
A Psalm for [a]Thanksgiving.
100 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
3 Know that the Lord [b]Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and [c]not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with [d]thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.
Hey, I don't have all the answers. Many of my songs came to me in my sleep. Once, I actually hit the snooze button on my clock radio because the tune in my head was so clear. Another time, I was roofing a garage in Oak Cliff, Dallas Texas, when a parakeet flew onto a branch beside me. I was too busy except to say Hi to him, and went on working. That parakeet flew over to me, brushed my ear with his wing, landed back on his branch and whistled the chorus line to my "Life in the City". The repertoire was my therapy recovering from near death at the hands of Hepatitis C. When I started doing this, I could only go 10-15 minutes before I had to return to bed sick. I know the songs come from somewhere beyond this world through me. I have been DRIVEN to play for some 50 years now, and I'm trying to wrap up some long outstanding song projects while there is still time. I do not forget to give God all the credit - I could have just as easily been dead.
Reply
I have multiple music sites all over the internet. Many have song and profile import capability between sites. Eventually, the proprietary nature of different competing companies will fall hard to the real need for interface between web sites to the benefit of the cyber-consumer. Do MySpace, FaceBook, Google, Yahoo and a host of other companies really think they will forever hold the consumer at large hostage to their competition-oriented thinking? The REAL winner will be the forward thinking organization that breaks down this self-serving paradigm and initiates a cooperative cyber-community, allowing sharing of information between sites, the reduction of redundant stored information, and effective managing of cyberspace! As it is, coordination of and linking between sites is tenuous at best. The redundancies caused by repetitive inputs at multiple and redundant sites in the infancy of the internet is ridiculous! Engineering standards emerged as the need for interface between electronic equipment outgrew proprietary concerns of individual companies. What is the deal with internet sites?
Reply
Settling in to a long winter. All the stuff is in the pod calling my name. Eat, sleep and jam. Happy Holidays
Reply
Roger Dodge / Blog
Knocked out by the responses
Thanks so much for being fans. I love it when I connect with listeners! It gets kinda lonely in the studio late at night all by myself plugging away at a song concept. I look at it like writing a letter for a message in a bottle, throwing it into the internet sea, and hoping it washes up to someone willing to listen and hopefully get appreciated and enjoyed. Again, thanks you so much!
Reply
Music of the devil or not?
I have a life-long stake in music, and just like a person's life, it is a refection of the person making the music, not any one genre of music. As I have gone about categorizing and comparing my compositions, I first started out dividing the secular from the spiritual - 20% spiritual for a double up on tithe for the gift the Lord has given all of us in music, and my own abilities and blessings. As I go forward, I find this dividing line between secular and spiritual gets harder and harder to draw. It seems they are hopelessly intertwined just like it is in life. In the Reverbnation community, there are many different types of music. Each month, I get friend requests from musicians all over the world wanting me to become a fan. Two things guide me as I review their work, are they competent musicians and writer/arrangers and the message. I pull up the lyric sheet, check the bio, play some of their stuff, but always consider if they got holes outside the church waiting in their limousine with weapons and dope, or are they taking a Christian approach attitude and statement on life. Based on this cursory approach, I have friends in many different genres of music, including rap. Both heavy metal and rap get profiling first, but there are exceptions in both genres, and that is a fact. Here is a guideline straight out of the guide book Psalm 100 New American Standard Bible (NASB) All Men Exhorted to Praise God.
A Psalm for [a]Thanksgiving.
100 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. 3 Know that the Lord [b]Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and [c]not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with [d]thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5 For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations. Hey, I don't have all the answers. Many of my songs came to me in my sleep. Once, I actually hit the snooze button on my clock radio because the tune in my head was so clear. Another time, I was roofing a garage in Oak Cliff, Dallas Texas, when a parakeet flew onto a branch beside me. I was too busy except to say Hi to him, and went on working. That parakeet flew over to me, brushed my ear with his wing, landed back on his branch and whistled the chorus line to my "Life in the City". The repertoire was my therapy recovering from near death at the hands of Hepatitis C. When I started doing this, I could only go 10-15 minutes before I had to return to bed sick. I know the songs come from somewhere beyond this world through me. I have been DRIVEN to play for some 50 years now, and I'm trying to wrap up some long outstanding song projects while there is still time. I do not forget to give God all the credit - I could have just as easily been dead.
Reply
A thought for 2011
I have multiple music sites all over the internet. Many have song and profile import capability between sites. Eventually, the proprietary nature of different competing companies will fall hard to the real need for interface between web sites to the benefit of the cyber-consumer. Do MySpace, FaceBook, Google, Yahoo and a host of other companies really think they will forever hold the consumer at large hostage to their competition-oriented thinking? The REAL winner will be the forward thinking organization that breaks down this self-serving paradigm and initiates a cooperative cyber-community, allowing sharing of information between sites, the reduction of redundant stored information, and effective managing of cyberspace! As it is, coordination of and linking between sites is tenuous at best. The redundancies caused by repetitive inputs at multiple and redundant sites in the infancy of the internet is ridiculous! Engineering standards emerged as the need for interface between electronic equipment outgrew proprietary concerns of individual companies. What is the deal with internet sites?
Reply
Ready for the Holidays
Settling in to a long winter. All the stuff is in the pod calling my name. Eat, sleep and jam. Happy Holidays
Reply