Random Catch-Up Time

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So, yeah… it’s been a while since I last posted on here, but that’s just to be expected with me, I suppose. I hope all of you are doing well! Thought I’d do a bit of catching you up with Kristie’s world as of late.

I recently wrapped up my latest project, which I entitled The 12 Days of Kristie (emulating the 13 project), where I did a cover of a different Christmas song for the 12 days leading up to Christmas Day. Here’s the playlist: (the next video plays after you finish the one you’re on.)

As for The 13 Project’s EP… I honestly haven’t thought about it until right now. I need to listen to the mixes I have before I start back school and determine if any changes need to be made. Sorry that I’m so tardy on that.

Christmas was good this year! It’s always good to hang out with the family for a couple of days and eat some good food. My parents got me a Keurig coffee maker for when I move off to Mobile next year, so I was pretty excited about that! I also got some nice boots, an iPhone 4s (an upgrade from an old Blackberry, so I was pretty stoked!), and the Insanity workout. That’s right.. Insanity. From everything I’ve heard, this workout is sure to kick my butt, but I want to to do it because yes, I want to lose some weight, but mostly because I want to prove to myself that I can commit to something that’s tough and challenging and stick with it. I have an issue with staying committed to things (need I remind you of The 13 Project EP? haha), so I want to do this for the mental challenge of it all. We’ll see how it turns out.

Here’s some news I haven’t posted on here yet: I’m in a musical! That’s right! Jones is doing a production of Smoke on the Mountain this Spring, and I’ve been cast as Vera Sanders, the mother of the family. The whole musical takes place in an old Baptist church in the 1940s/1950s ish time period. The Sanders family has come to the church to sing gospel songs, so we’ll be singing a lot of old hymns and what not and playing our own instruments as we’re able. So far, I’m to play the mandolin on quite a few and the ukelele on one. Haha. I’m kinda nervous because this will be my first real musical to be a part of, but I know I’m gonna have good, solid direction on everything, so I’m in good hands.

Because of that, I’m sure my posts on here and YouTube will probably be less than they have been. (If you’re not subscribed to my channel on YouTube, TheLittleRedDuck, you should really change that.)

Today, my parents (as a late Christmas gift) took my cello to MS Music to see if it could be repaired! (In case I never told you guys, my cello fell a few months back and broke, so I haven’t been able to play it for a while.) Turns out that it can! Super excited about that. I’ll be giving Emily Hope Price a run for her money soon. ;)

This coming up Sunday will be my last Sunday at Pathway Community Church. I feel like school is becoming more and more time consuming, and even while I know that my time at Pathway hasn’t been in vain, and that ultimately I do want to do something with church music, right now I need to focus my energies on my school studies. I felt like my ministry at Pathway was being diminished by how much time I had to commit to school, and I knew with adding 3 more classes and nightly rehearsals to my next semester, I just needed to rest. So, I’ll be exiting a season tomorrow to enter into another. The Lord definitely used my time there to teach me things about leading worship and working with others. I look forward to the next opportunity I have to be a part of a worship team.

I suppose that’s enough randomness for today! Just wanted to catch up so that if I wanted to do a proper blog post before I returned to school, then I would have that option. Have a beautiful day!

“Oh, Your Grace”

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Hello, there, world! I just recently wrote a new little didly based off of the verse 2 Corinthians 12:9. I play this in an alternate tuning, so the sound is a little different from your typical modern-day worship song/chorus/what have you. Either way, I enjoy this one, so I thought I’d share it with you guys. Thanks for dropping by!

Practice Drives Performance

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This little phrase has recently invaded my tiny little brain. Akin to the ever so famous (yet slightly inaccurate) “practice makes perfect,” and its [more accurate] relative “practice makes permanent,” I began to think about just how much practice really affects performance earlier this week.

Being that I’m studying music, of course the obvious meaning of this phrase was immediately applied to that of my musical instruments. The way in which I practice voice, guitar, or piano determines exactly how my performance of each instrument will be. For example, if I laze around all day and procrastinate, never managing to get in a good practice, then my performance of the instrument will suffer. Yet, if I put forth my best effort and practice with the intent of growth, then my performance will be much different from the time that I failed to practice.

I know it seems like an obvious concept, but I started to realize that practice doesn’t merely just affect performance; it drives it. Why the word change? Well the word affect (with an “a” at the beginning instead of an “e,” making it a verb instead of a noun) means, “have an effect on; make difference to,” while the word drive means, “propel or carry along by force in a specified motion.” (Thank you, New Oxford American Dictionary app for those definitions.) While it is true that practice definitely has an effect on and absolutely makes a difference to performance, I can’t help but feel like it does more than that. Without practice, performance doesn’t exist. At least, not good performance. Now granted, in the field of music I know there are some people who have so much talent that it seems they don’t have to practice anything while their performance can seem flawless. But trust me; good performance is not and cannot be based solely on talent. Practice produces a discipline that otherwise remains nonexistent. The reason I think that the word “drive” more accurately describes the role of practice to performance is basically because practice controls where performance goes. Let’s look at a literal example. Say, you’re 8 and you can’t drive; your parents have to take you everywhere you need to be. In order for you to get to school and accomplish what you need accomplish, you must have someone to drive you to school. Same principle. In order for you to get where you need/want to be in your performance, you have to have practice drive you there.

Make sense?

I’m sure your wondering why I’m going into this huge spill over practicing musical instruments, right? I mean, yeah. If you want to improve, you need to practice. Duh. Well, the truth is, while this concept definitely applies to music, it applies to every aspect of our lives. Spiritually. Emotionally. Physically. Mentally. You name it. As mentioned in my previous blog entry, I’ve recently started Couch to 5k again, this time with full intention of completing it. My goal for my “performance” is to be able to run a 5k in 9 weeks. In order to get to that point, I’ve had to practice running. (In this case, practice is more commonly referred to as training, but it’s the same concept.) My body isn’t used to running, even after four weeks of it. But choosing to wake up earlier to go running drives my performance to where it needs to be, each time getting closer and closer.

Now, I realize that this can make it seem like performance is a point to be reached, which to an extent is true. However, once you reach your goal of performance, if you cease to continue in practicing, there is no way your performance can maintain and stay where you want it to be. Practice is a continual driving force of performance. In other words, performance never outgrows the need for practice.

Okay, so that’s music and sports. What’s the big deal?

I personally think it’s beautiful how things in the physical nature can teach us truths about the spiritual nature. I think that this whole principle of practice driving performance is very applicable to our spiritual lives.

This is the heart of what I’m trying to say:

Practicing the presence of God drives the performance of our daily lives.

Brother Lawrence wrote a book entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. Admittedly, I haven’t read this book (though I very much want to), but ever since hearing its title, I’ve often wondered what it means to practice the presence of God. I can’t help but think that it has to mean being very intentional and aware of how we live our daily lives, being fully aware of God’s presence and character at all times, in all circumstances, in all seasons. If there’s anything I’ve learned lately, it’s that if I’m not practicing Godliness and everything that goes along with that–prayer, devotion to the word, obedience to God, etc.,–then my performance as a follower of Jesus Christ tremendously suffers. Not to say it’s a routine to practice (pray, read Bible, etc), but really genuinely, earnestly seeking and pressing into God; really practicing faith and being intentional about growing as a follower of Christ.

That being said, I want to challenge and encourage you to really dig and find what it means to practice the presence of God. What does that look like for you? For the church? How does it affect how you live your life?

Don’t take my word for it; learn it and own it for yourself.

May your hunger for Him be ever-increasing.

EP Status, School, & Running

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Hi, there! It’s been a while since you and I chatted, so I thought it might be time to change that.

I’m sure some of you are wondering what’s going on with the EP for The 13 Project, yes? Well, most of the recording has been done, and I’m basically to the point where I listen to mixes until I find the sound I’m looking for. I can’t give you an exact date on when it will be finished–and in fact, I had planned on going all out and having a CD cover with album art made, but being that I don’t know anything about this “recording an EP/making CD’s” world yet, everything I’ve googled has been quite expensive. At least for a po’ college kid who don’t make no money. So, I’m not too sure how that’s gonna turn out. We’ll see, though.

School is back in full swing! (Apart from our two day outage from hurricane Isaac earlier this week.) This means my time is now consumed with Music Theory & Ear Training homework, practicing, practicing, and…oh, yes–practicing! As opposed to my previous semesters of being a music major emphasizing in only voice, I am now doubling my emphasis in both voice and guitar. I took non-major guitar lessons last semester and decided I would just go on and tackle being a double major. I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. While I’m taking voice and guitar lessons, I’m also taking piano lessons (every music major is required to take piano), and I’m actually glad that being a music major has forced me to take piano. Growing up I thought it would be neat to play, but I didn’t have the discipline to make myself learn. At Jones, I had no choice. Not that I’m a pianist, by any means, but I’m more familiar with the keyboard and how it works now. And that’s very helpful. Maybe one day I’ll be able to tear it up. Haha.

I’ve recently started Couch to 5k for the umpteenth time, but this time it’s different. No, really. All the other times I’ve tried to complete this program, I attempted to do it on the treadmill. And I hated it. But now, I’ve been running outside on some backroads and it’s been awesome. I get up early enough to see the sun rise and feel the cool temperatures before the day turns into a hot, MS day. What’s surprising is that I’ve slowly started to realize that I enjoy it. And I know that once I get in shape and my body gets accustomed to running, it will be even better.

Well, I can’t really think of much else to say; sorry that my life is so boring. Nevertheless, thanks for stopping by!

P.S. I’m planning on posting “For I Know” (the Jeremiah 29:11 song) sometime this weekend on YouTube. I know a lot of you have been wanting a way to listen to the song, so I’ve decided it’s high time that that be done. Keep your eyes peeled! You may even want to subscribe to my YouTube channel, TheLittleRedDuck! See you soon!

Goodbye Has Come (#13)

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Well, I’ve gone and finished The 13 Project!!! I’m kind of excited to be done with it because I was pretty much out of song ideas and had no idea where to go next. However, I think I’m more excited about the fact that I actually completed the project! I set a goal (which is something I’m AWESOME at doing) and accomplished it (which is something I’m HORRIBLE at doing). So, even though some of the songs were kind of ridiculous and silly, I still count The 13 Project as a success.

To those of you who sent me ideas – thank you so much! I know I didn’t use all of them…and I honestly feel bad for asking you for your ideas and not using them…but at the same time, I’ve learned that the way my writing process works, I can hardly ever know what direction a song is gonna end up going. That probably isn’t any consolation to you whatsoever, but there it is. Maybe I’ll be able to use those ideas later on; perhaps their time is yet to come.

So, what’s number 13 like? Why don’t you have a listen:

It’s true. I’ve basically only listened to Celtic music for the past week. Somehow, while on stumbleupon.com, I came across an Irish playlist and realized that I was completely smitten. With my new found smittenidity (not a real word, surprisingly enough), I decided that I wanted #13 to have a little Celtic flare. I thought this would be good because: A) I was feeling pressure (maybe just from myself) to make #13 be something really good and something I was genuinely proud of, and B) in Celtic music, guitars are usually (at least from what little listening experience I’ve had) in alternate tunings from the standard EADGBE, and by having my guitar in a different tuning, I’d be able to play around with new things and get out of the rut I was in with standard tuning. I googled “popular Celtic guitar tunings” (because that’s what you do when you don’t know the answer to something, right?) and DADGAD popped up, so I watched a YouTube video showing some different chords, so I’d have a little idea of what I was doing, but then I went on my own from there and created a very Laura Marling-esque sounding song which I can honestly say is, I believe, my favorite of all The 13 Project.

Not knowing what the last song should be about, I just figured I’d go with a “goodbye” theme. Now I have a song to end my shows with! Haha. But I thought the guitar sounded sentimental – maybe a mixture of melancholy and satisfaction – which to me fit how the “goodbye” of The 13 Project felt. Yet, I wanted to write the song in a way that could be interpreted as being spoken between two people, so I hope I accomplished that. I believe I have. I also hope that you’ve enjoyed it. Not just this song, but the whole project. It’s been really good for me; I learned a lot, and I gained 13 more songs to my “Original” repertoire.

Towards the end of this month (August), I’ll be recording a small EP of the most popular songs of The 13 Project. It won’t be anything too fancy; just me with my guitar (or whatever instrument the song requires) and my brother-in-law on the percussion (now, that’s actually something to get really excited about; he’s awesome). Just a little acoustic something for you guys to have, since this was a public endeavor and you were involved with it. Like I said in the video, I need you to send me the names/numbers of your favorite songs so I’ll know which ones to include on The 13 Project!! Time is limited! You have one week!!!

See you soon!

Like You (#12) – A Simple Tune

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Number twelve of the The 13 Project came about from just wanting to sing to the Lord. I don’t know if you’ve ever had those moments where there was something you wanting to sing rather than just say, but when I wrote this little song, that’s where my heart was. I want to be more like Christ; I want to resemble the God in whose image I am made. In speech, life, love, faith, and purity, I want to be an accurate representation of Christ. And thus, #12 was born.

I just went with a super simple chord progression that most worship songs execute: G, D/F#, Em, C (but transpose that to A since my capo is on the 2nd fret). My reason for doing this was that my main focus was on the words, and as a worship song, that’s where the main focus should be. Though it may not be the most interesting and challenging musical composition that The 13 Project has produced, I have to say it’s a song that I enjoy and want to continue singing/playing.

“June (#11)” is here!

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So, I finally managed to write #11 of The 13 Project. While I loved being in Canada and wish I was still there, it did create an excuse for me to procrastinate writing for The 13 Project. And the fact that I was sick the week after I got back didn’t help either. But alas, I’ve done it, and my writing skills are pretty rusty, so I don’t think it’s the best work I’ve ever done, but it’s something. I started off trying to write a love song, but it ended up turning into an ode to summer, almost. There’s more to say, but I think I cover it all in the video and then some. This is the longest video I’ve uploaded to YouTube as of yet, but that’s because I tell you lots of info at the end.

Note: I included annotations in the video and published them and everything, but for some reason, they’re not showing up in the video, at least not on YouTube. I’m not sure how to fix it, but if you watch the video on YouTube, I’ve included all the links I mention in the description box below the video.

I’m hoping to write #12 later on this week and finish with #13 next week before school starts. It’s kinda weird thinking that this is almost over. I have to say, though, I’m grateful for this project. None of these songs would have been written had it not been for this project. Some are silly and ridiculous, but some I can honestly say I’m proud of. See you soon with #12!