Turn Your Testimony Into Song

Writing an arrangement for strings and piano is always a great opportunity to embellish or vary the original in a unique way. I love doing this in several ways. And in this email, I'll show you 2 of them. Let's take a look at my arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" for violin and piano. First is melodic variation. Nothing overwhelmingly different or obscuring the original tune. Something that hopefully enhances it... gives it new life. For example, play through the opening tune...

Voice & Piano? Or... Violin/Viola/Cello & Piano? Which one wins? The truth is, it's not a fair comparison. Voices and strings are all wonderful instruments. They simply have some tools that the others don't. But it's funny. Every time I was in a lesson with one of the string players I accompanied in college, their teacher would constantly encourage them to play as if they were singing. And many times I've heard voice teachers and choral conductors trying to get their students to have more...

It's one thing to put a forte marking in the music of your violinist when writing for strings and piano. But there are certain notes on the violin that, without even trying, immediately make the violin sound MUCH louder... sometimes even twice as loud. The same is true for the viola and cello. To illustrate this, consider that many of the big famous violin concertos that the great violinists play are in the key of D major or D minor (Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Korngold, Stravinsky, Beethoven, 2 of...

I'm sure you've NEVER had any squabbles or disagreements or... heaven forbid... actual arguments in your marriage. Right? Haha! Well, in our nearly 23 years of marriage (it'll be 23 years on May 16th), we MAY have had a FEW squabbles. Thank goodness for this musical fix that has helped us cross several moments of impasse over the years. My wife was laughing her head off, telling our 12-year-old about an early squabble we had just months after our marriage. After our marriage in 2003, we went...

The Strings & Piano Hymn Arrangement Workshop is now open. We will spend 12 weeks together. You'll walk in with a blank page and walk out 12 weeks later with a finished arrangement you can play (or have someone else play) in Sacrament Meeting. This workshop will not focus on harmony. I'm providing a stack of hymn reharmonizations so you can focus on learning the ins and outs of excellent string and piano writing. Writing for strings is SO much fun. I'm a little biased, of course, having...

I've been having so much fun planning the next round of workshops here in the Latter-Day Musiversity. Here's what's on the docket. As per usual, I will continue offering Primary Songwriting Workshops, though, these are kind of on their own track and not really attached to the typical 3-semester routine I usually follow. But for this spring and summer, I will host 2-and-a-half workshops. The first is a "Chromatic Voice-Leading Workshop." We are just finishing up a live Diatonic Voice-Leading...

Today is the last day to sign up for the next Christmas Cantata Workshop. As you consider whether to join or not... ...allow me to share what is easily my BEST tip for writing cantatas. It's a tip that has nothing to do with music. Yet it makes every musical decision better. If it seems too obvious or simple, then perhaps you don't yet fully realize the great potential of what a cantata can be and what it can do. The whole point of a cantata is to go deep into 1 specific gospel topic. Instead...

There's an idea that a cantata MUST have a choir in it to be any good. And that's totally false. Some of Bach's most beautiful cantatas don't have a choir at all. Two of my cantatas don't have a choir, and my collaborators said they were some of my best pieces. The thing is, not everyone has a choir. Some wards just don't. Some have a good set of women. Some have a good set of men. Occasionally, you might get lucky and get lots of both. But none of these challenges mean you can't write a...

I'm still bursting with pride in my students, and Musiversity "Inner Circle" member Claire Nabrotzky and Aleena Wadsworth after our live Easter Cantata Showcase last night. These 2 excellent composers spent a challenging 16 weeks working closely with me to complete their new cantatas. And they both did an amazing job, as we saw firsthand last night! I mean, just wait until you hear the gorgeous women's choir rendition of Claire's "My Peace I Give Unto You," from John 14:27. The soothing...

This rarely taught method... ...(used extensively by J.S. Bach in his hundreds of masterful church cantatas)... ...determines whether your cantata works or falls apart at the seams. The great thing about this rarely taught method is... ...it doesn't require any fancy-shmancy harmony, modulations, counterpoint, or other musical displays of wizardry. In fact, it really doesn't have much to do with music at all. What is this rarely taught method? Well, I discovered it through a somewhat...