Tech Vs. Heart in Music

As many of you know, I am a music director at a church- it's one of my passions to create high quality worship music on a weekly basis, and after 5 years of doing it every week, I've settled into a semi-predictable routine.

On the way to church this morning, I was listening to the music for today's service, analyzing the rhythms and roadmap one last time.

After being engrossed in listening for 15 minutes, I looked over to the passenger seat and noticed that my wife was crying and singing along to the music. I hadn't even thought about what the words were saying. I was too busy worrying about tempo changes, chord voicings and chorus reps. I'd completely missed the whole reason I was working on this music to begin with- I had missed the heart of the music.

As musicians, we naturally tend to focus on the technique and mechanics of music rather than the heart. My father, an untrained musician, was worried that I might lose the heart of music if I learned too much theory. I completely understand his concerns- it's very easy to let the theory take over, reducing music to a series of cold calculations- unless we constantly stay focused on what inspired us to get into music in the first place.

No matter what kind of music you like, make sure that you never lose sight of why we do this- to move not only people's minds, but also their hearts.