FredMcKinnon.Com

Old and New.

Ancient and Contemporary.

Physical and Digital.

I live with both and I’m torn in between them.

The image I’ve chosen for this blog entry is a row of physical books next to the Amazon Kindle.  Physical, printed books versus a digital reader.  A book in a tablet.

When the new ESV Study Bible came out a few years ago I raced off to Books-A-Million and paid retail for that big hardback copy.  I rarely touch it.  I have countless other Bibles – some in leather, some hard, some old, some new.  Yet, the majority of my Bible reading is done on YouVersion.Com or via my smartphone.

I have a handful of journals, too … moleskins, hallmark journals … and then I have this blog.  Then, I have the capability to journal in a separate program where I don’t want things published … or even seen.  It’s like my private diary.

There’s a part of me that wants to sit down with a real, physical Bible, and journal with a pen on a piece of paper.  Something tangible – that I can tough .. pass down to my kids.  But I love the mobility of the digital.  I can search my blog for key words or phrases.  I can’t do that to a journal.

And what about those private thoughts?  The ones I’m afraid someone will read if I write them down.  How do I manage those?

Honestly … I’m torn.
What about you?

Brenton Brown’s new album, “Our God Is Near” just hit the market …

And I like it … A LOT.

I just published my review of the album over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com … so go check it out and let us know your thoughts if you’ve heard the record!

Great job, Brenton!

Hey Gang,

Monday I posted on our “Worship Confessional” video that we’d introduced the new song by Chris Tomlin, Nathan and Christy Nockels & Company from the Passion 2011 CD, “All My Fountains”.

Although I wasn’t there for the live recording of Passion 2011, I was present at the “Lift” event last month and experienced this song for the first time and loved it.

Our debut of this song at SSCC was extremely well-received.  I’d like to share the click-track and loop that I made for this song with you.  Enjoy!

Details:
Our Arrangement in Key of D.

*acapella Chorus intro – then start loop
*Segue, VS1, Chorus, Segue, VS2, Chorus, Segue, Bridge (4x), Chorus, Acapella Chorus, Tag

Instruments we used “LIVE” that are NOT on the click:  Acoustic (open tuned to D), 2nd Acoustic, Mandolin and Hammer Dulcimer, Bass, and Live Drums.

Instruments in the Loop:
Click
Spoken Guide
Stylus RMX Loops
Tambourine Loops
Clap Track
Organ Track
Piano Pad Guide Track

CLICK and SPOKEN GUIDE:  Panned Left
INSTRUMENTS:  Panned Right

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download the loop.

If you use it, let me know how you like it!

I seem to have fallen off the band wagon (no pun intended) on faithfully posting our “Sunday Setlists” worship recaps here.  This is the first blog I’ve even posted in a couple of weeks.  All together now … “SLACKER”.   Thanks, I needed that.

So this past Sunday was a blast at SSCC.  I was able to teach the new Passion 2011 tune “All My Fountains” to our congregation and that’s exactly what we did … “teach” it.  I took about 4 minutes in the middle of the service to rehearse the melody, alto, and tenor parts with the congregation.  They owned it.  I was reminded how actually “teaching” a song … not just “performing it” could make a huge difference in corporate participation.

Russ Hutto joined me this week so he and his wife Lydia joined me in between services for a quick “worship confessional” video recap.  Here ya go – our worship recap, posted as a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Hey Gang,

It’s been quite a while since I posted a recap of our worship services at SSCC.  Every week I get emails, phone calls, and messages about the songs so I thought it would be good to resume participation in posting the recaps again.

Recap for Sunday, March 6, 2011

I had a smaller vocal group this Sunday – myself, Russ Hutto, and Katie Fendig.  Katie naturally hears the tenor part so Russ and I found that we’d be singing some alto … or we’d just settle for 2-parts.  I must say in most cases, we settled for 2-parts and it wasn’t really settling – it was nice to just have that kind of harmony for a change.  I’m not a guy who always wants 3-parts anyway but it still took some getting used to.  Our band included myself on keys, Russ on acoustic, Derek on electric, Bucky on bass, and Mike on drums.

Walk-In Song:
Hosanna (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown) – one of our church favorites

I transitioned directly into a quick welcome and a Scripture reading from Psalms to setup “Better is One Day”.  Russ led this with his own, rocked out arrangement and it was a blast.  We haven’t used that song in a long time and it was well-received.

After announcements we had a 2-song set that included:
“Rain Down” (David Crowder) which segued directly into “Our God” (Tomlin)

For our closer, we did the Hillsong “Hosanna”.

And that’s a wrap for us.  I’m posting this in participation with the bigger “Sunday Setlists” event posted each week at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.