Music lessons are over...Still stuck in neutral...
Well, my little foray into internet/skype music lessons ended after a brief three months. I guess I couldn't handle the butterflies in my stomach. Having a "teacher" really gives me the willies. I guess I didn't feel that way when I went back to college because I knew that there were other people in the room that were "nervous" like myself.
But having a one on one music lesson with someone who may or may not give you a good grade on your performance is kind of scary.
All I know is that I tried it and don't really like it.
It was worth the money I paid for it. The teacher was a young man who was very kind, understanding, talented and inspiring. I guess I was not ready for performance based instruction. But I did learn some things. Because I wanted to "impress" my teacher that I had been learning some things, I went to different YouTube videos and learned new songs so I could ask him how to play this or that chord or riff.
When I did that, I actually learned things from that effort. I learned to "breathe" when I sing. That has revolutionized my singing. No kidding.
The second thing was the finger exercises. EVen though I don't have time to do this now, I know when my job changes or I have more time, I'll be doing this. It helps me play with more desterity.
I also found a DVD set that has all the info on it that explains again and reinforces what I learned from him.
Lastly, I learned while watching this video , what kinds of things make for a good worship leader. I never thought that "trust" was important between a worship leader and his/her congregation. It really is. If you don't feel like you know your worship leader, it can hurt how much you press into God. Also, if the worship leader does not try to connect with the people, to know more about them than just "the people who sit in the chairs", there's not going to be much trust created. The worship leader can't just think, "Aren't you lucky that I'm here leading worship because I can sing and play the guitar/drums, etc.". That was profound and highlights a lot of problems with churches and their worship leaders today.
Check out Music Academy video for worship leaders. Good stuff.