Author Archives: Greg Scheer

Stupid Things

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Greg Scheer

Sometimes people ask me how I come up with ideas for songs. It can happen in a variety of ways: sometimes I’m working with a text that suggests a particular melody; other times a particular series of chords proves fertile … Continue reading →

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Psalm 2: The Restless Nations Rage

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Greg Scheer

I’ve collaborated with Naaman Wood before and together we produced one of my favorite Psalm settings. So as I pushed ahead on my goal of setting the whole Psalter to music, I decided to get in touch with him to … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Congregational Songs, Contests, Psalms | Leave a comment

Psalm 13: How Long?

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Greg Scheer

I continue to experiment with the intersection of Jazz and Psalmody. Will my experiments prove fruitful? Who knows. But I’ve learned that experimentation–play–is an important part of music growth, so I’ll continue to follow this path to see where it … Continue reading →

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Psalm 141: O Lord, I Call to You, Please Hear Me

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Greg Scheer

Any regular follower of this blog knows that I am on a quest to set every Psalm to music. A quick perusal of recent blog posts reveals that I’ve also been writing a series of jazz tunes for my trio … Continue reading →

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One More Christmas Song

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Greg Scheer

I have a confession to make: I hate Christmas music. There. I’ve said it. I don’t know if this hatred grew because I’m a liturgically-leaning worship director who dislikes the way the Season of Walmart displaces the Season of Advent. … Continue reading →

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Simple Lee

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Greg Scheer

This jazz tune was a long time in the making. It started its life as the 4 bar phrase that begins the song. I developed it into a full song and named it “Sprite Lee” because it was (wait for … Continue reading →

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Grace Notes

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Greg Scheer

When I was a kid, I had a 45* of the song “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” The song is written by Joe Zawinul and has been performed by everyone from Cannonball Adderly to Queen Latifah. I can’t find the exact version … Continue reading →

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Alexander and Hall

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Greg Scheer

My quest for the perfect jazz tune continues. “Alexander and Hall” began its life as a Stéphane Grappelli/Django Reinhardt style tune that was playing in my head while walking to work last week, but ended up being a chromatic bebop … Continue reading →

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Placidity

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Greg Scheer

I’ve been writing some pungeunt, complicated jazz tunes recently. It’s good to explore the edges, but it’s also good to write simply and from the heart. I named this one “Placidity” because of its serene nature. From the first seed … Continue reading →

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Chippy

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Greg Scheer

Last week I wrote bright, breezy jazz tune that I immediately named “Chippy” for its upbeat, chipper character. As I revised it throughout the week, I had the humorous idea of adding lyrics with as many iterations of the word … Continue reading →

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