The Musical Diary of Greg Scheer – Page 44 – This is, literally, my musical diary–notes fresh from my pen and recorded in a few hours. You can find my finished works elsewhere; here, it's all about capturing the moment!

Over Oceans

It’s been far too long since I’ve updated my blog. The sad fact is that I’ve been busy working rather than writing music. (The indignities I suffer in order to feed my family!)

I shouldn’t complain too much. Part of my work was two weeks in Indonesia. En route to Indonesia, a little ditty popped into my head, so I opened up my computer, fired up Logic Pro, and entered it using the laptop’s keyboard. I forgot about it until a few days ago when I was archiving old files. A little gussying up and–voila!–a radiant little bon bon of electronica I call “Over Oceans.”

Arrangement Church

What Wondrous Love, quartet

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date April 17, 2015
1 Comment on What Wondrous Love, quartet

Update 3/12/22: Sheet music for this arrangement is now available at gregscheer.com.

Clint Harris died this week. I didn’t know him well, but everyone seems to agree he was a man who lived fully and loved deeply.

As often as I can, I compose a little something for church member funerals. In this case, the family asked that at some point in the service I sing and play my guitar, and I thought it would be a nice touch to round out the guitar with the string players who would be at the service.

I returned to one of my favorite songs, “What Wondrous Love.” I’ve arranged it before, but keep returning to it, perhaps because it’s one of those songs that is so elusively beautiful that I hope the next time I’ll get it right. It’s also perfect for a funeral, because it begins with the story of redemption and ends in eternity.

This was recorded as people walked in before the service, so it’s quite noisy.

Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Psalm 133: Behold the Goodness

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date April 14, 2015
3 Comments on Psalm 133: Behold the Goodness

In Psalms for All Seasons is a setting of Psalm 133 (Behold the Goodness of Our Lord, PfAS 133A) that seemed just right for the Guitarchestra this past Sunday. The melody, DETROIT, comes from the Kentucky Harmony hymnal. Like a lot of early American hymn tunes, it has a rugged beauty that just won’t let you go. These tunes often benefit from a more rustic arrangement, rather than the smooth voice leading you find in hymnals, so I provided one.

Here you can see me rehearsing the song this past Sunday, shadowed by the youngest member of the Guitarchestra, James.

Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live

Kimbrough: In You, Lord, I Refuge Take

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date April 13, 2015
No Comments on Kimbrough: In You, Lord, I Refuge Take

Wendell Kimbrough has appeared in this blog before. Indeed, this song has appeared previously. But for this Palm Sunday I wrote a choral part for his setting of Psalm 31 that I thought deserved a new entry. As you’ll hear on the recording the flute introduces the melody and plays a tag after each verse. Then on verse 3, the flute plays a descant on top of the singing. In verse 4, everyone cuts out but the congregational melody and an a cappella choir accompaniment. It’s really a nice effect, if I don’t say so myself.

The thing I like about arrangements like this is that they’re pretty simple, with just two pages of music, but they have a lot of impact on how you hear the song.

Extra bonus recording: Me singing Sydney “Lord of the Dance” Carter’s song “Bitter Was the Night.”

Uncategorized

O Sacred Head, duet

Update 3/22/22: Sheet music for this arrangement is now available at gregscheer.com.

It’s time to catch up on recordings from Holy Week. Let’s start with “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded,” the quintessential Passion hymn. Knowing that I’d have my go-to flutist Kristen Zoetewey playing on Palm Sunday–and never being one to miss the opportunity to gild the lily–I decided to write a fancy introduction for the hymn. Once I got into it, I realized that I could add a second part, and that my go-to recorder player (recordist?) Cal Stapert would be there to play it.

Voila! A fancy pants intro for a classic hymn. Don’t zone out–the duet comes back as a descant on verse 3.

Art Music Demos Rock and/or Roll

Deep Calls to Deep

greg_precision After Easter, I often feel the need to shun my to do list, taking a little time for renewal and creation. (Hence the term, “recreation.”) This Eastertide it took the form of an idea for bass that came to me last week.

I had just gotten some work done on my trusty Fender Precision bass down at North Coast Guitar Co, and it was feeling great. That always leads to new musical ideas. The ideas kept swirling around in my head and finally came to full fruition this afternoon in the form of “Deep Calls to Deep.”

Because the whole recording is just bass, my boys and I were trying to think of good names for the song. “All About the Bass” is already taken. “Big Bottom”–also taken. I decided to take the high road with a phrase pulled from Psalm 42.

Demos Jazz

Blue Step (with guest soloist Stephen Brown)

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date March 22, 2015
No Comments on Blue Step (with guest soloist Stephen Brown)

Stephen Brown and I have been collaborating for decades, so I was really pleased that he added a sax solo to my recent song, “Blue Step.” Now that we’ve got the DropBox sharing kinks mostly worked out, I hope you’ll hear more collaborations in the future.

(Stephen also showed me how the HTML code for the snazzy audio player above. It turns out that only neanderthals use plain old links anymore.)

Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Finale demo

O Sacred Head, descants

Update 3/22/22: Sheet music for these descants is now available at gregscheer.com.

I can’t let a Holy Week go by without writing a little something, right? Here is a double descant that we’ll use as the intro and over the third verse of “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” on Palm Sunday: MP3.

“Didn’t Bach already write that?” You ask. Why, yes, he did. But he wrote it over a different harmonization, and I just didn’t feel I could ask my pianist to learn one more thing for that service. (She already has 21 songs to learn. Ouch!) But my flutist is always eager for a challenge, so I figured I’d give her one.

It should be noted that this is pretty flexible. A flute and tenor recorder can play it as written, or two violins could play it, or the flute could play the top part without the recorder, or one instrument could start on the second part on the second to last verse and finish with the top part on the last verse, or…

Feel free to send me recordings so I can hear what you came up with.

Art Music Demos

Minimoodles

Minimoodles–for minimalist doodles–is a quickly conceived name for a quickly created recording of layered guitar riffs. Nothing earth shattering. On the other hand, it led to a good discussion of minimalism with my sons and a sampling of the first Knee Play of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach. That’s got to be worth something.

Listen to Minimoodles.

Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live Retuned hymn

Kimbrough: Mighty God

I don’t usually post other people’s music, but I’ll make an exception here. Actually, I had a small hand in this, as it’s a collaboration of Wendell Kimbrough (http://wendellk.com/), Ludwig van Beethoven (no website), and me (www.gregscheer.com).

Wendell used the “Ode to Joy” melody from the 9th symphony and wrote words based on the post-communion prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. Then he added an “Amen” that is simple, but just right. My only role was to provide the verse chords from a previous “Ode to Joy” arrangement. Role up all the ingredients into one, and you have a tasty musical burrito served fresh by the Guitarchestra: Mighty God, We Thank and Praise You, MP3.