The Musical Diary of Greg ScheerMy muse can be strange. This evening I was hanging out on the porch with the boys doodling with a little jazz tune on my guitar when Simon told me about our bunny Dottie doing a little dance. That reminded me of the title of one of Dav Pilkey’s alter ego’s books: Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist, by Sue Denim. From there the mash up of the two ideas began, and a charming (if I don’t say so myself) new song song was born: Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist.
For 20 years now I’ve been writing and recording music for special occasions, from classical music commissions to marches to theme songs. For 5 years I’ve been entering contests, from hymns to fight songs to remixes. I’ve won enough of these contests that it one day occurred to me: “Hey, maybe I could turn the ‘made to order’ side of my composing into a lucrative side career.” So I assembled a variety of songs, compositions and arrangements into 3 minute, whirlwind tour of Greg, called the demo reel. You can read a description of what you’re hearing in this PDF. Of course, if you’re interested in hearing the full cuts of any these brief snippets, just let me know. More importantly, if you know anyone who works in the world of commercial or production music, tell them I’m hanging out my shingle and I’m ready to work. Do they need a jingle, arrangement or theme music? I’m their guy.
Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.
If Casey Kasem were to do a count down of the Psalms, Psalm 52 would not be in the Top 40.
But Casey Kasem didn’t create the lectionary or write the Psalms. So when Psalm 52 appeared as the assigned Psalm for Sunday, July 18, 2010 in the lectionary, I felt a responsibility to study this difficult little chunk of God’s Word and present it in the best possible light to my congregation. The problem is that a casual reading of the text highlights a “holier than thou” vibe which is a turn off in our culture (v3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth) which is quickly followed by another cultural taboo–wishing ill on others: v5 God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Yikes.
The gulf between the Psalmist’s culture and ours is pretty wide, but if we dig a bit deeper arrive at some common ground. Psalm 52 works out of a basic belief that there is a good way to live and a bad way to live. Yes, you can get ahead using deceit, treachery and lies. (Come on, we’ve all been the recipients or perpetrators of this approach.) But in the end, our riches will provide no refuge in the face of death. So, the Psalmist says, it is better to live a life of trust in God’s steadfast love.
But enough preaching! The song started its life as an email to two friends asking if they knew of any dynamite settings of Psalm 52. Doug Gay wrote back in short order with his own metrical version of the Psalm. As the clock kept ticking I didn’t feel like I had any winners from my hymnal collection, so I sat down with Doug’s text at the piano. A new tune slowly emerged, and a new version of his text emerged as well. I don’t know that I’m ready to declare it finished yet, but we sang it in church on Sunday and it worked pretty well.
Take a listen to the MP3 from the service, or have a look at the PDF of the music (see link above). Feel free to leave your suggestions for improvements.
Just a few quick links to some videos. The first is a small group of Brazilian pastors teaching “Povo do senhor,” which, for those of you who don’t speak Portuguese is a translation of my song “People of the Lord.” The second is the same song sung by the good people of the Catedral Evangélica de São Paulo. And finally, the fugato that I told you about a few weeks ago is now online. Visit the WCRC Vimeo site, and at 2:30 into the June 23 morning worship service video , you’ll hear the strings playing my fugal introduction to the tune “Shout to the North.”
In a previous post, I complained (okay, whined) about being a runner-up and/or outright loser. But it seems my luck has changed.
This week I received word that I won the Top Golf theme song contest with my irritatingly catchy “Bring It On!” Even as I was still gloating about that big win, contemplating how many games $100 will buy at the Top Golf entertainment center in Chicago, and eating free pizza from my Google Me winnings, I found out that I came in fifth place in the Celldweller remix contest. Normally I would consider fifth place a beyond-consolation prize, but in this case I was pretty pleased. There were 80 entries and I was pretty far out of my stylistic comfort zone, so fifth place is, er, the best it’s gonna get. Thanks to everyone who took the time to go to the FiXT Remix website to vote for my song. I’ll share the prize in the form of a little extra distortion in my next recording, using the Ohmicide:Melohman distortion plugin I won as a prize.
My friend Dave Stuntz of Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC is planning to use my Psalm 127 song “Rest in the Lord” this Sunday and asked if I had a demo he could play his musicians. Indeed, I did not. I have a video of me yacking about the song in a Calvin new song chapel, and though I do play the song at the end of the video, it’s not something I would put my own musicians through, never mind Dave’s musicians.
So I decided to take the opportunity to record a quick demo of the song. It was going to be strictly a one-take affair, but you know how it goes: a cord crackles, it feels empty without the bass, boy it could really use a shaker and some background vocals…
This is also a good opportunity to update the music. I’ve made a few small changes recently, so if you have an older version of the song destroy it without delay and download the new new PDFs of the leadsheet or vocal/piano score.
Then we’ll wait for a report from Dave about how it went, and maybe he’ll even be willing to share a recording from their service.
I’m helping with worship at the WCRC event in G.R.usalem this week. On Wednesday morning there’s a band and a string quintet leading the worship service. I thought it would be nice to put them together at some point in the service. After all, the theme of the conference is “unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.” Shouldn’t that include praise bands and string quintets joining together in sweet harmony?
So I wrote an intro for the Delirious song “Shout to the North” that bats the main theme back and forth between the strings in fugal fashion. Once they finish the intro, the band comes in. The strings come back with a more traditional pop string line when the refrain comes around.
I normally don’t post arrangements of copyrighted material, but this bears such little resemblance to the original that I thought Martin Smith would be okay with it. Martin, take a listen to the MP3 or look at the PDF score and let me know if you want me to take it down, okay?
Hey everyone,
Usually this blog is strictly reserved for tasty musical morsels in MP3 or PDF-size bites. But I’m breaking my own rule tonight to tell you about an opportunity for you to help push a recent post from also-ran obscurity into the limelight of contest success.
You’ll remember that I recently entered a remix contest, in which I turned a Celldweller (hard-hitting, angst-filled techno rock) song into a laid-back lounge version. Well, it seems that users of the FiXT Remix community found my rendition interesting enough to place it in the top 20 of 82 entries. But now the hard work begins. We have to get out the vote! If enough people vote for my song I will be included in a compilation, gain respect in the techno community, and most importantly I’ll win stuff.
So you need to put down what you’re doing. Right. Now. And go to http://www.fixtremix.com/news/v/vote-for-celldweller-quot-the-best-its-gonna-get-quot-winners/170/ to vote for the “Lounge Mix by Greg Scheer.” There will be extra goodwill for anyone who tweets this, tells a friend, or places an announcement in their church bulletin.
While you’re heading over to FiXT Remix to vote for my song, you can take a listen to the newly mastered version of the song.
Faithful followers of this music blog know that I love nothing more than a good song contest. I’m not sure if it’s the thrill of the chase, the fun of donning a completely different musical guise for each contest, or the quirky satisfaction of adding “winner of the Robot Dance Song Contest” to my resume–but I can’t say no to a contest.
My latest entry into the ring is the TopGolf Online Game Theme Song Contest. Listen to my rousing entry: Bring It On! My goal was to create a 30 second spot that would sound good as a radio spot on a classic rock station. If it’s successful, I’ll move into writing music for beer commercials–where the real money is.
By the way, if you’re wondering about the brawny man who does the voiceover in the middle of the song–it’s me.
Here is a simple little song based on Matthew 11:28 that I started in Uganda, finished when I got back to the US, and premiered in Singapore. Now I’ve finally recorded it.
The trick about recording is that it’s never good enough. This was going to be a quick and dirty demo, but I kept fussing with it as I’ve been learning more about mixing and mastering. Finally, I had to say “enough’s enough.” So here’s the gussied up demo of “If You’re Weary.”