The goals of Portraits of Hope

Filed in News on July 08, 2009



As many know, I recorded Portraits of Hope during the first half of this year. It took a long time to finish the mixing and editing, but I got the big production run of CDs in early June. I have held off talking much about the project because I wanted to start promotion in conjunction with the free download offer I announced yesterday.

I want to talk about this project over the next few days on my blog, giving some insight into the thinking that went on behind the scenes. I will discuss the goals of the project and the individual songs as well as some of the philosophy that shaped the arranging I did.

When people have listened to this project, I have gotten back some interesting feedback. Some have liked it better than my other projects and some have not. But one thing they have all mentioned is how it feels different. And it definitely does feel different. I made some intentional decisions to be different on this project while hopefully preserving other elements that have made my earlier projects successful.

There are certain goals that I have for every project. First of all, I want the music to be true to what I believe good music is (good from technical, communicative, emotional, and spiritual perspectives).   I want my music to impact people spiritually and emotionally and even change them to some extent.  I want it to be music that I personally like and other people like. I have no desire to produce novelty CDs that I sell just to people that know me. My goal is to produce music that people actually want to listen to over and over.

That being said, one of the big goals for this particular project was to develop songs that would work well in concert settings. When I recorded Reflections on a Journey, I was not doing concerts or even planning to do concerts. So when I actually started doing concerts, I found myself stuck with music that worked better on a CD than it did live. To be more specific, I did not have enough music that was interesting for an audience to watch performed. So I wanted this project to have pieces that would be more technically diverse.

Another big goal was to take advantage of the musical growth I hopefully have experienced in the past few years. I have been studying music more intently than any other point of my life and have learned a lot thanks to some great mentors. So I wanted the project to highlight some of the growth especially in rhythm and harmony.

These last two goals definitely moved the music away from my comfort zone a bit and also moved it away slightly from what some people are used to hearing from me. Some like the changes and some don’t. So, take advantage of the free download offer, take a listen and jot me a note telling me what you think.

In the next day or two, I will start highlighting individual songs.

PS: For those of you that receive this by email, Feedburner does not seem to like my links.  So if you click on a link and it does not work, just know that the link for the CD download offer is http://www.greghowlett.com/portraitsdownload.aspx. Just type it into the address bar on your browser.



Will you do me a personal favor?
If you use Facebook, please take a moment and comment on this post. I appreciate the feedback and doing this helps other people learn about my resources. Non-Facebook users can leave comments using the alternate form below.


James Peter
7/9/2009 12:14:50 AM

I have all your CDs and you are right. This one feels different. In some ways, I think you have moved too far. You almost sound like all the other technicians out there. They are a dime a dozen and you do not need to be them. What makes your music unique is its ability to communicate. You do not need to move away from your strength. I know you put some songs on this project to demonstrate that strength but you do not need to play songs like Heaven Came Down. It is very clever, I will give you that. But it is something that the better southern Gospel pianists all do. I have heard Anthony Burger and the others do those runs a zillion times.

---

James Peter
7/9/2009 12:17:55 AM

I forgot one thing. I notice you played at least two of these songs with a click track or at least, very strict timing. That is not you. Don't let Nashville musicians tell you that you have to play with a click. I know you have said you take heat for that but you do not need to apologize for it.

---

Leave a Comment
All comments are reviewed for offensive content or spam. Your email is required but never used.

Name:
Website:
Email:
	Please email me follow up comments to this post.
Comment:	Note that HTML is not allowed, but your name will be linked to your site.
Verify Code: