Music at Art Life

Emma, Jack, Libby, and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to an arts camp, Art Life2012, last week.  Bob and Teresa Nix, the directors, have a vision to bring  gifted young artists together to produce a collaboration of music, dance, media arts, and drama for the glory of God.

Jackson and I were in the music track.  I actually learned to play the guitar this week!  I had an amazing teacher, Allison Cornell, who was so encouraging.  She taught me enough chords and strum patterns to write music and put chord progressions to the songs I've already written.

On the third day of camp, we had 5 hours to write 2 songs from a couple of different scriptures.  We didn't just throw lyrics and a melody together in a sloppy fashion, though.  We did the task thoroughly and completely, under the leadership of seasoned songwriters and musicians.  The results were astounding to me.  I had never written music in a group, the way we did, until this week, but I love it!  It's so wonderful to have a bunch of other musicians and songwriters to turn to, when you don't have the right words or chord progression, or whatever we're working on at that moment.  

My family has been listening to Barry and Michelle Patterson's music since I was about 5 years old, and Michelle was a teacher in the music track.  I'm grateful to have been able to spend so much time with her this week.  Her heart is to encourage young songwriters, and her willingness to invest into me was priceless.  She made all of us feel like we were a part of her family.  We plan to host a Barry and Michelle concert in our home soon (comment below for more info;  we'd love to have you there!).

Besides Michelle and Allison, the other leader in the music track was Jason Nix (Bob and Teresa's son), who breathed life into me all week, and taught me so much about music, recording, and excellence.  

He actually brought his recording studio to SAGU (a college about 5 minutes away from our house, where the camp was) to record the songs we wrote!  It was the coolest experience to be in a recording environment behind a ginormous (like Will Farrell says in the film 'Elf') microphone, knowing that we'd be able to hear a high quality work of art, soon after singing and playing into those microphones.  He is a super talented editor, and the way he mixed all of the instrumentation and voices was beautiful.

Running through our songs before recording began.