New Inspiration From the Unity Music Conference

This past weekend, I went to the Great Lakes Unity Music Conference in Springfield, IL with my wife, Linda.  I had expected to just tag along and do some work in the hotel while she was at the conference, and then spend a day or two on a mini-vacation for my birthday.  I should have known better.

I love music.  I even took 4 years of guitar lessons as a kid.  The lessons didn't do much for me -- I can read music and play a melody line, and I can play a few chords, but not well enough to entertain a room full of people.  Several years ago, I bought a new guitar with the intention that I'd spend time learning how to play it better.  For the most part, it has sat in a corner, collecting dust as I spend most of my time working on the various websites.

Linda convinced me to take the guitar along.  The possibility existed that the group would 'jam' one evening, and it would be fun to join in as best I could.  While that didn't happen, having it to play around with was fun.

The REAL inspiration of the weekend came from the lead workshop presenter, who happened to be a guitarist named Chris Foster.  Linda & I know some good guitar players here in the Grand Rapids area (Linda IS a professional keyboardist), however, Chris practically mesmerized me with his masterful playing.  (You can hear samples at his website:  http://www.ChrisFosterMusic.com.)

During one of his workshops, I realized that the song he was playing was nothing more than a few chords and the "magic" was coming from the way he was strumming the strings.  Suddenly, I understood that this was the thing I needed to spend my time learning, and not all the scales, modes, intervals, and other details of music theory I had been studying.  Yeah, those will come in handy down the road, but they can wait until AFTER I develop the ability to create a decent sound from the instrument.

Another (songwriting) workshop gave me further inspiration.  Never actually having written any songs of my own, I expected to learn a few things, but not to contribute much of my own.  Part of the workshop had us split into groups of about 5 or 6, and in the group I was in, there were several accomplished songwriters.  We had 15 minutes to write a short song with a 4-line verse and a 4-line chorus.  With no expectations, I threw in my ideas along with everyone else. 

What surprised me was that the experienced songwriters responded well to my ideas and ended up using about 4-5 lines I came up with in the 8-line song we created.  It ended up being a fun little song, and we all enjoyed singing it for the rest of the group.

From the 2 workshops, I came away inspired to put more time into developing my own musical skills with the intention to write a few songs to present to next year's conference.

Of course, there were many other great musicians at the conference.  Brian Clarke is one I want to work more closely with.  He presented a few songs to the group, including one that really fits perfectly with this website -- "As You Believe".  This and several other songs may be heard on his website, http://www.BrianClarkeOnline.com. 

One of the things I really like about Brian's songs is that they can be used to refocus our minds to a more positive viewpoint, and may even be used as part of a belief-reprogramming process.  I highly recommend his CD, "As You Believe", to anyone who wants to incorporate music into their manifestation process.