In the inaugural post for this blog, I’m just going to talk briefly about my  intentions for the Catholic Music Express and to list out what I hope the whole site will become.

• First and foremost I want this site to be a home for Catholic musicians to meet and collaborate.   I’m always happy to hear comments and suggestions on my recordings and I encourage others who are recording at home to post their tracks and help each other out.  This is not a site limited to professionals or full-time musicians, but every musician that is inspired to write music that praises God!

• Second, I want folks to talk about their own challenges – musically, in their parishes, with technology.  I don’t mind having some forum discussions that are anonymous.  Or I can be the voice to initiate discussions in this blog.  Music ministry can be very challenging and comes with endless frustrations.

• Third, I want this site to be educational.  Personally, I hope to post about the little bit of music theory that I know and how to apply that to songwriting and recording. I became interested in building chords and theory in high school when I was first learning guitar. Even though I never majored in music, I took enough guitar lessons – both classical and jazz – in college to learn a fair amount of theory. What I’m finding out is that theory is elusive for many musicians, even trained ones! I hope that I can post some hints and tips that have helped me over the years.  I’ve also spent a lot of time playing with recording software.  Unfortunately I struggle with time management – so I’m looking again to have a community behind me to build out topics and provide education!

• Fourth, I want the community to feel like this is an open place to express opinions in music. I played trombone and tuba all through college. I was not that good, but enjoyed it. It wasn’t until high school that I started playing guitar and my musicianship REALLY took off. I have some strong opinions on what music education has becomes and the sad shape of adult musicianship that exists today.  We have relegated the term amateur to mean BAD and it does not.

• Fifth, I want to continue to support the artists that are making CDs and need to get their music out to a broader audience.  This has always been a cornerstone of CME and despite opening the site up to a broader audience, I don’t want that mission to be lost.  In fact I hope that even more people are encouraged to write songs, record, and distribute those songs.  We live in an age where musicians can easily produce and sell their own albums, but on the flip side capturing an audience is harder than ever.

At the end of the day, I just want this site to be fun, interesting, and educational.  I want opinions and comments about the different recordings and what gets posted.   I want to hear from others – whether you are a home recording artist, music minister playing in a church group once a week,  or simply someone who enjoys music.

I am an amateur. I don’t do music full time, but I am very passionate about it. I think we as a society have lost the idea of amateur music and amateur musicians – I want to proudly declare that I do music on the side, I have a day job, I was NOT a music major, and I still enjoy every minute of it!