President’s Blog
Dr. Ken Steorts, President of Visible Music College, shares his honest thoughts about the importance of music and how it daily impacts his life and others.
I literally wrote a song while waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). For the span of my life since I could (officially) drive, a few decades, the standard “worst possible experience” of tedium and boredom and uninspiring adult life has been......
For creative people, music making and creative community are like air and water – we need these daily and cherish the moments away from “the real world” to create and make music together. Sure, we grow in skill and technique throughout our musical journey, but......
College is often criticized for just being about the classroom. College used to be a known quantity – professors gave lectures in the classroom and courses offered a clear path to the accumulation of a body of knowledge for the purpose of becoming an expert......
Summer comes with opportunity – are you willing to take it? For college students, summer brings a well deserved respite from daily classes back to back, exams and papers unending, and grades on everything that is done. Pressure, costs, events, assignments, and processes abound. By......
Jesus stepped away from the crowds and prayed to His Father. Modern psychology confirms in scientific terms what eons of religious practice has long held, that rest and contemplation away from the noise of society (be that first century MIddle East or 21st century United......
Light the Way Music Festival is coming to Memphis June 15-16, 2023. That is good news. Every now and then, an idea comes to fruition. That’s right, it’s rare. We have so many ideas every day, can you imagine if they all happened? It would......
We all love to get away in the summer and listen to music. Music is (very very) important during the summer festival season. This summer, we have three students (Noah Neal, Aaron Tritt, Cole Jason Adams) from Visible Music College helping to run the setup......
Everyone has their favorite music for studying. Studying music in college, however, is an increasingly difficult task. Limited scholarships recognize talent compared to STEM valuation, colleges remain way behind the postmodern era of music to include and respect a range of musical style and study,......
Much of creative life is experienced in normal, recurring events that line up in sequence and create a timeline of sameness and repetition and “the ordinary.” We go to school or work in a pattern and interact with people linearly, daily, and similarly. These weekly......
Music is important to families. Few things are more inspirational for parents than children singing in a program and church worship teams including kids and teens and families together. This week, I got to experience a college student at Visible Music College leading worship with......
Easter 2022 was this weekend and Christians globally celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ with church services, an end to the 40 day fast of Lent, and the beginning of the post-Easter 40 days of Pentecost. Easter is led up to and followed after by......
I’ve often talked to my children and students about a 20 year cycle of fads, clothing, music, attitudes, and style. As you get older, your perspective changes as you see things come back around. For millennial to see 90s radio stations surge a few years......
Music Is Transformative It will hit your mind and heart a certain way on a certain day in a certain situation and be very special. Like the time I heard BB King playing at his own club on Beale Street in Memphis. The......
Music Makes Us Wait Better Ever been waiting in an elevator and realize the music playing softly is an old tune you love and you kinda feel good hearing it? Yeah, it’s elevator music, making you wait better. I noticed it at the......
Music Makes You Shop We are in the biggest retail season of the year in the western world. Studies show that customers will buy more stuff if they are emotionally connected to the store and the way to do that is for the......
Think Everyone Can Sing? Singing in the shower is a great way to start your career. Not really. For many people, to sing in front of a huge audience is a life long dream. We imagine ourselves able to captivate a crowd like our favorite......
Music Creates Memories I remember the first time I heard Johnny Cash. I grew up in the golden age of television. Well, not really, but I grew up in the golden (or blueish) light of it, that is for certain. Lying there on the......
Importance of Being Alone I love being alone. Many people love the solitude and quiet of a personal life without distraction and busy-ness common in our modern world. Call them introverts, call them shut-ins, call them cat people, whatever joke abounds, but remember that......
An Atmosphere of Worship Every day we exist in the atmosphere – breathing air, rooted on earth, and feeling the weather. With regards to Christian worship, the atmosphere refers to the “charge” in the room and the realization of the presence of God......
Teaching Songwriting, What a Concept Visible Music College has a great Songwriting Division of the Modern Music Department. We focus on writing regularly, rewriting, co-writing, live performance, and publishing as an area of true understanding for writers. We have local writers/instructors in every city......
Importance of Rest in Christ No misspelling here – Oktober-rest is our annual day out with staff and students having fun, worshipping, and eating bad together. Oktoberest. Part of being a musician and creative person is to maintain energy for making art while......
Is It Important To Play A Little of Everthing? I interviewed a young musician this week and he plays everything. Many a young musician has told me “I play a little bit of everything” when I asked them their instrument. Not a few, but......
Ear Happiness I spent 12.5 hours in the recording studio on Saturday. When you record a song, you never know how the pieces are exactly going to come together. You make your plans and you work with experts and amateurs and you experiment and you guide......
Music Lingers Long in My Mind Last week I shared the heartbreaking story of musician Drew Rainer taken too soon from this earth. The joyful music of his life and career of playing in bands and studying music at school was ended too......
Intended for a Greater Purpose I didn’t think I’d ever write this blog. Early Sunday morning, October 3, 2021 we lost bassist Drew Rainer from the Madison Line Records’ past artist Belvédère in a case of senseless gun violence at his home. Drew,......
The Messages in Music There is Nothing Better Than You. That is the main line in a song we sang at a church service I was in recently. It is a great message when sung to Jesus in worship and adoration, not so good......
The Importance of Parenting and Music Parents are hopelessly tied to their kids. I don’t run a parenting blog, but if I did, I’m sure I would encounter parents that care about their kids’ activities all throughout life, way past the, having left the......
The Importance of a Studio Break Although the most difficult work of a musician can be the recording studio, with its endless retakes and countless run throughs and overdubs and expected perfection, it is also the best breakaway experience to go into a quiet......
Music Has a Powerful Way of Shifting Emotions Within Humans It is not simply an anomaly of notes strung together to please the ear but a powerful tool for human connection. It helps us unveil pieces of ourselves and others we can’t always access......
Reasons for Creating a Band I spoke with the band Sanctus Real awhile back. When we think of the legendary bands that have created music, it is common for our minds to wonder how they found each other. Did they become musical geniuses,......
Bands Are How Society Should Be Bands come together along lines of shared interest, shared loves, family, and shared desires of success. They are opportunities for growth, experience, creativity, knowledge, community, further opportunity, and notoriety. If you think back to your favorite musical group, you......
Music Helps Me Connect with Childhood Memories I wrote a song for my mom. I spend a lot of time talking about music being important for bringing people together but also talk to a lot of people weekly about being creative and writing songs......