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.
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 pop star. We sing in......
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 shag carpet watching whatever was......
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 in this noisy existence they may......
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 the Holy Spirit. Because of God’s......
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 writer/instructors in every city and also mentor......
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 not being lazy and then finding time......
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 many over the twenty one years I have been running a......
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 your time......
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 soon through senseless violence. Drew was very near......
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, 22 years old and approaching graduation from Rhodes......
Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale Worship Team (all Ocean’s Edge University grads) on 8/15/21. Photo by Ken Steorts 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......
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 “nest.” As a parent of musicians, you go......
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 place and work on creative endeavors with......
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 with words......
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, join a club, carefully curate the band and then decide......
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 may realize how much talent was......
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 and ideas for creative exercise. I am just......
The band I heard was Filthy Rags. I listened to a band this weekend that calls themselves “Filthy Rags”. It is not immediately appealing as a band name but you’d have to know a deeper level of meaning for it to make sense. the Bible talks......
The shores were alive with the sound of music. As a musician, I am constantly attentive to the sounds around me. Babies crying, people shuffling papers, machines whirring, HVAC running, and every rumble of traffic. This past week I was in Coral Bay on the......
People underestimate how cool guitars are. Think about right now. Guitars are cool but not something you think about. They are cooler than you think. Ferner Guitars do handmade amazing guitars and they think about how cool they are all the time. This past week......
When people gather, music can inspire and connect, as I’ve said many times before in reference to tropical island vacations, night clubs, and ceremonies. But music, and especially worship music performed within the context of leading a time of gathered worship, can really move colleagues......
Music still communicates through clear plastic cubicles. Many things about the past year of Covid nightmare have been challenging, but none more for the musician than live shows. At one point, there was a 26’ recommended distance in front of a singer. Many perform in......
This week I was standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. Although there was indeed a flatbed Ford waiting for tourists such as myself, I guarantee you I slowed down no traffic nor veered from my martial relationship mentally. Most of you will know this is......
Music makes a presentation go way better. I work with a lot of musicians and educators and church people doing a lot of varied tasks of creativity and administration. It is not always delightful work, but there is a lot of fun in it......
I heard live music playing in a dark building early on a Sunday morning. So much of what goes into being “good” at something is the number of hours you do it. It takes 10,000 hours, it is said, to become an expert at a technical......
1,000 people have helped me make music. It is true that many people have helped me make music over the years. I don’t know all of their names and they may not even remember or know themselves that they helped. The music industry, as I’ve said......
I played a lead solo with my teeth last Saturday, as one does. Rock n roll is all of crazy antics since its birth in the 1950s America, some would say here in Memphis, Tennessee. Electric guitars, specifically Fender Strats and Gibson Les Pauls,......
Music was wafting across the beach parking lot and onto my boat cockpit. This past weekend I invited some friends and colleagues aboard my small sailboat at a company picnic and enjoyed the first round of showing people around, having raised the mast successfully in......
I read an article last week about the amazing young man, Noah Wall, in England, born with 2% of his brain function. He was nurtured by his parents with therapy and exercises and music. The article includes in its title “now he can play music”......
No one group of people owns any type of music. As the “Music is Important” blogger, I highlight every style of music and bring stories from my interactions with music wherever I go. The strident, 60s jazz thumping of “Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)” soundtrack......
She was tired from being “on the road.” People believe that getting signed to a record deal is the ultimate sign of success and the apex of a music career. Those who do achieve this honor are heralded as “arrived” and successful in the eyes......
All music is good. Musical style is subjective. It is also the subject of this blog post. When you hear people talk about their favorite music, it is almost always “I like everything…except…” and then goes into a long list. I laugh because most......