.
.

“Hallelujah Chorus” Messiah Sing-a-long from Josh C on Vimeo.

]]> http://joshchampagne.com/blog/messiah-sing-a-long/feed/ 0 http://joshchampagne.com/blog/charity-youth-bible-school-chorus-2009/ http://joshchampagne.com/blog/charity-youth-bible-school-chorus-2009/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:27:35 +0000 Josh Champagne http://joshchampagne.com/blog/?p=564 Strains of  “There is peace and contentment in the Father’s house today…” replay themselves in my mind as I work, having listened to the newly released album Charity Youth Bible School Chorus 2009 from Altar of Praise Studio.  Here are a few youtube videos (posted by others) of the chorus in action last November.

I was with a music group on Tuesday trying to learn a new song, when we needed an online pitch pipe badly, because no one happened to have a chromatic pitch pipe along. That steel cookie just doesn’t always make it into our pockets along side the requisite wallet, mobile phone and keys. So we stumbled along and made do without it for the duration of our song learning efforts.

Later, I got to thinking about how if we could just use our cell phone’s ability to play audio and use a pre-recorded set of auditory pitches, we wouldn’t ever have that problem again, since most people always have their cell phone with them. So I went hunting online to find something of that nature that would work for our future music endeavors. I came across the Online Pitch Pipe and figured the MP3′s found on that page would be just the ticket.  Unfortunately, they are no longer available, but thanks to our friends over at the Internet Archive and their Wayback Machine, I was able to download the files from the 2005 version of the website.  I have linked to them below in a zipped folder which you may freely download and unzip before loading them on your cellphone.  Now before anyone argues that the sound from a genuine free reed aerophone is far superior than the sound of an electronic micro-sized speaker on a cellphone, I will quickly agree.  However, having your cellphone blow the pitch is better than no pitch at all    So, I wouldn’t recommend this as an alternative for any of us Mennonite, Beachy or other Acappella singer-types on Sunday morning at church, but it works for impromptu singing events when the Real McCoy isn’t available.

By the way, if you’re looking for a genuine chromatic reed instrument, Amazon carries an excellent one. Without further ado, here is a link to get a Kratt Chromatic Pitch Pipe.  They sell them in any key you might need.

Enjoy!

Cellphone Pitch Pipe.zip

]]> http://joshchampagne.com/blog/online-pitch-pipe/feed/ 1 http://joshchampagne.com/blog/lebanon-county-youth-chorus/ http://joshchampagne.com/blog/lebanon-county-youth-chorus/#comments Sat, 23 May 2009 21:01:53 +0000 Josh Champagne http://joshchampagne.com/blog/?p=431 Sherwin Samonte, from Vancouver Canada posts beautiful “music videos” of Anabaptist-Mennonite singing on Youtube and Tangle (used to be Godtube) that break the mold of what music videos are usually known to be.  Here’s one of his latest postings, He Still Came. It is sung by the Lebanon County Youth Chorus on their album, Somewhere In The Skies.  You can purchase the entire album from Altar of Praise Studio where it was recorded by clicking on the linked album above.

Lebanon County Youth Chorus

The Lebanon County Youth Chorus is a group of young people who love to sing traditional hymns and worship music. Their music speaks to the soul and describe the wonders of God’s love for us. To learn more about the Lebanon County Youth Chorus, you can visit their website.

I recently made the discovery of a fairly new website dedicated to Christian music, Hymnary.org. Built with Drupal, an open-source content management system, this website is a beautiful example of excellent information architecture. Letting it it speak for itself…

The Hymnary is a new kind of hymn Web site. It combines the best features of popular sites like the Cyber Hymnal and academic projects like The Hymn Tune Index and rolls them all into one robust database.

Another great music website I’ve discovered is GladSongs.com.  It is basically iTunes for conservative Christian music where you can purchase and download albums or individual songs. Albums vary in price and individual songs are priced fairly reasonably at 0.99¢/ea. These folks have really embraced social media with a Youtube channel, RSS feed (for new releases), and even a Facebook page.

Today I received the recording by Altar of Praise Studio from Chorus at YBS ’08.  I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the recording.  It sounds better than it did live, at least to my untrained ear. Though it is not listed on their website, you can probably get yourself a copy of this recording if you contact them.

Here’s my favorite of all the selections:

Lord, I Want To Be A Christian In My Heart

.

.

Yesterday evening and this morning our church enjoyed the company of a number of SMBI students who are on their Western tour singing at various churches here on the West Coast. I had wonderful conversations with some of the students and particularly enjoyed meeting blogging friend, Hans Mast.

The music was absolutely beautiful, but more importantly, it really focused on the importance of each one of us going out and sharing Christ with others. I was challenged and deeply blessed.

I didn’t shoot any video, but this is a similar performance of the song Days of Elijah that the group shared with us.

For anyone happening to read this blog living in the Western US, I’ve included their remaining itinerary below: