The first song I played on my brand new Taylor was, “More Than Words”, the second, “Fallen Angel” and finally, “Mighty To Save”. So you can see the intended priorities I had for it.
I picked up playing the guitar in my late teens, first by learning to play four chords C, Am, F, G7 on a simple classical guitar. I couldn’t understand the theory – what is a minor chord, why the G had a 7 … but I knew if I could just strum those four chords in a sequence, I could play a song, the one a lot of us start with:
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
When I want you in my arms
When I want you and all your charms
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
The thrill of being able to play just that one song pushed me on to learn more chords and more playing styles like plucking the strings with my fingers apart from just strumming.
As with most musicians-to-be, the lure of the rock-and-roll lifestyle was ever enticing as were the many playing styles… and so it was that I began expanding my repertoire to what I could accomplish through the electric guitar with its many effects and then, the bass guitar.
Putting my guitar to praise and worship was not the last thing on my mind only because it wasn’t on my mind at all.
Of course, that changed upon my return to a God-centered life that eventually led me to be a part of this Landings community. Before I knew it, I had found reason, purpose and motivation to purchase my next guitar – to contribute my share to the Music Ministry at Landings.
Now, we musicians in the Music Ministry are placed on a roster to jam three songs to open our weekly community sessions with Praise and Worship.
On such Mondays when it’s my turn, it’s also my time to let the rock star within out and play to my heart’s content. And yes, those sessions are rewarding and actually, rather fun.
Thankfully, all those hours of learning to pluck strings years ago on the guitar came in really useful, as most of the praise and worship songs were mid-tempo and needed a fuller sound of the broken chords with arpeggios.
I’ve come to see through this whole episode in relation to how God can make use of the talents and gifts that He gives to us, no matter how small they are.
We may not know it at the time, but all the little skills we have in life can be used to praise God when the time is right and we answer His call. All the skills we own for our secular life, like photography, writing, story-telling, multi-media production, animation, movie-making and of course, music are truly needed in this day and age where the digital realm is slowly overtaking our consciousness of the real-world.
While the truly gifted may be drawn towards Hollywood and its associated lifestyle, and make a proper living with these skills, the rest of us can always turn our little gifts back for God’s use in His own way.
So, “Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre.” (Psalm 81:2)
Landings Singapore 