What motivates you to work?

Something New in the Church

We can all think of ways in which new technology has become a fixture in modern churches. From video screens to light production to sound mixes, some in church leadership (including myself) can't imagine planning and executing a corporate worship gathering without the aid of some of these technological innovations.

The "advance" of any area will bring with it its share of critics.

With that thought in mind, I was humored recently while reading the end of the chapter entitled "The Cathedral" in Joseph and Frances Gies' Life in a Medieval City. Addressing the issue of new innovations available at the time of the 13th century, they write,

Thirteenth-century bishops are delighted with the technology that gives them their incomparable cathedrals. Interestingly enough, clerical opinion in the past was not always so favorable. St. Bernard wrote angrily to William, abbot of St Thierry, about the great Cluniac churches: "Why this excessive height, the enormous length, this unnecessary width, these sumptuous ornaments and curious paintings that draw the eyes and distract the attention from meditation? . . . We, the monks, who have forsaken ordinary life and who have renounced the riches and ostentation of the world . . . in whom do we hope to awake devotion with these ornaments? . . . One could spend a whole day gaping instead of mediating on God. What ineptitude, and what expense!"

How interesting that over 700 years later, the concerns and criticisms are the same, just the names and types of technologies have changed.

Reason to Buy Travel Insurance

I've never purchased any, but I may reconsider if I ever make plans to fly somewhere for vacation!

Something New

Here it is...





....there it went.

Have a great day!

Summer Project #2

Our deck steps were in bad shape. They were cracked and warping and not anything you'd want to walk over in bare feet.

So we (I) undertook a project of removing the steps and the risers and replacing them with new ones.

I cut new boards to length (thanks for the saw, dad) and stained them on all sides, then mounted them back on the stringers. Here were the first few I did. It was so cool to see the boards bead up after a brief shower.

Reece was a big helper.

He was so curious, he just couldn't stand to not be involved.

Janet and I stained the whole deck.

This probably took three months from start to finish. In part, because we were also working on summer project #3...

My Dream Job

Maybe when I "retire" I'll do this. I don't know, I guess you might say I already enjoy my dream job, but this would be even dreamer. It took this picture this summer at a Durham Bulls game. The house "organist" is just sitting out there in the open, doing his thing.

He gets to watch baseball every day, and make thousands of people listen to him while he plays the keyboard. I could do this.

Of course, I would take requests.

Facebook Scam

I have occasional discussions with my wife about the various pros and cons of social networking in general and Facebook in particular. Even though she hasn't jumped on the bandwagon of Facebook yet, I had an experience today that should make us all think twice about our connections and who is really on the other end of the line.

In my browser I have set two perma-tabs and faviconized tabs that are always open. (Check out this great hack from smarterware using Firefox extensions). So even when I'm not actively using one of those browser windows, I'm constantly logged in to Facebook and my Google Reader.



While working elsewhere today, I heard the familiar chat pop come through my speakers indicating that someone was sending me messages. I flipped over to the Facebook tab and found that my friend Micah, whom I have not spoken with since our high school graduation, and whom, other than this Facebook connection I have shared maybe one sentence of "hey how ya doin'?" initiated the following conversation:

Micah
hey!
you there?
10:30amBrian
hey man! what's up!?
10:31amMicah
not good at the moment
10:31amBrian
what's going on man
10:31amMicah
i'm stuck in London,England at the moment
10:31amBrian
not a bad place to be stuck, I'd say? flight delayed?
10:31amMicah
i was mugged at gun point last night
10:32amBrian
oh wow...down town?
10:32amMicah
here in england
10:32amBrian
did they beat you up?
10:32amMicah
all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off me
i was hurt,bruises all over my neck
10:33amBrian
awe man, I'm sorry...did they take a passport?
10:33amMicah
i still have my passport with me
i've been to the US embassy and the cops here
they're both not helping issues at all
10:34amBrian
not working together?
10:34amMicah
they asked me to wait for 3weeks,but my flight leaves in less than 3hrs from now
but the hotel manager won;t let me leave

At this point, I'm trying to picture his scenario, the embassy, the cops, and the hotel thing. These pieces didn't elide in my head, almost as though he doesn't want to admit something--but I kept going:

10:35amBrian
because you have no credit card?
10:35amMicah
yeah to settle the hotel bills
10:35amBrian
are you there on business?
10:35amMicah
yeah
i need your help urgently

OK. I paused. At this point, a lot of questions are going through my mind. Remember, I haven't seen or heard from this guy since high school. I'm beginning to have doubts, but I continue.

10:35amBrian
what do you need?
10:36amMicah
i need you to lend me some few bucks to settle the hotel bills
i'll pay you back tomorrow as soon as i get back home
i don;t want to miss my flight
10:36amBrian
so you're there on business? why do you need ME to do that? what can't your company do that?
10:37amMicah
i came here on a business trip by myself
10:37amBrian
no one else state-side to support you? are you in business on your own?
10:38amMicah
yeah
no one to contact now
please help me
10:38amBrian
hang on a sec
10:38amMicah
ok

At this point, I'm smelling something funny, but just to get a second opinion from a guy who also knew Micah from high school, I called my good friend Dan. Right away he declared it a scam. I didn't want to be played, but I didn't want to leave an old buddy in need. Dan's idea: ask him something about himself that only he would know. Yes. Of course:

10:45amBrian
hey help me out here.
10:46amMicah
huh?
10:46amBrian
I need to verify you are who you say you are.
10:46amMicah
sure
go ahead ask me any question
10:46amBrian
what was the name of the group you founded at Kings?

I imagine at this point if the scammer is on Micah's page, he's probably glancing through his profile trying to find an answer. Notice the time that elapses before his response:

10:48amMicah
you kidding me?
10:48amBrian
nope. you would know.

And that's how it ended. He never finished the talk and we never went any further. I emailed Micah from the address given on his profile page but I haven't heard back from him. I hope our hunch was right and he's not at this moment sitting in the hotel lobby in London waiting for someone to bail him out.

What's Google been working on?

Yeah, I'm a Google fanboy. Here's what they're working on. I like the way they think, though it probably scares some of you.

Summer Project #1

I'm certainly no Roger Cook, but I took a crack at unifying our back yard this summer by removing a fence and some landscaping.

The previous owners of our house had a couple of dogs. The customized their (our) house and back yard for these dogs by putting in doggy doors so that the dogs had freedom to move in and out when they wanted. They also put a fence down the middle of the yard so the dogs could do their "thing" on one side and so they could enjoy the other side.


Since the time we moved in, I have wanted to remove that fence and bushes and landscaping they put down the middle of the backyard, and regain a contiguous backyard for our kids to enjoy. The yards in our neighborhood are not large, but our backyard is probably one of the largest and most private, since we are on a cul-du-sac and since there is protected greenland behind our house.



So the poject began over several weeks (read: months) as I pulled out seven bushes and other plants.


the fence posts were anchored in concrete so I had to cut them out with a reciprocating saw.


I rented a rototiller and planted grass seed.


After a couple of weeks (in October) the grass came up and I removed the straw. I only wish the rest of the yard looked as good as this single strip.

Sort by Magic

Do you use Google Reader? I've written extensively about it here.

Now, Google has this clever new feature Gina pointed out on TWiG, which I think is really slick.

If you're like me, you add many web posts to your feed and sort them by category. This sort is best handled with folders. Well now there's this nifty little feature called "sort by magic" which is an option under the "Folder Settings" pull down.

What it does is sort to the top of the list items that it thinks you will be most interested in based on your browsing habits. If you've shared, emailed, starred or "liked" certain types of posts in the past, it will elevate similar items to the top of your list. It works best if you have a lot of unread items as it will not show any regard for read vs unread items.


One more way in which Google knows even more about our browsing habits and interests. Ostensibly so they can sell you another ad.

Resolute

Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship by Martin W. Sandler


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would recommend this book. It may seem like the last subject you'd want to read about: a bunch of 19th century Britons trying to find a way to the Pacific Ocean over the top of North America.

I'll be honest, if you had asked me if I knew what the North West Passage was before I read this book, I would have told you that is what Lewis and Clark were looking for.

OK, so some random thoughts:

• though the title is "Resolute" the book is far broader than about a boat that was lost and then found while looking for someone else that was lost.

• the whole Arctic expedition thing was about two things: Finding the Northwest Passage, and/or finding the North Pole. The one who found either first would bring both personal and national glory.

• the Royal navy was too proud to think about seeking counsel from those who might actually have experience in the Arctic. Namely the native Inuit people, who knew how to survive the year-round cold, and the whalers who knew how to navigate the ice flows and northern climates.

• The people who explored and were lost or died or even returned unsuccessful in their quest were seen as heroes. This whole Arctic thing was a pretty big deal in the mid 1800's and captivated public attention, even though these explorers would leave and vanish from public consciousness for years at a time.

I would recommend this book because this vast story is well-told. There are a lot of characters spanning the approximately 80 years of attempts to conquer the Arctic, but Martin W. Sandler organizes his book well with extended end notes (that stay out of the way of the drama of the story) and appendices that are quite interesting.

View all my reviews >>

Important Information Regarding a Change to Your 411 Service

Recently I received this email from my otherwise fabulous home phone service, Vonage:

Dear BRIAN MEGILLIGAN,

We'd like to share with you some important information regarding our 411 Directory Assistance service. We're expanding our 411 service to include 411 Direct Connect. With 411 Direct Connect, when you dial 411 from your Vonage phone you'll be directly connected to the residential or business listing you've requested at the new rate of $1.49, effective August 17, 2009.

Not sure of the name or business you're trying to reach? Vonage 411 Direct Connect will allow you to search by category or keyword to find listings even when you don't have a name and address.

Remember, Vonage 411 is not just about phone numbers. You can also continue dialing 411 from your Vonage phone to access movie listings, airline flight times, ATM locations and more...all for $1.49 per 411 call!

We strive to provide an excellent customer experience and want to be sure you're getting the best value from your Vonage phone service. If you have any questions, please call us at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357). We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of our Customer Care representatives will be happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Vonage

Did you catch that? They would be happy to charge me just $1.49 a call to connect me when I dial their information service. Seriously?

I couldn't resist. Here was my reply:

Hello,

Have you ever heard of Google?

Google is this great online search engine. You can type things you're looking for into it and it will bring back results.

Google has this service kind of like yours. What you do is you call 800 GOOG 411 and tell them the city/state and what you're looking for and it returns the results pretty well.

And just like you, it connects you right to that business you're looking for. Pretty cool eh?

Oh, but unlike you, they connect you for FREE.

So as I consider which directory I'll call out of convenience knowing that I can be hooked directly to it when found, I'll weigh carefully weather I will call through the service that is gonna charge me or the service that is going to let me connect at no cost. It will be a hard decision.

Brian

So surprised I haven't heard back from them.

How did you find this blog?

Google Analytics provides interesting tools that allow you to see how dismally attractive your blog is from a statistical standpoint. It's a free tool and an interesting resource.

I have been quite interested in the search terms people use to land here. Below are a list of terms people used in the months of May and June to get here.

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know

I enjoyed this great post from GeekDad the other day and thought I'd share my favorites.

4. The number of TV channels being a single digit.
6. Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
17. That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’
21. 5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
23. DOS.
37. Finding out information from an encyclopedia.
45. Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
50. Privacy.
58. Putting film in your camera.
72. Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
91. Having to manually unlock a car door.

You can see the full list here.

Worship at Providence

Here's a video edited by Tim of our services over the last couple of months. It's just a taste. We get to work with some very talented people--all of whom love to serve and love the Lord! This is on the church web site, but I thought I'd spread the love here.

Worship@Providence 09 from Providence on Vimeo.

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In high school there are certain things that you learn about World War II. Years later, there are much fewer things that you remember. There was Hitler, D-Day, FDR, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the battleship and carrier wars fought in the Pacific over little tiny islands in the middle of nowhere, and finally the first use of the atomic bomb by the US on two Japanese cities.


There were plenty of new perspectives to be gained on the war in the Pacific through James Bradley's book Flyboys: A True Story of Courage. Though the book focused on 8 specific pilots and gunners, as well as their background and families, their individual stories were presented in context--not just of the war, but of Japanese history, culture and mindset.


There were several theses Bradley skillfully presented in this book. Here are some bullet-pointed highlights:


• The Japanese and American cultures could not have been more opposite one another. In everything from the way they ate their meals, to the way they saw their place in the world, these were two very different "worlds" at war, neither able to truly empathize or understand one another.


• Previous to World War II, the primary dimensions for battle were land and sea. FDR pushed hard for the monies to invest in this new 3rd dimension, the air war. Indeed, it proved pivotal in both the Pacific and in Europe.


• Japan "learned" imperialism by observing the west. They believed they were doing the best thing for China by invading it in order to "culture" it with it's own brand of civilization. Japan as a country felt snubbed at the end of World War I when they were awarded very little territory and concluded that this was as much a racial decision against them as anything. They had been exercising the same ethnic cleansing they observed in the US as the anglo-saxon race obliterated the native tribes in the name of civility and religious conversion.


• Though there existed much honor in Japanese warriors of previous generations in the 18th century, the generation that fought World War II perverted the standards and practices handed down to them, and with a mixture of mythicism and power-hungry leaders, led the nation to believe that even in the face of hopelessness, they were as valuable in death (in war) as they were in life. Surrender was the ultimate act of cowardice and shame, even among the civilians, who, in the impending land war with the US army, would fight to the end with sharpened bamboo sticks.


• While condemning the bombing of civilians of England by Germany, the US apparently saw nothing inconsistent with bombing city after city in Japan indiscriminately. There was no urban planning in Japan. Wooden houses were built right next to large factories in Japanese cities. The Napalm burned both easily, and as a result, many Japanese civilians were killed or made homeless.


• The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not out-of-the-blue acts of desperation or experimentation that led to the surrender of Japan. The use of these weapons were actually the next logical step in the systematic bombing of many Japanese cities by B29s in an effort to delay a ground war and were used in the hopes of bringing a swift surrender. We are awed by the destruction of a single bomb, but the damage done was commensurate with what was already being done using many planes and many pipes of Napalm.


The temptation when reading a book that deals with such difficult subject matter is to confuse the quality of the book with its content. Some passages in this book were difficult to read. Anecdotes and interviews of Japanese soldiers that fought in many fronts: Iwo Jima, ChiChi Jima, New Guinea, the Philippines, and China were gruesome and disturbing. Stories of torture and cannibalism abound. Bradley uses these stories not gratuitously, but to reinforce the thesis previously mentioned about the Japanese warrior mindset at the time and also to proudly display the bravery of the American and Japanese soldiers in the face of certain death.


Yes, it is difficult to recommend a book with such material-like what a Stephen King book is like, except with real events-but the story is well-told, the research is thorough, and the book is well-cited. Reading this book brought the Pacific theater to life and gave me a renewed respect for the generation that fought in World War II.




View all my reviews >>

14 Basic Skills

Recently in my RSS feed appeared an article entitled "14 Basic Skills All Men Should Possess."

Sean Percival evidently couldn't come up with one more to make the list nice and rounded. Or he got to 10 and thought of four more things. So here we go. Do you agree? Can you align yourself with these arbitrary and random skills?

1. Drive a Stick-Shift (check)
2. Hook up and Entertainment Center (check-though it would be fun to get to set up a new one some time!)
3. Fix a toilet (check - forced learn that one!)
4. Navigate a Map and Use GPS (check and check, though these seem like completely different skills to me, and the GPS one doesn't even really seem to be a skill at all.)
5. Change the Oil (check-yeah, motor oil)
6. Balance a Checkbook (check, but file this under obsolete skills-at least in the analog world. Who actually balances a checkbook? I make Quicken do it.)
7. Cook the Perfect Steak (CHECK- come on over some time, I'll show you how it's done)
8. Swim the Breaststroke (check - though there's no distance specified. That's good. I can do it pretty well, but not for very long)
9. Write Effectively (hmm, I think so, my blog readers can decide, and the recipients of my many, many emails can toss in an opinion here too. You know who you are.)
10. Dress for the Occasion (FAIL)
11. Sew a Button (check. I've got this one down. I probably average a button every two months)
12. Do Laundry Properly (check, though my kind and gracious wife usually handles my laundry, when she's away, I can clean my underwear and starch my shirts)
13. Handle Roadside Emergencies (check-Anyone can call AAA, right? I've changed a couple of tires in my day. Loads of fun.)
14. Build a Fire (FAIL. I have never started a fire without a match or lighter, but I can set up a pretty good, long-lasting fireplace fire or campground fire with good kindling.)(I miss my fireplace)

I'm giving myself 12 out of 14. Soon I'll write the "14 skills every woman should possess." That oughta get things stirred up.

Philosophy of Orchestration (Part 5)

Questions to ask yourself when considering orchestrating a hymn, chorus or other song for your church orchestra:

1. Does the song need an orchestration? (dealt with in part 1)

2. Should everyone play? (dealt with in part 2)

3. Does the orchestration support the lyric? (dealt with in part 3)

4. Is your orchestration accessible to your players? (dealt with in part 4)

5. What are key considerations for orchestrations?

Finally, we consider key.

On the surface, key may seem to be of incidental importance. However, consider the following scenarios:

• In general, string players prefer sharp keys while brass and woodwind players prefer flat keys.
• Guitar players prefer sharp keys while keyboard players often prefer flat keys.

So the solution, then is to arrange everything for the key of C!

Initial key selection

Deciding on key starts with the melody of the song. Regardless of whether a song will be orchestrated, a song for congregational singing should be set so that the majority of the melody falls between a Bb-D range (a 10th, not a 3rd). Some would argue that C-E is acceptable, but I would not spend a lot of time in the high D-E-F range song after song or you will wear out your congregation.

Key is almost always an issue of planning. Besides the establishing the primary key of a song discussed above, consider how small changes can have a large affect in the overall sound.

For example, suppose we have a song that sits well melodically in E. The guitar players love it because it's a nice open sound on their instrument, and the chord changes are accessible. The bass player likes it because E sets nicely as the tonic and the lowest note on a four-stringed instrument. For five-string players, they can drive the dominant strongly on their low B string.

But suppose we take the same song and move it down just a half step. Now we've effectively cut off the ability of the bass player to dig some nice low notes on his instrument. The lowest tonic he can play is almost an octave higher than it was a minute ago. This is also true for the dominant. The guitar players will no longer get that nice open sound out of their instrument. Acoustic players will likely play with a capo in a more familiar key, like G, but the chord sounds will come out differently because of the resulting change in register and voicing. (I would love for guitarist to chime in here and comment about their experience in this area).

Experienced players understand that alternate keys are part of the church music world and are flexible enough to make transpositions in their head when capo-ing, and finding the right notes at the low end of the bass through chord inversions. It is important, however for the orchestrator (and/or band leader) to anticipate a different sound from the rhythm section by altering the key, even by such slight amounts.

Key changes within a song

An example of key setting dilemma on the orchestral side of the coin comes from Darlene Zschech's "Shout to the Lord." This is an interesting song melodically because it spans an 11th from verse to chorus. This automatically limits the key choices for the arranger. Set the key too low and no one will be able to sing the second phrase of the verse: "...my savior..." Set the key too high and everyone will be screaching through the chorus: "....power and majesty, praise to the king...." So your choices are somewhat limited from MAYBE Ab to as high as C.

The original arrangement features a dramatic key change midway through the chorus so this adds more planning on the part of the arranger. The original recording of this song begins in A with a move to B. This isn't a problem for the players on the album--there was no orchestral arrangement on that original either--just a band! However, attempting to orchestrate this song for church orchestra throws some challenges for some players playing in A. As if that weren't bad enough, moving to B can cause even more clams as players forget to sharp the A's!

This problem is easily solved by moving the song up to Bb. Now the second-phrase low note is rased to an A, and the orchestra has two easy keys to play in as the song moves from Bb to C.

The catch? Now the tenors are reaching for an A in the final chorus!

Orchestrate to the keys you may someday play the song in

If you are introducing a new chorus, complete with orchestration, one of the least anticipated issues is that "someday" we may want to do this arrangement again, but in the context and flow of the future service, the song will need to be transposed down (or up) a step.

There are two approaches you can take here. The first is the "plan-ahead" approach, leaving room for your instrumental voicing to work just fine either up or down a step from your first key. This means that your brass players have been given parts that have margin on the high end. It means that your sax and string parts aren't already reading notes written at the very bottom of their instruments' capabilities.

The second approach is to orchestrate it in a key that you're likely to sing or play the song in and orchestrate to that key. Then, when it's time to do the song again in a different key, you take the time to re-do the orchestration in spots that take your instrumentalists out of their range.

I have been forced into the second approach by not taking the time needed to plan in the first approach! This takes practice and experience.

Pick any new song you'd like to introduce. Put it in a median key, then orchestra with the intent that the song may be used a 2nd or minor 3rd in either direction. This will save you so much time down the road. Assuming you use modern notation software such as Finale, transposing the music is a very simple mouse click or two.

Here is an example of bad planning.

This orchestration works nicely in C. But can you find the trouble spots if I were to take this down just a half step to Db? Violin II of m 30, beat 4 would be out of range, and the viola in m 31, of beat 4 would also be out of range. Moving the song up a step might prove challenging for an inexperienced bass player in m 31 on the high notes.

It is dangerous to spend so much time at the low end of an instrument--especially a whole section of instruments if you think there is a chance the song may someday move to another key! In this case, I would be forced to redo the Violin II, Viola, and Cello lines in this passage to make it all work.

One final consideration related to key that is worth noting is how the notes of a resulting transposition fall on an instrument. For example, the original trumpet line below

would probably be more attainable for your players in concert F than in concert E:
In this case, I would probably bump the key down one more half-step to concert Eb so that this crazy line falls easier on the horn and the player doesn't have to fight such a crazy key. (I would also probably put the 2nd example in Gb rather than F# if I had to leave it!)

Orchestrating for church orchestra is a craft. It requires knowledge of strengths and weaknesses of your individual sections, understanding timbres in varying ranges of instruments, likely doublings, good key selection and more. Each church orchestra is as unique as the people and personalities of which it is comprised. Hopefully the principles given in these posts will be useful and transferable to your setting.

"Made Me Glad" Made ME glad.

I will not divulge my list in its entirety, but one of the songs in my "five star" list for a very long time has been Travis Cottrell's arrangement of Made Me Glad. Part of it is the song, part of it is the arrangement, part of it is just that it is fun to play.



I'm still processing our time from Fusion Conference this last weekend. One of my personal highlights was playing "in the band" for Travis and his singers. If you've never heard Travis, he's more than a gifted singer, he's a great leader of worship. More than that, he's great a shepherding a group of worshipers into understanding more about God and declaring truth. He's a real encourager.

One of the other great things about having Travis here is that he brings some really great singers with him. They were all so gracious, putting up with long days, teaching a couple of sessions on vocal techniques, and singing in a Friday night concert and leading Sunday morning services. I think we just about wore them out.

One of his singers was Julie Goss. I've decided I'm a forever-fan. She can sing so passionately and warmly on songs like Revelation Song, but she can also open it up.

She creates the highlight for me in the midst of the weekend's highlight when she lets it rip on Made Me Glad, especially in the chorus return on the key change after the bridge. I couldn't get enough of that every time we played it, and fortunately we did it four or five times this weekend. We could have done it a few more times as far as I'm concerned!

We worked hard at being the best band we could for these talented singers. In some ways, they made it easy. In other ways, I felt at times like I was on the edge because I ceded musical control of my "domain." I normally know what to expect. How many times of this, how to end that, when to start the next thing. In this case, it was a lot more wait and see, or maybe more of "get-ready-to-loop-that" But it all worked out great.

Thanks once again to Travis and the gang (Seth, Nirva, Julie and Lici) for making Fusion weekend such an enjoyable and entertaining one! You guys are talented and humble servants!
Thanks to Alan for the photos!

Four Star Songs

I've been working outside a lot lately-staining our deck and replacing the warped and splintered steps and risers. While doing my work, I keep the ipod running, usually catching up on the podcasts I listen to: Buzz Out Loud, This Week in Tech, Mac Break Weekly, Mac Geek Gab, This American Life, among several others. Sometimes, I actually use my ipod to listen to music.

There's a slick tool in iTunes called "Smart playlists" and it lets you have iTunes automatically sort your songs in any number of ways and it can auto-update, so you don't have to actively manage it. One of the ways I've recently decided to use the smart playlists is by using the track rating system. You can give a song zero to five stars. I've created three play lists: A five star, four star, and three star list. Anything song not fitting into those categories doesn't deserve to be on a list. Especially not a smart playlist.

I have another playlist that contains only songs that don't have a rating. When I'm driving around town I'll shuffle songs from this list and add my rating as I go. When I sync the iPod up to iTunes, the folders automatically get updated. In my "unrated songs" smart folder, I have 4,264 unrated songs.

I've gone through about 300 songs so far and I'm already digging my four star playlist.

The five star play lists are all time favorites. Songs that I will probably never not like. There are only a couple songs in that list so far.

The four star play list contains songs that I'll always stop and listen to. I like them for reasons ranging from fun to sentimental, to technically enjoyable, to great performances, etc. Basically, my criteria for giving a song a four star rating is that when it randomly comes on I say "Oh yeah!"

So far I think I have 39 songs in my four star playlist. I'm being vulnerable here. Don't judge me.

• All About Glory For You - Mark Condon
• At Last - Etta James
• Autumn Leaves [Take 2] -Bill Evans
• Bye Bye Blackbird - Miles Davis
• Celebration - Kool and The Gang
• Dreamlover -Mariah Carey
• Everlasting Love - Stevie Wonder
• Feels Like Redemption - Michael English
• For The Honour - Parachute Band
• God Great God - Kurt Carr
• Gravity - Embrace
• Hear My Worship - Jaime Jamgochian
• Hosanna - Kirk Franklin
• Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
• How Can I Not Sing? - Lakeview Worship
• Hungry - Kara
• I Fall in Love Too Easily - Bill Evans
• I Give You Worship - Ashmont Hill
• I Live to Worship You - Ashmont Hill
• I Won't Be Afraid - Ashmont Hill
• The Last Jesus - Kirk Franklin
• The Love Of God - MercyMe
• A Love That Will Last - Renee Olstead
• Magnificent - Tulele Faletolu
• My Life, My Love, My All - Kirk Franklin
• Oh What Love - Cindy Morgan
• One Sweet Day - Mariah Carey
• The Reason - Hoobastank
• Run, Baby, Run - Sheryl Crow
• Song of Glory - Ashmont Hill
• Take My Breath Away - Berlin
• This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) - Natalie Cole
• Under The Influence - Anointed
• We All Bow Down - Kara
• What If - Jadon Lavik
• When I Fall In Love - Keith Jarrett
• Without You - Christina Aguilera
• You Are Good - Israel & New Breed
• You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Lou Rawls