So, Where’s the Music?

I realize that traversing this website may not be very intuitive. So, I am going to take a moment to explain how this site works, the reason it works that way, and give some quick instructions on finding and listening to music.

The Blog Format

If you are already with familiar with blogs, then there should be no trouble using this site. Basically, each song is a blog “post” under the Listen to Music category. The reason for this may not seem very obvious. What I am wanting to accomplish is an environment that encourages reflection, not just on the music, but on the lyrics and the meaning as well. Because the music is published in a blog format, there are some built in functionalities that add some neat effects to the overall experience. To demonstrate this, I will walk you through a sample post. The typical experience will follow a Listen, Read, Reflect pattern, as you will see in a moment.

sample-post

Listen

In the above excerpt from a sample post, I have marked the button that you should press to play a file. It is a clean looking flash player, but it can be confusing. Note that there are actually multiple files to play. I like this idea, because it gives me the option to post newer versions of a song without having to remove the old ones. Also, in the excerpt you will see two links under the flash player. Download will download the file directly to your computer. If you are browsing the website from a mobile device, clicking on Download will play the file. Next to the download link, you will find View Post. This takes you to the post for that particular record. From there you can view more information, play the file, and comment just like you would on any other blog post.

Read

I have been told that the music has a greater impact if the lyrics can be read. So, every song will have the lyrics posted on the page. It could be that people do not generally pay attention to lyrics when they listen to music. You should know that the lyrics are the most important part. They are almost always inspired by scripture, and it is the power of God’s Word that makes them meaningful.

Reflect

I did not write music, produce records, and build this site to bring glory to myself. Without Christ, I can do nothing. The whole point of this site is to direct people to Him. So, when you are listening to the music take the time to experience Him. Let go of the worries that are distracting you, and allow yourself to experience the Peace of Christ. Let the words minister to you, not for my glory, but for His. Finally, there is a comment section at the bottom of each post. Feel free to leave a reflection of your own.

Playlists

My goal is to publish a new playlist every month. These are not albums and there is not any intentional theme. They are simply a collection of all the songs published that month. If you look in the first column to the right (you may have to scroll up), you will see a box that says "M3U Playlists". In it you will find a list of links. Each of these links to a .m3u file which is a playlist. It can play in your browser, desktop media player, or on your mobile device. Just click on the link and see what happens. I prefer this implementation of continuous playback, rather than some flash player, because it is more rubust. For instance, if you want to listen to a playlist on your IPhone, just click on one of the links, and it will play all of the songs in order automatically. However, I do not want this to replace the method mentioned above, just suppliment it. If you have any other suggestions please let me know.

Finding Music

You might be thinking right now, “this seems like a fine idea, but how do I get to these posts?” Well, there are many ways, actually. In the far right column (again, you may need to scroll up) there are a number of boxes that link to posts on this site. Most of them should be pretty self-explainatory, though I would like to mention one. The Tag Cloud box (the one with lots of seemingly random words) is actually a set of links organized by theme. Clicking on one of those links should produce a list of posts related to that theme. These posts will include songs, and perhaps some articles as well. Another method for finding music is the search bar. If you are looking for a particular song, a song about a particular theme, or even scripture reference, type it in the search box. In case that is not enough options, you can also subscribe to the RSS feeds located in the top right corner of the page. Just to reiterate, the easiest way to get to the music is through the Listen to Music catagory. So, go ahead and listen to some music. Be sure to let me know what you think.