How pathetic I'm home watching Cliff Richard and The Shadows in Concert on TV

[Hannah]

They were before my time but I had much older cousins and this was in their days so as a little kid I grew up listening to many bands of this era.

Anyway I really wanted to see them when they came to Australia. I have few things in life that actually I'd like to do these days. Being a Classic & Spanish guitaritst myself I do love gutiar. Any opportunity when I was younger and healthier I used to go to concerts where there would be great guitarists.

Well I although I couldn't go to this reunion concert I just lucked on it by chance on a free to air community TV station that isn't in our TV program guide. You have to look them up on the internet or surf the TV stations at the right time.

So here I am having a great time reliving old memories and enjoying some great old time guitar playing. It's dark and raining outside, I've had my lunch and this is a nice way to spend my early afternoon.

You know these old guys still do all the guitar music to their old dance moves.

[Hannah]

Well that was a great concert. Shame I didn't have the health to go see them when they came out here live.

Certainly more comfortable watching it on TV at home with the heater on and a Kitty on my lap than being out at night in some Concert Hall and having made all the effort to get in town to the venue and then late at night making your way home.

Like I said I don't have many worldly things I like to do anymore. Nice to know there are still come occassional things I can still enjoy while still here on Earth and this concert, compared to what some music artists perform on stage these days, it was just so clean and lots of fun.

[mattfivefour]

Why is it "pathetic", sis? I think that is a lovely way to spend some time.

If you like guitar, are you familiar with the British guitarist John Williams, or the Australian Kevin Peek?

[Hannah]

Why is it "pathetic", sis? I think that is a lovely way to spend some time.

If you like guitar, are you familiar with the British guitarist John Williams, or the Australian Kevin Peek?

Stuck inside watching TV again while life goes by outside. Just frustrated that there was no way I could make the concert. My hubby and I had tickets a few years ago to a really rare British Band and actually we both got sick in the 24 hours before the concert and couldn't go. Since then I've learned my health is just too irratic to plan for these kinds of events (not cheap either).

I do know John Williams, have seen him quite a few times in my younger days and Julian Bream as well before he retired. I have never done the overseas holidays but I have managed to get to a concert or two in my younger healthier days. We live in Sydney and a few years ago I suggested to my hubby we can play tourist in our own town as we are too sick to easily pack ourselves up for a holiday. Since then on our good days we drive to somewhere you can get to and back home through the day. I hadn't realised how many beautiful tourist spots we have within 1 hour drive from home most with good facilities and a place to get a decent meal and coffee. Sometimes I pack a picnic lunch and we jsut buy a coffee if we know the place it a bit too pricey.

I met a Spanish guitarist many years ago who wanted computer lessons but couldn't pay. He was famous back in Spain and trying to make a go of it in Australia for his family. So I taught him basic computer skills and he gave me Spanish guitar and Flamenco guitar lessons. His name is Jose Giraldo. He didn't remain but introduced me to other very good guitarists here in Australia. I'm not super good like these guys but I have gotten some really good skill in those days. Unfortunately I finished my Uni and had to work full-time and didn't have the time to put into guitar or my other musical skills and these days the pain in my back prevents me the long practice & playing sessions I used to do in the past.

Australia has little to offer even full-time session or orchestra musicians. I have many friends who were in that industry but have had to find everyday work to supplement their incomes, now retired. You really need to make it overseas to earn enough off music or professional choir/opera. I started in choir at age 7 and at University was in a professional choir and got into opera and muscial choruses. Had to work to earn a living though and got sick with ear, nose and throat illnesses from time to time which is a career killer. I can still hold a very good tune after all these years of being sick but I can't sing opera my back and throat too far gone to try and exercise back to top form. I learned guitar because my family too poor to help me get piano lessons. A neigbour who taught piano gave me a year and a half of lessons for free and had me over to practice but then she moved. Later I did a few piano lessons but again didn't have the money to buy one of my own. So my music learning had to come to what is much cheaper and easy to carry from one place to another. The guitar.

I am grateful I have had so much to do with singing and playing a muscial instrument. It had been a place of escape for me many times in the past when dealing with emotional pain. These days I am very picky what I listen to as I only want to glorify God. So much of the old stuff is gone from my music collection and my husband has done the same. I tend to just like to stick to instrumental music if I am listening to secular stuff. Of course being classically trained I am a Hymn girl and I'm not into modern Chrisitian music but I do have a few really nice ballads by various Christian artists.

Soon we will be in heaven and I can't even imagine what music or singing will be like up there. I wonder if we will play any kind of instruments in Heaven? God had musicians as part of the Levitical Priesthood didn't He? There were those who blew horns and played tambourines and went before the armies of Israel as well as played when they celebrated the Lord.

Sorry music one of those topics I tend to waffle on about.

[Meg]

Will there be music in Heaven? Certainly, there are some deeply anointed musicians in every generation, and anything that meaningful here will live There! I can't wait! I have very little music now, but the little I do have is so special. I never got the chance to learn to play music, something I always wanted to do, and that is on my list of hopes for Eternity. The concerts... Oh wow! If what they play on Earth is so incredible, can you imagine the great talents jamming in Heaven? I tend to rather suspect Robin Mark will be Raptured with his guitar, as it looks as though he's going to live to see the Rapture. (I said that because I saw him live, and his acoustic guitar and pick are like body parts with him; he tells wonderful stories and prays as well with the guitar slung over his shoulder and the pick between his fingers ),

Any chance you could post some Christian ballads? I really don't know much of the Christian music. I wasted a lot of money on hit and miss CD experiments before my finances crashed, and now I can't afford anything new, even if I knew who is good... I miss things like ballads and blues and really good complex music. I sometimes wonder if the sound of electric guitar will exist in Heaven... Aaah, there's not much left in this world I care for either, you're not alone there, Hannah.

[Hannah]

Meg,

Sorry I don't listen to Christian radio or know of any free music download websites. My ballads are only on CD which are copyrighted I can't just put them on the forum.

I notice some people seem to post Christian songs in Videos, so they must be from some Internet site out there?

I have only bought mine the old fashioned way from a music store. I haven't bought anything actually for years my CDs are from years ago when I used to work full time. I had to give up quite a few years ago now. Lots of change in the music industry since then. My favourite Christian music store has closed down. They had listening stations so you could give an album a go before buying, that is how I found most of what I have. Not sure how I would find out about what is out there myself these days.

Got more than enough to keep me going and when I don't have time to put on a track I tend to sing to myself anyway. I know most of the popular hymns and some of my favourite scripture in song of by heart. Used to lead singing in Church and perform gospel and hymns for years on end you tend to remember the words after a while.

I love The Crabb Family, Amy Grant and Kathy Trocolli. I really have found The Crabb Family and Kathy Trocolli's songs touch me the most. Oh yeah and who can forget Keith Green (the first Christian artist I was given a tape of when I just became a Christian). There are others but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Maybe some people here can let you know where there are some free Christian websites that you can go to and find stuff you may like?

[Meg]

Thanks Hannah, and yes, you are right about not trying to upload anything on CD. I was thinking You Tube resources for casual enjoyment, but everything i thought was left of my life changed dramatically late last night. But still, it would be neat of we could get a music thread going around here to share musicians we know of with online videos or links for everyone to share. The first year especially was so terribly dry for me, all the music I knew was secular rock & roll, completely at odds with a repentant lifestyle. I couldn't get a single person to help me discover new resources... They didn't seem to understand my need... The Lord filled in the blanks, like the first Robin Mark CD, for example. Days Of Elijah had just come out, this was the very significant year for me, 2006, and it was face forward on the racks and on sale. On the cover is an Irish ruin, probably an old Monastery, and I thought that looks like Ireland! It was, so I bought the CD untested and discovered the most delightful singer and songwriter (IMO) I have ever heard. He's also the only famous Christian musician I have ever seen live, and his music helps me get through the bad days & nights.

I've heard a little of the Crabb Family, but Amy Grant is too commercial for my tastes... I'm odd that way, always on the less traveled roads, that would be me... I wish I could hear you play guitar... Some day in Eternity...

[Hannah]

Meg

God brings us across those things He thinks would be beneficial for our growth in Him.

You know most of my music Christian music collection is not commercial stuff but musicians I know who are Christians and they have either performed hymns or popular Church songs based on scripture or even one of their own songs. They may have been recorded at a conference or some sort of large gathering somewhere and I have tapes of their performances. These mean much more to me than the stuff I can get from the shops. I only have about 10 of these kinds of amatuer tapes. They are copyrighted I understand why the orginisation holding the event had to do that. Anyway I often turn to these old tapes (I've re-corded them for myself and keep the originals as masters.) are what I tend to listen to the most. They have a strange healing affect when I listen to them and they are very personal.

I like some of the commercial Christian music as well. Yes Amy Grant is a bit too commercial, she tried to break into the secular market. I put her on when I need something light and upbeat, toe tapping. Keith Green is the same for me.

Youtube is a great resource. Limited in that you have to be at your PC to listen to the videos but better than nothing.

When we are in heaven I would love to play the guitar for you and if God is willing He will give me the skills to play the piano as well. I would love to play the piano.

As a friend of mine always says to me. "I will be happy being a janitor in heaven just as long as I am there."