Philosophy

Bad Choral Music in Disguise: Four Tell-Tale Signs

February 12, 2019 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

How many times have you struggled to find great choral music for your church? You have so many limitations to consider. Your choir doesn’t learn difficult music quickly, so you can’t program old masterworks every week (if ever). Your existing library has a bunch of anthems in roughly the same style. And so much of what’s out there is so thoroughly mediocre.

Finding choral music you’ll love is certainly possible—and easier than ever with new resources available all the time. (Stay tuned for a future post about these!) But if you really want a program filled with variety, creativity, and fun, you need to learn how to weed out the stuff that won’t work. Quickly.

With that in mind, here are four tell-tale signs that you’re looking at a lemon.

[Read more…]

The Rich Life: Thriving on a Musician’s Income

September 18, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

What does the rich life mean to you?

Imagine one person—let’s call her Bonnie—who earns $80,000 per year (including benefits) at a job that requires 40 hours per week. Bonnie commutes in rush hour traffic for 3 out of 5 days each week, and works at home the other two days.

Imagine another person—let’s call him Charlie—who earns $40,000 per year, but in a job that averages only 20 hours per week. Charlie works a variety of jobs close to home, usually without the hustle of rush hour.

Bonnie and Charlie earn roughly the same amount per hour, but which of these two people lives the richer life?

How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Your Pastor

August 30, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

A better partnership starts with awareness. Here’s how to get there.

two colleagues shaking hands

Pastors and musicians have a history of fraught relationships, but yours doesn’t have to be that way. Everyone has their good and bad days, but no one deserves to be stuck at an impasse forever. Healthy relationships in the church are just as important as anywhere else. Here are a few of my suggestions for how to have a healthy relationship with your pastor. He or she should always be your number one partner in music ministry.

Don’t assume anything.

Too many musicians assume that the pastor is little more than a philosopher with his “head in the clouds.” Likewise, too many pastors assume that musicians are temperamental artists with little concern for the larger work of the church. Don’t make this mistake.

Six Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Pastor

August 13, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

In most churches, the pastor (or senior pastor, if there is more than one) is the chief decision maker. This includes decisions about whom to hire and fire. I’ve talked about job security in the church, but not in terms of the pastor-musician relationship. As a church musician, this is the one relationship you can’t afford to ignore. A strong relationship with your pastor is arguably your best source of security. It would be far too painful for a pastor to fire someone who makes their life easier.

To that end, here are six of my ideas for how you can make yourself so valuable to your pastor that s/he would never consider letting you go. [Read more…] about Six Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Pastor

Three Lessons Church Musicians Can Learn from Salespeople

August 6, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

As you’ve heard me say before, selling is about much more than the “pitch.” It is a process, not a single action. Though most of us will never become salespeople, all of us would do well to learn as much as we can from the experts who sell for a living.

Today, instead of telling you how to think like a salesperson, I will give you three reasons why it is worth your time to learn as much as you can about selling. I will give you the “why” and leave it to the experts to show you the “how.” (To skip to the specific titles I recommend, click here.)

Philosophy

A better partnership starts with awareness. Here’s how to get there.

Don’t assume anything.

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