You may be somewhat curious about my music and to answer some of your questions, I have included this short profile. I do not concider myself a professional song writer, rather I simply do what I do because I love doing it and feel it is what God has called me to do.
I am retired and have been doing my music since 2006. I began writing a short time after the death of my mother and I attribute my writing to the influence she had on me. I have had no music training of any kind, but have always wanted to play the piano. When she became ill and was confined to the hospital, I started singing songs from the church hymnal and taking them for her to listen— hoping they would cheer her up a bit. I sang all the songs that I knew from 3 or 4 song books and soon ran out of material to sing. After she passed away, I felt as though I should continue what I was doing, but knew I needed some different material. I didn't know where to find the new material I was looking for and couldn't really afford to purchase a lot of it anyway. I really don't know how to read music that well, so I came up with the idea of creating my own as lyrics set to my own melodies. Just three years later, I had written over 600 songs.
After writing the lyric, I wanted to take it the next step and attempt a melody. I decided that I should attempt to do the best that I could and sing what I had just written. I have always been told that, "You don't know what you can do until you try it." Many of the songs I have written were for my lovely daughter to sing, but I had no sheet music for her and she gently declined to sing them. She is an extremely lovely person with an awesome voice, and I am sure that we will work something out. She makes her father really proud!
With such limited ability as far as writing, singing, and playing an instrument, why would I want to continue to create something that I know so little about? First, I felt that God led me to do so. After sharing some of my music with friends, I received a positive response. God worked in my life, as well as the lifes of the ones that I shared my music with. I couldn't deny that God can use anything He wishes to accomplish His will. I have asked God this question... If He has chosen to use my feeble attempts of praising Him, why did He not give me the voice and the training to do so? The simple answer, of course, is that He is a lot less concerned about how well I do and far more interested that I am willing to do it. What He chooses to do with it is entirely up to Him, even though I would like for it to be used to bless those who see and hear it. I don't know what will happen with what I have accomplished, but I do know that I am at peace knowing that I have a God that loves me and is only concerned about what is best for me as His child. It is in this thought that I have given it totally to Him, thanking Him for a opportunity to serve.
About the songs: Most of what I have written took me thirty minutes to an hour to compose, although some of them took me several days to complete. Looking back on what I have written and knowing myself, I wonder how it was accomplished. Many of them were written with little thought, just writing down what I felt in my heart I was to write. I concidered going back and trying to improve or correct what I had already written, but my passion to write more kept me from doing so. Many songs I sang only once or twice as I recorded it. I have serious problems with allergies, and in many cases found it difficult to sing them even the first time. I have an extensive education in the arts having obtained a Masters Science degree in fine arts and I am somewhat of a stickler for quality, I take pride in my work. In feeling this way, I am sometimes prone to discomfort when doing inferior or incomplete work and strive not to do so. This has been a problem for me in my writing not only for my own comfort, but because I want only to praise the One I have written about. Having little knowledge about music, but wanting to do what I feel I am led to do, I have found comfort in taking my efforts as far as my knowledge and talent will allow me to and then giving it to God—letting Him do whatever He wills.
I pray that you will enjoy my efforts and that you will let Him speak to you as you listen. As I wrote each word, my prayer was that God would bless my humble efforts and that comfort and guidance would follow all who hear. May God bless your day as you allow him to work in your life.
Your Eternal Friend,
GLH