“Shouting About The Quiet”

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CD Baby, Christian, Christian Music, Classical Music, Crucifixion, Faith, Good Friday, In The Quiet, Inside The Music, Instrumental Music, Jesus, Music, MusicBlog, RhonVanErman

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rhonvanerman4

Yes! Yippee! Thank you God! Woo-Ho!

Well, that was my first reaction when my song In The Quiet finally posted to iTunes and CD Baby five days after the release date. A lot of hard work goes into every release and it’s always a dichotomy of excitement and unknowing that floods the day. So this was an occasion to shout about something that was meant for quiet time. Hmm, that’s an odd statement, but this release has been just that, not a “normal” release, so I will expound a bit.

First of all, thank you! Thank you to a patient God who’s wisdom is beyond the thoughts of man. It was His patience in which I had to rest because mine was about spent. Every time I’m challenged to it, my “A” personality rears it’s ugly…. (no pun intended). To a my Engineer Daryl Powell (Studio D), who always comes through in the clutch. One phone call and a master CD was made and sent over night to my distributor. A woman named Sally, who works at CD Baby, and whom I will probably never meet or speak with personally, but who loaded the full length version of my song to be available to the world. The fans who purchased the song on the original day of release, you are my “Super Fans” that fuel my inspiration further! And to my Angel In Disguise, my wife Tonya. Your embrace and words of encouragement are a blessing I can never repay.

Second of all, I have to say that this has been one of the oddest things I’ve been through. Not only musically, but Spiritually. I have come away with something that my “A” personality really struggles with, but I believe over time is making me what God wants me to be. – “To put my head down and run, only to look forward on the path I’ve been given. Not of it’s outcome, but the wisdom gained that puts me closer to the One who is wise. To let gratefulness over rule expectation, for in this I have truly been blessed”.

Good Friday is April 3rd 2015. I have attached the CD Baby player of the song In The Quiet above for you to contemplate this day and your reaction to the crucifixion of Jesus. I pray that it is a blessing to you. The iTunes player is below (the full version is available but the player only plays a clip), and other digital music retailers will soon have this song available. You can always email me if you have questions about where you wish to purchase this song. I am hoping to have a video of this song by Good Friday so stay tuned. Please share this blog with others and comment below. Thanks for reading and listening!

Blessings,

Rhon –

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-the-quiet-single/id976161054

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A Stinky Little Word Called Truncate… What?

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Faith, God's Word, Good Friday, In The Quiet, iTunes, Jesus, Just Do It, MusicBlog, RhonVanErman, Song Release, Spiritual Test, The Bible, Truncate

Release day! When all the hard work of writing, copyrighting, recording, blogging, contacting media…(believe me the list is much bigger, but I think you get the point), has come to one moment in time of a few clicks and viola, it’s worldwide! An amazing day each time you have the release of a new song, otherwise known as, “one of your babies”. That’s when it all goes right technically. And with all the data flinging across that little cord from our computer, things really do work pretty well most of the time. It only takes one time when it goes awry to put you into a very uncomfortable position. Well, let me be honest, I was seething! Here’s where and when the release of In The Quiet all came into perspective.

If you don’t know me personally, I’m an “A” personality. I live by goals and schedules and love the Nike slogan, “Just Do It”. So when I’ve done everything on my end and worked my tail off to make it happen, and it doesn’t, that’s not a room you typically want to be in. Again, if you know me, and something is amiss, I’m usually very quite, breathing very deeply and quite often just before the storm finally hits. And in the instance of the release of “In The Quiet”, I had to deal with this stinky little word I’d not been introduced to call Truncate. Okay, so now I’m really hot. What in the world is truncate? It means to shorten, or, cut off at the top or end. In this case, my wonderful musical creation was now worldwide and only 0:48 long and not 2:13. Um, that’s not a good thing!! The icing (or Dairy Queen as I like to call it, Truncate was the cake!), I found this out at 4:30 a.m. EST on release day and couldn’t speak with a human at my distributor until 12:00 p.m. EST. Good times! Here comes the war of human, Spirit, and faith.

Regardless of how firm we are in our faith, we are still human. I struggle with that everyday. And the human part of me was about to cave to circumstance. After all, In The Quiet is a definite leap of faith for me, especially being a slow, moody, contemplative, instrumental, that you have to take quiet time and reflect. In this smart phone driven world, that’s a tough calling. And not every one of my fans may want to even listen because there’s a Cross on the cover. And now, it’s not even half of a song to hear. And at 8:00 a.m. I’m receiving messages that people were buying the song and not getting the full length! Ahhh!!! How could this have happened? What now? Time to cower? I think not!

Thank God not only for his Word, but the encouragement of my wife, friends, and fans!! At just the right time the right words were spoken to me. And the Spirit of peace was alive. How do I react? Just like the song In The Quiet. How do I react to the Cross? Like an “A” personality? Not this time. It was time to let go and let God do the work. Okay, now I’m exhausted (It’s now 2:00 p.m. and I have to prep teaching music). So, the physical may be weary but the Spirit has been filled.

I spoke with my Distributor and clarified the problem and would have to overnight a CD of the song to correct the problem. A true drag at best, but better than canceling the release and starting all over. Especially since Good Friday is only two weeks away. Yes, that little stinky word (as much as I hate it) taught me once again, in His time, not mine. After all, this song is much bigger than a worldwide release, it has an eternal message!

So my hope is that sometime the week of March 23rd, In The Quiet, in it’s full length, will be available for you to download. And if you’ve already purchased the :48 version, you’ll be able to upload the full length at no extra charge. By the way, thanks for being some of the first fans to download this song, you’re awesome!! Be it good and bad, music and it’s Industry has changed so much over the last 10 years it’s amazing. But the one thing that will always remain is the thread you and I share, the songs God gives me, and the ability to connect in their language. That will always be more important than any technology!

Blessings –

Rhon

“In The Quiet” art work

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Christian, Crucifiction, Good Friday, Guitar, In The Quiet, Instrumental Music, Jesus, Music Blog, Piano, Piano and Guitar, RhonVanErman

In my previous post I spoke about the meaning and creation of the song “In The Quiet”. The process to find the right image for this song was a difficult one, mainly due to the fact that there weren’t cameras back in Jesus’ time. Quite honestly, I’m thankful for that. In the search for the best image I kept coming back to not just Jesus himself but, the Cross. The symbol by which he will always be remembered. So there it was. In this particular image the visual is fairly gloomy but with a bit of light in the back round to add to the emotion of the song in which there is tension and release, anguish and hope. I believe this art work aligns perfectly with the upcoming release of the song “In The Quiet”. The release date is Friday, March 20th, 2015. It will be available worldwide on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and http://www.rhonvanerman.com There is also a new page on my website In The Quiet dedicated to the release of this song. Just click the italicized title in the previous sentence. May this release be a blessing to all of you.

– Rhon

Quiet – Need Some?

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Christian, Christian Music, Classical Music, Crusifiction, Gethsemene, Good Friday, Guitar, Guitar Solo, In The Quiet, Instrumental Music, Jesus, Jesus Praying, Music, MusicBlog, Piano and Guitar, Praying, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanBlog, The Cross

We live in a very interesting time don’t we? I’m sure all generations have said this, however, that little rectangular thing you can’t leave home without has changed everything we will ever be. Albeit good or bad. And as always, we are daily given a choice to use it for something good or bad. Kind of like a volume control, loud or quiet? With the previously mentioned device I could use a little of the latter in my life. How ’bout you?

Several years ago I was in my kitchen prepping a music lesson with an old sight reading book I hadn’t looked at in quite a long time. The morning sun was shining in, and the anticipation of Spring was filling my bones with overwhelming exuberance (that means I was fairly excited). The neighborhood dogs weren’t barking, the phone wasn’t ringing, and my little rectangular thing was turned off. Quiet time. The world was on pause for a bit and that was good.

Teaching music enables me to give back but it also allows me to look back. The excitement of first’s. The first time playing a chord that moves my very being. The first time being able to confidently play a solo with all the notes I was thinking at the time I was thinking them (musical conversation). And the most important thing this time was, playing three chords that transcended me into an event that I yearly commemorate, but I was never able to express the emotions until the notes came out. It was very moving. And once again I was the instrument playing the instrument for the emotion to have sound. Anguish, tension, abandonment, weeping, torment, hoping, on a level that we most likely will never know. The quiet had given me the time to reflect on something that was done for me that I’ll never be able to repay. Good Friday.

I want to encourage those that are not Christian, or are Christian, not to click off right now. This is not a post to preach to you, but, to engage you to take a quiet moment and ponder for yourself what Good Friday is. I’ve often looked at paintings of this horrific event and had to turn my head at the shear brutality. How can this be “Good”? But the question that really hit me this time was, what was Jesus going through? The personal side of Jesus. Not what I thought, but what he felt. And how do I react to that? It is said to know another’s life you must walk in their shoes. The thoughts of Jesus on this day I will only read, and never fully understand. And this is the story for the “Inside the music” of the song, “In The Quiet”.

Today all the things that needed to be done for the release of is this song were finished. The uploading of audio, artwork, and distribution. The biz stuff. So now all is good with the technical world, and on the release date you’ll be able to purchase something called an mp3, load it into that little rectangular thing you can’t leave home without, and take a moment from the spinning of your world and listen. “In The Quiet” is an all instrumental of just piano and guitar. Just the intimacy of the two instruments speaking the emotion of the song. My hope is that when you listen with no distractions, the song will help you reflect on Good Friday and it’s true meaning. This will be a digital release only, no CD (yet), and available at all the major music retailers like iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, etc. The date will be posted in my next blog. If you have any comments or thoughts you’d like to share you can leave them below or email me at rockin@rhonvanerman.com 

www.rhonvanerman.com