It Just Takes One!

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Christian, Composition, Faith, Guitar, Hymns, iTunes, Jesus, Just Do It, Music, The Cross

Well, here we are. Smack dab in the middle of the Holidays and saying “Where did those last 2 months go”?

I wanted to share a quick post because of the impact that your work can have regardless of your “Plan” or “intent”. And with the way the Music Industry is changing, what can happen next is anyone’s dart throw!

My “intent” was to release a new Hymn for solo acoustic guitar about every 2 months give or take in 2018. If you’ve been following along, that didn’t quite happen. C’est la vie! “Life goes on”, pick your favorite. That project will roll again (at least that’s the intent) in early 2019.

I routinely check my plays on streaming services to see where I’m getting play, age group, etc. and one day this large amount of streams came in on “According To Thy Gracious Word”, a large enough amount to make me investigate. Come to find out it was all from one country and that this country is primarily a different belief than Christianity. Well hallelujah! No matter if it was a Christian (and hopefully it wasn’t) or not, and whether or not I make enough money to buy my next meal from streaming (insert hearty laughter here!), my work impacted people for the eternal! In the world view, meh, whatever, but in the eternal, the everlasting, a deposit into the bank of goodness came from this project. Amen!

It is good to share the good, and I wanted to share this moment with you. In addition,  thank you! Thank you for continuing to play these Hymns on all platforms, and for purchasing too.

Well, your probably thinking I’ve got to get back to that 50% off deal online so I will close here and say, Pray. Pray unceasingly! That not only will the #HymnsForSoloAcousticGuitar continue on it’s path of blessing but that our work and example in other peoples lives will have an impact.

Blessings –

Rhon

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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