Secular music in gospel........

[davidenoch]

Ok here is my question....Is it wrong for me to study Stevie Wonder. The reason i ask is that his style is heard in a lot of gospel music today...e.g. Israel, Kirk franklin, Fred hammond, and maybe others, these are some of our heavy hitters just let me know what you all think....
 

[under13]

Thats a personal decision. If you feel guilty listening to secular music, then dont listen to it.
A lot of people will argue that there is nothing wong with reading love poems, so Why would it be wrong to listen to love songs.

Me, I listen to a lot of secular music, and it has helped me with my playing. Not all secular artist are vulgar and nasty. Stevie happens to be one of the clean ones, and If you study his music, it just might help you with your creativity. Face it, in order to play today's gospel musc, you have to know Jazz, Latin, R&B as well as other styles of music. If the words in stevie wonder's offend you then dont listen to him.

[b_jizzle20]

Thats a personal decision. If you feel guilty listening to secular music, then dont listen to it.

I agree,

For me, there is enough gospel material out there to learn from. Most of the stuff I know and learned is from gospel records, LGM or other learning sites. However when I was playing Sax I listened to alot of Kenny G and it help me.

So theres a balance and your motive gotte be right.

[kdiddy]

theres no such thing as a secular note  i dont know one keyboardist who says they are not influence by Stevie. personally i listen to everything and draw as many influences as possible. But remember the atmosphere you permit determines the product you produce

www.myspace.com/hazepage

[T-Block]

Ok here is my question....Is it wrong for me to study Stevie Wonder. 

It's o.k. for you to study his music.  You can study anyone's music you want because like it was said ealier, music itself can't be put into a specific genre.  I listen to every type of music genre there is for ideas.  The way you apply it is up to you.

Besides, if u think about it there are only 2 "real" genres of music:  gospel & everything else, LOL.  See how limited your music would be if u ONLY stuck to studying gospel music?

[under13]

It's o.k. for you to study his music.  You can study anyone's music you want because like it was said ealier, music itself can't be put into a specific genre.  I listen to every type of music genre there is for ideas.  The way you apply it is up to you.

Besides, if u think about it there are only 2 "real" genres of music:  gospel & everything else, LOL.  See how limited your music would be if u ONLY stuck to studying gospel music?

Yup, the dudes who listen to only listen to gospel, usually sound pretty boring

theres no such thing as a secular note  i dont know one keyboardist who says they are not influence by Stevie. personally i listen to everything and draw as many influences as possible. But remember the atmosphere you permit determines the product you produce

I meant to say that. Stevie is probaly one the best musicians/arangers soul music has had. He can do classical, jazz, funk, pop, rnb etc. Not studying him, is like a classical musician not studying Bach.

I honestly cant think of one stevie song that is vulgar or raunchy.

If you decide to listen to stevie you gotta get Songs in the key of Life  http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Key-Life-Stevie-Wonder/dp/B00004SZWD

[T-Block]

Yup, the dudes who listen to only listen to gospel, usually sound pretty boring

I wouldn't say all that, they just sound "gospel".  There's nothing wrong with just listening to gospel, you just won't have the variety as a person who studied more genres of music.

[chosenandcalled]

It's okay. Everybody has they own flava of music. Like me for instance, i love all types of music except for heavy metal,of course. I love different secular artists but i have my own flava. my favorite type of music is gospel.

[under13]

An

I wouldn't say all that, they just sound "gospel".  There's nothing wrong with just listening to gospel, you just won't have the variety as a person who studied more genres of music.

And they will probaly stuggle when trying to play the contemporarry stuff, or something with a latin or jazzy flavor. There is a big difference when you can add classical touches to your piano playing. Imagine if Richard smalwood had only listend to gospel.  Us Gospel musicians gotta keep up with the times.
It seems like todays gospel scene is "survival of the phattest" so nowadays, you gotta bring it, and give the people what they want.

[themidiroom]

I think you're pretty safe with Stevie.  I've got all his music from 1971-early 90's

[chrisrob21]

listen i personally feel its nothing wrong with listening to secular music first off god made music he created it right! second it depends on who u listen to its talking about sex and stuff then i dont think that you should be studying that cause it can lead to other things but if its a beautiful love song by beyonce wht the heck learn it play and put it with some of ur chords i do it. and last when ppl play shouting music they put secular music in there and ppl go crazy......... i feel if ur tyna bring ppl to the kingdom of god you gotta meet them where they at  and if they listen to rap music you show them Da truth.... and kirk franklin and stuff. theres a new group called thee ensembles with jason clayborn he got mike jackson in there standford and son rug rats pink panther and his music is really good and poweful bro your good!!!!!!!!

[under13]

when ppl play shouting music they put secular music in there and ppl go crazy.........

That  Jay-Z shout, stil has people goin crazy

[csedwards2]

Simply, NO

[T-Block]

And they will probaly stuggle when trying to play the contemporarry stuff, or something with a latin or jazzy flavor. There is a big difference when you can add classical touches to your piano playing. Imagine if Richard smalwood had only listend to gospel.  Us Gospel musicians gotta keep up with the times.

This is not true.  Gospel can be old school or contemporary.  It all depends on how u play the chords.  I know what u trying to say man, but not all gospel music is boring w/out influences from other styles. 

To be honest, I believe every genre of music is influenced by every other genre in some way or fashion.  That's where that playing with classical feel or R&B feel comes into play.  The lyrics to the song is what makes it gospel or what not, but the music is pretty much genre-less.

[sjonathan02]

This is not true.  Gospel can be old school or contemporary.  It all depends on how u play the chords.  I know what u trying to say man, but not all gospel music is boring w/out influences from other styles. 

To be honest, I believe every genre of music is influenced by every other genre in some way or fashion.  That's where that playing with classical feel or R&B feel comes into play.  The lyrics to the song is what makes it gospel or what not, but the music is pretty much genre-less.

I disagree.

[sjonathan02]

Simply, NO

Agreed.

[Bullitt]

As my pastor once said, "There is no such thing as 'secular music'....only secular lyrics."

Our bodies are temples so we have to be mindful of what we store in them.  I went to a youth conference a few years ago with our church kids and one of the speakers played a club song that was popular at the time.  Everyone was literally dancing in the isles until he cut the music then put on some holy hip-hop with a very similiar beat.  Some continued to dance, others just stood there dumbfounded lol.  Without going too far off topic, his message was a great example of how lyrics can define a song.


God Bless,
J

[T-Block]

I disagree.

Care to explain?  U don't have to, i'm just curious.

[themidiroom]

The lyrics to the song is what makes it gospel or what not, but the music is pretty much genre-less.

I am inclined to agree with this.  Over the years, we have come to indentify some well known styles of music as gospel but gospel music itself is not limited to that musicial style.  What we call gospel has very heavy influences of blues and jazz.  These genres were very popular and the musicians would play in the juke joints at night and play in church on Sunday.

[sjonathan02]

Care to explain?  U don't have to, i'm just curious.

It's like saying there's no difference between playing instrumental Rock music and instrumental Gospel music.


On top of that, depending on how the 'secular' progression is played will determine how I internalize a song.

For example, when they tried to to 'gospelize' that Maxwell (I think it was Maxwell) song, "Love", I was like, are ya'll serious?