L@L Notes: Dr. Robert Cathcart

Thanks for listening to Leigh! @ Lunch! If you’re interested in topics that came up during the show, see below for a list of links and other notes you may find helpful. If you missed “TTQ Promo with Guest Speaker Robert Cathcart“  (2/13/13), click on the title to listen to the show archive now (available 15 minutes after the show ends).

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Notes from today’s show

• To purchase your own copy of today’s giveaway, The Gift of Music, visit the CC Bookstore.
• Join us March 16th near Atlanta, GA, to hear Leigh, Dr. Cathcart, and John Mason Hodges discuss music and the quadrivium. Registration is available at TowardtheQuadrivium.com.
• Dr. Robert Cathcart serves as Pastor of Friendship Presbyterian Church (PCA) in the hamlet of Hickory Tavern, near Greenville, SC.
• While serving as pastor of Friendship, Robert enrolled in Erskine Theological Seminary’s Institute for Reformed Worship, completing a doctorate under noted liturgical scholar Hughes Oliphant Old.
• Dr. Old is the author of Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Ministers and Themes and Variations for a Christian Doxology, among other books.
• During his studies, Robert began writing hymn texts set to familiar tunes, an activity that he continues today. Basing the new texts on sermons that he prepares for his congregation, Robert follows in the footsteps of such prominent ministers as Richard Baxter, Isaac Watts, John Newton, and Charles Wesley.
• Currently, Robert has two collections of congregational songs available for use: Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles, and Christian Psalms for the Twenty-First Century.
• He quotes Gene Veith’s God at Work in talking about music as vocation and avocation.
• To incorporate music into the household, Robert suggests that parents start by playing a lot of good music. Use a website such as Pandora Radio that allows you to start with a musician or piece you respect and hear similar artists.
• He recommends programs such as The Music Garden or Kindermusik for infants and older. Also look for music opportunities through your church.
• Follow these with lessons: piano is one of the most foundational for learning basic music theory. The earlier students can learn some theory, the better. You might be able to use a piano at your church to practice.
• Alternately, the Suzuki method for violin emphasizes ear training and natural pitch recognition even in young children.
• Keep in mind your child’s physical size and stature when choosing an instrument to play, but ultimately Robert recommends following the child’s interest. Websites like the New York Philharmonic KidZone, BBC Learn about Music, and the San Francisco Symphony for Kids teach you about the different instruments and have lots of interactive learning and games.
• John Thompson’s Method, Nancy and Randall Faber’s, Alfred’s, and Bastien are some of the beginning piano curricula Robert recommends for students teaching themselves to play. Faber & Faber in particular has excellent grounding in ear training, theory, and transposition.
• For older students who don’t want to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” you can find older beginner books from most of these publishers (see Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course or the Bastien Older Beginner Piano Course).
• A student is not “done” with the basics until they can pick up a hymnal or book of standard songs and play it easily by reading the music.
• Asked why students should study music, Robert responds, “When I think about a verse like Philippians 4:8…to me, music has an opportunity to reflect truth, especially music in worship….I think that music is an excellent way for us to express who God is and what He has done for us.”
• He concludes, “My desire as a pastor is to help raise a generation of young people who are fit and able to serve God in His church through music.”

Thanks for listening!