Music To Pray By

I finished this episode on October 25. That gets me close to having enough content scheduled that I can start working on the album, Hallowed Be Your Name.

For a while now, replays of past live streams have played around the clock on Twitch and Rumble. As of October 23, the replay also runs on YouTube, Facebook and X, so it’s there 24/7 wherever you already watch.

The bigger change is what happens when I go live. My live stream now goes to the same server that plays the replay. As soon as it shows up, the replay steps aside and you get the live set, and when I’m done the replay picks back up right where it left off. On Twitch and Rumble that all happens inside one continuous stream. On YouTube, Facebook and X the replay ends when I go live and a new one starts after I finish, and the old replay broadcasts get cleaned up so they don’t pile up on the channels.

TikTok only gets the live stream. Their rules don’t allow streaming recordings, so the replay stays off TikTok. The replay plays at 720p, and the weekday live streams are 1080p.

We tried it out with a run-through stream on the evening of October 24, and it switched to live and back to the replay on its own.

The parts for the version 5 LED bar prototype are here, so I’m hoping to spend more time on that now.

Since the music is reaching more places now, I wanted to close with the last psalm in the book. Psalm 150 calls for praise in the sanctuary and in the heavens, with every instrument, and it ends with “Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD!” This Pray the Bible Short is A Prayer from Every Breath, from Psalm 150:1-2 and 6.

Watch the Psalm 150 prayer on YouTube.

Thanks for listening.

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I’m writing this on October 20, and the plan is to start work on the album, Hallowed Be Your Name, the week of October 26.

Please keep our financial situation in your prayers. Things are extremely tight.

Please also pray for The Connection Church. We’re beginning to move forward with building a new facility, and we’re asking God to provide.

That building project is why I picked this Pray the Bible Short. In Haggai 2 the people are back from exile and rebuilding the Temple, and the older ones can still remember how grand the first one was. God tells them to be strong and get to work, because he is with them and his Spirit is still among them. The short is A Prayer When My Work Seems Small, from Haggai 2:3-5.

Watch the Haggai 2 prayer on YouTube.

Thank you for praying with us.

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This is episode 100. I still can’t quite believe I’ve done 30 podcasts since relaunching Music To Pray By in April. Hopefully the next 30 are better than the last 30.

Thank you to everyone who keeps listening and praying along each week.

As I put this episode together, I’m still waiting on parts for the first round of version 5 testing. I’m hoping they arrive this week.

Please keep me in your prayers, especially for our financial situation.

I wanted to end with this Pray the Bible Short from Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah prayed it right after buying a field at God’s direction, while Babylon had Jerusalem under siege. On paper it made no sense. His prayer starts with the God who made the heavens and the earth, and then says it plainly: nothing is too hard for you.

Watch the Jeremiah 32 prayer on YouTube.

Thanks for sticking with me.

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As I write this, Sanban and I are getting ready to see Elevation Worship in Dallas. By the time this episode goes up we’ll have already been, so I’ll try to put a few pictures in next week’s episode.

I’m still building up enough podcasts and shorts to carry us through the last week of November. Two of those weeks I’ll be traveling for work, and I’d like everything to keep going out on schedule while I’m away.

With a worship concert on the calendar, Psalm 149 felt like the right pick this week. It opens by calling God’s people to sing him a new song and to praise him together. This Pray the Bible Short is A Prayer to Sing a New Song, from Psalm 149:1-2 and 4-5.

Watch the Psalm 149 prayer on YouTube.

Thanks for spending part of your week here.

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I played this episode on version 4 of the LED bar, the one printed in transparent filament. It is brighter. The trouble is that the clear plastic lets the light spill onto the keys on either side, so you lose the look of a single key lighting up on its own. For the October 9 live stream I went back to the black bar, and I’m sticking with it until version 5 is ready.

Version 5 needs a custom circuit board, so realistically a working prototype is a month away, probably longer. The 3D files for the current bar gave me the exact spot where each of the 88 lights needs to sit. Most keys are about 14 mm apart, but the spacing runs anywhere from 12.4 to 16 mm, and down at C1 and C#1 the lenses end up only 2.5 mm apart.

The plan right now is eight boards, each about 150 mm long and 20 mm wide, lying flat in the channel where the LED strip sits today, with 10 to 12 lights on each one. A couple of the lights land within a millimeter or two of a joint in the bar, so the boards will split between keys and not at the joints. They’d take the same kind of signal from the Pi that the current strip uses.

Nothing gets ordered until the five-key test is done. That test has to settle how much power each light gets, which lens looks best, what shade of white works on the black keys, and whether the camera picks up any flicker. Then one board gets made and fitted into the bar before I order the other seven.

Partway through that October 9 live stream I went to unmute and hit the record button instead. About half the stream went out with no sound, and the recording on my computer stopped right at that point too.

The Disklavier had recorded the whole set as I played it, so I played it all back on the piano and recorded the sound again. Then I pulled the video from YouTube, lined the new audio up with it in Final Cut Pro, deleted the broken stream from YouTube and Facebook, and re-aired the fixed version later that morning. The October 9 stream on the channel now is that repaired version.

I finished this episode on Friday, October 9, and the plan was to finish another one the next day, along with some TCC shorts. Once I have enough podcasts and shorts scheduled to carry us through the end of XPERTS on November 14, all of my focus goes to the album, Hallowed Be Your Name.

Last week ended with Psalm 97. Psalm 99 opens the same way, “The LORD reigns,” and keeps coming back to one line: he is holy. This Pray the Bible Short is A Prayer Before the Holy King, from Psalm 99:5 and 8-9.

Watch the Psalm 99 prayer on YouTube.

Thanks for praying along this week.

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Version 3 of the LED bar is finished, and it looks really good. I’m already printing version 4, this time in transparent filament, to see if the light looks any better coming through it.

I’ve also started on a completely new design. The current bar uses LED strips, so each key gets a few tiny LEDs and the light travels through a short channel on its way to the key. Version 5 gives every key its own high-power LED, a Samsung LH351D on a 10 mm board, with a small lens in front of it that focuses the light down onto the key instead of letting it spread out.

On paper that’s roughly three to six times more light per key than I get now. It uses the same bar and mounts as the current one, so only the part that holds the lights changes. I’m also going to try a cooler white on the black keys. I did that with the current strip and it helped them blend in with the white keys a little.

The first test is only five keys, C4 through E4, and the parts are on the way. If it works, the whole keyboard needs 88 of these. Hand wiring that many isn’t realistic, so the idea is to have custom circuit boards made that sit inside the bar and chain together the way the strip does now.

The work trip last week used up the time I had set aside to get ahead on podcasts and shorts, so I didn’t gain any ground there. I’m hoping to catch up this week so I can finally start on the album.

Another work trip just landed on the first week of November, and the week after that I’ll be in Nashville for XPERTS. So it looks like I probably won’t be streaming the first two weeks of November. I’ll keep you posted as it gets closer.

It felt right to close Podcast 97 with Psalm 97. This Pray the Bible Short is A Prayer of Joy That the LORD Is King, from Psalm 97:1 and 10-12. If you have a couple of minutes, pray it along with me.

Watch the Psalm 97 prayer on YouTube.

Thanks for listening, and for praying with me.

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I took this past week off from live streaming, mostly because of travel for work, which I mentioned back in the Podcast 93 post. I plan to keep taking one week off after every seven weeks of streaming, and any week I’m traveling for work. The next one is the week of November 9th. I’ll be at XPERTS in Nashville, TN, so there won’t be a live stream that week.

I’m still working toward having at least two weeks of content scheduled for posting. Right now I’m running about one week ahead, so as I write this on September 26th I haven’t started on the album yet. I’m hoping to use the time I would normally spend streaming to work on it.

Work on version 3 of the LED bar is still going, and if everything goes according to plan it should be finished in time for Podcast 97. I’ll try to post some pictures.

I’m thankful for everyone who has been listening and praying along. If you know anybody who could use some inspiration during their prayer time, please share this with them.

Since I’m feeling thankful, I’ll close with a recent Pray the Bible Short from Psalm 100, A Prayer to Enter with Thanksgiving. Take a couple of minutes and pray along.

Watch the Psalm 100 prayer on YouTube.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for praying.

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This is the first podcast recorded with version 2 of the LED bar, and I’m not thrilled with how much light is reflecting off the keys. On the live streams it does light up my fingers better, because the light is more focused, but it really shines over the keys rather than down on them. I’ve continued work on version 3, which angles the bar at 45 degrees so the light lands on the keys instead of just passing over them.

I’m also trying to get through as much editing as I can so that I have at least two weeks of direct focus on the album. Still aiming for next month, but we’ll see how it goes.

Sometimes it’s a little discouraging not to see much growth at all across social media or in the podcast, but I’m trying to keep my focus on who this is for. Yes, it’s supposed to encourage people to spend more time in prayer, but this whole ministry is first and foremost service to the King. It is an act of worship. My mind drifts from that purpose when I get busy with the mundane stuff like video editing, so please keep me in your prayers.

That’s why I’m closing this week with Psalm 123, A Prayer with Eyes Lifted to You. “As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.” Take a couple of minutes and pray along.

Watch the Psalm 123 prayer on YouTube.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for praying.

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I finished Podcast 94 right at the beginning of the week. I’m trying to get a little ahead so I can shift my full focus to the Hallowed Be Your Name album. It feels good to have this week’s podcast ready and waiting instead of still working on it at the last minute.

I’m hoping to have the final version of the LED bar ready for Podcast 95. The plan is to try it on a few live streams before then, so I can see how it behaves on camera and make any last adjustments.

These are some pictures from the test fits and troubleshooting. There’s been a lot of checking the fit, measuring clearances, and seeing where the light actually goes. The pictures below are the work in progress, not the finished installation.

I first mentioned the continuous streams in the Podcast 77 post, but they’re worth another mention. Music To Pray By runs 24/7 on Twitch and Rumble, replaying the live worship piano sessions.

I’ve been glad to see those channels grow. If you want some inspiration for prayer, you can just turn the music on. You don’t have to search through the live streams or pick a particular podcast first. Leave it playing while you pray, or come back to it whenever you have a little time.

I’ll leave you with a recent Pray the Bible Short, A Prayer of the Poor and Needy, from Psalm 70. It’s a prayer for God’s help when we know we need Him.

Watch the Psalm 70 prayer on YouTube.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for praying.

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Tuesday evening I had a business dinner, which is why I didn’t stream Wednesday morning.

I also have a business trip to Denver on the 29th and Dallas on the 1st, so I will not be live streaming the week of the 28th. That week is a good time to announce a change in the streaming schedule.

The plan is to stream seven weeks, then take a week off. The week of the 28th happens to land right there, because it will have been seven straight weeks. I also took Monday off for Labor Day, and that will stay. I will not stream on major holidays.

I think this will help with burnout, and it should let the podcasts catch up a little with the live streams. Podcast 93 is made from live streams I did in June, specifically the June 19 and June 22 mornings. Even with the week off, I’ll probably still have a backlog, which should be fine. It also gives me time to focus on the albums.

I’ll close with Psalm 43 and A Prayer for Your Light and Truth, with music from Podcast 92. Take a couple of minutes to pray along.

If the video doesn’t load, watch the Short on YouTube.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for praying.

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