Do It For Them- An Original
Hello and welcome again to my blog! Today I want to share with you the backstory of my song, Do It For Them. Feel free to watch the video of this song and please consider buying the sheet music for it.
As I've mentioned before in my blogs I Sigh to Sing and 1812, I originally was playing Cello at college before switching to voice as my instrument in my Music degree. Part of the reason I chose to do so was because I felt more connected and more able to express myself through my voice than by playing Cello. There was one day in my first semester that I had gone into a school practice room with my Cello. It wasn't very long after I got out my Cello and started playing it when I stopped and got frustrated with myself and my ability to play the songs I was practicing.
I tried to remind myself why I was even focusing on music as my Major. I remembered that I had been inspired to improve my musical knowledge at school. I thought of the many times that I was also inspired to write songs during my Mission. I would later on feel prompted to share one of those songs with people who we were teaching. They would look so happy so happy when I would share a song. I love music because it's how I can truly express myself, and I realized that I wanted to express my love for others through music. In fact, as I sat there in that practice room I wanted to write a new song to express the feelings I had at that moment.
Just to backtrack for a moment, there was a song that I would hear on my Mission called, "It's Not About You". I hated that song! The composer of it probably intended it to be a way for telling people to not be selfish. But I think that telling someone that it's not about them just causes them to be focusing more on themselves. Along with that, it feels like one is just pointing fingers when they tell someone that it's not about them. It's like the Hymn, "Lord, I Would Follow Thee". Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly? I wanted to take a different approach. Instead of focusing on selfishness, we should be looking at the outward perspective. Who can benefit from the thing I'm doing? Sure, I could have just told myself in that practice room that day to stop complaining and that it wasn't about me. Instead, I had thought about all the wonderful people that had been blessed because I was willing to share with them my talents. I was doing it for them!
It took me some time through the semester to figure out how to express these feelings, but I eventually decided that I needed to express my humility towards my musical talents God has given me in the first verse. Yes, it would be nice if I could gain some money from what I'm doing here on my website and on my YouTube channel. Even now I sometimes have to remind myself that it's not about the money. I try to accept that even though I really do need money in order to survive in this mortal world! But I truly mean what I wrote at the beginning of this song. I don't need to be world famous, I just want as many people as possible to be able to hear the messages of my songs and be comforted by them. And you don't need to know my name to be touched by my songs. You can simply consider me as the owner of "The Musical Hallway".
Then as I thought about what I could write for the second verse, I thought about you! Are you jealous that I can sing and write songs? Well, don't be! You have your own personal gifts and talents that I most likely don't have. I have friends who are math pros, who know everything about computers, who know how to do construction work and how to control machines, who are skilled at financing, who can cook and bake professionally, who are patient with customers at work, who are interpreters, who are leaders, who are teachers, who are parents…the list of talents that one could have could go on and on! Even attributes such as kindness, integrity, trustworthy, humble, a good listener, or consistently putting in the effort to look at the positive things in life are all gifts and talents that a person may have or can try to obtain. I don't know you personally, but one thing I know for sure is that you are talented! Don't ever think otherwise.
And then there's the third verse. You and I can share our gifts and talents for others just as Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for us and all mankind. Because of Him we can live after death with perfect bodies. Through Him we can be clean from both our greatest sins and simplest mistakes. He went through all that suffering because He loves us. He did it for you, He did it for me, He did it for all of us.
Eventually I was able to get accompaniment for this song put together. My choir teacher who I mentioned before has his own YouTube channel told me about how I could download videos on our church website, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I used that resource and downloaded videos about the Savior's suffering, as well as videos of people serving each other. I took videos of myself writing my music. I thought that I had all the videos that I needed. Then the Monday before I was going to upload it there was a church service project I participated in that was to help the people suffering in Ukraine. I took a few quick videos before jumping in and helping. There was another member taking several quick videos while I was helping, and I asked her to send me those videos. It was all perfect timing and it gave me all the footage I needed.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Remember to check out my videos, the previously mentioned links, and consider buying the sheet music to my original compositions and/or donating to my website. But as I mentioned earlier, it's not about the money. It's about you!
Have you recognized a talent that you have and found a way to use it to help others? Comment your thoughts down below! Thanks for reading my blog!