Paul Race Music: Home Page
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Paul Race loves and plays most kinds of music, but he is especially fond of acoustic-based and traditional styles. If that makes you think of artists like Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Jim Croce, and Rich Mullins, you're on the right track. Since the 1960s, Paul has been performing original songs in just about any kind of performance situation you can imagine - coffeehouses, festivals, churches, schools, nightclubs, camps, street fairs - you name it.
If you check out Paul's online resources, you'll notice that Paul spends a lot of time these days helping other musicians make good choices and find the resources they need, especially musicians who are interested in acoustic or traditional music. For example the CreekDontRise.com acoustic instrument pages provide a lot of background on various kinds and uses of acoustic instruments. Paul's RiverboatMusic.com buyers' guides attempt to sort out the hype from the facts about acoustic instrument purchases. But Paul also keeps his hand in by continuing to write new songs, learning (and writing about) new instruments, and performing when opportunities arise.
BTW, we've gotten some questions about the little album cover thumbnail to the right of Paul's photo above. There's more information about the recordings it represents in our blog "About the song collection 'At the Heart of My Heart Was the Music'"
Thanks, and God bless,
Paul Race
CreekDontRise.com - Heartland history and music
SchoolOfTheRock.com - Jesus Music and saxophones
ClassicTrainSongs.com - Traditional songs about trains
RiverboatMusic.com - Buyers' guides for acoustic instruments.
PaulRaceMusic.com - This page, actually
A Note about “Feeling versus Learning”
I was considering giving lessons again, and came across something I wrote years ago when I was trying to put together some online materials: I stopped giving one-on-one guitar lessons a long time ago because nearly every guitar-star wannabee I attempted to teach “knew more about music” than I did.…
Your Home-Based Musical Activities Might Be Illegal
Are you breaking the law with your home studio or giving lessons in your house? Turns out, many, if not most communities have rules intended to keep you from engaging in money-making activities of any kind in the privacy of your home, even if no one in your neighborhood knows…
Recovering From a Hasty Move
So my music prep of late has looked a lot like building shelves. When we moved in a hurry, I filled the garage with stuff I want to keep or at least sort through before I got rid of it, and now I’m sorting stuff into bins and building shelves…
About Helping People Who Have No Intention of Helping Themselves
Here’s an observation about helping people who aren’t really interested in helping themselves from a perennial gardener, though the implications go WAY beyond what you can do with plants. At our old home, I had several hardy and attractive varieties of hosta and day lilies that needed thinned on occasion.…
Striving to Make More of My Music More Accessible
After a whole string of concerts, festivals, etc. last summer and fall, I’ve been pretty much focusing on getting my home studio set up so I can record more of my music better. What’s the use of calling yourself a songwriter, if only about ten of your songs are available…
Dayton Porchfest Was Great
The 2018 Dayton Porchfest is history now. If you haven’t heard of a “porchfest,” people in a neighborhood open their front porches or side yards to local musicians who play on a staggered schedule around the neighborhood. In Dayton, so far the porchfests have been in St. Anne’s Hill, a…
Come Hear (& See) Me This Month
August tends to be a busy time for me. I have two and a half gigs left. On August 4, I’ll be playing a 2-hour slot at the New Carlisle (Ohio) Farmer’s Market. Yes, this is hardly a music tourism destination, but it’s good practice for me trying to capture…
‘Nudder Autoharp Article – What Do the Numbers on Vintage 3, 4, and 5-Chord Autoharps Mean?
I was recently explaining to a visitor why my really old autoharps have numbers instead of chord names on the chord bars, when they asked why the note numbers on these diatonic harps go 1,2,3,4,5,6,6,7? And why is the second 6 in a strange, dotted font? Well, Charles F. Zimmerman,…
Playing Music Out of Doors This Summer
I’ve been too busy to keep up postings here. Sorry about that. Summer is a good time for Folk singers and many other kinds of musicians to get in front of people. In my case, I spent most of the last thirty years playing 45-minute concerts in controlled environments, so…
Saxophone Sucks
One of the sites I started – SchoolOfTheRock.com – has articles about vintage saxophones, including C Melody saxophones, which some folks use to play in worship bands, because they are better suited for playing in the sharp-heavy guitar keys of most modern worship choruses. I have had many reader questions…