hey everybody just in case you haven’t noticed a big part of my life is centered around music. But music is not the totality of my life. I believe my life is about service and I specifically mean service to others. As musicians many times we want to be the best and greatest at what we do and you should strive for that.

On the other hand I would like for you to re-examine what being the greatest really means. I really don’t mean to start preaching at you all and throwing my personal beliefs at you but consider this. Jesus said in the Bible that the greatest person among you would be and is a servant. Meaning that your service is the thing that makes you great. Coming from a musicians standpoint, not how cold or bad you are on your instrument. I believe that many of us have been blessed with musical gifts and we should use them to serve others.

What do I mean? I mean use your gift or talent to effect or influence others in a positive direction. Write songs that promote positive change in people; play in forums that are meeting the needs of people. Try to unselfishly make a real difference with what you do. Allow your gift and ability to be used to bless people and blessings will come back to you.

My personal belief is that God is so vast that he works in ways that we don’t realize. I believe that God is love and this love can be conveyed through what we do, the words we say, the melodies we play, the songs we write, our chord progressions, our licks, our runs, our beats, our grooves, art, and whatever else we yield over to God to use.

When your motives are pure in what you are doing then the love of God can infuse what you are doing and cause what your are doing to have a power and energy that doesn’t originate from you. Power that will give people goose bumps, make them cry, make them want to change their lives or just causes a positive effect in their lives.

I challenge you to evaluate yourself and ask yourself are you using your gifts to be of service to people. Think outside of the box and allow yourself and your life to be an instrument played
by LOVE and let that love flow through your instrument to others. When you do that then you are great in every sense of the word.

Kenny Hollins

If you have been a musician any length of time you’ve had times when you would try to play something and it did not come out like you wanted it to. Its amost like on the inside of you, you can almost hear it. You then try to play the vaque impression that you experience on the inside of you. If you have experienced this before you know exactly what I am talking about. If not you are probably thinking this guy is crazy! This lets us know that the music that we desire to play comes from the inside of us. I believe the music on the inside of us is awesome, beautiful, soulful, phat, amazing, funky, brilliant, and any other adjective that describes wonderful music. I believe this place on the inside of us is the place where God resides. Just think of the most skillful and most musically accomplised musician that you have ever heard in your life. When you hear someone like this you have a wow moment. I believe these people have conditioned their bodies and minds to tap into that place where the real music comes from. Its almost like they channel the music from some other place and manifest it in our world through their instrument. I know this may seem a little strange but it is true. If we center ourselves and recognize that all good and perfect things come from above we can tap into this greatness. This greatness is God in us and he we’ll allow us to tap his power, love, abilty, and flow through our music to reach and affect people. Listen for those sounds on the inside of you and try to play them on your instruments. Notate those sounds on paper; record those sounds if you can and watch and see how if affects people.

Love,
Kenny Hollins