HOW IT STARTED: My wife, Shelby,  and I have been members of the Lighthouse Assembly Of God church, Melbourne, Florida since 1994.  We participate in the Praise and Worship Team. She sings and I play keyboard. In 1995  we  needed new music books with accurate melody line notation, chord names, lyrics for All verses and choruses, and lead sheets in any key. As a recently retired software engineer, I set up a ministry to develop new music books. Our favorite songs were arranged/sequenced with modern styles/rhythms using Band-In-A-Box (BIAB) Version 7.0 software which is also used to produce MIDI files. Lead sheets were printed with BIAB to provide a song book for each praise and worship team member.

Concurrent with development of the music for our church, I embarked on a second career by developing this website (southernimages.com) and setting up a small business to sell the music on the internet. During this time, Shelby's brother, Bill Herndon started developing some of his original songs in BIAB and MIDI format. The website went on line in January, 1996.

OUTREACH MINISTRY: In August, 1997, we began using some of these songs in a weekly worship service at the Harbor Place Genesis Elder Care Center, Melbourne, Florida. We did this for 3 years. It was part of our church's outreach ministry. I took my keyboard (General Music (GEM) WK4 Power Station II) loaded and/or setup with the selected sequencies, and my wife, Shelby, lead the Praise And Worship service using overhead projections for the lyrics. The MIDI files were invaluable in adapting the music to my wife's voice range and printing out the lead sheets. Rick Cupoli assisted with his guitar stylings.

Some time during  2000, Leonard Smith (Our God Reigns) sent me an email and said that he liked my website and the music and wanted to know if I would be interested in setting up a page for some of his songs. I eagerly agreed and set up a page where you can hear some of his songs that have been sequenced (by others) in MIDI format. Lenny has written over160 songs.
 

Shelby and I continue to participate on the Praise And Worship Team at Lighthouse Assembly Of God church where I use my new Yamaha PSR-3000 keyboard regularly and get to occasionally use my MIDI sequences for the offertory and/or accompaniment for Specials.

Shelby has written 25 songs which we are beginning to work on for presentation on this website.

During the past 11 years, the website has had over 116,000 visitors and has always ranked in the top 6 sites when searching for Christian MIDI or BIAB Music with Google.

HOW MANY SONGS?

 - Bill Lingenfelter BIAB/MIDI Sequences: 78 Traditional/Public Domain and 12 Christmas songs.

- 70 Contemporary songs were developed but are not offered due to copyright considerations.

- Lenny Smith: 14 songs, includes sheet music

- Bill Herndon: 10 songs, includes lyrics/overhead transparencies

HOW BILL LINGENFELTER SEQUENCES ARE DEVELOPED: PG Music's Band-In-A-Box software and a MIDI keyboard were used to develop the music. Each song was then converted to MIDI format and tested with Cakewalk Pro software. BIAB Standard Styles were used. Melody lines were carefully played (pretty square) with the keyboard to represent the original music so that lead sheets with accurate music notation can be printed. Solo stylings are added to middle choruses using the BIAB Version 7.0 Soloist. If you want to visit PG Music's site and learn more about Band-In-A-Box, (Click Here), but don't forget to return and play some of the MIDI songs.

OTHER ACTIVITIES: Along with developing and maintaining this Southernimages website, I have developed 11 other websites for family, churches and friends. Many of them are still operational and can be visited from this site. I have also recorded many MIDI sequences  which are available only by request.

To return to my home page, use your browser "Back" button or (click here).

Last Modified: 10/05/07