Hasten the work.

I’ve heard it. You’ve heard it. We’ve all heard it.

My whole life, I’ve operated better with theme music. If you ever see me out somewhere and my headphoneless head is bobbing, don’t be alarmed. I’m just playing theme music in my mind to whatever I’m doing.

I guess this is what happens when you were raised on Karate Kid, Rocky, and basically any other 80s movie with theme music montages. OK, all 80s movies.

(For the record, the Karate Kid montage is the best one. “You’re the best… around… Nothings gonna ever keep you down!”)

This was my turn to do my own theme music for hastening the work.

When I think of the army of Helaman, I for some reason think of the civil war movie “Glory.” Don’t ask me why.

If you haven’t seen it, wait for it to come back on TNT. It’s rated R, kids. And no, I will not tell you which version I saw. But it was in eighth grade social studies. Public schools are failing us.

At the end of the movie, the soldiers march into battle. They start off slowly marching, then gradually pick up the pace until they’re finally sprinting.

That’s the scene I think of when I think of the army of Helaman. And it just so happened to serve as my inspiration for this arrangement. So thanks, Denzel and Matthew.

I wanted to convey marching. I wanted to capture moving forward with a faster pace. And I wanted it to be motivating.

Now I’m not a guitar pedal guy. I’ve collected some throughout my life, but I’ve never really explored what I could do with them. I bought the loop pedal last week. Never used one before. Holy Hannah, it’s harder than it looks. I’m not trying to brag. Just the opposite. I’m trying to show you how much of an idiot I am. I thought I’d be able to arrange the whole thing in my head just thinking about where I would bring in the different loops along with how to trigger quotes from Monson with a foot switch. No sweat. Finally doing it would be easy peasy.

(Cue Olaf) “Nope!”

And like always, I learned more than just how to play the song while arranging it.

I spent a lot more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure out how to make the sound I had in my head come out of the guitar. I mean, how hard could it be to make your guitar sound like an organ? (BTW, that EHX Polyphonic Octave Generator is by far the coolest pedal I’ve ever owned. Dad won Christmas with that gift a few years back.)

I also recorded this with every guitar I own, trying to find what sounded right. I went around in circles. Over and over again.

Finally, I found it. And of course, it was the first guitar I had tried.

You see, I thought about it too much. I got into my own head. I was looking for a perfect sound and ended up not getting anything done because of it. I mean, this video is two days late, for crying out loud.

So how often does that apply to missionary work for me? Oh yeah, always.

I get into my head. I think about how people will react before I’ve even talked to them. I’ve played out the entire scenario in my head. And they’ve either slammed it back in my face or have become one of the next general authorities.

In my head, I’m a great missionary. In the real world, not so much.

In my head, this arrangement was done weeks ago. Back on Earth, I didn’t even own or know how to use a loop pedal.

So that’s my take away from this one. I’m going to get out my head. I’m going to stop thinking about it and instead just do it.

Time to hasten the work.

After all, I now have the theme music for a killer montage.

If only Ralph Macchio was my neighbor.