Ric Flauding: Composer-Guitarist-Music Director: Press

"Ric, Wonderful article!!! Once again you have encouraged me to be more excellent as a worshipper and as a guitarist. You covered a lot and it's easy to follow, even for an inexperienced guitarist."

"This is a GORGEOUS arrangement and orchestration of this beautiful hymne. I simply love your harmonies in this piece, they are so different and exciting. Welcome to the Listening room, and thank you for posting your music. I am going to have fun exploring your other music."

"A warm welcome to the forum, Ric! And what an introduction of yourself... Ric, this is first-chair work in all regards -- from the gorgeous, subtle orchestration of it to the superb cinematic rendering. This is work of not merely skill but also great beauty, Ric, in which I took great pleasure. My best, David."

"Ric, All I can say is WOW! I mean WOW!!!! What a wonderful rendition of a simple melody! Everything about this piece is perfect. Thank you for inspiring me and for sharing this beautiful piece of music! Take care. Gary Serenity Musician".

"Marvelous arrangement and rendering, Ric. This is one of my favorite hymns from Sunday School so long ago and you have given it such a lofty performance, which it so deserves...Thank you, Ric and BRAVO on your musicanship Jack"

"Wonderful handling of the orchestra. How did you get such an amazing sound? Lots of tweaking. Checked out your website/bio. You worked with Megadeath!?! Pretty impressive range -- Dave Mustane to Jesus Thanks for posting. Really looking forward to hearing more of your work Daniel Carr"

"Excellent balance and blending of instruments; really fantastic dynamic control with fluid melody. Quite outstanding. Thank you for sharing this." Tom Davis (Northern/Garritan Forum - regarding "Redwoods (2008)".

"Beautiful color work in this, Ric; and redolent of its topical center. Love the big Hollywood sound on this; though perhaps just a little lighter hand on reverb... to let those gorgeous textures and subtleties shine through with a bit more clarity and definition. My best". David Sosnowski (Northern/Garritan Forum - regarding "Redwoods (2008)".

"Jesus Wept": Cinematic is correct. Long sweeping brushes of lush sounds penetrate the soul.
"The First Noel": Wow, Christmas can't get here fast enough! A beautiful production and interpretation.
"Christmas Coronation (We Three Kings)": It creates renewal and casts a day's burden aside by the humble and cheerful sounds created."
Michael A. Wiktor (Northern/Garritan Forum)

"Very well done sir. Moody, epic with some tension - a good balance which shows how great you are as an arranger. Very "Ric Flauding". Also a nice study in instrumentation. How much time did you spend on it may I ask? (for my own understanding of how something this great takes)."

"Cinematic, indeed! Beautiful job on all of these, Ric. The arranging and orchestration is superb. I think I might suggest just a slightly lesser
hand on the reverb -- the writing in these is gorgeous, but it obscures some of the detail, that to me, is so well worth hearing clearly. My best, David".

"Ric, Every time I listen to your music I feel I'm transported to another place in another time. All three of these tunes are wonderful. Your orchestrations are just fabulous! There's so much creativity in your writing. Thank you for sharing your talent with us. Gary".

"Very beautiful arrangement/composition. My only criticism is that there seems to be too much reverb - all the instruments sound quite distant; but then, that is also a matter of personal taste. Really liked this. Welcome aboard - look forward to hearing more of your work!"

"Holy smokes. you're one talented dude. I like where you went with this."

"Dearest Susan! I enjoyed and am so impressed with the quality of your website and, of course, your DVD. Greg and I were finally able to show the DVD to Otis on Christmas morning. He was visably moved and we watched it twice. He did ask questions about the arrangements. I unfortunately did not know the story behind the acquiring of the arrangements, but he was very impressed. Much love, Kathy and Greg".
(Ric did the arrangements of Susan's 2007 DVD, Denise produced the visuals).

"Ric-Thank you for your very kind words, and again, thank you for a wonderful performance last night. We very much appreciate your talent and even more so when we know such talent rests in the hands of a ministry friend! It truly is amazing how God is able to connect the dots. Moreover, thank you for the gift of CD's which we will CERTAINLY be playing in our offices over this Christmas season, and Lord willing, during the ones to come. Likewise, thank you for the link to the audio on your site, and I'm thrilled to hear you remain an active part of the church who seeks to be "salt and light" in our world. As you said, a "cakewalk" this life certainly is not, but I praise God that he gives us the grace to accomplish all that we are called to do as we remain faithful and obedient to Him. I pray He continues to use your music in increasingly amazing ways. It was a pleasure to meet you and your wife Denise - God bless you as you continue to follow Him and have a very Merry Christmas!
Yours for religious freedom in America, Alan E. Sears".

"Hi Ric, I was just listening to some of your compositions. The Sound of God's Heart is really powerful...You really have a passion that comes through in the simpleness of the melody along with those great lyrics (Rob & Carrie Rinderer)., and your orchestral arrangements are amazing on all your pieces. God has given you an amazing gift my brother. Please don't ever stop writing".

"Song Inspired, Dedicated
Professional guitarist Ric Flauding dedicates his rendition of "How Firm a Foundation" to No More Christian Nice Guy. He explains: "The past five years have been quite tough for me and I have had to completely reexamine everything I have ever believed, yes, including God and all things about Him. The good news is I still believe, and am more passionate than ever about Him, I just don't go about things quite like I used to. More 'wise as a serpent.'
I am dedicating this song to Paul Coughlin. His book is one of the best I have read in many years, and in my own case was very timely."

“My mother who is an artist is visiting and heard your tapes and asked for them for Christmas. Love them all! They are beautiful. It’s helping my healing. Pain still excruciating but I can drift off on your music… Beautiful….”

Droogies!
Well, the day has come and I am packing it in.
Yesterday was the last day in the studio, I finished the last solo and the last sentence of the last song, and the week before all of the remixes were done, so . . . it is time now to prepare all of the goofy administrative stuff that goes into an album.
I want to take this time to personally thank some people that have made this whole project complete:
To my teachers Ric Flauding, Darien Bennett, Michael Guido, and Rick Linamen [Guitar Teacher and Pastors] ¡V Thanks for keeping me glued together during this marathon. I especially appreciate how you have made me feel comfortable being dependent on someone. I have never wanted to depend on people, but you have shown me that there are people out there that you can depend on (just like there are people who are waiting to screw me). I fell a bit during this mega-session and you were there to help hold me up.

Q) Do you think experiencing an arm injury (in 2001) has made you a better player by forcing you to relearn your craft? and did you take lessons during your recovery?-----

A) (Dave Mustaine) Yes, I took lessons from a guy named Ric Flauding because I had to relearn all
the mechanics of using my hand and I was struggling with certain things. Being self-taught, I had no technical frame to reference, and I wanted to figure out what was important.

Q) When soloing do you visualize postitions and scales on the neck, or do you just let it rip---------

A) (Dave) I just let it rip. I found out what a penatonic scale si when I started talking lessons recently. My teacher asked where we should start and I said, "at the begining," he said, "You're kidding, right?" and I told him that. while I know what I'm doing, I have no idea what any of it is in technical terms. Thats when he told me that I play a lot of pentatonics. And that's probaly because, deep down inside, I'm really a fast blues player.

"As usual, Ric's music has taken us somewhere other than this world. If some call his music genre World, I would call it Other World, because there is a wonderful spiritual quality to all his work, music that simply takes me away from the worries of this world and makes me wonder about the next. His music is inspiring and moving sometimes beyond words - my kind of listening."

"After these past twenty years+ since we first met at Yale (Video Productions), your dedication and maturity have only gotten better with time, and I know you will continue to do that with every day ahead. I sense a constantly growing maturity in your work that is very appealing to the ear and the heart, and I hope you will always keep me and Jill in the loop. I am very proud of you and to be your friend".

Mr Flauding,
I first heard you through your LETTERS cd a few years back. I found
it at a pawnshop here in Houston. There were several copies of it.
Anyway i bought it and it is on my personal top 20 of albums that I
own. I went back and got several more copies to give to friends. Now
that I see more of your recordings on CD Baby I will definately be
buying them. Sorry about buying your stuff where you didn't see any
of the residuals, but I promise to change that.
Great stuff!!

I just played the entire "Caleo" CD while Jean and I had lunch on the patio. I didn't tell her it was your music and about a third of the way through she said "Who is that, I love this music." Sneaky me, I wanted to get her reaction. Like me, she thinks the CD is excellent, and feels it should be marketed to restaurants, boutiques, gift shops, art galleries, etc. She's right, it's perfect melodic, enjoyable, relaxing music that's much more than just background filler. Well done!!