But that said, we're going to be looking now at Mark chapter 14, and I'm going to begin by reading verses 1 and 2, and as I normally do, I'll just give you some background, remind you of a few things. We'll look at those two verses, give you some information. But the heart of our study today is actually going to be beginning at verse 3 and ending at verse 11. But we'll begin reading here in Mark 14 at verse 1, I'll read verses 1 and 2, give you some background, reminders, and then move into our study. Mark writes, after two days it was Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes saw how they might take him by trickery and put him to death. But they said, not during the Feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. Now as we've gone through the Gospel of Mark in chapter 13, I mentioned to you that chapter 13 is an answer actually to questions that had been asked of the Lord by His men. We remember how Jesus had left the temple area, and as they did so, His men had pointed out to Jesus the beauty of that temple. And as we've seen, Jesus pointed out that this beautiful temple would be destroyed, and that bothered His men. So they asked Him several questions, when will these things be? What will be the sign that these things will be fulfilled? What will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age? So they're asking Him several questions, and the Lord begins to answer. And so the rest of chapter 13 was filled with His answer to those questions. It's the longest recorded answer in the Gospel of Mark to any question that He had been asked. So after answering the question, Mark returns as to why Jesus has come to planet earth. Jesus came, and He's going to point this out. He came that He might redeem us by laying down His life. You see, Jesus is in the last days of His ministry. He's about to fulfill the image of the Passover lamb by giving up His life. And this is what the last Old Testament prophet John had said of Him in John 1.29, where it says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So the death of Christ on the cross is the heart of the last chapters of the Gospel. Now He had recently predicted His death and its purpose in John 12 in verses 31 and 32. He said, Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And He went on to say, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples unto myself. So He's already pointed out that He's coming to the conclusion of His ministry. He's about to be crucified, but that crucifixion is intended to draw people to faith in Him. So as we look at this portion of Scripture and move on through Mark's Gospel, He's concentrating on the death of Jesus, and He's pointing out the cross and the purpose of the cross. So He says in verse 1, After two days it was Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. Now we as Christians were familiar with the terms Passover and also unleavened bread. The Passover is observed on the 14th day of Nisan and the Jewish calendar, which would be March or early April. It celebrates the night in Egypt that the angel of death had passed over Jewish households that had sprinkled blood on the doorpost. Now the feast of unleavened bread began the next day and lasted a full week. And that was to commemorate Israel's exodus out of Egyptian bondage. Now they were part of Israel's major feast. In Deuteronomy 16 verse 16, it says three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that He will choose. At the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. So Passover, it was a celebration. A lamb had been slain and it was eaten on the 14th day of the month of Nisan. And it was in memory of the day on which their fathers preparing to depart from Egypt were commanded by God to slain eat a lamb and to sprinkle their doorposts with his blood. That the destroyed angel seeing the blood might pass over their dwellings. The feast of unleavened bread referred to the bread that was hastily made when Israel fled Egypt. Passover only lasted one day but it was immediately followed by the seven days of unleavened bread. So Passover and the feast were combined to last eight days. Now Passover is intended to point us to Christ. This is what the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, where he says you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers but with the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect. And so this is taking place now in preparation of the week that Jesus has given up his life and this is going to give to us a background as we look at this. Now what's taking place? In verse one it speaks about the chief priests and the scribes. These are the religious leaders of Israel, the chief priests were individuals who were involved in a variety of the duties of religion in Israel. The scribes are the religious experts. They were those who were experts in the law of Moses. They've combined in order that they might work something out to have the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with. They want to take them by trickery because they want to put them to death. Now that wasn't necessary by the way. Jesus came to voluntarily lay down his life. He wasn't going to happen because he was tricked into it. It was because he voluntarily had decided to do that. Later on in the New Testament the book of Hebrews the writer says we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. You see the wages of sin is death the scripture says. It is appointed unto man to die but once the scripture says and after that the judgment. So Jesus Christ came to take upon himself our penalty so that we might have a freedom of relationship with him that comes through what he has done. But what's happening is they're having a secret meeting in order that they might be able to put together a plan to take him. And this is being held by what is called the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin. The Psalmist in Psalm 2 says it like this in verses 1 through 3. He says why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers take counsel together against the Lord against his anointed saying let us break their bonds in pieces cast away their cords from us we will not have this man to rule over us let's determine what we can do to keep that from happening. And that's what they're doing. And as we remember during this week Jesus had entered Jerusalem to an enthusiastic welcome. These people are doing it in secret because they don't want to inflame the followers of Christ. Luke tells us in chapter 22 verse 2 that the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him for they feared the people. So they're secretly gathering together they're plotting how they might be able to take Christ. They don't want to cause the people to get into an uproar so they're plotting against him and they do so in the courtyard of the current high priest the man by the name of Caiaphas. In Matthew 26 verses 3 and 4 it says the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest whose name was Caiaphas and they scheme to arrest Jesus secretly in order that they might kill him.  You see after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead Caiaphas called for the death of Christ. In John 11 47 through 50 it says the chief priests and Pharisees called the meeting of the Sanhedrin. What are we accomplishing they ask? Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Then one of them named Caiaphas who was high priest that year spoke up. You know nothing at all. You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. But they said not during the feast lest there be an uproar of the people. Again Jesus was extremely popular.  In John 12 24 Jesus said it like this. He said most assuredly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone but if it dies it produces much grain. And so Jesus came with the purpose, the purpose of dying in order that he might give up his life voluntarily for us so that we believing in him might have eternal life. He took upon himself our sin as the Lamb of God and he did so voluntarily. The religious leaders seeing him as a threat wanted to put him to death but that all fit into what the Lord God was planning to do. He was going to save us through his son Jesus Christ. And so as that is taking place we move into verse three. Being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper as he sat at the table a woman came having an alabaster flask, a very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head but there were some who were indignant among themselves and said why was this fragrant oil wasted? It might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. They criticized her sharply.  Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always and whenever you wish you may do them good. But me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly I say to you wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. This is a flashback to the previous Saturday. John in his gospel records the same event and he gives us the day that it occurred in John chapter 12 verses one and two six days before the Passover. Jesus arrived at Bethany where Lazarus lived whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus's honor. Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table.  You see the people love Jesus but the religious leaders hated him. And they had no good reason for that. In John 15 25 Jesus said it like this. He said this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. Now Jesus is in Bethany at the home of a man known as Simon the leper. If you're looking at a map you look at Jerusalem to the east is a small village just a few miles outside of town. And in that village live several disciples including a man by the name of Simon. Now he's referred to as Simon the leper but he would have been Simon the former leper who had been cleansed by Jesus. Because if he were still a leper he would not have a home in town. In the Old Testament there were laws related to leprosy and lepers in general. And in Leviticus 13 46 it says a leper is unclean he shall dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. Leprosy in the Old Testament was a picture of sin. It isolates you you dwell outside of the community because sin makes separation. And so Simon was a leper at one time but now he has a home. So that would give to us insight that he must have been cleansed by Christ and now he's giving him a supper. John 12 verse 2 says they made him a supper there. So Simon is hosting Jesus making him the guest of honor in his home. It may be because he's showing gratitude for Jesus cleansing him of leprosy or it may be in gratitude for the recent raising of Lazarus from the dead it doesn't say. But it does say this it does give to us an insight that he was thankful. And he's doing something because he's thankful. And thankfulness is a mark of a genuine believer in Christ. Thankfulness being grateful for what God has done. What has God done in your life for those of us who are believers? What has God done in your life? Sometimes we only see the bad around us we feel the pressure and God knows we go through a lot of pressure. I'm not saying we don't but that pressure that we go through. How do we respond to it? What is it in a heart that comes out through that pressure? One of the things that we need to understand is that we were once lost and now because of Christ we're found once we're going to hell now we're going to heaven. Once we had no family now we have a community of believers. Once we had no purpose now we have a great purpose. Once we're lost in sin now we've been saved by grace. We ought to be thankful for what God has done. We ought to be thankful for the work he's done in our life. Look at what he's done. Look at what he's done. The Holy Spirit has done a new work and God has done something in us. He has freed us from the bondage that we at one time lived in. And it didn't come through any other way other than the word of God. But I got saved. I got saved in a time when the world was crazy. It hasn't changed a whole lot. I mean it's been 50 plus years almost 52 years. But we're going through craziness then. You know we were talking about weather at that time. But it wasn't getting too hot. At that time there was going to be a new ice age. That's what they said 50 plus years ago. We're going to have a new ice age. We had anger. We had riots. We had Chicago, Detroit. We had takeovers of colleges, University of San Francisco, and other places. We had wars that we're dealing with. We're dealing with illnesses. We're dealing with a lot of things. Very similar to what we're dealing with today. Very similar. Today is a little bit on steroids compared to what we were going through. But it was rough then too. There was no hope. We were lost. The hippie generation was bringing in promiscuity and making promiscuity a way of life. It's gotten worse. But yes.  It was the promise of Jesus Christ who was going to set me free.  The problem with this world was me. I'm a man of sin. And I need to be saved. I need to be forgiven. And when that happens, I'll be transformed. And so the gospel came, set me free, made me new. And now I can influence others for the good for Jesus Christ. That's how people change. It's not because I elect an official. It's because the King has saved me. That's how it works. And we need to remember that. Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be involved in the process, of course. But we're salt and we're light. And we do it for the right reason. I don't expect a man to save me. Jesus Christ already has. And God has made me thankful. And for a believer, I should have a heart of thankfulness. The Bible speaks concerning that constantly. Psalm 9, verses 1 and 2, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to your name almost time. Psalm 105, verse 1, I'll give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. And so there's a thankfulness here. And it must be that, one of the two reasons that I mentioned. Well, as this is taking place, notice verse 3. It says, being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask, a very costly oil of spiking iron. She broke the flask and poured it on his head. So Jesus is reclining. They weren't seated at seats or chairs. They were reclining. She approaches from behind and anoints him. Mark leaves the woman unnamed. John supplies her name for us. She's Mary, the younger sister of Martha and Lazarus. John 12.3 says, Mary took about a pint of pure nard and expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  She may have had a clearer perception of what Jesus was about to do. It may be that she could see what his beloved disciples were refusing to see. You see, the disciples didn't want to accept that Jesus was about to die. The thought of him dying wasn't something they could come to grips with. Remember how Jesus spoke to them of his death and often when he did so they would resist. They couldn't bring themselves to accept it. We saw in Matthew 16, verses 21 and 22 how it says that Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, be raised the third day.  Don't let this happen, far be it. You're just a little depressed, you need a rest. So Peter becomes his counselor, right? Far be it from you, Lord. They could not accept this. So it seems that Mary had accepted what the others could not. It speaks again in verse three, how a woman came having an alabaster flash, notice a flash, flask of very costly oil of spike nerd. So what we're about to observe is an act of sincere worship. Love for Christ is always revealed by actions. There are a lot of people who claim that they love the Lord but their lives don't reflect that, it doesn't show. We are sermons by the way that we live. What I believe is exposed by the way I behave. And so it's easy to say, oh yes, I love the Lord. But love for God is demonstrated by how we live. In James chapter two, verse 26, it says, as a body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. So she's doing a good work for Jesus. If you notice in verse six, notice how Jesus says the last portion of that verse that she's done a good work for me. And so she's doing a good work on behalf of the Lord. It says that she had an alabaster flash of very costly oil of spike nerd. It's interesting how that on another occasion, a poor widow gave God an offering of two mites. Well, this time a woman gives a very expensive gift to Jesus. It's extremely costly. When it speaks concerning it being extremely costly in the way that it does, that word costly speaks of that which is excellent. It's very precious. It's of surpassing value. Verse five reveals its value in terms of monetary. It's 300 denarii. 300 denarii is equivalent to 300 days wages, of full years wages. And so we see something of this offering in that it was costly. It was precious of surpassing value. And that gives us insight into worship because true worship incurs sacrifice. In 2 Corinthians eight, one through five, Paul said it like this. He said, we want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. People say, well, we give offerings to the church. No, you don't, you give your offering to the Lord. You first give your offering to God. And that's what Paul was saying. They gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us. Mary was genuinely grateful to Jesus for all he'd done. For her, such an expensive gift was proper in light of all he was to her. In 2 Corinthians 9, verse seven, it reads, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. God loves a cheerful giver. The word cheerful is a Greek word, hilarious. They give with great joy. God loves that. Well, her extravagant gift revealed her depth of love and understanding. She was one who listened closely to what he had to say. We can see that on a different occasion recorded by Luke in chapter 10, verses 38 and 39. It happened as they went that he entered a certain village, certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. We know that story. It's where Martha is busy in the kitchen, banging those pots and pans and she's getting angry because she thinks her sister's lazy because her sister is seated at the feet of Christ listening to him as he's teaching.  Look what she's doing. She's sitting here when I'm in there making food for not only you, but everybody else.  I'm feeding a whole slew of you guys.  That's what she does. She says, she says to Christ, she orders God. She says, get her up and have her come and help me. Can you imagine that? It's almost like she was married to Jesus. Martha, Martha, you were troubled by many things. Your mind is caught up with so many things. You're troubled by many things. You're anxious. You're doing something with the wrong heart. And then he points to her sister and she's chosen the better, the better thing. What is the better thing? She has chosen to serve me with a better heart because she first sat at my feet to hear and secondly she acts on it. You're not listening, you're busy trying. That's not the way it works. You first give yourself to the Lord and then to others and she wasn't doing that. So we've seen Mary already. She's one who sat at the feet of Jesus and heard his word. And as she was listening to him, she was perceiving perhaps something that her men, the men had refused to see. Well, as this has taken place, again I'll read verse three but I'll move forward. Being in Bethany at the house of Simon the Lepper as he sat at table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikernard. She broke the flask, poured it on his head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than 300 denari and given to the poor and they criticized her sharply. The reaction of the disciples is revealing. Notice there were some who were indignant among themselves. Now this reaction was prompted by Judas. Judas calculated the value and responded critically to what had taken place. In John 12, four through six, one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected. Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. So there's Judas, he sees this taking place, his thieving mind is calculating the value and he's saying that's worth a year's wages. Then he uses a religious kind of way to say, oh, this could have been given to the poor when in fact he wanted to help himself to what was put in that bag. He was pretending to be concerned with care for the poor but he saw just a great deal of money that he was about to lose and his false charity infected the others and so they actually joined him in criticizing her. Notice verse four, why was this fragrant oil wasted? Now what Jesus saw as pure worship, Jesus saw as a waste of money, wasted. This attitude continues to this day. Somebody may ask you, why do you go to church so often? That's a waste of time. Why are you serving in a church? Come on, what are you slave labor? Why do you give? There are things you could buy for yourself. That attitude is with us to this day and the result is criticism. Verse five says they criticized her sharply. That word sharply means that they indignantly scolded her. They were angry and they were scolding her. Now this thought was voiced among themselves and to marry, it was really in a kind of a smaller group but Judas's influence had infected the attitudes of the others. He was a thief but he also knew how to manipulate and all he had to do was call into question the use of the money and that undercut trust in Jesus and his ministry. Well how did Jesus respond? Well notice verse six, Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She's done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always and whenever you wish you may do them good but me, you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. And so he rebukes them, let her alone. In John 12 verse seven, John says, Jesus said, let her alone, she has kept this for the day of my burial. Mary has anticipated my death in burial and she's anticipating what is going to occur. You see after Jesus was crucified, she returned to anoint his dead body. She wanted him to have a proper burial but she was doing this before it actually happened. Notice in verse seven how it says, you have the poor with you always and whenever you wish you may do them good but me, you do not have always. As long as there are people, there will be poverty and you can always help them. It's always within the power of your hand and your decisions to help the poor. It's always there. In Deuteronomy 1511, the Bible says there will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. You always have opportunity but on the other hand, I'm departing soon so your priority is to worship me and that's what Mary's doing and this is what you should be doing. Again, all true service begins with serving and worshiping God first. Notice in verse eight, she has done what she could. She's held nothing back, nothing that was dear to her. She was willing to give that which had value. She was willing to sacrifice that. It's been said, he who has a religion that costs him nothing has a religion that is worth nothing. So instead, what she did is she poured out her offering and notice she offered it completely. She held nothing back. In a short time, Jesus is gonna pour himself out completely for us, holding nothing back. And you can give but you can only give what you have. Not what you wish you had. You give what's yours in the power of your hand to give at that time. In second Corinthians eight, 12, it says, if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he doesn't have. So she did what she could, she gave what she could. Mark tells us in verse three that she poured it on his head. John 12 three tells us that she included his feet and she wiped his feet with her hair and that is an act of humble service. Now this act of humble service is something that was noticed but it wasn't done in order to be noticed. The Bible tells us in John 12 three, the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. It wasn't done to draw attention from man but it was noticed by man. Some are criticizing but Jesus is commending because genuine, worshipful sacrifice is something that he notices but others will be aware of too. The entire house was filled with the fragrance. In second Corinthians two, 15 and 16 it says we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to one a fragrance from death to death to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who was sufficient for these things? She's telling what she could. She couldn't prevent his death but she could reveal the death of her love. She revealed her devotion and she did that in the face of criticism. And so he says in verse nine, assuredly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her, think about it, 2,000 years after the fact we're still speaking about what this woman did. We're speaking of it even now. And Jesus pronounced a blessing on her worship and in doing so he's showing us what the heart of worship really is. Well notice what happens in verse 10. Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priest to betray him to them and when they heard it they were glad and promised to give him money so he sought how he might conveniently betray him. When it first got saved I thought that Jesus Christ I thought Jesus was his first name and Christ was his last name. I looked at Judas Iscariot and I thought Judas is his first name Iscariot is his last name because I thought well my name's David Rosales I got a first and a last name. Now Judas Iscariot it is literally Judas Iscariot. Is is man, Carriot is a village. Judas the man of Carriot is what his name is. There was another Judas in the 12 so Judas is reflected as being the one who betrayed him or Judas from Carriot. Carriot was in the south. The other 11 apostles were from the north and so this distinguishes us concerning this man but it says Judas Iscariot one of the 12 went to the chief priest to betray him.  Luke 22, three through five says it like this. Satan entered Judas called Iscariot one of the 12 and Judas went to the chief priest and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. They agreed to give him 30 pieces of silver. So in contrast to loving worship, Judas went out and sold Jesus. He made his money, he sold out Jesus for the price of a slave. Exodus 21 32 says if a bull goers a male or female slave the owner must pay 30 shekels of silver to the master of the slave and the bull must be stoned. So the stage has been set, Jesus is soon to die. Now I want to take a few minutes and close with application. When Mary came and made this offering it was in an alabaster vase, very expensive. You could have removed the cap and you could have poured it out like that but you didn't do that. What you did is you broke it. So that means she was offering not only the contents but the vessel that held the contents. And when you think about that she was offering to Jesus anointing, the anointing which he was anointing for the day of his burial but she was also offering a broken vessel. The most valuable vessel in the hand of God will always be the broken one. It will always be the broken one. That is one of the lessons and I want to close with just some application. That is one of the hardest lessons that I in all the years I've followed Christ as one of the hardest lessons that you learn is that there's purpose in suffering, there's purpose in hurt, there's purpose in affliction, there's purpose in brokenness. When you're young like I have been at one time, you could read the Bible and as you read the Bible say well of course you do this and of course you say that and of course you believe this because it's an of course thing, of course for me because it's true therefore we do. So I had within me I had the desire but I didn't have the understanding. I didn't know that the way to heaven was paved with brokenness. I didn't know that, I didn't know that there'd be many times in my life that I would be broken. We were singing a song earlier, I leaned over to John I mentioned that it's one of the songs that was one of the slides that we have. Perhaps you noticed it as you were reading the words of the song but it was like a pathway and it was there were trees in this pathway and they had all these leaves and I turned to John as I mentioned to Marie earlier I said I used to run when I was in the army I used to run through a forest that looks exactly like that. We didn't have the leaves it was clay but I would run through that on my own. I would run three miles a day, six days out of the week by myself and as I would do that I would pray and I would seek the Lord. I was a new Christian and I always prayed the same thing every day I did that. Every day as I ran I did that I'd say God help me to learn to love, God help me to learn to care, God help me to learn to be a good man because I was everything but that before I got saved. Everything but that. Love was something you said when you wanted something from somebody else. Love was something you used to get what you want. Love is a word you use that you give to somebody who wants to hear that word so they'll give you what you want. It's a bargaining chip. That's what it was to me. That's what love is and I knew and I knew that I didn't know what love was and I would pray I still do to this day almost 52 years later, God teach me to love. Teach me what that means because I still don't know and I want to know how to love, help me Lord. And I would do that at the age of 20 I would run every day six days a week every day through a forest. Then I finally went to a track and ran the track but I used to go through the forest. It was right next to our barracks across the street going to the forest and run. That's what I did by myself every day. Praying, God help me, God teach me, I want to be your man, help me. I didn't know that the way to love was brokenness. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know how much pain would be involved. How much hurt, how many disappointments, how many times your heart gets broken. I didn't know how many times over 50, almost 52 years. The way up is often down. The times that somebody loved deeply hurt you. The times that you trusted somebody there's so much for your life only to see them lie about you and have so many believe the lie rather than ever asking you. The joy of having a baby and then sorrow of seeing that baby not doing well as they grow older. The times that perhaps you've done this, I've done this. You've fallen literally on my knees and then laid on a carpet on my face, weeping. God help me, I don't know what to do. I dedicated this baby to you, Lord, but the break in my heart.  When you still come up, you still open the Bible and you still talk about Jesus and you still encourage people when you're broken hearted. How many times? How many times? 41 years in this church. How many times? When people could have put their arm around the shoulder and said, I'll pray for you instead, they're leaving and gossiping. How many times? The pain is deep and it hurts.  The most valuable vessel in my hand will always be the broken one, son. You said you wanted to be like me. Yes, I did. Well, don't you remember that Jesus according to Isaiah 53 is the wounded healer, he was broken. Don't you remember that? That he was unjustly accused? Don't you remember that? That the men that he ministered to included a Judas? Don't you remember that? The people who were crying out, Hosanna are the same ones who cried out, crucify him a week later, don't you remember that?  You will be broken. I'm not trying to scare you. So right now you're thinking, I don't wanna be like Christ. No, if you wanna be like Christ because it deepens you, it breaks those parts of your life that don't please God, it makes you dependent on him. The most valuable vessel in the hand of God is the one that he's broken. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7, Paul said it like this, we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellence of the power of God may be of, the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us, all for you Lord and none of me. Are you sure you want that? To the best of my ability I do. Do you understand what that's gonna take? It's gonna take a pouring out and a breaking. Why? Because the vase itself is only containing the excellence. In order for the excellence to pour out, there'll be a breaking so it can come out. Do you want the breaking so that the pouring out will occur? Anything Lord, anything.  Criticism? Yeah. Why this waste? Yeah. But Mary knew what she wanted. She wanted to worship and honor her God. There are people who have said to me oh I wanna be in the pastoral ministry and I've actually literally cried telling them you don't know what you're asking for. You think it's just standing up there talking and going and playing golf the rest of the week. It's a brokenness. How many times have I been in a bed when someone was dying? Funerals, ministering to people who are broken and hurt themselves. How many times? How long? Can you do that? As long as God gives you strength. As long as you love him. Your life is a pouring out to the end. Worship for Jesus Christ. That's what it is. That's how it works. Remember that the most powerful thing that God has in his hand as he uses is the broken one. So maybe you're going through her right now. Maybe you're going through loss. Maybe there are things you're concerned with. God, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what to do. Somebody asked me once, pastor, what is the greatest lesson that you've ever learned? And I said, the greatest lesson? It all works out in the end. For all things work together for the good of those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose. I may not understand what's taking place right now, but I do understand him and I know he loves me and he will take you through whatever you're going through and on the other side you'll turn around and you'll say, I thought I was alone, but I see every step of the way. You were with me. You never left me. You never forcipped me and you brought me through. And that's what you learn when you worship the Lord. It's much deeper than coming and singing a song and then going home. It's walking with Jesus every day willing to do whatever he calls you to do. And guess what? It is a beautiful life. When that brokenness has continued even to the point where it's completed and you say now I understand Lord and at that point you die. So every step of the way. I have broken vessels in this room right now. God heals. God does a perfect work. And you will rejoice in what he's done.  One last thought. I hope this isn't too personal. Forgive me. Many years ago, my son David and his girlfriend, she got pregnant. She gave birth. My baby, my granddaughter. Broke my heart that it came about that way, but I've never ever been unhappy that I have her. I love my baby. It just broke my heart. It wasn't done in the way it should have been done. People left. I'm a bad pastor. You didn't raise perfect son. But guess what? Then the last baptism. I have a picture of me baptized in my baby. My son brought her to faith in Jesus Christ and I baptized that little girl that people said oh you should, no, I believe in the grace and forgiveness of God. He forgave me. Why can't he forgive you? How it works. It all works out in the end. It all does. Hold fast and watch what the Lord will do. Hold fast and you'll rejoice at what God has done. And when people are saying things, let it alone. God has a way of taking care of all of his children, including the ones who aren't kind right now. He has a way because he's gracious. Just keep your eyes on him and watch what he'll do in yours. Watch what he'll do in your life. Father, I ask that you would have your way in life.


I remember calling reality into question for the first time. The things it'll do to your mind. Fracture it, like scrambled eggs. I was eight. Some bugs you shouldn't give to a child. Maybe you should give them to old children. They'll wash them, they'll make them sleep. Slash them, they'll make them sleep. But what? Yeah, so what? Yeah, little marks, yeah. Starish, huh? I remember the first time I felt alone. Isolated on my own. Have you felt it? I remember ink on a page. On a thousand pages. The ink is always the same. Always black. The pages are different. Paper of low quality. Of middling quality. Of high quality. Newsprin. Newsprin. Newsprin. Newsprint. Glass coated paper. Automarked. Recycled. Is there anything worse than a recycled paper? Within the pages. Written in ink. A world. How can that be? How can words create worlds? They're things.  I remember all these worlds. Everything in them. Things I have not drunk. Friendships I never had. And loves I couldn't possibly have experienced. Lives I have not lived. Remember them all. As if they were my own. I remember calling reality into question. All the time. Do you?


Hello everyone. I'd like to add my thanks for staying to the end of this event. It's been so wonderful to hear everyone read and be a part of this group of people in this room right now who are brought together by proximity and by poetry. This poem is called November. When I try to recreate the late nights, they are nothing but sober mornings in disguise. Maybe because it is not October. This, now, is the month of stomachs. Bears and hedgehogs make ready to sleep across the tundra expanse of hunger. In this way, there is control. If not over time, then over the effect of time. In a black planner, I map the hours and assign purpose to each in increments of one or two. Comfort resides in clear delineations. The October pages are almost untouched. A marker of abandon starting the day we met after. I charted hours again as for other lesser months.  Is it mine or his, or is it absolved from belonging? He appeared at the door, still unsteady from nighttime activity. I stole a book for you, he said. A gray-green volume from the university library, unlikely to be missed. Until several November's from now, an American Studies PhD candidate seeks the 1941 issues of Mencken's American Mercury. Concerned with the cultural milieu of World War II era American intellectuals. And when he reaches the shelf in three east, he will find space enough for a gray-green volume. I hope he will understand. One reaches fullness only after the feeling of interminable emptiness. For bears and hedgehogs, there is the fullness and then there is the devouring. November, the month of stomachs, stands a poor and useless imitator of October, the month of appetites. In return, I gave him a poem in a stolen envelope. Birds were waking, yet it was not a late night. But the mere ghost of one, like ours in a black planner, defined and then erased. What I wrote for you, I said. I didn't mean it. Only the part about late nights, he said. Quit being so critical, I really liked it. When there is no hunger, what are we left to fill? When there is no hunger, what do we become? And what becomes of us? Hunger is becoming in bears and hedgehogs, but only when they rise for months long sleep, after having chewed slowly on energy reserves. They wake to a spring morning, a world shaken of snow, ready to be complete again.


So, how do we migrate to horns? That's the topic of this webinar. I'm Domar Zawolenski. I'm a product manager with RF Elements. And I would like to welcome you. And thank you for finding the time, especially as the previous WISPA webinar just ended. So we appreciate your attendance and let's go directly to the topic. So first, everyone should ask themselves a question before migrating to horns. And the question is, why should I migrate to horns in the first place? And there are several symptoms in WISPA networks that indicate that the migration to another technology, in this case, we'll of course talk about horns, might be a good idea. And these are high noise background, unstable network throughput or jumping modulation rates, latency issues or even way too many customer complaints. And all these together might have a even more subtle result, which is your inability to grow your WISPA business. And there are several issues you might run into if you're interested in migrating to horns. There is no general instruction on where to start or maybe the execution path is not clearly outlined or maybe you've already deployed some of the horns and you're not quite sure about the results you're seeing and what they actually mean. Or you might be confused on what to do with horns to begin with. And that is okay, it is completely okay as well. So regardless which one is your case, this webinar will address all these points. Two distinct paths are possible when migrating to horns. So first is augmenting the coverage, meaning that you change only part of the network, just some of the sectors you already have to sort of ease into using horns and not switch everything at once, kind of jumping head first because obviously that may be quite dangerous and uncertain. Second way to migrate to horns is when you're building a completely new tower. So both cases have their specifics to be aware of and we'll go through these in this webinar further on. But before we go to the migration breakdown itself and there are several things that you would ideally know before even starting with it. So our horns are in the market since 2014 and our customers have accumulated a wealth of knowledge on how to use horns and you can actually should lean on this experience. You can find about these best practices from fellow Wisps either personally or on various forums on social media channels. So second, only solve the problems you really have. Take the time to figure out what is the issue you're facing and you're pretty much halfway through with solving it. Spectrum is one of the most valuable resources Wisps have, especially those using the unlicensed frequency bands, but it's the same for the licensed bands. It's the noise saturation is just happening slower but nevertheless, it's definitely sure to happen as well. So it's important to understand how spectrum is utilized in your area and therefore limited at the same time. So adjust the network planning on that base. And also despite that spectrum might be clean really only use as much as you need to deliver the services you're selling. In short, use the spectrum wisely and eventually also understand the limits of the hardware you're using. So you're not disappointed when upgrading to horns. So you don't need to change all the sectors on a tower to successfully test if horns will work for you or not. It's not necessary to take all the old patch erase sectors down to see if you can improve your network with horns. You can start small. For example, by selecting the worst performing sector then change for horns just that one. Now this way you do not need to commit a major investment but test the water first with minimum risk involved. Because horns are very different from the traditional patch erase sectors you need to know where your customers are located. While with the traditional sectors you may have been able to connect the customers even in very unexpected places. And like you can see from this image like behind the sector itself this might not be and most likely will not be the case with horns. Because horns don't have any side loops or back loop as the traditional sectors do you might end up not being able to connect some of the customers that might be connected with the traditional sector. Which is a good thing to keep in mind while planning the migration. Also understand the hardware you're using. So while horns can bring huge improvement to Wisp network and your business bottom line their resulting throughput is still decided by the limits of the radios that process the data flowing through them. So the total throughput is ultimately limited by what the radios can do. So if you deal with the noise if you clear out the ether you remove one source of problems. But then the bottleneck of the maximum throughput of each radio is limiting the maximum total throughput you can see your network working with. The options of gain selection with traditional patch erase sectors are quite limited. And this leads to users developing the habits of using antennas which too much gain in situations when smaller gain antenna would be more than enough like in this comparison to cover the customers displayed you do not need high gain. And not only that the smaller access point gain will improve the noise floor the access point radio sees and works with and thanks to, and that's thanks to the smaller gain the access point antenna has and through which it will receive less noise avoiding the distance sources of noise. With traditional sectors using the down tilt to cover the high density areas near the tower is difficult. And that's because of the narrow beam within the elevation plane of these antennas. Moreover, the down tilt is usable on the up to two or three degrees since these antennas are extremely sensitive to the down tilt. So anything beyond a few degrees of the down tilt makes the coverage pretty much advantage to nonexistence. With Hornstow, thanks to the symmetrical radiation pattern the coverage near the towers is as easy as the plus minus 25 degree down tilt helps you to optimize the coverage depending on the user base you're trying to serve and further improve the noise floor the radio is working with because the down tilt not only shrinks the coverage but also the antenna to receive the less noise from distant noise sources. So how to figure out the down tilt you should be using with horns. Our link calculator provides very precise and clear answer. So using the point to multiple calculator on our web page you see how the coverage changes with increasing down tilt so you can easily optimize the coverage. The calculator uses real map data and the radiation pattern data as well. So it's really the closest thing to reality out there. And finally, it's really the best tool to avoid having to just guess or eyeball what the down tilt should be when using horns. So instead of using just one patch erase sector or one type of patch erase sector with fixed beam width regardless of the customer base position horns let you cover the customers optimally depending on the customer density and positioning. You can select the horns with corresponding beam width and really not waste any of the signal that you're transmitting or receiving. With the seven different symmetrical three asymmetrical horns and ultra horn you have plenty of options to plan your network coverage in a highly granular way and keep adjusting it depending on how your customer base expands or shrinks. The wide beam width angles of patch erase sectors often seduce wisps to connect as many customers as possible. While this sounds attractive because you naturally save the cash for the extra gear it is harmful to your customers and their experience of your service. So many CP is connected to one access point makes the CPU of the access point radio work real hard when using patch erase sectors that have very frequency dependent coverage. So the differences of the modulation rates between the CP is connected to that one AP puts a heavy load on the radio CPU and thus slows the whole network down significantly. The uniform coverage of horns makes all the difference here. So despite you might not achieve the highest MCS rates in the whole sector, horns ensure stable and high MCS rates in the whole coverage area. So because of uniform MCS rates across all the CPEs the CPU of the radio is not overloaded. And this results into outstanding customer experience because their connection will be reliable and with the throughput they're actually paying for. Our customers sometimes are confused about the symmetrical radiation pattern of horns. So the elevation narrow main beam of the traditional sectors is more a disadvantage really because the coverage is extremely sensitive to the right tilt setting. With horns you do not need to worry about this. You can use symmetrical horns in any landscape scenario. High customer density or deep valleys regardless symmetrical horns will deliver. The asymmetrical horns on the other hand have a narrower elevation beam with compared to the azimuth beam with. So the asymmetrical results into higher gain so you can cover further areas, further distant areas and potentially more customers but also makes them less suitable for maintenance regions where they might not cover the valley as well. So asymmetrical radiation pattern is good for lower density and higher distances which are common in for example rural or suburban areas. How do you then go about augmenting your existing network? Let's have a detailed look at this. Naturally you might want to start testing horns by offloading your heavily loaded access points or extending the capacity of these towers. Once you decided which ones those are it is smart to consider which horns might do the best job here. Since now you have 10 different tools to choose from smaller horns for closer distances for closer clients larger horns for higher customer density and distance. If you want to have the option to offer for example higher packages to premium customers horns enable this kind of augment as well or maybe you want to improve the network performance at the edge of the sectors because of the customer complaints about unstable connection. All these scenarios are perfect use cases for horns. So offloading the capacity or adding the capacity here you can see how traditional setup might look like. You have four sectors which are well not they don't even need to overlap but because of the self interference you see let's say poor performance through the whole site. Some sectors have average throughput some have really poor and so on. So what can you do here? You might want to offload some of those really poorly performing sectors. And do you do that by putting up let's say a pair of horns as illustrated in this animation. So as soon as you put bunch of those customers on the horns that will of course make it easy for those poor performing sectors with the patchery antennas and overall improve the performance of the whole network. In terms of the width of the sector some of the clients especially considering this example especially the closing clients might be having a average throughput but as visible from the image they're clustered closely together. So maybe we could do something here and indeed if we take one of those smaller horns with smaller gain but wider beam width and cover the customers near that tower in that dashed area the overall performance of the site can improve in this way because we simply migrated those customers nearby the tower to the horn antenna to the horn sector the originally patchery traditional sector also sees an improvement. And vice versa if there is a group of customers clustered somewhere further away from the site and the whole sector just performs on really average throughput quite unstable and you're not really quite sure what would help to improve the situation putting up a horn might be a good idea and of help here. So taking those narrower beam width horns for example at 30 degree horn it has higher gain so it easily reaches those customers further away from the site which are closely clustered together and voila everything improves. The older sector performance improves because there's less customers connected to it and at the same time the horn provides a very stable and high throughput performance to those customers they're connected to the horn in that densely populated cluster. On the other hand, for example maybe you're serving businesses and some of them can definitely afford those higher throughput packages. With the traditional sector it's kind of a guess game. You just keep adding the customers until and you see the network performance deteriorating progressively. So you really cannot, you don't have the space to offer those higher throughput packages to even if there were customers that are willing to pay you just physically cannot do it with the traditional sectors. And this is where the horns come in handy. Using again in this example the 30 degree symmetrical horn you can really spotlight those customers that are willing and capable to pay for those higher packages. The horns really enable you to leverage whatever your radios can handle. So they really give you that margin they give you that additional bandwidth to work with and be able to be more competitive. Your business ends up being more, you have an advantage over your competition by being able to offer those higher throughput packages. In situations when the customers at the edges of the sector see poor to really let's say bad performance meaning that their throughput speed is changing substantially throughout the day and or changing also with changing frequency when you see a for example cleaner bit of the spectrum and you wanna switch to that leverage that and as soon as you do so because of the frequency dependence of the performance of traditional sectors this might be just a guess game in the end. So the traditional sectors and all their frequency dependence of their parameters and coverage will simply not allow you to provide that good service to the customers at the edge of those sectors despite that you might overlap these sectors. And here horns can come to the rescue as well. Take those narrow beam width horns and just put them between the sectors aim them at those overlapping edges. Here horns again will stabilize the whole situation. Again, the customers in those traditional sectors will see an improvement because you simply offload them. You take bunch of those customers away and it's not only the throughput there that those customers are using but also as we explained before the switching between the MCS rates puts a computational load on those radios which also is mitigated when you use horns to cover the edges of the sectors. So sometimes you can see or complain that you don't have enough channels. Even though you might deploy the horns to kind of come to the rescue and improve the situation with the horns you're really addressing those problematic sectors or edges of the sectors. And as you keep adding the customers you'll see that it's still not it. It's still deteriorating as you adding those customers to those traditional sectors. And in that case, well, you can still go even further and replace those traditional sectors by horns. And this way, because horns don't have any side logs their coverage is very stable meaning with changing frequency their coverage doesn't change the maximum gain doesn't change. All of these factors added together will make up for really great and stable performance. But again, of course, up to the limit of what the radios can chew. So the radios have some maximum throughput they can work with. And of course that's the most you can see even with horns. After all, horns, what they do they simply avoid collecting the noise which the traditional sectors do. And of course the horns are also very stable with frequency. So if you building a new site you might decide, well, why don't I just build it up 100% with horns? Avoid the traditional sectors altogether avoid the hassle that comes with growing your customer base when using traditional sectors. And this you can achieve by various in various combinations. So again, there's the tool set of 10 types of horns. They are different beam widths, different gains and the ultra horn with the high gain for narrow sectors or point to point applications. But anyway, you can for example go with the uniform coverage which just means that you take for example four 90 degree horns and cover the whole circle or a six 60 degree or 12 30 degree horns. And they will all achieve the same thing. But of course with the difference that the 90 degree horns have smaller gain. So that would work for smaller distances. Yeah, and the 30 degree horns vice versa work for further away customers. So if your customer base has higher radius then you wanna go with those narrow beam width horns. Or the second option is that you basically build at the coverage depending on the you just patch it together from various types of horns. And that's for the cases when the customers are not spread out around the site in a symmetrical way, let's say or in distances that are more or less the same. So you can just patch the coverage depending on what you need. And eventually, even when you do so whatever you do, you can add and change horns as needed. So if some sector will start growing and more customer people will come ask you about, hey, can I also connect to the internet? Can you connect me? You're not limited with horns. You know, you can basically just respond to any situation when the customer base is changing. So the uniform coverage is pretty straightforward. You have dense customer base at some distance from the side and you just use the corresponding number of horns. And again, as I mentioned for closer in distances, you can use the wider bandwidth horns with smaller gain. And on the other hand, if the distances are bigger you wanna use those narrower horns. The custom coverage is really what I would say or call the art of what's possible or the art of what's needed in this case. So in some directions, the customers might be spread out somewhat further. In another cases, they might be closed in. And based on that, you just choose the corresponding bandwidth of the horns that will do the job. And this you can do or let's say, you might be thinking, well, okay but how do I decide about that? How do I see what horn will do what job? Depending on where my customers are. And here again, I would point you to our link calculator which I mentioned before in connection with optimizing the down tilt. So and the change your customer base again is not a problem. While with the traditional patch array sectors previously it might have been quite an issue. You only have that many options. There is just a few beam with types with the traditional sectors. You can have and not speaking of the gain they can achieve. It's usually high gain of somewhere around 20 dbi and the angle start around 80, 90 degrees. While with horns, you have the tools with quite a big or fine resolution. So the beam width of horns increase from 30 to 90 degrees with 10 degree steps. And that's when the symmetrical horns and with asymmetrical horns, there's 30, 60 and 90. And finally there is 24 dbi gain and 15 degrees beam width withdrawn. And here are a few examples. If you're wondering like how many of sectors can you really put up on a single tower? And these are not our images. We didn't stage those. These are photos from our customers from actual deployments. So even the very high density site is absolutely no problem for horns. So the scalability, the horns provide you is really unlimited. So I would sum up what we just talked about until now. And the advices here are use the correct gain horn. No longer you need to stick to the high gain patch rate sectors. And in fact, it's actually better to use as smaller gain as possible. Contrary to what your intuition or your colleagues might be telling you at the optimum gain of the axis point antenna is actually the smallest possible. Second, be aware where your customers are. And that goes without saying, of course you need to know where they're located. But that was of course in connection with the fact that the traditional patch rate sectors cover a lot bigger swath of distances and directions than declared by the manufacturers. And while the horns do not, they're very directional, very clear. The sectors are very well-defined. So be mindful of that. And then down tilt. Down tilt is your friend with horns unlike the traditional sectors. The horns again, because thanks to that symmetrical radiation pattern they're covering the whole area you point them at, even as close to the tower as you can imagine. And eventually you don't have to just believe what I'm saying here. Again, try our link calculator which really has the real world map data and we imported the radiation patterns over antennas to really help you figure out the optimum down tilt you should be using with them. And mind you, if you're not using any horns yet and are thinking about trying them, start with one. It's fair thing to do. I would do the same. Of course you wanna be careful with your business and with your spending. But in the end, it's definitely not the best approach. To just like chip in the horns wherever I have an emergency situation where the growing customer base is already screaming for that offloading sector. And eventually the biggest gain you can, the biggest gain you can leverage while with using horns is to actually replace all the sectors, the traditional sectors with horns. And eventually planning is a very good idea pretty much with anything you're doing. I mean, of course sometimes we can't help ourselves and fall in love head over heels with a person but thankfully the WIST networks are, we can manage to control ourselves enough to plan before we actually do anything. Planning is the alpha and omega of successful migration to horns. In case you have any questions about our products, I invite you to join our discussion forum, rfelab.com. Many questions have been already asked and answered so you can search through them naturally or ask your own questions if you have any. Sometimes our customers are not quite sure where to buy our products.  And then after you select the product you're looking for and the region where you're located, it will show you the nearest distributors to your physical location. On our YouTube channel, you can find a playlist with the name Wisp Traveler. And of course I can try my best and talk for hours about our products. But in the end, to hear about the horns and how they work for the wisps from your fellow colleagues is probably the best testimonial we could ask for. And this is why we have recorded these Wisps Travelers where our customers from all around the world speak about our products and how they help them. Another playlist we have on YouTube is called Inside Wireless. And this is a series of short educational videos on all kinds of topics from the world of art.  And finally, I would advise you to join or follow us on the social media channels. We're announcing releases of new products or when we post a new video, release a new video and release a recording of the webinar such as this one on Facebook or if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you'll be the first one to know. Yeah, thank you, thank you Ian. Thank you to the attendees, to everybody who found the time to join us for this webinar. And I'm looking forward to the following ones. Thank you. Have a nice day.


Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson, I'm going to share with you a very common question really asked by a few of my students. The half diminished chord versus the full diminished chord. So the half diminished and the full diminished have different functional harmony around them. They resolve differently and that's what we are here to do. And as some of you may know, if you follow the channel regularly, I tend to talk a lot about minor progressions and minor music composition in general. So I tend to use these diminished chords a lot, the half and the full, to make music that way. You can also see some of my riffs, filter them by minor in the website which we have and you will get a lot of this minor feel which has a lot of these diminished chords. So in the lesson, first of all, I'm going to talk about the theory behind the chords, how you can build it. Then I'm going to talk about how you can use it to resolve music, not just for a particular genre like jazz, but in general, we look at how the chords are designed in order to resolve to wherever they need to resolve. So before we get cracking, it will be awesome if you could consider hitting that subscribe button, there's a bell icon for regular notifications and leave us a like, leave us a comment with something you'd like to learn and there are notes on Patreon for this lesson as well as other lessons in the past and which we are going to do in the future. Do consider being a Patreon on Patreon.com. Let's get cracking. So I'm going to take the key of D or the note D and look at how we can form the chords. So first of all, the half diminished chord. So the half diminished chord is formed. First of all, both the chords are diminished chords with another interval added on to them. So what is that other interval? That's what we're going to figure out in the lesson. So you start with the, you're figuring out the D half diminished chord, which is D and now you build a diminished chord. So what's the formula to build a diminished chord? You do minor third. What's a minor third? Well, it's tricky to show you step by step. Well, it is one, two, three steps from anywhere, but in reality, a minor third should just be remembered by you. So D to F is a minor third. And then from F, you build another minor third to give yourself a flat or you can think of it as a D minor chord with a flat five, where the perfect fifth A got flattened to the A flat. So that's your diminished vibe. And now to add to this, to make it a half diminished, we add a minor seventh. In fact, we also call this another name for this chord is the minor seventh flat five chord. You'll find that used a lot more in charts. And you also use a Greek symbol five for the chord of Phi for it. That one. Okay. So diminished plus minor seventh. A quick trick to get yourselves a minor seventh would be it's an octave minus two. There we go. Octave minus two gives you a minor seven. So in reality, you need to know these intervals very well. Just on your fingertips by eye, by mind, you should know this really well. So what's a half diminished chord again or a minor seventh flat five? It's a diminished chord with a minor seventh or it's a minor chord or minor seventh chord with a flat five, whichever way you look at it, you can get it that way. And it's interesting to know that when you invert a minor seventh flat five, let's say when you play it on F, which is the next inversion, you get a minor sixth chord. Very different flavor, very mysterious, minor sixth. So minor seven flat five or a half diminished is also a minor sixth chord in disguise. You could think of it that way. And a minor seventh flat five exists in the major scale if you think about it. So if you look at the E flat major scale, you'll realize that the seventh degree of any scale will form a diminished chord. But when you extend the harmony, diminished extension, minor seven flat five. So the minor seven flat five is there in the major scale in the seventh degree. But the other one, which I'm going to tell you may not be there in the major scale because you don't have that note. So that's where the other chord comes in, which is called as the fully diminished chord or the whole full diminished chord. So how do we form that? It's just a cluster of minor thirds. So if you take again the stack from D, a good way I think to form it would be minor third, minor third, minor third, three minor thirds gives you a full diminished chord. So that's the part. The reason why a minor third, minor third, minor third combo will work is because this is a symmetric chord. That means it's the same chord when you reverse it or invert it rather. So if you play D, F, A flat, B and now start with F, this chord is called the F diminished seventh chord. Then if you start it with G sharp or A flat, that's a G sharp diminished seventh chord. Same notes. That's a B diminished seventh chord. Same notes. So you need to remember that within a pack of four and if one of them is a D diminished seventh chord, then you invert it and you just get the other three diminished seventh chords. So in total, you have 12 diminished seventh chords, but they're all built through three shapes or three note combinations. So do check out the notes in the Patreon PDF. You'll find it there.  Now this is not the property with the case of the half diminished chord or the minor seven flat five wherein when you invert a minor seven flat five, I told you this earlier you get a minor sixth chord. So you're not going to get the same chord. You're going to get some other chord and it doesn't work symmetrically as the diminished seventh. So there are how many diminished seventh chords to learn in total? Well, the answer is a sum total of three because you can invert them and you get three into four, 12. While the half diminished chord, you have to learn all 12 all 12 of them are unique. So it's in my opinion it's a lot easier to play this diminished seventh chord on the piano than it is to play the half diminished chord. It's just a bit different on the hand because of that additional stretch there. So we need to be careful. I often have made that mistake and probably still do till this day where I tend to play like a diminished seventh chord instead of a half or vice versa and the music can sound really bad at times. So let's look at the use cases of these two chords the way at least I would like to present them in this lesson. There may be a lot more use cases as well which we have which we'll not be able to cover in this video.  You can use the half diminished chord to be the two of the two five one in the minor key. In the minor key the two is not a minor seventh it's not that's not how it's designed that would have been in the major scale D minor seventh G seventh C major seventh but the half diminished chord is that and this is directly promoting the C harmonic minor which is eventually going to happen D half diminished or minor seventh flat five that goes to the five of the scale which is G seventh and then it goes back to C minor okay that's a dominant and then the minor so the half diminished chord doesn't resolve to the tonic well it could but it form it wants to kind of go to the five it's a bit stronger there so that's your half diminished while a whole diminished which is this D diminished seventh just goes directly to C minor it's almost like a dominant chord and a good way to prove that is if you play the D diminished seventh chord now form the dominant chord of the C minor scale what is the dominant the five right play the five and it really sweetly or beautifully wants to go to the C minor and there's another few tricks up the diminished seventh chord sleeve it doesn't only resolve like D diminished seventh D minor seventh flat five resolved to G seventh which resolved to C minor but then the D diminished seventh chord goes to C minor scale it can also go to three other scales so in total a diminished seventh chord a full diminished seventh chord takes you to four scales let me show you that that option right here so you play the chord one way to kind of train your ear what is the next scale right is to drop any of these four notes down by one semitone or down by one half step so I'll start with the top finger B dropping B by B to B flat and now you realize that B flat is actually a B flat dominant seventh chord where does B flat dominant seventh want to go it is the five of D flat so now if you just play the D diminished seven it goes really well to E flat major it could also go to dominant seventh in disguise going to B flat so it kind of goes to C minor and the journey continues the same strategy play the chord drop now I'm I already showed you with B dropping by one you can now drop the G sharp or a flat down to G that gives you your C minor which I already showed you goes to C major as well now I'm now going to drop this F note which is the sex the second note what does that form it forms a dominant seventh chord is the five of the major so even a melody but to feel that it's always good to drop by one step drop one note of the diminished seventh chord by one step kind of helps your year and the theory to be like oh yeah it's E seventh which is the five of the a minor or a major beauty of the car it can go to the minor scale or the major scale and we have one more movement or one more part of this chord that's it what's that D flat dominant seventh or C sharp dominant seventh I just drop the D D to the C sharp C sharp is the five of the F sharp minor or F sharp major so beautiful chord it can go to so many scales if you think about it it can actually go to eight scales right it's going to four major and the same names minors as well so I think that's a huge distinction between a full diminished chord and a half diminished chord a half diminished seventh chord is more used as a cadence you'll use it more as a two five one resolution it's more rooted to a key like a major or a minor harmonic minor most more commonly while a full diminished chord is like a dominant chord a dominant chord wants to resolve to a tonic so it's a very unstable chord and you use it a lot for runs you will use it a lot in gypsy jazz flamenco music a lot of minor music classical music we've heard it we've even heard it in dance music you know like I will survive the first chord has that you know it has that diminished seventh chord so yeah hopefully you guys found the lesson useful hopefully you have the distinction between the two so a final follow-up to this would be practice your half diminished seventh chords as two five one movements that would be D minor seven flat five G seventh going to C minor and practice your full diminished seventh chords drop one to down a step and resolve it to the major key or the minor key and then drop the other one drop the other one drop the last one incredible chord you guys should definitely use it and let me know in the comments if you found the lesson useful if you have any questions if you'd like to learn something in the future we'd be happy to consider it again this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music if you'd like to learn something more at the intermediate and advanced levels you can go to our website fill up a form or reach us on email or whatsapp and one of us can help you forward with your admission right guys thanks a ton cheers catch you in the next one


The new course of fire can be conducted in three days. The first day is known as ARQ holds day. That day you conduct BZO, then you do the short bay, so 25 and 15 yard lines, then you go back to the 100 and conduct the barricades and the movers. You then move to the 200, conduct the barricades and the movers from the barricades at 200, you then move back to the 300, do a holds confirmation drill, then you move to the 500 for another holds confirmation drill. On pre-qual and qual day you start at the 500 and work your way down. I absolutely believe that this new qual will benefit Marines in their mission.  So by starting at 500 and working our way down to 15 yard lines they are doing exactly such. This is the combat marksmanship coaches course for the reserve unit. I feel like this is a really good course just for a new table one, table two, and trying to apply it actually into Marine Corps marksmanship. Shooting this new ARQ is really beneficial and teaching us how to be more lethal. This new course of fire is going to help the lethality of the Marine Corps out. One we start at the 500 yard line and we're shooting the same exact target as we are at 15. It's still a man-sized target.  My confidence is through the roof like there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that I can go back, teach my Marines how to shoot, how to get better, how to run this new course of fire with the new iterations and then be able to come out and be better marksmen.


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