Ben Howington
Ben Howington from Raleigh, North Carolina, refers to himself as a “branding, marketing, and creative design nut.” He says, “I play guitar by night and do web design, branding, and PR by day.” He loves simple messages, clean designs, and Martin guitars. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is married and has four children.
He is also known as “Guitar Dad” with his YouTube postings of hymn arrangements and his guitar tutorials on his website. In December 2013, his production of “Families Can Be Together Forever” gained more views than normal because he expressed his gratitude for the life of his daughter who was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was three-and-one-half months old and was celebrating being in remission for five years. The doctors had told the family that if cancer went into remission for five years, it would probably not return.
Ben learned to play the guitar in the early 90’s when he was a teenager. The internet was not available at that time for him to search for stuff after school, so he would lock himself in his bedroom for hours everyday teaching himself to play the guitar.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-Idaho). He is a manager of corporate communications. He was a senior account manager for a New York company when his daughter Lila was diagnosed on a trip to visit family in North Carolina. After the diagnosis, he moved his wife, Annie, and their children to be closer to family and to have their daughter treated at Duke University Medical Center, one of the best in the country for pediatric brain cancer and stem cell transplant. Lila underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant before the age of one. Four months after the tumor was removed, it grew back and the treatment process had to begin again. Cancer has not returned in five years.
Ben commented, “We feel blessed because it doesn’t always have the same outcome for everyone, but that doesn’t change the way we felt the Lord’s hand in everything. We never felt like she was going to leave us, and I know that’s because of the eternal nature of families because we’re an eternal family.”
MormonGuitar.com is his project to write original arrangements of his kid’s favorite hymns and primary music each month. He admits that it also gives him an excuse to play the guitar more often. At the start of each month, his children pick a song from the LDS hymn book. Sometimes he picks songs suggested by his website audience. He says that by not picking the songs himself, it makes it a lot easier to analyze each one, looking for some hidden meaning or insight.
The goal of Mormon Guitar is to not only play the arrangements of hymns that he creates but also teach others how to play them. He arranges the hymn, transcribes it, video himself playing it, video himself teaching others how to play it, and creates an interactive tab that allows a person to practice the song at their own pace. New arrangements are posted on the first day of each month and everything on the site is free. He further comments, “I thought, there is so much crap out there on the Internet that I wanted to do something to try and offset that, and I thought what better way to do that than the hymns.”
Follow Ben Howington
Recent Posts
Donald Clark Osmond Dons Coat of Many Colors to Perform Wedding Ceremony for His Friends
Donald Clark Osmond (Donny), the world-renowned singer who in the 1990's starred in the title role on stage in the musical and on screen in the 1999 movie version of the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, was asked to preside at the wedding of his...
Mat and Savanna Shaw, the Viral Father-Daughter Duo from Kaysville, Utah, to Release Their Debut Album
Eight months ago, as the world moved into lock-down mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then-15-year-old Savanna Shaw from Kaysville, Utah, found herself at home with her family and no physical contact with her school friends. Before the pandemic, Savanna had joined...
Teeroy Tyobee and Allie Gardner Release Powerful New Song “Different People”
Teeroy Tyobee (his stage name is TeeRoy) is a 29-year-old singer-songwriter from the Tiv Nation of Benue State in Nigeria. Before the COVID-19 pandemic he collaborated with recording artist and singer-songwriter, Allie Gardner, to create a powerful new song called...
Heather Parker’s New Album “Shine” Celebrates Diversity in Faiths and Cultures
With the many genres of music that are available to listen to, it can still often become a challenge to find music that is not only wholesome, but also spiritually uplifting and edifying. Even though a song may have a good beat, the rhythm and the beat are only a...
The Tabernacle Choir Celebrates 110th Anniversary of Their First Recording and Releases New Star Wars Music Video
More than a century ago - in fact, 110 years ago - on 1 September 1910 - The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (then known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) completed its first recording in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Since then, the Church News reports that the Choir...
15-Year-Old Latter-day Saint Country Singer, Kenadi Dodds, Performs on the “America’s Got Talent” Stage
Ever since 2015, when now 15-year-old Kenadi Dodds, a Latter-day Saint country singer from Logan, Utah, saw Shania Twain from the front row at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, she has envisioned becoming a country star. She has had a few opportunities to help...