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
Lindsey Stirling – “The Only Pirate at the Party”
Lindsey Stirling is an American violinist, dancer, performance artist, singer, and composer. The twenty-nine-year-old sensation is well-known for her choreographed electronic violin performances worldwide, and also as seen in her music videos which can be found on her...
The Piano Guys Hello/Lacrimosa Masterpiece
The Piano Guys recent release of their mashup of Adele’s most popular song “Hello,” and Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” blend together perfectly to produce a very energetic, but somehow therapeutic song. Their music video of this amazing mashup is posted on YouTube and has...
Jenn Blosil Pushes Forward With Her Undying Love For Music
One of Jenn Blosil’s final performances on American Idol, and I would say, her best, was a recreation of Frank Sinatra’s “My Funny Valentine.” Jenn sang the duet with one of American Idol’s legends, Constantine Maroulis. Jenn and Constantine had a fun and exciting...
Four Mormons Who Became “American Idol” Icons – Where are they now?
Since the airing of its first season on Fox television in June 2002, American Idol has no doubt become one of the most successful shows in the history of American television. The show, an American singing competition series, was created by Simon Fuller, an English...
Jeneve Rose Mitchell, the Lesser Known American Idol Contestant
Social media venues, as well as, news sites, LDS blogs, and Mormon magazines have been maintaining a vigilant watch on the Mormons still remaining in the final American Idol competition. Everyone rejoiced when contestant Jen Blosil made it to the Top 24, but what no...
Rob Landes Covers Radioactive in Bangkok Thailand
Vanessa-Mae, a British violinist with album sales reaching several million, has said, “Violin playing is a physical art with great traditions behind it.” The violin, that small string instrument sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music...