ABOUT ME
Dr. Cope has a music and education background. He has a BA in Music Education, two Masters Degrees: one in Education and a second in Church Music Education. His Ph.D. in Education was in the research on school-dropouts and the use of the Hebrew Education Model in alternative education. Dr. Cope taught music education and teacher education at the college level for 18 years. He founded three public schools and co-founded an Outdoor Adventure Nonprofit company. He also has a ministry background and served on staff in churches in Utah , Kentucky , Colorado and Indiana
Dr. Cope started building musical instruments in high school and throughout his life he has experimented with a variety of materials for making sound including gourd fiddles, plungers and car jacks for percussion, fiberglass lute bodies and now ABS plastic for the backs of the Psaltery. He began building and repairing Orff Xylophones after studying Orff and Kodaly in college and graduate school.
His personal mission is to encourage “Minds and Hearts in discovering Purpose and Lives to Shape the Future” The ministry of the Psaltery Principle is a mission to increase capacity the spiritual life of believers through personal worship music and in short to use the Psaltery as a tool to make it simple and inviting in order to “Worship like King David.”
The goal of the Psaltery is to encourage more people to enjoy playing a musical instrument for personal health and enjoyment. The more critical health concern in people in our society is that so few people are actually using their voice for singing; this is like only using your legs to walk but to never run or jump or dance. The research points to the personal value of singing as a healthy activity. However, due to the “performance mentality” and the spectator sport of music in our society, less and less people even try to sing. Thus, encouraging people to sing with the aid of a simple instrument like the Psaltery is the hope of this mission.