SATB

I'm the ward chorister at church right now.  My biggest challenges are #1. picking songs before Saturday (ideally it should be 1 month in advance and our organist hates my procrastination/forgetfulness) and #2. making it to church on time.  My closest call was when I got to the chapel and the first hymn's introduction was already playing!  I stashed the baby in her carseat at the front row, grabbed a hymnal, scurried up to the stand, dropped my sunglasses, panicked as the organist paused for me to lead everyone in while I still hadn't found the page (wished she could've played an extended intro), I started directing anyway only to realize I was directing the wrong time signature.  Ahh.  Halfway through the first verse I got on track.  A few minutes later the Bishopric member conducting the meeting welcomed everyone to church and thanked the organist and I saying, "she just swoops right in here and does the music for us."  Haha.  

So, the Bishop asked me if I could put together a few ward choir songs for a Christmas program.  I was excited to pick out some different arrangements and be able to slip in something other than straight hymns into a church meeting.  At our first rehearsal I said it would be more of a collective since I've never directed a choir before and I welcomed everyone's input/critiques/suggestions.  But, our ward is not very musical and we only had 1 soprano, 2 altos, 2 tenors, and 2 missionaries who may or may not be singing with us.  I had to scrap 2 of the songs I had chosen because "O Holy Night" needs strong sopranos and the other was a 4-part men's song.  So, there was a lot of begging people to join the choir and we ended up with 15 performing.  We sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" to a totally different tune with beautiful harmonies, the women sang a lullaby called "Baby in a Manger", and we sang "The First Noel" a capella.  Everyone sang so beautifully, with feeling, and my big emphasis was singing at various levels of volume.  It sounded wonderful and we heard tons of compliments.  The Bishop approached me and said, "Can I just say, WOW, that was amazing."  He later told Rich that that was the best ward choir he's ever heard.  Another Bishopric member told me, "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but that choir has never sounded so good."  Yay!  So, directing my first choir was really energizing and it would be fun to do again.  

I love that I'm rediscovering singing and to be able to sing with Rich is enchanting.