Another Choir Year is Almost Over!

We had our final church choir rehearsal yesterday evening. Our director always turns our final rehearsal into a party at her house. We have a brief rehearsal, and then some time to relax and socialize! It's always a fun and special time, but a little bittersweet as well as it means another year has come and gone- where has the time gone?!

The choir always shows their appreciation to the director, organist, and pianist (me!) by presenting us all with a small gift, and I happen to just love the gift they got for me this year. How cute is this coffee/tea travel mug?! I used it this morning, and I'm sure that every use will bring back warm memories of the years I've been a part of this church.

Our choir still has 2 Sundays left to sing, but then over the summer months we rely on other special music for offertory. I'm already hard at work coordinating music for the ensuing weeks- lining up youth musicians from our congregation and pulling in other musician friends.

If you're a church musician how does your church handle the summer months? Does your choir get a break? Who is responsible for the music over the summer months?

Growing as a Church Musician

I am reminded of this pretty much every week: if you want to succeed as a church musician without completely losing your sanity you have to learn to be flexible! It's really not about perfection, but about how well you are able to roll with the punches and deal with whatever is thrown your way.

Every year, our church collaborates with another local church for 2 consecutive Sundays. The first Sunday, our adult and bell choirs travel to their church to join them, while the following Sunday they join us at our church. It's always a wonderful experience as we get 2 Sundays packed full of music!

This year, as a member of the bell choir, I was secretly looking forward to a 'morning off' from my responsibilities as church pianist as we were traveling to the sister church where their church pianist would be taking care of accompanying the choirs and performing all the service music. I was also excited about the opportunity about actually singing with the choir instead of accompanying them!

Think again.

When we arrived, I was approached by the church pianist, who asked me if I'd be willing to finish up the service as he needed to leave early that day. I was still able to play bells and sing with the choir, but I also played all the music for the latter half of the service. So instead of a morning off, I ended up doing more than my usual weekly musical responsibilities.

But you know what the neatest thing was? The fact that I didn't mind being asked to take on those extra responsibilities! And the fact that I wasn't nervous about them either! A year or 2 ago, if I had been asked to fill in in that capacity, I would have felt extremely nervous about the last minute preparations, and it probably would have ruined my entire morning. But as I grow as a musician and especially in my experience as a church musician, I'm learning to keep my cool and be available and flexible in whatever task I'm asked to perform.

It's exciting to look back and see how I've matured in my almost 5 years as a church musician! If you are a church musician, what are some of the ways that you have grown over the years?

The Joy of Collaborative Music

I am so excited! This evening I'm rehearsing with my sister as we'll be playing together for the upcoming Sunday service.

My little sister's forte is french horn, although she played piano for many years as well. We've collaborated innumerable times over the years as a piano duo and as a piano/horn duo. Either way we always have tons of fun and grow as musicians through every experience.

This is absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite aspect of being a musician. The opportunity to create with other musicians, learn from each other, and have fun at the same time is so much more worthwhile to me (and less scary ;) ) than solo performing. That's not to say I don't enjoy a solo performance once in a while, but my true love is collaborative music.

Looking back on my past, it's easy to see just where this love stems from. Accompanying my sister and brother was a part of my musical experience growing up- whenever they had a recital or a performance of any kind I was always called on to accompany them. Since my sister and I took from the same piano instructor, we were often paired together for duets.

To celebrate my love of collaborative music, I even featured three collaborative works in my senior recital. I started the program with a Mozart 2-piano Sonata, played a movement from a horn Sonata with my sister midway through the program, and finished the program with a movement from my favorite piano Concerto. It was truly an evening that celebrated all kinds of music!

Collaborative music is an important part of any musician's experience, no matter what their age or skill level. I love accompanying my students in their lessons and for recitals, but I get even more excited when they can participate in collaborative efforts with their peers and siblings, just as I did as a child.

Now that we're adults, it's so rewarding that my sister and I can still make music together and celebrate this shared love of ours that has been so much a part of our lives.

What Was I So Worried About?!

Yesterday evening was our church's Maundy Thursday service. It's a beautiful evening of music and reflection, and our worship director usually pulls in other musicians to help add to the event. So I wasn't surprised when she approached me last Sunday and handed me some music to look at for the flute choir for Thursday. When I looked at it, however, I was a bit surprised at the level of difficulty and the intricacies...were we really going to pull this off on the fly for Thursday?!

She asked me to come early on Thursday evening to rehearse with the flute choir, which I agreed to do, but I left church feeling a little nervous about getting my accompaniment together before then.

The following days saw me spending a considerable amount of time working on the piece. Every spare minute found me at the piano. I meticulously copied the music, cut out the piano line and pasted it together onto 4 pages so I'd have less page turns. I worked with the metronome, gradually increasing my speed so I was certain I'd be able to keep up with the quartet. And while I wasn't worried about any other aspect of the service, I was pretty anxious about pulling this piece off!

...Until I arrived at church last night and realized that we weren't playing the piece for the service! In fact, we might not be playing it at all! Basically, Linda had given me the music because this was a piece that the flute choir was considering. Before they made their decision, however, they wanted to run through it once with an accompanist to see how that changed the nature of the piece...I was just an experimental add-on ;) When we did our trial run, I was also surprised (and a bit relieved!) to note that the choir was taking a much slower tempo than the one suggested.

Moral of the story?: I had basically gotten myself all worked up about nothing!

I could cite countless examples like this in my past experience as a musician when I'll get roped into something and literally feel like I'm pulling my hair out to try and get it together, only to realize that I was taking the whole endeavor way too seriously! I just have to laugh at myself and try to remind myself not to take things so seriously in the future.

Can you relate? Do you have any stories to tell about times when you as a musician found yourself 'overly prepared' and guilty of taking a situation way too seriously?! I'd love to hear about it.

The Church Musician: Less is More

Our church choir is pretty small to being with, which means that any absences can have a significant impact on the overall performance (especially in the mens' department!).

This morning, due to some expected and un-expected absences, we found ourselves gathering for warm-ups with a total count of 4 choir members (including our director who decided to don a robe and sing to boost the numbers)! Could we really pull it off? After some deliberation, we decided to go ahead and perform the offertory as a quartet.

It ended up being a beautiful musical offering. While our numbers were diminished and our forces small, we still were able to perform the piece well and in a very moving, convincing manner.

There are times in music when less is more. A small, intimate performance can create the type of ambiance that is much more meaningful than a large mega-choir. There is a time and place for both, but I found myself especially blessed this morning by the ministry of our choral quartet!

Have you ever found yourself as a church musician unexpectedly turning what could be termed a potential disaster into a positive, and even meaningful, experience? I'd love to hear about it!

I LOVE Having a Keyboard in My Studio :)

I got an email this afternoon from my choir director asking me if I had time to make a recording of the children's choir anthem for Sunday and send it to her before their rehearsal tomorrow. I walked into the studio, recorded the anthem, hooked my thumb drive up, copied the file, transferred the file to my laptop, and sent it on its way. Just like that, in less than 20 minutes I was able to take a song, record it, and turn it into an audio file.

I used to be an acoustic piano purist. And when I started to teach I vowed that I would always use an acoustic piano for my students. I couldn't imagine teaching on one of those 'fake' electronic keyboards, much less even owning one!

Well, as I've learned over the years, I spend a good bit of my life eating my words! Not only have I owned a keyboard for about 2 years now, I teach from it and I have found it an invaluable asset to my studio.

I originally bought the keyboard to have as a good alternative for gigs. When one plays for private events, one quickly discovers that the ritziest locales can end up having the crappiest instruments. They just don't understand the value and difference a quality (or at least decent!) instrument makes. I got tired of my music sounding terrible because of the instrument I was stuck with.

Then I got married and my keyboard moved with me to our condo. After a few months, I started toying with the idea of opening a second studio location in our home. At that point I couldn't afford a piano, so after a lot of deliberation I decided to temporarily teach using the keyboard.

This past November I finally purchased my piano for the studio! I was so excited to have a quality instrument to play and teach on. But, surprisingly, in the interim between opening my second studio location and actually buying the piano my perception of the benefit of a keyboard changed dramatically. My students loved being able to come to lessons and try their pieces on a variety of settings and experiment with different sounds. A second instrument in the studio is an invaluable asset. And while I haven't yet experimented with recording my students, it's something I definitely want to explore in the future.

So while I still believe that there is no substitute for the acoustic piano and will never change my opinion on that count, I have come to acknowledge the keyboard in it's own right and appreciate what it has to bring to the modern music studio. Technology and music can be a wonderful partnership!

How do You Turn Pages?

I've been accompanying choirs since my middle school days, but this past Wednesday night at choir I found myself all of a sudden struggling with the basic concept of coordinating page turns while accompanying the choir. I don't know if I was just extra tired this week (I was- and still am- battling a cold) or whether my brain just wasn't fully engaged, but for whatever reason I started having major problems executing smooth page turns. I'd turn too early and lose my place, I'd turn too late and leave a few beats of awkward silence or hold a chord from the previous measure...it was awful! And once it started my heightened awareness of the problem only made matters worse. As I'd near the end of a page my mind would start racing and I'd think "ok, I have to get this page turn right" and I'd agonize over it so much that I'd mess up anyway. UGH!

I don't know why, but as a music professional it seems that just when I feel I've earned my title I find myself plagued by amateurish problems of this nature. I guess it's good to review the basics every now and again. ;) Every day since then when I've practiced I've really focused on how I'm prepping for my page turns. And I've realized that I really don't operate under any kind of standard formulae for page turning. It happens when it happens. Some places I have to turn early, others I turn late.

Do any other musicians have a formula or rule you use for page turning? I'd like to be able to have a bit more of a set formula to take into my future years of accompanying!

First Choir Rehearsal of 2011

Last night was our first choir rehearsal of the new year. It was great to get back and see everyone again, although our numbers were a bit sparse! Hopefully next week will see an increase in numbers. :)

I used to dread the start of a new choir season, if only for the massive volume of new music I would be handed by the choir director. When I first started my job at Springfield Presbyterian Church, we were at the end of the choir year, so I didn't get hit with too much music, but the follow fall was a different story. At the first rehearsal I got hit up with a HUGE stack of music. I left that evening feeling more than just a little overwhelmed.

But as time has marched on, I've learned to anticipate, and even enjoy a new season and new music. As a church pianist, there are several things I have learned (and continue to learn!) that make my job as accompanist more manageable, and even enjoyable!

1. Being handed a stack of music does NOT equal; you MUST have all this mastered by next week. That stack represents an entire season or more of music. Focus on the coming month first and then work from there.

2. You most likely won't ever perform all the music. Each season, there are several pieces that our director decides not to have us perform for various reasons. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen until AFTER we work on it for a bit, so I still need to learn the music.

3. Learn the choral parts first. Generally the first week or two on a new choir piece the director won't even ask for the accompaniment part as we just work on drilling notes for each vocal part. If I familiarize myself with the vocal parts first, that takes a load off my back, helps me comprehend the piece more fully, and makes me more secure when drilling parts with the choir.

4. You don't have to play all the notes! Yep, I've become pretty good at fudging, substituting, filling in, or whatever you want to call it. There are some times when I don't worry about being able to play every single note that's written in the music. I'll substitute with other chord tones, and sometimes leave out the extra octaves. My job is more about support and providing a backdrop for the choir. I'm not a performer.

5. It's a collaborative effort. This is perhaps one of my favorite things about accompanying- it's not all about me! It's a group effort between me, the director, and the members of the choir. If we're not in tune with each other, it's going to fall apart. As a member of the team, I need to be cognizant of what's happening around me, and ready to adapt at a moment's notice.

6. BE FLEXIBLE! This is super important! As accompanist, I always have to expect the 'unexpected' and be ready to go with the flow. This kind of goes with #5, but flexibility is so important that I felt it deserved it's own spot. :)

7. Have fun. Also super important. When I work with our choir, it's not about how well we perform. First and foremost, our goal is to bring glory to God through the music we perform. And our second goal should be to have fun, enjoy the music, and communicate that joy and excitement to the congregation.

That's just a small snippet I've learned in the past almost two years in my current church position. And even now, as I face a new season of music and another stack of choir pieces, I'm excited about the months ahead!