Good rehearsal

Tonight my choir had an extremely successful rehearsal. Was it perfect? No, of course not. Did we accomplish a lot? I think so. Did we laugh? If you only knew! Did I have to work to keep us on task? Duh. Do I constantly say the same things any choir director I've always sung under has said? Yes, I am constantly reminding them to watch me, follow my tempo, sing the right vowels, you name it.

Boy did we work hard. But I think it was satisfying for all of us. Now time for me to go do my homework. At least I have something to keep me positive!

What did I get myself into?

None of us had any idea how big of a project this would turn out to be. But it needs to be done, or at least attempted before any judgement can be made. This is no small project. It's gonna take a lot of people striving to make things better and to turn the ship around. I certainly didn't know that they'd need my help turning the ship around. I don't think they even knew.

How do you turn a small church in a prime location that does have a lot to offer that no one seems to know about into a still probably small church that people do visit and stay? I don't know if anyone knows the answer, especially as each church is so different from each other. And in a time when it seems like so many other churches are facing the exact same problem, I think the church as a whole needs to change. How? I have no clue. This is not something they train you for in a Bachelor of Music degree program. Yes, it may get mentioned once or twice, but I don't think we all saw this problem coming. The warning signs were certainly there. But let's talk about something that I can at least help change, even though I am nowhere near the expert on this topic.

Yup, that's right. Music.

I still hear "Oh the organ is a dying field. Churches everywhere are switching to praise bands." Not everywhere. On both of those counts. It all depends on where you're at, both physically and spiritually. I've heard from several sources lately that "younger" people, i.e. my generation or thereabouts, care more about the message from the entire service, not just attending a contemporary or traditional service. And I fall into that camp as well. Yes, if I have a choice between a good "contemporary" service or a good "traditional" service I'll choose the traditional service. Granted that's what I want to do with my life as I'm an organist. But I certainly have played for a lot of contemporary services in the last 7 years or so. And quite often enjoyed doing it as well. Shocker!!!! The church organist occasionally likes to play with a drumset, guitars, and some singers.

Each church must find its own voice that makes them unique. And this includes new songs. Notice I did not say just contemporary music. There is new "traditional" style music out there that is really quite good. And there's some really bad stuff out there too. A friend of mine on Facebook had a link to an article entitled Worship Old and New.

"Here’s my take on [critiques of] contemporary music: if it’s a repetitive song, whose words are more or less from the Bible, and accompanied by guitar and drums we call it a praise chorus and deride it. If it’s a repetitive song, whose words are more or less from the Bible and accompanied by the piano or sung a capella, we call it Taize and celebrate it."

How true. You can encounter this scenario almost anywhere. "Oh I love Taize, but I hate contemporary music." Newsflash, Taize has a similar format to a lot of contemporary music.

I am not saying to completely throw everything out the window and start from ground zero. We need to take what we do well and go from there! That will give us better results and we still are true to ourselves. It's a novel idea. Now it's time for me to go practice for tomorrow so the music will be the best it can be.