Today’s rehearsal was so fun. First, I bluetooth streamed a new warm-up arpeggio (ha! Learned that word from my friend who gave me the scribbled notes about how to do warm ups from her choir director mother) that I posted to this website so I could work it with the kids. We sang lots of “I LO-OVE TO SINGs” up and down the scales.
And then, we had a special visitor from my friend Kara Larson who plays the violin in our worship service (also a mom of some of the kids in the choir). I’m calling it our “petting zoo”, copying the terminology from the Virginia Symphony Orchestra when they have kids come early to their performances and let them interact with all the instruments.
So after our warm-up, I “interviewed” Kara in front of the kids. It was so great. The kids were so curious. And Kara was excellent at interacting with them.
Note: This video is a bit jumpy in 3 spots because the person recording couldn’t get more than about 2 minutes at a time.
Another highlight of the day is that one boy who has decided he doesn’t want to come to SingTime anymore even came because he knew that something special was happening with a violin. Perhaps he will realize that SingTime has some fun parts to it every once in a while.
That is the struggle with most things that are worthwhile in life, right? Routine, monotony, boredom, tedium, repetition. But then there are some high moments that make it worth it. That is a fact of life that doesn’t change until we die and get to heaven. Hopefully SingTime will teach the children a little of this truth.
Brain wandering….does anyone else love A League of Their Own? Remember that line by Tom Hanks playing Coach Jimmy Duggan, “The hard is what makes it great.” I need to watch this with my own kids. It is baseball season after all.
Anyway, the interview went longer than I had planned, so we didn’t get to sing as much. But that is o.k. The interview was a fantastic use of time.
I plan to do this petting zoo at least every two months. And I will ask the same questions to each musicians for consistency. You can find these questions and more in the Simply Joyful Noises Resources Section.