Today I was so very encouraged by one of the moms of some of our little singers. These two Post-It Notes might not look like much, but they mean a ton to me.
See, last week I gave her a copy of two copies of a vocal warm ups I had written in MuseScore to accompany the choir. I asked her to sing through them with her girls this past week to see if I was way off in terms of range for kids’ voices. MuseScore makes it easy to transpose up and down, so it was easy to create two versions. Well, not only did she give me some great feedback, she talked to her mother who is a professional musician and children’s choir director and got even more ideas! I felt so blessed by her interest in providing helpful info, felt blessed by the actual info she provided, and felt blessed by her mother who I have never even met. The Lord wants our children’s choirs to succeed, y’all!
We sung through our two Palm Sunday Songs. We pretty much have them nailed. Just a few more weeks to polish them.
Today I actually discussed which order we should do the two songs in. One is slow and regal. One is lively and spirited, like straight out of “Fiddler On The Roof” (perhaps I should watch this with my own kids sometime soon?).
It was neat to get their feedback. Some kids think one song should go first, some kids think the other song should go first. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter, but I saw their minds turning about how musicians do need to think about the presentation.
A worship choir is not for “show” necessarily, but we do need to take our craft seriously and give God and his people our best.
We also discussed how musicians need to take special care with the beginning and ending of the songs. That is largely what people will remember. At a minimum, a choir should start well and end well.
The second child from the choir was able to recite all the books of the Bible today. I offered her a few options, and she chose an Adventures In Odessey audio cd. I think these are great special prizes for kids!