How to teach a choir a new song

OK.
I know this sounds like a silly title
for a blog entry.
But you know,
there really are different ways to teach.
I'm not just talking about
different leadership styles.
I'm talkin' about how people learn.

Specifically,
I wanna write about how people
who don't read music
learn a new song.

First of all,
if you have many musicians,
I would recommend at least a once a month rehearsal
for musicians. . .apart from the choir.
If there is only one guitarist
and a pianist. . .well, that might work.
But really. . .if there are several guitarists
or other instrumentalists
I would recommend planning your liturgies
at least one month in advance.
Pass music out.
Let musicians look at music at home.
Now. . .I'm not saying
not to welcome them to a rehearsal.
But I really think that musicians
should rehearse as musicians separate from the choir.
Musicians should not be learning music
at the same rehearsal that the choir is.

Why do I say that?
It's not just about the musicians.
It's about the choir.

To put it simply,
people learn a new song best
voice to voice.
In other words, sing it and let the choir repeat it back.
No instruments.
Not even a basic accompaniment.
Just voice to voice.

There can be such a thing as too much music,
at least as far as learning a new song goes.
Too much music, too much accompaniment
can throw folks off.
They are searching for the melody or harmony.
Give them the whole score and it lengthens the learning process.
Now,
most of us rehearse 1 1/2 to 2 hours a week.
Time is precious commodity.
Don't we want to shorten the time it takes
to learn a new song?
And, again,
let me say that I'm writing here
about a choir whose members don't read music.

Another tactic,
perhaps even before the voice to voice approach,
is to recite the text in rhythm.
I do this ALWAYS
the children's choir I direct.
The thing is,
once you start,
once the choir knows that this is the process
they will begin to pay more attention
when you speak the text in rhythm.
Almost as if by some sort of osmosis
they will learn how to listen better.

If a syllable has more than one note,
stretch the note out with an "h"
as you recite that text in rhythm.
(This is the Day
the Lord - hord- has made.)
Speak it in rhythm a few times.
Then, pluck out the melody on the piano.
Just the melody.
Then, go voice to voice.

And, again,
speaking of the choir
whose members don't read music,
I would suggest rehearsing the song
for three weeks
(or 3 rehearsals)
before introducing it at mass.

Why do I say this?
Because even though the song may be very easy,
many of them will forget their part
once the return home from rehearsal.
They may remember that it was upbeat
or solemn.
They may remember that the men did something different,
or that the key was high or low.
But they might not remember their specific part.
And next week. . .
well. . .let's face the truth here. . .
some of them might come next week.
And then you'll some who come next week
who weren't there when you introduced the piece.
So. . .that's why I suggest three rehearsals.

I know, I know.
Attendance is important and people should come
to every rehearsal.
But that, my friends,
is another blog entry.

Just remember these two things,
if you don't remember anything else:
1) Speak the text in rhythm
2) Teach the song voice to voice.

Please. . .
. . it will save us all so much time and frustration. . . .

You Reap What You Sow

Do you ever get the feeling that people just stop trying?
Or that people have just gotten plain lazy?

I have a couple of relatives in my family
who are immigrants,
both of which have attained permanent resident status legally.
One of them constantly reflects
on what is going on at work.
The average worker
will only do the minimum amount of work necessary
to receive the maximum amount of wages.
Conversely,
the employer will pay the minimum amount in wages,
just enough to keep his employees.

What ever happened to giving your all?
You know, a company is only as successful as her employees.
It would do us well to give a little more, especially nowadays.

If we work hard for our employer
then maybe our employer won’t go out of business.

And maybe you can’t pay your employees a whole lot,
with the economy being what is and all.
But you know,
giving out a Christmas ham
or turkey at Thanksgiving
might just be the edge
to keep your workers giving just a little more.
If you don’t normally have your staff work on weekends
but need them this Saturday for a special order that’s due,
buy their lunch.
Take care of your workers and maybe,
just maybe, they’ll take care of you.

Somehow,
many have just plain forgotten that we reap what we sow.

And last week,
I got really flustered.. . .even angry.
Now, I manage my anger pretty well.
I’m usually even tempered enough
to really examine a person’s motives and thoughts
before I explode at something they said or did.
I think what made me angry at what happened
was that the person didn’t do anything. . .
. . .and what they said showed me
that they weren’t even listening.

I went to local grocery store
and while there it started to rain very hard
with wind blowing pretty mightily, too.
Understandably, many of the shopping carts
had blown all over the parking lot.
One of them was on the way out to the street
where it would surely cause a major accident.
And then there were several more
that were being pushed
in that same direction by the wind. . . .

. . . .I suppose I should have gotten out of my car
in the wind and rain and all,
blocked the cars behind me, etc. . .
. . .Hindsight is 20/20. . .
but I did what I thought was the next best thing. . .
I called the grocery store on my cell phone
(I wasn’t the one driving!).
I mean,
they have employees who gather the carts, don’t they?
Not that I wanted to see anyone get drenched.
But that would have been better that seeing an accident.

Well.. . .It took me forever to get an actual person.
Push 1 for this. Push 2 for that.. .
and then a sub audio index. ..
Push 1 for this. Push 2 for that. . .
When I finally got through to an actual living person
she said I had the wrong number.

I tried to explain to her that I had just left the store
and was in my car
and the carts were on their way to Eureka road.
She told me to hang up
and dial again and ask for customer service. . . .?. . . .
I suppose it was just too much for her to transfer me
or to just plain communicate this information to the appropriate person herself.
Sadly, this grocery store has at least one employee
who has just stopped trying.

I mean, she didn’t even try hard enough
to placate me with a lie,
"thank you, ma’am. I’ll take care of right away."
She told me to hang up and call again. . . .

Oh. . and then, there’s the cell phone company.
We recently renewed one of the contracts.
We don’t have a land line,
but between us we have 5 cell phones.

OK.
Time to renew one of the contracts.
Well, the bill comes in with all sorts of charges,
extras I didn’t ask for
and one thing that was a part of the last contract
that I asked not to add this time around. . . .

And to top it all off,
when we got the phone, we had a problem.
When you push to get your voice mail,
it didn’t go to voice mail at all.
It rang someone else’s cell.

So, we get a call from the company
to see how we like the service.
I was polite,
but I told them about all the things that went wrong.
They promised to clear up the excess charges
and offered apologies.

Just to be sure,
I went to the place where the contract was made
a couple of days later.
The fact is, all of those charges were still on the phone.

And then. . . .the one assisting me
accused me of setting the wrong phone
number for the voice mail,
when, in fact, the very person who was accusing me
was the one who set everything on the phone
the day the contact was renewed. . . .

I mean, have people just stopped trying or what???
What did this cell company reap?
Next time around, we won’t be using them.

So, what’s my point with all of this venting?
My point is that sometimes adults
need to go back and relearn some basic stuff.

Say, "I’m sorry," if you’ve made a mistake.

Say, "please," when you should.

If you promise to do something, then, just do it.
If something happens that you are unable to follow through,
offer an apology and see what you can do to make it right.

Don’t accuse someone
of your own error.

Say, "thank you, " often.
To God.
To your family and friends.
I have learned that the more you say, "thank you,"
the more blessings you’ll receive.

The more you say "thank you,"
the more reasons you will have
to say, "thank you."

Reciprocate, if possible,
when someone does something nice for you.
And again, a "thank you" goes a long way.

And remember,
always give a little bit more when you are able.
A little extra time,
a little extra effort.
Send out a little extra prayer.
You’ll appreciate this later,
when it’s your turn to reap.
And the thing is,
we never know when that is going to be.

You reap what you sow.
It’s really not that hard a lesson
to learn from the Gospel.