Archives for: November 2007

I have been struggling to learn Spanish for about two years. While I do pretty well understanding what I read, it seems to me that it would be easier to speak it if my tongue were unattached and was floating around loose in my mouth.

I am working on a hymn arrangement of one of the most popular LDS hymns of all time; “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.” The key is easy, the chord progressions are simple and straightforward. The message is one of devotion and love. I’m going to try to work in a nice soprano descant.

From Las Vegas, Nevada:
“I am new to this calling and any help is greatly appreciated!”

“I googled \"lds ward choirs\” and there you were! Thanks for sharing your talents with the rest of us – at no charge, at that! May you be blessed as you continue to share it!”

My daughter just bought a teacup Chihuahua. When she takes it for walks she has to protect it from neighborhood cats that think it’s a mouse.

Goodwill to Men

The crowd was in a rioting mood. Several old women were trampled as the police tried in vain to hold back the crowds. Is this the description of war torn areas of the world or race riots in the 1960’s? No. Just the scene at Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving.

One year as I stood in line with my basket full of various electronic gadgets, I watched two men wrestle for the last DVD player in the store, and I found myself wondering,

Is this really how we celebrate the season of peace on earth, goodwill to men?

And when did the size and expense of gifts grow to include things like furniture and cars and even houses? When did our children start making out Christmas wish lists as if they were order forms?

When did we start feeling obligated to attend every Christmas party held by anyone remotely related or even just acquaintances?

When did we decide that it was our personal responsibility to make hand dipped chocolates for everyone in our extended family and our neighborhood?

When did we start doing all the decorating ourselves so our home was professional and artistic looking instead of filled with fond memories?

One December, haunted by my neighbor’s perfect decorations, I decided I would hide all the cardboard stars and shellacked pretzel ornaments my kids had made in school and decorate the tree with a theme. It would be perfect; I decided. I generously let my children help, but since I had kept out only the ornaments I deemed acceptable, we were finished quickly. My daughter stood back and with the practiced eye of a second grader said, “Something is missing.”

“Oh?” I said with a surprised look, smiling inwardly about how clever I had been. Still, the tree did look a little forlorn.

A half an hour later I heard my daughter shouting that she had found them. “They were in the bottom of your closet,” She announced with a suspicious stare. She hurried to hang them then stood back with a satisfied smile. She was right. The tree did look better. Maybe the only theme we needed was her happy face.

Another year, I was waiting in line to pay for my groceries, when a magazine advertisement with a brightly decorated gingerbread house caught my eye. In my minds eye I envisioned each of our extended family gathered around the kitchen table enjoying hot chocolate with marshmallows, while my gingerbread house sat in the middle sending out Christmas vibes all over the room. In a wild moment of what can only be described as insanity, I decided I would make a gingerbread house for every relative in the family. I might have even made a couple more for friends.

The next four weeks were a blur of gingerbread walls that refused to stay together, and powdered sugar on every surface in the house including the ceiling.
In the end, even though my houses were nothing even close to the one I saw in that magazine, at least I had finished them. I took my offerings to the relative’s houses heady with the feeling that I would give something meaningful. Something that might even become a tradition that would be remembered for years.

Instead, each relative smiled politely when they saw the gingerbread house, put it on an out of the way table and immediately forgot about until they saw the dilapidated thing sometime around Valentine’s Day and immediately chucked it.

I still can’t stand the smell of gingerbread, but the bigger lesson was that I had wasted the entire Christmas season and not enjoyed one minute of it with my family.

I once heard someone say that when we say Yes to one thing, we are saying No to something else. After that year I started using the Yes and No rule for all my holiday activities.

In other words, if I say Yes to making hand painted Christmas ornaments, I am saying No to running out into the snow to catch snowflakes and build a snowman with my son.

If I say Yes to putting up the tree by myself, I say No to singing Christmas carols while decorating with my children.

If I say Yes to home made baked goods for the entire neighborhood, I am saying No to a quiet chat around the kitchen table with my daughter.

If I say yes to a huge Christmas dinner with matching nametags, I am saying No to an unhurried reading of the Christmas Story from the book of Luke with my family.

If I say Yes to staying up all night to sew matching outfits for my children on Christmas Eve, I am saying No to a rested and patient mother on Christmas Day.

If I say Yes to spending huge amounts on presents, I say No to my children learning unselfishness and gratitude.

If I say Yes to racing around after that mythical perfect Christmas, I say No to peace on earth, goodwill to men.

“Hark the Herald, Angels Sing” is finished. It has lots of octaves and left hand over the top to create bells sounds. Jon Schmidt would be proud.

My husband got up at 4:00A.M. to go fishing this morning in 25 degree weather. He offered to take me along. As much fun as that sounded, I decided to sleep in this morning and stay warm. Well, someone had to stay home to feed the cat. Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices.

I have to admit, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Family. Good food. Giving thanks. What could be better?

I’m working on a fun arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I know it’s a little late for this season because most ward choirs started practicing for Christmas in September. But I had these ideas that I had to try, so I might as well finish it. I’m going for the sound of Christmas bells in the piano accompaniment. I hope it turns out as much fun to sing as it is writing it!

What makes playing for the care center so much fun is that they have an electronic piano that is obviously possessed. It doesn’t respond to the strength of your touch but plays either too loud, or too soft depending on where you adjust the volume knob, whether it is raining, and whether it is an even numbered day of the month.

Our ward choir sang at a local care center yesterday. It is actually a branch in our Stake, so we were there to sing for their Sacrament Meeting. I was so focused on the choir that I forgot that I was supposed to lead the opening hymn as well. When our pianist began playing, I was still going over the choir music in my mind. Then I looked up and saw there was no chorister. I jumped up to conduct, but had not thought to get a hymn book so I turned around and grabbed the closest one I could find. It just happened to be the hymnal the Branch President was holding. He was a bit surprised to have me grab it right out of his hands.

Well, at least the choir sounded wonderful!

I have finished a new arrangement of “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.” I am excited to have my ward choir sing through it. I tried to make the accompaniment reflect a troubled sea with a change of key and meter in the last verse.

Last night I volunteered at a Thanksgiving carnival for children at a nearby elementary school. Most of the children from the area were Spanish speaking, so I got a chance to practice my pathetic Spanish. We were decorating paper boxes with stickers of animals, flowers and stars. I was doing pretty well until I asked one little girl if she would like a sticker of a dinner plate on her box while I was holding up a sticker of a duck.

Yesterday I took some of my piano solos to a local music store that I had heard accepted pieces from local composers. Unfortunately I took a whole pile. The owner of the store took one look at my stack and began a tirade, saying things like, “I don’t have time to listen to all of those! There are thousands of titles to compete with…” etc. There was a lot of gesturing and hand waving.

In the end they agreed to listen to three of them. I think they felt sorry for me because I was stupid enough to show up with twenty piano solos in triplicate. After I played for them, they were a little nicer to me and kept three to look at. They said they would get back to me. Right. That’s going to happen.

“I have been the branch president and I know we have small budget to get sheet music. Please I would like to use your music - otherwise I am working with the music here in our branch still.”

Our Bishop changed the program schedule so we will record some of the music next week instead of this week – but Recordings ARE coming!

Here is a link of my Granddaughter singing “Twinkle, Twinkly, Little Star” and some other fun stuff: http://www.chocolatewebstudio.com/personal/sephoramrkrabs.wav

I am working on an arrangement of one of my favorite hymns, “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.” I’m going for kind of a “nautical” sound as if a ship is making it’s way across a stormy sea.

“Nearer My God to Thee” is a very simple beginning solo I wrote for one of my students who was asked to play something for Sacrament meeting.

In our ward children are asked to play simple hymns for prelude music in Primary or Young Women’s. It could be used for that as well.

We will soon be posting recordings of all the hymn arrangements and piano solos. These are not professional recordings, but will help give an idea of what the music sounds like. Recording in a studio would eliminate minor mistakes and background noise, but the cost is quite high and would have to be repeated every time we posted a new arrangement. Thanks for your understanding!

I will not be completing “If You Could Hie to Kolob” at this time. It is under copyright restrictions and cannot be copied without written permission. Writing an arrangement is considered copying. Hmmm. Does anyone have any idea how to get written permission?

I am working on a new arrangement of “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” I think if anyone knows what “hie” means they will have no trouble getting to Kolob.

The accompaniment is a little more challenging than I usually like to make it, but I wrote this one for my nephew who is a bit of a masochist.

Our Stake Choir recently sang “Come Follow Me” in Stake Conference in Spanish because we have a Spanish speaking branch in our Stake. When we posted it to the site, I accidentally left some Spanish lyrics in it. You might want to redownload that one if you got the Spanish words.

Also, occasionally, though I try to be careful, errors like that sneak by. If you find something wrong, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks!

Statistics show that many more downloads occur late Saturday night and early Sunday morning than any other time. It’s a good thing we don’t have hours like a store.

Do you have any suggestions or advice for other ward choirs? Do you have a secret that makes your choir the best in the church? How do you inspire your members to sing with enthusiasm? What is the best way to use rehearsal time effectively? We would like to hear your ideas. Post your thoughts on Linda’s Blog, or add them to the bottom of the “downloads” page and we will publish the best ones.

Thanks!

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