Choir Project

Well, it has become apparent that in order to have an active choir for our ward I need to lead from the piano bench. At least until the bishopric is able to convince someone that they have it in them to play for us.

Since I am leading from the bench we will be doing some very simple songs – hymns and primary songs mainly. But those are beautiful and have the same way of bringing the spirit – if not more so in some cases.

We have to do these because I am extremely limited in what I can play. I am taking piano lessons and getting better but I am just not where I wish I was. I have to be able to learn to play the song in just a short time and be able to play it while listening to the choir. This is a challenge. Even more so because of the fact that I get extremely (to the point of feeling ill) nervous playing for people. My nerves make me weak and lose focus. So this is a huge growth experience for me and I need it.

(Be careful saying out loud what you need because the Lord just might grant it. Okay, He might even if you don’t say a word because he already knows.)

Since just after Christmas I have been playing around with a couple Primary songs. I’m not sure what made me look at them but I did. It was inspiration. That’s for sure. But the songs are “Love is Spoken Here” and “Families Can Be Together Forever”. I found when playing these two songs that they mesh together well. They are in the same key and their ending and beginning chords and melodies work well with each other. So I meshed them.

It was an amazing experience. I definitely noticed the Lord’s hand in this. It had become, in my mind, a sort of tribute to my mother-in-law. She reminds me of the mother in this song. I imagine her always praying with her family and pleading to the Lord for them. It’s also the mother that I wish to be.

We sang it today for ward conference. That’s what I had been preparing it for. It worked well for me to lead our small choir from the bench. I am optimistic about doing it this way for the duration. The choir stood around the piano and it was like having a little ensemble or something. Very intimate and I feel even a bit closer to my fellow choir members after having done this. Practice was a lot of fun. I am so grateful for their patience as I struggled through our first run-throughs of this song (nerves!!!).

I had asked the Lord to put a hand on my shoulder and steady my nerves today so that I can play and so that I can enjoy this experience and feel the spirit. When I sat down to rehearse the music before church I really felt close to Susan and the emotion from that overcame me. I am glad for that. The Lord did indeed grant my request and my nerves did calm enough and I did enjoy playing it for the choir and for the congregation.

Here you can listen to my arrangement of these two songs. Sorry that the sound isn’t great nor is my singing and I have a few mistakes but the overall effect is nice. I think it came together beautifully. Unfortunately I don’t have a recording of the choir singing it. It really was nice. We got some great comments on it.

Just as a run through for those who are familiar with the two songs. I start with the intro to “Love” and then jump to “Families” for the first verse. For the second verse the women sing the first verse (first half) of “Love” to the melody of “Families” and then jump back to the original melody(second half). I added some alto harmonization to it. For the 3rd verse the men sing the 2nd verse of “Love” as written. Then, just as they do in primary, the women and men sing their two verses together as written except that I played it an octave higher with slight embellishment (in the video this is the part I am not singing). After they finished that verse they jump over to the chorus for “Families” and near the end jumped back to finish the ending to “Love”. Confused? So were they. But once we went over it a couple times they got it. Maybe it will be clearer once you hear it.

Also, we did sing this at a slower tempo. I was playing it a little fast here.