kayre | Jul. 10th, 2018

amaebi commented that I am posting only about once a month. It's not intentional. Mostly it's a matter of shutting down under stress, coupled with my suspicion that only three people ever read this-- am I wrong? Anyway, here I am.

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A week ago I was startled and horrified to realize that if I weren't obligated to be there, the Sunday church service I was about to play was not one I'd want to attend. And then I thought "but I'm the director of music-- I can at least work on that part!" There are a lot of new things I've wanted to try, but there is nearly always a reason not to do so in church-- currently it's summer. There'll be a little window of opportunity in October, then it'll be too close to Christmas, then it'll be the worst of winter. Another little window early in spring, then it'll be Lent, and then it's after Easter when we lose all momentum, and then it's summer again.

So, screw all that. I have used a single drum in worship a few times, and once a drum and a shaker, and I've really wanted to do more; so I put a notice in our weekly email inviting folks to come early, and emailed my musicians the same. As it turns out, I got only one response from that-- but I got Pastor, my husband and daughter, and the three guest musicians, so I had a mightly little band. The day's "gathering music" was Kum Ba Yah, and we did it without keyboard, but with an assortment of drums, shakers, wood blocks and bells. I structured that one a bit, with different combinations on each verse. ("We're going to be unPresbyterian in a very Presbyterian way today.") The closing was an African chorus, and for that I told them to play whenever they wanted.

I got good feedback; will find out today if Pastor heard any negatives. But I had FUN, and led something the way I think it should be done. Best was the reaction of one of the guest musicians, who just radiated delight throughout the process.