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Author Topic: Scheduling Choir Practice  (Read 1200 times)

Offline vwebster

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« on: April 04, 2005, 11:32:25 AM »
How often does your choir practice?  What time & days?

Have you noticed a problem with people not wanting to practice? For instance, they want to practice once or twice a month, and don't mind "attempting" to learn a song 1 day and sing it the next.

Offline sjonathan02

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2005, 12:19:26 PM »
All I can do was chuckle when I read your post because there are some people in my music minstry who think all it takes is one day to learn song and then MINISTER with it on Sunday morning. And, they're on the P&W team.

As for any choir that I direct, we have reached an understanding that rehearsal is vital in order to usher in the presence of God. As a M.O.M, I'm still teaching the importance of getting a song into one's spirit in order to minister to God's people (that's where it gets tough because some people just want to do the same ol thing).
Despite our communication technology, no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice.

Offline vwebster

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« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2005, 02:37:04 PM »
See, I can sympathize with you. I know we're all busy. Spouses, kids, work, school,...you name it.

But, I love an opportunity to get away from it all and sing or play gospel music. And, then to be able to minister (via the choir) on Sunday morning. What a powerful tool?

The attitude of less is more, carries over to the kids as well. If I even attempt to schedule an extra practice or two, I can hear it coming,... the adults don't practice that much.

When we're not at a top notch level with a song, it hurts me. I know this may seem extreme. But, it's almost painful to participate, when people are half hearted.

Offline LadyWiz

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2005, 04:05:50 PM »
Quote from: sjonathan02
As a M.O.M, I'm still teaching the importance of getting a song into one's spirit in order to minister to God's people (that's where it gets tough because some people just want to do the same ol thing).


Amen, sjonahan02!!

Offline LisaE

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2005, 04:10:00 PM »
Tell me about it! The Praise and Worship team I am on, we started learning a new song Thursday night and performed it Friday night, our "debut".

I say we were VERY BLESSED to get very good feedback on what we did considering we only had 2 rehearsals (between 3/28 and 3/31), didn't decide what songs we wanted to sing until 3/25, and performed all of them on 4/1.

Andrea
Keep on practicing! Keep on playing!

Offline vwebster

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« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2005, 09:07:33 AM »
Quote from: LisaE
Tell me about it! The Praise and Worship team I am on, we started learning a new song Thursday night and performed it Friday night, our "debut".

I say we were VERY BLESSED to get very good feedback on what we did considering we only had 2 rehearsals (between 3/28 and 3/31), didn't decide what songs we wanted to sing until 3/25, and performed all of them on 4/1.

Andrea


Blessed,  indeed. And, probably blessed with talent just for starters. How long did you spend at each practice?

Offline LisaE

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2005, 11:15:00 AM »
If I remember correctly, the first rehearsal we had we all got together at 8PM and we didn't even leave until around 11PM.

Thursday night rehearsal, again we got together around 7:30PM/8PMish, and took a couple of hours. It was that Thursday night that I had to "chill" because the two tenors in our group were going over this one song we went over Tuesday. I mentioned to someone, okay, do we want to be here all night? (because I think it was getting past 9PM) and was told we need to perform with excellence.

Yes, I agree - but with excellence comes PLANNING!! Not doing things at the last minute!

You're probably wondering in that shor time period, why couldn't we just cancel. Well, our Singles Ministry at our church is getting totally revamped and the sponser of the Singles Ministry wanted to show a "taste" of what the new ministry would be like April 1st. May 1st is going to be the full blown thing: Praise & Worship with band, short message, activities, food, fellowship.

The good news is we have an idea what songs we want to sing May 1st, so I'm tackling learning how to play those  songs now.
Keep on practicing! Keep on playing!

Offline sjonathan02

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2005, 11:58:52 AM »
Yes, I agree - but with excellence comes PLANNING!! Not doing things at the last minute!

Yes, planning is indeed important. One's rehearsal should be diligently structured so that the Holy Spirit can move, even during rehearsal. God is not the author of confusion. As a director, an individual should keep this fact in mind as you go about arranging a choir, Praise team, or music ministry.

Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Be Blessed
Jonathan
Despite our communication technology, no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice.

Offline Crazykeys

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2005, 12:09:25 PM »
:D vwebster you are right. What is wrong with these people not wanting to practice today. It kills me when people put a hold on practice days. I know people are busy and all but, to me it is just aa buch of excuses. If you got in the chior, be prepared to work on perfecting God's praises. But hey what I say doesn't matter, I'm just Crazykeys. :D  8)
Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. (Psalms 33:3)

Offline chrisjr4

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2005, 04:02:22 PM »
My choir practices weekly on Tuesdays for a couple hours. We usually (with the help of choir cds lol) learn a song in around 30 min. and the following week work on dynamics, etc.. So, I guess we learn about 2 songs every other week. I tell you though, it sure took a WHILE to get here lol.
We did have two rehearsals but the second one (which was about 30 min.) was after prayer meeting and it was running too late into the night.

Offline sjonathan02

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Scheduling Choir Practice
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2005, 07:37:58 AM »
My choir also practices on Tuesday evenings. We practice for about an hour (unless it's the practice right before our worship service, which may last 90 min)

Since my church has various choirs that are assigned a particular Sunday, each choir has four weeks to prepare for their worship service. During that first rehearsal, after prayer and scripture (usually), I'll share with the choir members what God has shared with me in terms of the needs of the people.  (We've finally gotten to a place where the choir members are beginning to sense where God is taking us and, it's awesome and helps them to understand song choices.)

During this rehearsal, I'll introduce the songs for the upcoming service and give them CDs that I've made for them (a great investment if you are a director, because it allows the spirit of the song to get into your choir members.) I've found that, since the members belong to more than one choir, or may be on the Praise and Worship Team, it's not good to give them all new songs in a month.

Anyway, that first rehearsal we work on notes and the message of the song. In the following rehearsal, we'll continue to discuss the message and fine tune it (dynamics, diction, etc)

That's how rehearsal work for me, and God has been moving mightily, as of late.

Jonathan
Despite our communication technology, no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice.
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