A Sneek Preview of Tonight's Rehearsal

If you click on this picture it will open up bigger for you (I think) (it should) (let me know if it doesn't)

For our readers who live far away, I hope seeing a little of what we are doing will make you want to move to Clarksville.
For those of you who have been skipping out of choir for the summer I hope you will be encouraged to come back - TONIGHT!

We have CDs of the book we are working on this summer. They were made by the Sanctuary Choir at First Baptist Church, Joelton a few years ago. It's really good (if I say so myself). Come tonight and pick up your copy so you can sing these great songs all week long in your car. If your car doesn't have a CD player - well... it's probably time you bought a new car. LOL

Did you notice the 8 track player in this lovely 1981 Buick Regal?

Pics from our Choir Retreat

Our retreat was a few weeks ago, but my church computer didn't like talking to my camera so I couldn't get the pictures. I know all of our curious readers were waiting with great anticipation for some details of the retreat and some fun pictures.


Lining up the words game.



Yummy snack food!

Haha. The only difference between a room for two and a room for four was how many of the bunk beds had sheets on them. You might give me a call before you book a group here.

My favorite game of the weekend - Follow the Light. It was really cool.

Notice the red lights in the mirrors.

Lucky 9

There are allllll kinds of things about the number 9. You can check them out on Wikipedia and other sites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_(number)

Here's a little music trivia that has to do with 9.
First you have to remember that 3 is the number of the Trinity. Therefore it was considered a good meter (or time signature) for sacred music.

If you take the beat of a song in three time and divide the beat into two you get 3/4 time. Examples would be "Come, Thou fount of Every Blessing" and "Ancient Words."

If you take the beat of a song in three and divide the beat into 3 you get 9/8 time. This of course then would be very sacred back in the days when numbers meant so much and I've heard is the reason Bach used that double Trinity time of 9/8 for his beautiful song "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,"



Here's an interesting fact you may not know - possibly because I'm making it up even as I type. When there are nines in the date on a Wednesday it means it's the perfect time to be in choir! So with today having 3 nines in the date is is like triple wonderful time to be in choir. How cool is that? I'll be looking for you tonight!

Branded a Spammer Again

Last year I had to blog about Charter thinking I was spam.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/02/charter-thinks-im-spam.html

I included this picture.

So I wanted a different picture this year.

I gagged several times scrolling through the Spam pictures.

Did you know Spam comes in special flavors. (just gagged again)

All this as an introduction to the e-mail I sent out today that many of you did not get.

Here it is for you.

Many of you won't get this. We've been put on a few SPAM lists and can't convince one or two that we aren't spammers. So you'll need to check our worship blog to see what you missed. http://www.hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/
If you know someone who works for the State of TN (like Shannon) you might forward this to her because I already know form earlier this morning that she can't get e-mail from me right now.

Open mic night THIS Sunday night at the Labor Day picnic.

Some of the bands we thought we had lined up can't come this weekend. (Three bands and a quartet all had different reasons for not being able to bring a little entertainment to our Labor Day picnic.)
So… I want YOU to bring a CD and sing something. Maybe even two songs. Don't be shy. Sing a duet if you want. Get your kids to sing too. This will be a fun family night where everyone needs to sing something.

Welcome new choir members (and some returnees)

Lena (Song) Page - S
Lois Ann Gassdorf - S
Lil Smith - S
Jasmine Chong - S
Michelle Wilson - S2
Brittney Brake - A
Melissa Woodling - A
Rick Stephenson - T
John Woodcock - B
Tim Baggett - B

Merry Christmas!

We ordered our Christmas music today! Woohoo! A lot of really great music. You'll get to hear a preview of it at our Christmas party in August.

Right now, however, it's "I Sing, You Sing, We All Sing for Choir" contest time. There are more prizes to give away tonight and we'll be working on music to sing for the next few Sundays. Be sure to join us even if you are going to be gone Sunday (since we'll look at music for weeks later).

The altos are ahead right now, but the sopranos gained a little on them last week since they had new members and a lot in attendance. Here's the score as of today.

Sopranos - 1260

Altos - 1470

Men - 1140

See you tonight!!

Ice Cream Contest Continues

I don't know what I've been doing - well, actually, tons of stuff - but I've been behind on my blog posting!

Our "I Sing, You Sing, We All Sing for Choir (and Ice Cream)" contest continues.

If you look at just last Sunday, June 28, the contest looks really close.

Sopranos - 180

Altos - 160

Men - 160

Way to go Sopranos.

But, the altos have consistently been coming to Wednesdays and Sundays and are ahead by quite a bit. They have also brought in the most new members. So... here's the score as of today.

Sopranos - 900

Altos - 1160

Men - 780

Don't forget that THIS Sunday, July 5, we will just have one service at the main campus at 9:00 so we ALL get to sing TOGETHER! Yeah!

I'll be looking for you all tonight in choir. Cheryl has some really nice prizes and I'll have some NEW ice cream prizes!

I Sing, You Sing, We All Sing for Ice Cream - and Choir

Our Summer choir contest has begun!

Each Wednesday night during the Summer we'll have prizes and fun and more for everyone!
I'll have some of my great prizes.
I'll have a few Ice Cream prizes (like last week's $5 gift cards from TCBY!)
And each week Cheryl is giving away a prize because she says my prizes (except for the ice cream ones) are lame! So she is pretending she is a famous talk show host and giving away her favorite things. Last week it was a beautiful coffee mug from Allewine Pottery in Gatlinburg!

In addition to all the fun prizes, there is a contest between the sections.
Each team gets 10 points for each member present on Sunday morning (you get to count points for singing in both services) and 10 points for being in rehearsal on Wednesday night.
You get 50 bonus points for bringing someone new to choir.

Here is the score so far. It's early in the contest, so it is still any one's game.

Sopranos - 290
Altos - 310
Men - 240

Besides all of that
yes, there's more!!
We have a wonderful time singing and we are learning some great new music and choir is the perfect pick-me-up for the middle of your week.

I'll be looking for you all tonight!

News from Last NIght

We had a great rehearsal last night in choir. Thanks to everyone for being there. There were 73 of us! Now... that should mean that we should have 37 of us in each service this Sunday morning. The song we're singing - Prepare Ye the Way - needs a big choir.

We want to welcome some new choir members.
Shannon K. - soprano
Haley T. - alto (and 2nd sop)
Allison T. - alto
Craig G. - bass

I'm looking forward to Chief Kelton singing with us on March 1. It's an awesome song and we need to have 40 in each service that day!

Here's last night's Inchoirer in case you missed and want up on all the latest news. See you Sunday!

Hallelujah to the King

Our choir was down a little in numbers Sunday since there was a three day weekend, but you all sounded great! I thought you might enjoy hearing yourself here.



And you were even smiling a lot of the time. Of course it's hard not to smile when you are singing something this much fun.

For those of you out there that now want to sing this at your church, the song is "Hallelujah to the King" written by Jason Michael Webb and published by Word music.

American Idol

The 8th season of American Idol begins tonight. I'll probably watch it, but then again, maybe not. It bothers me that there are times when they are obviously making fun of the singing or even the person of some of the contestants. We all know that some of the people who are chosen to sing for the judges are chosen for their total lack of singing ability. It would be much kinder if someone had told them up front that they should NEVER sing in public.




Some people use their lack of singing ability as an excuse to not only skip out of American Idol auditions, but also as an excuse to not sing at church.



Often on Sunday nights I'll talk to people in the congregation just before the evening service. (It's more difficult to have time for this on a Sunday morning.) I'll look at a group of people and I'll say, "I want to hear some good singing from this section tonight." And more often than not at least one person says, "You don't want to hear me sing!"



But actually, I do! Singing in worship isn't so much about the notes you sing, it's about your heart and expressing your faith and love and devotion and worship to the Lord.


A quick glance through the Psalms will show you many, many verses that instruct us to praise the Lord.


for example:


Ps 47:6 - Show Context
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our King, sing praise!



Oh, one more thing - speaking of auditions...

I'm often asked if there are auditions to be in our adult choir. The answer is NO! If you want to sing a solo - yes, but to sing Sunday by Sunday all you have to do is come to rehearsals. We meet on Wednesday nights at 6:30 at the Family Life Center. You don't have to be able to read music either. Many in our choir don't read. What is important is dedication and a heart for the Lord. We can help you with your singing.

Come join us THIS Wednesday night!

Wednesdays Are Going Again

Having Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve on Wednesdays kind of messed up our rehearsal times. And even though it was nice taking a couple of weeks off, I'm ready to go! I miss you when we don't get together.

Wind and Fire - our instrumental ensemble - will meet tonight at the FLC at 5:35. This is a great time for new players to join us. We currently have (if we all show up on the same night) 3 flutes, 1 clarinet, 1 alto or soprano sax, 1 tenor sax, 1 trumpet, 2 trombones and a drummer. This is a great start! Tonight we'll work on some things to play on Sunday mornings.

Our adult choir meets at 6:30. I've already had four men and one lady tell me they are going to join choir tonight. Woohoo! I'd like to see us back up close to 100 enrolled in the next few weeks. Bring someone with you to choir tonight.

A "Note" to Joe the Plumber

Hey Joe!

Congratulations on your new found fame! I share your concern about the economy and someone wanting to "share the wealth."

But here's something that I think will be good for you. Singing in a choir! Now I know that singing in a choir won't help make your payroll taxes if you get to start your own business, but there are some great benefits to singing in a church choir.

1. for that hour or so of rehearsal and that time on Sunday in worship, you can leave your economic troubles behind. As you focus on our Lord Jesus Christ the worries of the day are lifted.

2. working together with a group of people (the choir) gives a great sense of accomplishment as you strive to be the best you can be and make beautiful music together.

3. as you sing in a choir you help the Sunday morning congregation focus their worship on God and His kingdom. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you."

4. a choir is a perfect example of how the church as a whole works together. Each member sets aside his own desires to follow the leader so that together we are better and accomplish more than we can as individuals.

5. we have a ton of fun in our rehearsals at Hilldale.

And Joe, don't feel like a plumber can't be involved in music/worship ministry.

At Hilldale we happen to have these everyday people who work together:

Scott the plumber who is a fantastic sound man,

Joel the coach who sings tenor,

Traci and Emily and Beth and Laughrie the teachers who sing alto,

Jimmy and Chad the bankers who sing bass and tenor,

Ramona the interior decorator who sings soprano,

Star the librarian, Dan the investigator, Brenda the Internet queen, Debbie the pharmacist, and many more who are retirees and college students and teachers and construction workers and more...

And of course my favorite, Cheryl the recruiter! (who doesn't like me to put pictures of her on my blog)

I hope I'll see all of you Hilldale choir members THIS Sunday morning. For our readers around the world, find a good church with a good choir program and join in the song!

A Standing O?!?

Oh wow! We had a great time of worhip this morning. I really liked all of the songs we sang - well, duh, I planned the service - but some weeks seem to go really well and this was one of them. The Praise Team sang with beautiful harmonies, the congregation sang well. It was just great. Jesus was honored and worshipped and great truths were shared.

But the highlight of the service - for me, anyway - was the choir anthem. Oh Wow! Curtis did a fantastic job on the solo and the choir sang perhaps the best they have ever sung. The dynamics were super, beginning with the soft yet big sound as we sang, "let us pray", to the crisp and exciting "Kyrie eleison" in the middle section, to the fortissimo ending "Lord, have mercy, for we have placed all our hope in Thee!" AWESOME!

Side note - You've heard me say many times "God loves choirs." Well, the singing of this piece was a prime example of why - and of what churches who have done away with thier choirs are missing. Our Praise Team really was great today, and the congregation sang well, but nothing can give the depth and passion and power of a full choir singing so well together. Wow! It was hard keeping the tears back this morning.

Back to the original thought on this post - The congregation responded well too (the first service stood to their feet before the final cutoff. I know they were partly - perhaps mostly - responding to a wonderful musical interpretation of a very well crafted piece, but I hope they were also standing because of the incredible message of the piece. (You can see an earlier post about this song here http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/04/kyrie-eleison.html )

1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Hebrews 4:
15.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
16.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Keep singing!

Lipstick on a Tenor

There's been a lot of interesting talk lately about lipstick and the difference it makes (or doesn't make).





So I want to ask,





If you put lipstick on a tenor...





hahaha





Well, in our choir, we actually have a tenor who wears lipstick. In fact, she happens to be the tenor section leader - Nadine. Nadine happens to like to sing tenor. Every now and then, I happen to sing soprano - although most people would ask me to please NOT do that.





All of that to remind you of a couple of things.





1. It's Wednesday! Time for choir!


2. We're happy with you just the way you are. If you're a soprano who doesn't wear lipstick or a tenor who does, if you can read the full score of Handel's Messiah or don't have a clue what all those scribbles on the sheet of music mean, if you sing like the angels or simply make a joyful noise, you can have a place of ministry through our music and worship ministry.





Or it could be that you would like to work with the sound or with a camera or work with children or youth in choir. I figure camera men can wear lipstick too. (except for Chuck. I think that would really look bad...)

And on Sundays, EVERYONE should sing - in or out of the choir - as we worship together.

As that wonderful old hymn says, "I sing for I cannot be silent, His love is the theme of my song." So sing whether you wear lipstick or not. (It's all in the vowels anyway, but that's a whole other post.)

SING!!

It's Wednesday - Time for Choir!

I know everyone is going in and out of town for the summer, and there are only a couple of weeks left before school begins again, so if you are in town, I sure hope I'll see you in choir tonight.

Songs we'll be working on include: Everlasting, The Basics of Life, Been to the Water, Lord Have Mercy, and Hear Our Praises.

It is a great privilege to sing with you praises to the Everlasting God. Thank you for your work week by week to make His praise the best we have to offer. See you tonight.

Summer Singers

This is a post of an e-mail I sent to the choir earlier today.

Woohoooooo! Tomorrow night is the big new start of all of our Wednesday evening activities at the new FLC. I hope you all are planning on being in rehearsal!

I’ve missed you and I’ve missed getting to rehearse together. The Southern Baptist Convention was nice and everything, but it’s just not the same as getting together with you all and singing. Call up someone you haven’t seen in awhile or someone that you think might want to sing with us and get them to join us tomorrow night. We’ll meet at 6:30 in the worship area of the FLC.

I know all of us are in and out of town during the summer, so it really helps if you will make an extra effort to be in rehearsal and in the loft on Sundays any time you are in town.

We’ll look at some patriotic music tomorrow night too. We’re just having one service at 9:00 in the sanctuary (main campus) and one at the FLC on July 6th. This will be a great time for the entire choir to sing together on a Sunday morning.

See you tomorrow!

Ants

I have ants on my desk. It appears that they snuck into my office by way of these beautiful flowers from my beautiful yard in beautiful Bear Hollow.




Viburnum (Snow Ball bush) I have two kinds on Bear Hollow

I hope to see you all in choir tonight! ( I was going to put some lame comparison of ants going to a picnic with singers going to choir, but everything I thought of sounded really dumb. - so... I'll just be looking for you in choir like an ant looks for honey.)

It's Wednesday! Perk Up!

There are many people who don't like Wednesdays. Wednesday is stuck right in the middle of the week. It's too long from the coming weekend to look forward to being away from work and too long from the past weekend to still remember what a nice weekend you had, so you're just kind of stuck. Stuck at work or in school and you need something to perk up your day and maybe even your week.



From Merriam-Webster.com

perk
intransitive verb

1 a: to thrust up the head, stretch out the neck, or carry the body in a bold or insolent manner
b: to stick up or out jauntily
2: to gain in vigor or cheerfulness especially after a period of weakness or depression —usually used with up "he's perked up noticeably"


I have just what you need! - CHOIR!


Where else can you have great fellowship with your friends, sing some great music, worship, be encouraged, work hard and accomplish something, have someone else watch your kids, and more - all within one hour? I don't think there is anything else that offers so much and it's free!

Or you could just drink a pot of coffee.


See you tonight!

Wednesdays, Music and Hilldale

Wednesdays are busy (but fun) days in the worship/music ministry of Hilldale Baptist Church.

At 5:30 our Wind and Fire Instrumental Ensemble rehearses on the platform in the Sanctuary/Worship Center. We've talked about playing on most Sunday mornings suring the first set of songs. Just about everyone liked the idea, so I have music ready for us to look at tonight for this Sunday morning. We'll also work on another offertory to play.

Children's Choir at Kids Choral Connection

Children's Choirs meet at 6:00 on Wednesday nights. We have some directors and helpers in our children's area. They are starting on some VBS music (if I remember correctly). The children meet up in the children's area.

Adult choir members at Christmas Retreat

At 6:30 our adult choir meets in the choir room. We have a few leaving choir to go work at the Family Life Center. They will teach at 10:00 and then worship at 11:00. That means I need a few people to take their places in choir here. If you are in the 11:00 service at the FLC you won't have a choir to sing in.

Coming soon on Wednesdays as part of our Worship Ministry will be our puppet ministry. Look for details here on the blog on in Sunday's bulletin.