I was totally, completely excited about this morning's worship service because we were going to introduce Jeff's new song "Count Your Blessings" as well as the last new one, "Race." I was so pumped about it that I didn't even hit the snooze button when the alarm rang at five. I arrived a little before 6:30 AM and went into the building. It's always nice to get there so early because I feel much more prepared, like my wits are collected a little more neatly than if I'm in a hurry because I'm late.
The songs sounded simply wonderful. I can't believe God lets me play with those guys. It's mornings like these that make me feel really, really happy -- and really, really small... a puny, shriveled soul totally undeserving of such joy. I'm nothing more than an insignificant bug, and yet God loves me enough to let me praise Him with some incredibly cool people who love Him.. to let me serve Him in a church like FCC. No praise I could offer up to Him could equal His graciousness toward me.
Tim gave me a couple of CDs this morning at church... I looked at them and immediately realized that this was the rough mix of SoulFire's concert! I couldn't wait to listen to it, but I wasn't going to have a good chance to listen all the way through uninterrupted until tonight. So now I'm sitting here at my laptop with my headphones on, basking in the memory of that night. It was so much fun!
We've got another concert scheduled for the first week of June. It can't come soon enough for me! Tonight we played our usual gig for the youth service; I filled in vocals for Amy, who was out this week. This summer/fall, she's going to be on an extended missions trip to Brazil, so I'll be filling in the backup vocals for her then as well. She has a lovely, mellow voice that I can't really touch. Mine's a bit thin and tinny by comparison. It went okay, though, I think. I'm having trouble lately hearing myself, and my pitch is off in my upper register. I may need to go to an audiologist or something and get checked to see if I've lost any more of my already-diminished hearing. I wonder if maybe there's some way I can rig up some headphones to wear while I'm playing at church that could amplify the sound for me... I'm going to ponder that one. I don't know that it would help my singing much unless they could somehow route my vocal feed into my headphones so I could hear myself really well. Sounds too complicated; I think I'll just let the other vocalists (and there are plenty of talented ones) sing and maybe I'll just concentrate on my playing. At least I know the keyboard is on pitch!
Oh... and guess what? We've set up a second keyboard for me to use. I'm feeling a little more like my hero Paul Schaffer now. Jeff is planning to set me up with one of those cool dual-deck keyboard stands, too -- another one of my secret wishes fulfilled. I've always wanted to have two so I could set one up with an organ/synth sound and the other with a nice grand. It's pretty much impossible to switch back and forth on a single keyboard during one song, but if I've got two, I can have both kinds of sounds in the same song. And having them stacked on a dual stand just feels so, well, rock-starrish, don't you think?
Speaking of rock stars, U2 is coming to Omaha (2 hours west of Des Moines) this fall. I can hardly contain my happy dancing!!! I heart U2.
Sundays are always the high point of my week. It's nice to feel that way; I'm not sure I've ever felt that way about Sundays because I've always felt so obligated and dutiful about it. This is so much better than I ever thought church could be.
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