Immediately following the 10:30 service, the wedding took place. It was very, very sweet; this couple has been together for a long time but had never taken the step to actually get married. I was pleased to be able to play for them. I played a processional-style arrangement of "Joyful, Joyful" then played "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" while Amy sang. The bride had given me an arrangement of the second song, but the key was too high for Amy to sing comfortably, so I just played it in another key.
Last Friday I had gotten a phone call from one of the sound tech guys; they were having a rehearsal for another wedding that was going to take place on Saturday, and the keyboard player for that wedding needed to know where the "Transpose" function was on the keyboard. I had to confess that I had absolutely NO idea how to transpose the keyboard, because I just do it in my head. I was able to tell him where the user's manual for the keyboard was (it's a Yamaha S08), and that he should be able to look it up in there.
In the past I did use the transpose function a few times, before I was really able to do it in my head. The main problem with the transpose function is this: because I have perfect pitch, I can tell that the pitches of the notes that are coming out of the speakers are NOT the ones I'm playing on the keyboard. If I have to, I can use the "Ignore" function in my brain -- that little guy comes in handy sometimes -- but I'd rather not have to do that. Besides, if I'm diddling with too many buttons, I miss what's going on in worship and I lose the flow of the service.
Anyway, back to the wedding. During practice, Amy and I had tried it in a couple of different keys and decided on A flat as the best. Then I just played the song from memory; "Savior Like a Shepherd" is one of those hymns I could play in my sleep. It's beautiful but very simple. In fact, it was originally written for inclusion in a children's hymnal a hundred years ago or so.
Another problem with me is that I never play anything exactly the same way twice. I can get close sometimes, but my chaotic brain just doesn't record and replay what I just did. We were at least able to work out a few cues that I would give her, but I know that's got to be frustrating for a vocalist to have different accompaniment every time. One of the things I try to give to all vocalists that I accompany is this: the notion that THEY are the star, not me, and that I will follow them. If they come in at the "wrong" time, it's not wrong... because they're leading and it's my job to keep up with them. She laughed when I tried to tell her this. "I'm not used to having that much power," she said.
I think that the music went well; the couple smiled at us while we were playing. It's such an honor to be asked to do that. I'll never take it lightly.
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We rolled out another of Jeff's compositions for worship this morning. He told me Thursday he's got another one in the works, too, and played me a few passages from it. He says he tends to start with music that he likes, then puts words to it as they come to him. All I can do is stand back in awe; it's not something I've ever really been able to do. I think part of it is that, as I stated earlier in this post, I can never play the same thing exactly the same way twice, so interesting chord progressions come and go in my brain without being recorded. I do write lots and lots of lyrics in my little green notebook that I keep in my purse, but I have no idea where to begin with putting them to music. Most of them are based on observations from Scripture, but occasionally I pen something that wells up from inside.
Some of it is almost too personal... not in any kind of confession or revelation, but just in that I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be as meaningful to anyone else as it is to me.
I'm also probably not going to be good at standard "forms" -- metered, rhymed verses, zippy chorus, etc. I just don't think like that. When I try to, it sounds trite and pedantic.
I did write the music for school plays at Compass Academy a couple of years ago, and it was fun, but somehow it's easier to write music for a school play than for worship. I take the worship music a thousand-times more seriously, for one thing. Writing for school plays makes me feel a lot like Prairie Dawn on Sesame Street... although I do NOT write songs quite like she does. heh
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