Read Month Two
Another month, another blog post (sorry this one is a few
days late)!
A big part of November was spent getting ready for
the CMM choir productions of Stargazers. I began by printing out
200 inserts, folding them all and putting them inside the audience leaflets –
it seemed to take forever! At the final few rehearsals, I was playing oboe and
flute as this is what I’d be doing during the performances. Although oboe is my
weapon of choice, some of the music for Stargazers requires a 3-octave range
– enter my flute. As well as this, the softer tone of the flute is better
suited to some of the gentler songs in the musical, and therefore I decided I
would play both (although not at the same time). After a mid-week joint
rehearsal with both choirs, with almost the full band present, the first
performance was held on the following Sunday. It was great fun to be a part of
it, and lovely to see how all the rehearsing had come together to produce a fantastic
performance.
This month I also experienced my first Worship Works event in a place near Barnsley with the wonderful
name of Jump. As well as playing oboe for the worship songs, I was also in charge
of operating the static video camera which recorded the sessions of the day. I
later spent time in the office editing these recordings down to remove the copyrighted
material which means that the resulting videos can be used as an example of Roger’s
teaching.
I attended a memorial service for Bishop Michael Whinney at
Birmingham Cathedral as CMM were leading some of the music. Although I never
met Bishop Michael, it was interesting to hear memories of him, particularly about
how he took the time to befriend people and encourage them in their faith. This
is something which I am blessed to have been on the receiving end of from some
of my own friends, and an important legacy which I think we all should strive
to continue.
Office jobs this month have included a lot of reorganising –
I sorted out the boxes on the vocal score shelf, refilling them as required, creating
new labels for them and arranging them in alphabetical order. I also did a
similar job with the storeroom, bringing overflow boxes for the collections and
books upstairs, and moving all the musicals downstairs (which are now also in
alphabetical order). I created new labels for the bookstall to replace the handwritten
ones that had gone before – I am very proud of these as they look neat and
uniform, are nicely laminated, and there are even some blanks which can be
written on with a whiteboard pen just in case there happens to be an item for
sale that I haven’t prepared a label for.
My bookstall labels had their first outing to Ilkley where the
church in Ben Rhydding were performing Simeon. This was great fun to take
part in as the church had put in a lot of effort, organising not just the
choir, but soloists and musicians, as well as dance and drama. As there was no written
oboe part for Simeon, I played a
mixture of the descant recorder and trumpet parts on my oboe, the latter of the
two testing my brain with a bit of on-the-spot transposition! On the Sunday morning
I, along with the other team members, joined with the worship group for the morning
service. The big achievement for me during this was the fact that, although I
didn’t play all the time, when I did play, I didn’t play any melody. This is
perhaps one more step along the road towards me being able to improvise, and is
definitely a testament to the time given and the patience displayed by Amy who
came to the office during the preceding week to teach me some tricks of
improvisation and give me a chance to practise – thanks Amy!
All in all, it’s been another varied month which has
presented me with lots of different challenges and opportunities – it certainly
keeps me out of mischief!
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| Editing the videos from the Worship Works day |
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| Birthday meal for Lindsay! |
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