MTC Week #67 - Marking Up

Marks.

Every good musician has many of them throughout each song being learned. Pieces of music already come with several markings that inform the musician how to sing (or play) the piece the way the composer intended. However, as the director leads the choir and orchestra through rehearsals, he or she points out things that the musician needs to be aware of and even has the liberty of changing existing marks to fit a different style or interpretation. 

In Choir School, we're taught to look through a piece of music and "spot the traps" even before the director points them out. "Traps" meaning notes or rhythms or dynamics that we have a greater potential of singing incorrectly if we don't focus on them. With red pencils handy, we use circles, arrows, dots, straight lines, and a whole host of other markings to remind ourselves to sing it right.

The frustration with all of this comes when we don't PAY ATTENTION to the markings. 

At Chorale rehearsal on Saturday, as we were going through Mozart's Requiem, whether it was actually singing in the Tabernacle, or standing on risers, or being in a straight line, or it being a Saturday morning (or a combination of all of those things), we had a hard time paying attention to things that were already marked. Bro. Murphy would say, on several occasions, "do you have this marked in your music?" For which I'd quickly look and discover that yes, yes I did have it marked. Except that I hadn't paid attention and had thus sung it wrong. From then on out, I made an increased effort to notice the markings. And you know what? Those marks were extremely helpful and made the rehearsal go so much more smoothly.

Marks can be applied to life. As we go through our days, and months, and years

here on earth, we learn many things. To live happily requires that we "spot the traps" and make mental marks of what to do and what not to do. Many of those marks comes from mistakes we make because we don't want to repeat those mistakes. Other marks we proactively strive to remember because we're smart enough to know what will (or will not) ensure a good outcome. 

Regardless of where the marks come from, we just need to pay attention to them. That is not easy. There are plenty of times when the choir gathers for rehearsal and we take too long to "get into the zone" and concentrate on singing the way our music and markings are telling us how to sing. Our director is typically not very happy about that. But he's patient and he helps us remember and points things out again and again so those marking take hold.

God, our ultimate director, is patient too. And when we fail to heed our marks and mess up, He's there to help us back on the path. He wants us to be happy each and every day. And Christ paid the price that we can get back on the path. How grateful I am for that.

I end with a verse from one of the songs we sang today that fits this theme:

Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven; To His feet thy tribute bring.Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, Evermore His praises sing: Praise Him, praise Him, alleluia!Praise the everlasting King.

Let us pay attention to the marks! And if there are days we don't, we can most certainly be healed, restored, and forgiven as a loving Heavenly Father helps us get back up and move forward.

Until next time, God be with you.

Singing "Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven"