Okay, since this thread seems to have become "Orbert's Music Diary and Brag and Whine Thread" I'm gonna just go on.
December tends to be pretty busy for me, musically, but this month has been extra fun. Mostly church and church-related stuff, but that makes sense since most of it's been Christmas-related. So if that bugs you... too bad.
December 8th, Sunday, the choir performed our "Christmas Cantata". I don't know why or how it came to be called that, other than that it's catchy, but it's not really a cantata. In the past, the church choir has performed a number of pieces from Handel's "Messiah", but honestly, that was getting old, so we went a different direction this year. Five pieces arranged for full choir, each preceded by a scripture reading, taking us through the Christmas story. Nice variety to the songs, nice arrangements (each was anthem-quality), and I even got to play the flute on one of them. And then we finished with "The Hallelujah Chorus". So six pieces altogether, extra rehearsals, great stuff.
December 10th, Tuesday evening, the aforementioned Christmas sing-a-long thing at the old folks' home. I just played the piano, and literally got a cookie for my efforts. It was a good one, though. Chocolate chip. Big and thick and soft and gooey. I'd gone there straight from work and hadn't eaten dinner yet, but I had to be a little bit social, so one cookie.
This past Sunday, the 15th, was the Children's Christmas Pageant. It was drama this year, rather than a musical as it's always been in years past, but since we have a lot of kids who play instruments, they asked me to come up with stuff for them to do. I was given some specific things to try and do, but a fair amount of rein in how to do it. Altogether, I ended up adding two flutes and a viola to "What Child Is This?" (instrumental intro, various countermelodies and augmentations throughout); a clarinet to "Away in a Manger" (same, but more advanced since he's really good and can wail); and the show-stopper, "Silent Night" ended up being two flutes, violin, viola, bells, and acoustic guitar.
I was originally told that it would be the Prelude, just a nice instrumental thing to set the mood, so I went with two verses, pretty simple arrangement. I didn't have the guitar, and the tuned percussionist was going to play marimba, not bells, so the marimba laid down the pattern, and the strings and flutes played around. Then they wanted to make it the offertory and asked me to make it longer, three verses. Argh. I hate it when that happens. Also, my percussionist didn't like the marimba and asked if she could play her bell set. This completely changed the dynamics of the arrangement, and at this point I only had a week. Later that same rehearsal, I was told that I'd have a guitarist available. Problem solved. He strums acoustic guitar throughout to give everything a base, bells get to play around, double the melody/harmony here and there, everyone gets their chance to shine. When it's three verses of instrumental, it can really start sounding like the same thing over and over, so you have to get creative. Start it simpler, build it up as you go (or otherwise vary things), give different sections their turns at melody, harmony, and various counters, that kind of thing. The big constraint was the relatively limited skill level of the musicians. The violinist was fourth grade, the flutes are eighth grade; that was my range. I used all the tricks I could think of. People seemed to really like it.
This Sunday, the praise band is doing three songs plus the offertory. Our personnel has changed since last year, I'm down one flute and one guitar, so I had my choice of coming up with a new instrumental or revamping the old one. Kinda cheesy, but I ended up reworking the one from last year. Violin, flute, and soprano sax for leads, acoustic guitar and piano for continuo and color. I'm not 100% happy with it, but my audience isn't particularly demanding and I'm sure everyone will rave. That's not a brag; they pretty much go nuts anyway. They're a very appreciative congregation. Last week, our guitarist came up with this wacky idea to lead a sing-a-long 15 minutes before the start of the service. Most people get to church early, hang out, drink coffee, and chat. The choir is rehearsing, and there's the people who set up the coffee and snacks anyway. So starting at quarter to, we'll play five songs and dare people to come in and sing with us. Secular yet Christmas/winter-related songs, like "Jingle Bells", "Winter Wonderland", etc. Rehearsal tomorrow. And oh yeah, the choir is still doing the anthem. So I'll be singing, playing keyboards, and flute at various times throughout.
On the 29th, the choir gets the day off, since so many of us are out of town for the winter break and stuff. They asked me if I'd be around, and I am, since we're broke and never go anywhere. They asked if I could put together some music. I'm just gonna do a piano solo. I'm trying to decide between some kind of wacky fantasia of Christmas songs/hymns, or just a single song done up. I'm leaning towards the latter since it will be less work, but you never know.
About a month ago, I was contacted by a girl who used to sing in the bands with me at one of my other churches (I have a few, kinda) about joining a band. A regular band, classic rock. They were getting together for an initial run-through and getting-to-know-you, I think it was back on the 7th, but I couldn't make it because I was rehearsing with the kids. I told her that December is just too crazy, but I'm interested and please keep me in mind. Church music will calm down significantly after the holidays, so if they still need a keyboard player come January, let me know. She contacted me again the other day, asked if she could give them my email and phone number, and I provided them. So we'll see. I might actually be playing in a real band, first time in years.