Gotta love the musicians
11/04/16 05:11
I have a lot of jokes and sayings about musicians. One that I heard from someone else, but do not know the original source is this: A musician is someone who loads $5,000 worth of gear into a $50 car to drive 100 miles to a $50 gig. I think that most of the musicians I know had already heard than one before I got a chance to tell it to them.
This past weekend has been a wonderful time for our congregation in terms of music. We had a delightful folk/pop musician in concert on Friday night. The attendance was a bit smaller than I had hoped for, but the concert was excellent and those who attended really enjoyed it. Our Sunday morning worship included our usual excellent music by our choir and our organist continues to engage us with his preludes and postludes. In addition, we had a jazz pianist and a singer who led us in a couple of hymns that really inspired members of our congregation. Then in the afternoon, the Black Hills Jazz Hymn Festival was a great event. The band was first rate and the congregation really got into the music.
Since I’ve blogged about church musicians before and because I have a history of telling jokes about musicians I want to be clear up front that I am grateful to the musicians in our community who add so much to our life together. I don’t intend to complain about musicians, just offer a few observations.
I think that there is something in the musical brain that gives a person the ability to focus their attention more specifically than some other people. I listened as the musicians shifted from one key to the next, playing their riffs without flaw and trading solo opportunities. I was amazed at the ability of the bass player to consistently lay down the line wherever the music was taking the band. I marveled at the pianist’s command of his instrument and ability to lead the band from the keyboard.
The ability to focus on the music, however, does seem to result in inattention to other details. I have previously commented on the fact that musicians aren’t the best choice when it comes to asking someone to turn out the lights and lock the building. You’re likely to find lights that were left on and a door that is unlocked. Those details just don’t seem to concern many of the musicians I know.
Yesterday, when we were setting up for the jazz band, it was decided that we needed to move our communion table. Our Communion table weighs over 300# and moving it is a major effort, but an effort for a musical event is a worthy enterprise. So I got out levers unblocks and dollies and recruited an assistant to move the table. The placement of music stands was also discussed and I got them out. A single chair was requested and provided. The sound system was set up, with monitor speakers and microphones placed where requested. The band set up, went through its sound checks and rehearsals and a wonderful afternoon festival. Then things were taken down and put away. I’m sure that no one in the band noticed the same details as I, but it was interesting for me to note:
At no time in the afternoon did any musical stand, or sit in the area where the communion table had been. No instruments were placed in that area, either. If we had not moved the table, it would not have changed the physical location of any musician or instrument.
No one ever sat on the chair provided at any time during the rehearsal or performance.
When I went back into the room to put away the sound system, music stands and other equipment, all of the stands were placed into areas on the north side of the chancel, as if someone thought they were putting them away for the next service. Which was nice, I guess, but on the south side of the chancel is a rack designed to hold music stands that sat with only three or four stands waiting for the rest of them to be put away. If the musicians had left the stands where they had used them, I would have had less carrying to do to put them away.
Some details just aren’t important to musicians, I guess.
Still, I’m glad I moved the communion table, fetched the chair, and put away the equipment after the performance. It was easily worth the effort to have happy musicians and joyful music filling our space.
I think that there is a meaningful role, for those of us who don’t have as many musical gifts, in supporting the musicians of the world. I have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase musical instruments that I am not capable of playing. I have invested hundreds of hours in board meetings of nonprofits that support the arts so that musicians can continue to make their music while some of the rest of us provide administration in the background. I have carried heavy musical instruments long distances and loaded trucks and vans and trailers and then unloaded them again. I have fetched glasses of water and cups of coffee and then done the dishes. I have set up and taken down special lighting, adjusted sound systems, provided microphones and done a myriad of other tasks.
Some are gifted to make music. Some of us are called to support musicians, including turning off the lights after they have left the building.
And some of us are called to make the occasional joke just to relieve the tension.
Did you hear about the pianist who decided to pursue a career in jazz because he didn’t like crowds?
Or how about the jazz musician who ended up with a million dollars? (He started out with two million.)
The difference between a jazz musician and a pizza? The pizza can feed a family of four.
St. Peter in Heaven is checking ID's. He asks a man, "What did you do on Earth?"
The man says, "I was a doctor."
St. Peter says, "Ok, go right through those pearly gates. Next! What did you do on Earth?"
"I was a school teacher."
"Go right through those pearly gates. Next! And what did you do on Earth?"
"I was a musician."
"Go around the side, up the freight elevator, through the kitchen....."
Thank God for the musicians in our community!
This past weekend has been a wonderful time for our congregation in terms of music. We had a delightful folk/pop musician in concert on Friday night. The attendance was a bit smaller than I had hoped for, but the concert was excellent and those who attended really enjoyed it. Our Sunday morning worship included our usual excellent music by our choir and our organist continues to engage us with his preludes and postludes. In addition, we had a jazz pianist and a singer who led us in a couple of hymns that really inspired members of our congregation. Then in the afternoon, the Black Hills Jazz Hymn Festival was a great event. The band was first rate and the congregation really got into the music.
Since I’ve blogged about church musicians before and because I have a history of telling jokes about musicians I want to be clear up front that I am grateful to the musicians in our community who add so much to our life together. I don’t intend to complain about musicians, just offer a few observations.
I think that there is something in the musical brain that gives a person the ability to focus their attention more specifically than some other people. I listened as the musicians shifted from one key to the next, playing their riffs without flaw and trading solo opportunities. I was amazed at the ability of the bass player to consistently lay down the line wherever the music was taking the band. I marveled at the pianist’s command of his instrument and ability to lead the band from the keyboard.
The ability to focus on the music, however, does seem to result in inattention to other details. I have previously commented on the fact that musicians aren’t the best choice when it comes to asking someone to turn out the lights and lock the building. You’re likely to find lights that were left on and a door that is unlocked. Those details just don’t seem to concern many of the musicians I know.
Yesterday, when we were setting up for the jazz band, it was decided that we needed to move our communion table. Our Communion table weighs over 300# and moving it is a major effort, but an effort for a musical event is a worthy enterprise. So I got out levers unblocks and dollies and recruited an assistant to move the table. The placement of music stands was also discussed and I got them out. A single chair was requested and provided. The sound system was set up, with monitor speakers and microphones placed where requested. The band set up, went through its sound checks and rehearsals and a wonderful afternoon festival. Then things were taken down and put away. I’m sure that no one in the band noticed the same details as I, but it was interesting for me to note:
At no time in the afternoon did any musical stand, or sit in the area where the communion table had been. No instruments were placed in that area, either. If we had not moved the table, it would not have changed the physical location of any musician or instrument.
No one ever sat on the chair provided at any time during the rehearsal or performance.
When I went back into the room to put away the sound system, music stands and other equipment, all of the stands were placed into areas on the north side of the chancel, as if someone thought they were putting them away for the next service. Which was nice, I guess, but on the south side of the chancel is a rack designed to hold music stands that sat with only three or four stands waiting for the rest of them to be put away. If the musicians had left the stands where they had used them, I would have had less carrying to do to put them away.
Some details just aren’t important to musicians, I guess.
Still, I’m glad I moved the communion table, fetched the chair, and put away the equipment after the performance. It was easily worth the effort to have happy musicians and joyful music filling our space.
I think that there is a meaningful role, for those of us who don’t have as many musical gifts, in supporting the musicians of the world. I have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase musical instruments that I am not capable of playing. I have invested hundreds of hours in board meetings of nonprofits that support the arts so that musicians can continue to make their music while some of the rest of us provide administration in the background. I have carried heavy musical instruments long distances and loaded trucks and vans and trailers and then unloaded them again. I have fetched glasses of water and cups of coffee and then done the dishes. I have set up and taken down special lighting, adjusted sound systems, provided microphones and done a myriad of other tasks.
Some are gifted to make music. Some of us are called to support musicians, including turning off the lights after they have left the building.
And some of us are called to make the occasional joke just to relieve the tension.
Did you hear about the pianist who decided to pursue a career in jazz because he didn’t like crowds?
Or how about the jazz musician who ended up with a million dollars? (He started out with two million.)
The difference between a jazz musician and a pizza? The pizza can feed a family of four.
St. Peter in Heaven is checking ID's. He asks a man, "What did you do on Earth?"
The man says, "I was a doctor."
St. Peter says, "Ok, go right through those pearly gates. Next! What did you do on Earth?"
"I was a school teacher."
"Go right through those pearly gates. Next! And what did you do on Earth?"
"I was a musician."
"Go around the side, up the freight elevator, through the kitchen....."
Thank God for the musicians in our community!