Practice makes perfect? I don’t think so!
I’m supposed to sing tomorrow night at the funeral home. Nobody I know has died recently – thank God. Our local funeral home has a community-wide memorial service every year around Veteran’s Day. It’s not just to remember veterans, though; it’s a time when anyone who has lost someone can come together and remember. For the past five years, the director of the funeral home has asked me to sing. I really enjoy it – though I don’t know how I will do it if I am ever grieving someone close to me. So far, I have been blessed.
Anyway, I have been singing in churches for a long time, so I don’t need a ton of practice time. Mostly, I have to run through the hymns I play during the prelude and postlude time, because it’s been a long time since I regularly played anything besides chords for worship choruses.
So, tonight I was running through the songs. They always ask me to do one contemporary – I chose Homesick by Bart Millard from Mercy Me – and one hymn. I chose Amazing Grace. This is how my practice time went:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…”
“MOM! MOM!”
“That saved a wretch like me — WHAT?”
“Can I play on the computer?”
“No, you know you’re grounded for the rest of the week! I once was lost, but now I’m found…”
“MOM! Please, please, please?”
Slamming hands down on the keys: “I said NO! Now be quiet and let me practice or you’ll be grounded for two weeks! Was blind but now I see. Twas grace that taught me heart to fear…”
Huge scream from above, followed by thundering footsteps running down the stairs. “MOM! Jonathan’s making that face at me again.”
Etc., etc., etc.
And then Kevin asks why I need to leave 45 minutes early to practice at the funeral home. “Haven’t you been practicing all week?”
OMG *headdesk* I would leave like 2 hours early…
November 16th, 2007 at 12:54 pmAwww! LOL (Is there something wrong with your site? I just tried to post twice under The Warden, and it never came up!)
November 16th, 2007 at 2:47 pmCarrieF – lol!
Lawanda – yes, they are having some issues lately. Don’t worry if a comment doesn’t show up right away, it will. Andrea is planning an update over Thanksgiving, so that should work the bugs out.
November 16th, 2007 at 4:10 pmYou just remindes me of BJ who used to do her school work while practicing the piano. There would be a pause every few minutes while she flipped the page of her book.
November 16th, 2007 at 7:33 pmRon – that’s funny! I never did that (I was never good enough on the piano to not look at the music), but I did used to read while I walked home!
November 16th, 2007 at 10:21 pmROFL… Sorry. Couldn’t help it!
November 17th, 2007 at 5:32 amThat was an interesting interpretation of Amazing Grace, my all time fav hymn I must add.
I am trying to write this month for NaNoWriMo, and my kids keep testing my patience by fighting during their lessons, or begging to play XBox or worse for the computer when they see I am on it.
Now that it is colder here kicking them outside doesn’t work as well, and they went and got old enough to start standing up to me.
Hope you singing went well, that is a great gift to have and to be able to share.
November 17th, 2007 at 5:38 pmLisa – that’s okay, it is funny!
Penelope – it went very well, thanks!
November 17th, 2007 at 7:07 pm