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Most of the time, the music director picks out the music to go with his "theme" of the week. We then practice it for about fifteen minute and it sounds horrible. Then I go home and completely rearrange the piece to fit our little group. My wife, my son and I then work up the piece until is sound great. Then we show up on Sunday morning and give a copy of the "revised piece" to the other players that show up. I also talk to our pianists to make sure he or she knows what tempo we are going to take and if we have special endings or turns.
I love our music director. He is a great guy, but can't keep a solid beat. So when we start playing, we follow the tempo of the lead instrument (usually my son or me). The piano knows to do this too. Luckily the music director has learned to just try and wave his arms in tempo with us. Sometimes he tries to speed us up (he likes his church music fast), but we usually just ignore him and stay together.
Lately, we've been trying to get the music director to give us our music early so I have time to fix the arrangement and get the kids practiced up. Then when we practice on Wednesday night, we often get our practicing done before the music director ever shows up. He is also youth director so he has a lot to do before orchestra practice. Winning kids to the Lord is much more important than having a brass band on Sunday morning. So we've got our music director covered in what ever he needs help with, whenever and wherever.
So this all works out well. I've found that when you put your trust in God, things often turn our wonderfully even when you are completely disorganized.
Oh.. And we pick out our own solos and specials. We often let him know what we are going to do about five minutes before the service. Sometimes all he knows is that we are going to play something special.
I love our music director. He is a great guy, but can't keep a solid beat. So when we start playing, we follow the tempo of the lead instrument (usually my son or me). The piano knows to do this too. Luckily the music director has learned to just try and wave his arms in tempo with us. Sometimes he tries to speed us up (he likes his church music fast), but we usually just ignore him and stay together.
Lately, we've been trying to get the music director to give us our music early so I have time to fix the arrangement and get the kids practiced up. Then when we practice on Wednesday night, we often get our practicing done before the music director ever shows up. He is also youth director so he has a lot to do before orchestra practice. Winning kids to the Lord is much more important than having a brass band on Sunday morning. So we've got our music director covered in what ever he needs help with, whenever and wherever.
So this all works out well. I've found that when you put your trust in God, things often turn our wonderfully even when you are completely disorganized.
Oh.. And we pick out our own solos and specials. We often let him know what we are going to do about five minutes before the service. Sometimes all he knows is that we are going to play something special.
