Sunday, January 29, 2017

Comment

Comment or Question: Hello Linda! I have to tell you that I LOVE your arrangements! They are simple and so, so beautiful. I use your arrangements almost exclusively. I am not the most musically talented person but I was called to be the Ward Choir Director in my ward last summer. We have a very transitional ward, so musical talent is sometimes in abundance and sometimes not so much. Your arrangements have been life savers for me! They have been so easy for our accompanists and choir members to learn in a short time and don\'t require a director to have lots of musical theory or skill in order to conduct them. They also retain so much of the sweet simplicity of the Spirit the hymns should bring to our worship, with just enough enhancement from their original format to give the congregation something \"new.\" I also prefer to have the choir stick with hymns for sacrament meeting (easier to get Bishopric approval, and I think sometimes new works can be a bit distracting because they are so unfamiliar to the ward members), and you have such a wonderful selection of hymns!! Please keep arranging more! I do have one question for you... I\'m trying to print \"Know This That Every Soul is Free\" for SATB and have found that the pages are set at around 14\" long and the spacing between some of the staves are quite wide. Do you have a version of the SATB arrangement that has already been formatted to fit on an 8.5 x 11? When I shrink the existing document to fit a page, it prints a bit small. Thank you, again, for sharing your amazing talent and tender testimony with the world through the music you offer on this website. I just can\'t thank you enough or quite convey to you what your music has done for me, the choir, and our ward. Thank you!! Melanie

Melanie: I will look at that hymn and repost it. Linda

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Called to Serve/Let Us All Press On

This energetic duet of Called to Serve and Let Us All Press On is written for a group of Young Men and Young Women. But it would be fun and easy for a Ward Choir to sing also, so it is in the Ward Choir Arrangement section on my site, rather than the duet section.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Cut down on Paper Use

comment: I love this piece because it sounds so beautiful and it's very doable for a pianist and choir without a lot of experience.  My only concern is printing the 11 pages for each choir member seems like a lot of paper waste.  Is there a choir version that is condensed into fewer pages?

Hi Kami!
Excellent question! I have tried several ways to cut down on paper use myself, but my choir was unhappy when I printed only the choir parts for the singers. They like seeing what the piano is doing so they feel more confident when they come in. I have found copying on both sides of a page works best for us. That way a 10 page piece only uses 5 pieces of paper.
If you come up with a better idea, please share!
Linda