How It All Started, Chapter 7

Chapter 7, Musical Geometry, continued.

"If A=C and B=C, then A=B." There they were—three different rehearsal times with a fourth rehearsal time on the Sabbaths that the choir was going to sing. I had made the commitment to give singers some flexibility. They would no longer have to adjust their schedules to fit the group; there was now a choice. It was an experiment in singer commitment and musical learning styles. If singers had more rehearsal times to choose from, were more people going to be able to rehearse regularly? Was I equal to being the common factor in multiple rehearsals? Would it help the choir to become a viable group that truly created music rather than just singing together for church once in a while? The plan even included meals so that people wouldn't be ignoring their stomachs in order to sing. In theory, this should have worked.

The first Sabbath that we attempted an after-church rehearsal, three singers stayed. The light lunch seemed very light, especially for my teen-aged son. He was hungry for something besides soup and the finger food that the others brought. The huge pot of soup that I brought so that I was sure there would be enough food mostly went back home with me afterward. The singers who stayed ended up just singing their individual parts with only minor amounts of help from me. I felt so strange directing a group of three that I didn't do much real directing. I'm sure I was very ineffective in my directing techniques and I thought these singers could probably have learned as much on their own as I had taught them. I knew I didn't teach very many vocal skills and I could tell that the singers would

have been uncomfortable trying anything new with such a small group.

Several more Sabbath afternoon

rehearsals had similar attendance and learning quotients. There were some Sabbaths when no one stayed. Our group of singers had other things they preferred to do on Sabbath afternoons. After a few weeks, I quietly eliminated that rehearsal. This part of the musical geometry experiment wasn't working too well.

This wasn't quite what I had in mind. Even though I knew choirs aren't supposed to be "about" the director, I was beginning to feel personally rejected. I shouldn't have, but I didn't know how to control those negative feelings. Memories of other rejections in my life were popping up, and I was beginning to think that our church wouldn't be able to support an on-going choir.

As always, before making any final decisions, I started to pray even more. "God," I prayed, "I thought you wanted us to have music to praise you. I'm feeling as though I'm to only one who's doing any giving. Maybe you wanted something—or someone—else. Right now, I really need some encouragement if I'm going to keep going with this group."

It's amazing how God sends encouragement. This time the encouragement came as an offer of something tangible. Sandy told me that her sister had found some used choir robes while emptying a school storeroom. Did we want them?

I realized that if God cared enough to send tangible encouragement when all I'd asked for was reassurance, He really did intend for us to keep singing. I was ready to go back to work; surely there were more options for us to try.

Go to Chapter 8.

Go to beginning of "How It All Started."

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6.

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