Copyright - everyone’s favorite topic, right?
It’s a tricky and complicated subject and it can be hard to make sense of all the information that’s out there.
What are the rules?
What do I need to know?
How does it impact me and my work?
What kind of licenses do I need to cover my week-to-week activity?
If you’re in a quandary over copyright laws, you’re not alone. Read on, my friend.
Reflection is vital to learning, growing, and success.
It works hand-in-hand with action, a constant cycle of doing followed by observing and evaluating our work, our relationships, and the choices we make.
We all know it’s true.
But so often, we get caught up in the doing part - creating, teaching, and playing (especially at this time of year) - and don’t make time to stop and reflect.
Today, I'm taking a step back to reflect on my business goals, blog content, offerings, and ways I can serve you better.
And I'd love for you to be part of that process. (Think of it like a virtual coffee chat.)
I don’t know about you, but I love taking a look behind the scenes.
Maybe it’s all the second-guessing that goes on in my head on a daily basis (Am I doing this right? Is this the best way? Is this how other people do it? etc.) or maybe it’s my curiosity for learning about other people’s processes, creative approaches, and perspectives on the everyday things that I spend some of my time doing, too.
I find there’s always something to learn from watching others work through a problem or task - their step-by-step process, their insight, their strategies - I find it fascinating and informative. Next time that I sit down to work on a similar task, I have a few different options and ideas of ways to go about it.
The church year (also known as the liturgical year and the Christian year) is made up of seasons and holy days that connect us to our faith history, the stories we read in the Bible, and Jesus’ life and ministry on earth.
The church year begins with Advent - a short season of waiting and preparation, beginning four Sundays before Christmas. After Advent, we have the season of Christmas, which begins on Christmas Eve and lasts for 12 days.
We celebrate the season of Epiphany, beginning January 6, remembering the journey of the magi and Jesus being revealed as the Savior of the world. The season of/after Epiphany is often considered Ordinary Time (based on the word “ordinal,” meaning measured or counted).
You know when you go see a movie and you get a feeling for what’s about to happen before it happens? It’s not the dialogue that does that, it’s the musical underscoring.
A musical underscore is music played underneath dialogue or acting of some kind, often to help set the scene or create a mood. (source)
In movies, it heightens our emotions and helps us connect to the story and the characters in a more personal way.
The same is true for worship.
Advent.
A time of waiting, watching, listening.
A time of remembering, anticipating.
A time of renewal and wonder.
The beginning of a new year.
Each year, we celebrate the season of Advent in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We read the words of the prophets, we tell the stories of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, the magi.
We put ourselves back in that time and place of watching and waiting for the Savior of the world, expectant and hopeful. And then, we find ourselves here, in the 21st century, watching and waiting for the return of our Savior, expectant and hopeful.
Often times, our worship services during Advent have a particular sequence to them: We begin with the prophetic words of hope and faith; then, the promise of peace in the world; the joy of God’s fulfilled promises; and the gift of love into the world.
Piano duets are a fun way to include other pianists from your congregation and add something special to your worship services. Plus, they’re just fun in general, am I right?
In my experience, even small churches have at least one person in the congregation who has some playing experience. Often, they just need to be asked and invited to participate.
Reach out to a few people in your choir or congregation who you know play the piano and ask if they’d be interested in playing a duet with you in worship sometime. If so, choose a collection (I recommend purchasing two copies so you can each have one to practice with).
Find a time when you can get together to practice.
If the person you’re playing with is fairly accomplished and feels comfortable sight-reading, spend some time reading through some of the pieces to get a feel for what they sound like with both parts. If that’s not realistic, choose a few pieces to begin working on, decide who will play what part, and set up a few rehearsals in the coming weeks.
When was the last time you sat down at your instrument and played music for fun? I mean, not music you had to practice or prepare, but music you chose to play for yourself, for your own enjoyment?
So often as professionals, we don’t make time for this. We assume that all the music we’re being paid to learn and practice will also count as the musical satisfaction we need to keep going in our career. Kill two birds with one stone, right? I mean, who has time to play for fun?
But the problem is, this can become stifling. Instead of making music as a form of expression and creativity, making music becomes something we have to do, a task on our list. In short, it becomes work.
And when it becomes work, we lose that spark of inspiration, we miss the connection to the creative process, that feeling of making something personal, real, and deeply authentic. We lose some of the meaning behind why we started playing in the first place.
But, the good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way.
The arts - whether it's music or dance or drama or visual - are a wonderful way to enhance the worship experience, engage the congregation, bring stories to life in new ways, and create meaningful, memorable experiences for all involved.
Related post: Integrating Visual Arts in Worship
The term "worship arts" means different things at different churches, but often times, it includes things like:
There's been an effort at my current church to incorporate more of these things into our worship services on a regular basis, so last year, I started a worship arts team.
Transitions. They are a fact of life, but they can seem especially cumbersome and drawn out when working with a group of children.
It takes time for everyone to come in and get settled.
It takes time to get everyone quiet and listening to directions.
It takes time to pass out instruments or other props.
It takes time to collect instruments or other props.
It takes time to move to another area of the room.
You get my point. And when your rehearsals are only 30 minutes in length, the amount of time you spend transitioning from one thing to another can really add up.
Here’s a question: What if we could make these transition times musical? What if we could keep children engaged, listening, moving, and singing, even, as they transition from one activity to the next?
Today, I’m sharing 12 practical transition songs you can use in your children’s choir rehearsals.
