Greetings to everyone,

Our weekend together is nearly here and no doubt we are all looking forward to singing and fellowship. Special thanks to the Remington church for hosting this event and our prayer is that they receive a special blessing for their work. May the name of God and our Savior Jesus Christ be glorified by our singing and recording.

I wanted to jot down a few thoughts for your consideration. Nearly all of you have been singing for years and understand many of the fundamentals of singing in a choral group. A couple of reminders include:

Singing the correct notes is very helpful – please consider listening to the music files on the website as well as those you may have received via email. Follow the written notes as you listen to the music, pick out your part and sing along to become familiar with it. This will help you be better prepared for singing with the group this weekend.

Blend is critical – we have no soloists scheduled and are really not looking for volunteers! If you hear yourself singing louder than the person next to you, you may be singing too loudly. If you are blessed with above normal volume capability, consider saving it for practicing longer. Conceivably some may run out of voice as we approach 8 hours of singing, and the voice you save may be needed in the end.

Watch the director – we want to focus our efforts to make the message and feeling of each song speak to the heart of each listener. In order to have a tight, well-blended sound we need to start, sing, breath, pause, stop, etc. together. Effective dynamics and diction are essential. Excellence in the areas of togetherness, dynamics and diction can make the difference between something a person listens to only once in a while or many, many times.

We will discuss and mark our music for tempo, breathing, dynamics, diction etc. as we rehearse each song. Several brothers have carefully considered these items to be sure the message of each song is delivered as effectively as possible. We are not planning to make changes while practicing or recording but will focus on execution and feeling.

My desire as director is that, by the grace of God, we can work together as brothers and bring this work to a glorious end so that all who participate and hear will be greatly blessed and lifted to a closer walk with Him.

In Christ,

Wayne

P.S. No scooping or sliding – if you do not know what this means, I’ll let you know if I need to!