RS Music

I am no JoAnn Ottley, and that is the problem. We moved into our ward just as Gerry and JoAnn Ottley, of Tabernacle Choir fame, were moving out. So Dan and I quickly plugged up their positions, to keep the ward's music afloat. Dan's the organist, and I am the RS music leader. But it has been an awkward calling from the start. I'm OK with 3/4 and 4/4, but 6/8 either looks too involved or presents fraction problems, and if the timing should switch mid-hymn, heaven help me. I used to take a little time to do special things here and there with the songs, but I have now stopped giving background information, and I am more than happy to end the singing after one verse. Today was a new low. Starting with the opening hymn, I had chosen "The Morning Breaks," a perfect hymn for a lesson on the restoration of all things. Unfortunately, there is a whole line of that hymn that is sung by tenor and bass alone. I didn't realize that until I was up there leading, and all the voices dropped out. Hmmmm, hmmmmm, hmmm, hmmm. I ended up singing it an octave higher, hoping that some of the sisters would follow, but I could only hear one voice -- mine. Note to self: "The Morning Breaks" is fine for the tab choir at conference, but bad for the sisters in Relief Society. For the practice hymn, we were singing "The Spirit of God," which is such a great hymn, I decided to do all four verses. But the sisters were so used to me ending early, they kept closing their books after each verse and having to open it up again. Lastly, but not leastly, for the closing song we were doing, "Now Let Us Rejoice." I accidentally skipped the second verse, so that half the sisters were singing the second verse and half were switching to the third, because that's what I was singing. Again, I didn't realize what I'd done until about when the song was over, and I just decided to put myself out of my own misery and stop right there. JoAnn never would have done any of those things. I know I need to come to peace with this calling before I can move on. I think I might be here for a good long while.