Thursday’s Thoughts from Will 10.08.2020

Great rehearsals last night! We made lots of progress on our songs for Christmas and future recordings. Unfortunately, the balance on our recordings from last night was still off, so we’re going to Plan B, which is a more aggressive approach to micking the choir on the floor. I will say that part of the balance issue was the song itself. It just doesn’t allow for a lot of power. This process taught me some things, however. One of which is there is absolutely no substitute for what we were doing pre-pandemic. I love and appreciate you all. We’re going to get this right so we can get better at it since we don’t know exactly how much longer before we’re back to our normal set-up. Thanks for being flexible.

CHOIR VOICED ENHANCED CDS and Regular CDs are available. Last night I didn’t have CD copies of the voice enhanced CDs ready for Sop/Tenor, but I have them ready to go. If you happen to be here Sunday, I’ll have a few ready for pick-up. Otherwise, I’ll have them Wednesday for you.

CIC 2020 STUFF

Link to all things CIC 2020 related: Christmas at Ivy Creek 2020

As I mentioned last week, CIC will be a digital only offering. I’m a list guy so I’ll fill you in on the details thus far in list format:

1. We will use a few songs from last year in our recording: The Glory Divine Overture (orch) with Ring the Bells, Jesus What a Wonderful Child, and Mary, Did You Know. Stephen has already “lifted” those songs out of our recording from last year.
2. We will revisit and record live two songs we did three years ago: Adore (one of my favorites) and A Cradle in the Shadow of a Cross.
3. Choir, we will learn two brand new Christmas songs (look for the audio links on the CIC 2020 tab on our blog): All Creation Sing (Sing Joy) and Glorious Wonder.
4. Orchestra will learn one new feature this year–an awesome and fun arrangement of “Sing We Now of Christmas.” Everyone should listen to this song-it’s fun.
5. My plan is for us to rehearse all of these tunes during the month of October and November and record in about a 3 hour block on Saturday, December 5th. I haven’t decided the exact time frames for that day, but I will be sending out a survey to see what works BEST for the MOST people.
6. We’re in a bit of a time crunch to get all of this learned. BUT, for the new songs, I have voiced enhanced recordings for the choir. Orchestra, we’re going to have to work hard to get everything complete since we have more to learn, but I know you can do it!
7. Once all the music is compiled, I’m going to have Beverly Skinner record some narrations off-site and outdoors, so we can tie it all together.
8. What to wear for the recording—we’re not going to wear our formal outfits. Let’s go with Christmas colors (sweaters or at least red, green, silver, gold, blue types of things). Let’s make it festive.

Thanks for getting on board with the strangeness of it all and allowing me to take a different approach than we all would’ve liked. To me, this is the best way to keep all of us involved and participate.

One final note! I’m not opposed (as in all CICs before) to having guests come and sing with us for this event. OR play (if they play an instrument we need!) I have room for 95 singers and I’d love to have that many sing to fill out the sound and help us balance our orchestra. Short term commitment is fine for this event, but let me know as soon as you can. The converse is true, if you know you’ll not be able to sing or play on the 5th, let me know as well.

Reminder for all—we’ll start meeting every Wednesday starting this Wednesday until we record with the exception of Thanksgiving week- (Orchestra- we may continue to meet to get ready for Candlelight service).

Link to weekly devotion:https://www.facebook.com/IvyCreekBaptist/posts/3020350118064547

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