Monday, February 11, 2008

Sad Church

Wow...what a sad day in Primary today. First of all Doug and I went alone, no kids. Calah had to work (there is a tournament at the rink) and the others were sick. Doug said "It's like we're the old couples now, all the kids gone" I said "Yeah, this will soon be our date night!"
Lots of kids were not there today and our fantastic chorister Amy Hughes wasn't there (her hubby is REALLY sick) so I had to do the music. HA!! I have no voice, but did that stop me from singing? No way! I am such a music maniac and I have no idea how untalented I am. Add to that the fact that our very talented pianist, Cindy Everett was having difficulties playing (cold weather and arthritis don't mix well) today and we were a pathetic team!
I should mention my Utah primary music story. I was called to be the music leader in primary in Utah--NEVER done it before! I thought they were crazy, turns out they were just desperate. However, I persevered and fudged my way through about 3 months of leading the music. I was so impressed with our pianist though. He was so creative and always seemed to know what I needed and how to make the songs sound fantastic. He was very quiet and just did the job. He never tried to tell me how wrong I was (I did have one woman do that in a "nice" way, ha!)
Anyway, about 3 months later we went to the 150 year celebration at BYU and as we're waiting for the program to start I'm looking through the program and I see several songs with the words "Arranged by Mack Wilberg" next to them. I about passed out...THAT was my pianist!! Me being a non-Utah Mormon had NO idea who he was. He was just Brother Wilberg patient, talented pianist. Let me tell you, leading the music that next Sunday was TERRIFYING until I realized that he was not there to criticize or be the music director. He was there to cover up my flaws, help the kids sound great and enjoy playing for us. I learned a great lesson during those 2 years and I still get excited when I see him on Sundays with the MoTab :-)

4 comments:

Sara said...

Caren,
I love the blog! Thanks for sharing.

What a fantastic Mack Wilberg story! That is great.

I hope primary goes better next week for you. Hopefully everyone will be back.

Traci said...

That sounds kind of like how intimidating I was when I was the Primary pianist--right! If it helps, my kids all came home from Primary thinking it was great.

jendoop said...

Caren, Love the blog, someday when I'm brave enough and admit to myself how much time I spend online I'll do it too.
I too have been an untalented primary chorister. Worst yet is that after that I was called as ward chorister.. perhaps you remember my pathetic arm flapping right there in Fishers?
LYLAS!
Jen

Jaime said...

Caren, I LOVE the blog. I would have died too if Mack Wilberg had been the pianist. That is a great story.. thanks for sharing. I love finding out all of this cool stuff about my friends.