Confessions of a Ward Organist

I swear someone's been polishing the organ bench at the church a little too much or something! The last few weeks at church, I've been sliding around at an alarming rate in the middle of hymns while trying to play the foot pedals. Nothing quite like being in the middle of "Improve the Shining Moments" and starting to panic while scrambling to find the bass G pedal with my left heel. Maybe I need to start wearing jeans skirts that are less prone to sliding more often...

Heaven knows I don't need anymore organ blunders--did I tell you the one about how I started playing the wrong Sacrament hymn? Yeah, the chorister and all the congregation were singing the words of the hymn on the opposite page. I had no clue. They didn't either--until I kept playing the 4th line of my hymn, and they had run out of words because their hymn was only 3 lines. Oops.

I about died when I figured out what happened. And I still had 3 more verses to play, my cheeks flaming from embarrassment. I even had given a kind smile of encouragement to the chorister (sorry again, Krystal!) who had been confusedly trying to figure out the right beat pattern to lead. The hymns were both 3/4 time, but one had a pickup note throwing it all off. Anyway, she kept looking at me through the first verse, wondering where the heck I was. Yeah, oops big time. Everyone finally caught on and then sang the last 3 verses of the hymn that was being played, but man, it was good times in the Parkway ward that week! Dan sure got a kick out of showing me the program with the CORRECT hymn number listed on it when I came down to sit with him after the Sacrament was passed. Thanks, honey.

Is it my fault that whatever well-meaning music planning committee way back in 1985 chose to put hymn #191, "Behold the Great Redeemer Die", and #192, "He Died! The Great Redeemer Died", on the same pages right next to each other? Those titles are very similar--practically the same. Perfectly understandable, right? Help me out here.

Perhaps a nice letter to someone on the church music committee with a suggestion about the placement of hymns in the hymnal is in order, and it can be filed away for whenever they decide to release a new edition of the hymnal.

So, don't you wish you were in my ward? Loads of free *reverent (it is Sacrament Meeting, after all)* entertainment every week as you wonder what the organist will come up with next. 11:00 am at the Gleannloch building every week! We welcome visitors.