Barbershop Quartet Day!

It is Barbershop Quartet Day!  My first Quartet was Spontuneous. I competed with them in 2013 at the final Region 24 contest (Boise, ID).

 Then my sisters decided they wanted to compete with me and we formed Sibling Rivalry.

We competed in Region 12 (Reno, NV) in 2014 and 2015. Then Keturah moved to Texas, so we did too.  Well, at least our competition did.

We learned "Happy" by Pharrell Williams and had in mind a Rock Star pose for the end of the song.

With the 4 of us living in 4 different states, which are a part of 3 different Sweet Adelines International regions, we decided in 2016 to perform in the Open Division in Region 13 (Spokane, WA)

We just competed in our 4th contest and placed 10th in Region 10 (Houston, TX).

Cheering for Family

One aspect of family life that I just love is cheering on the members of my family when they are performing and competing.  I want my children to cheer each other on in all of their activities.  We attend concerts, recitals, plays, track meets, soccer games, baseball games, Pack Meetings, Courts of Honor and cheer for the family member participating.

This past Tuesday, Sabrina performed with a vocal ensemble "Off Topic" in the Acapella Fusion High School Vocal Contest.  We took the whole family. It was at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus. The contest was decided by popular vote of the audience.  Everyone in our family voted for Off Topic - they sang well and even had some audience participation.  When the results were read and Off Topic did not place in the top 3, Beatrix was sobbing. Loudly.  "But, I wanted Sabrina to win!" It took several minutes to calm her down.

Maybe we're taking the whole cheering for family to an extreme, but I'm glad Beatrix loves listening to her sister perform!

Here is Off Topic performing their set.  Unfortunately, the video camera ran out of space and stopped recording right before Sabrina's scat solo at the end of the second song. Happily I also used my voice recorder, so we do have audio of that solo.  However it is not the same quality or volume.

Merry Christmas (a week early)

Ryan and I got to enjoy an early Christmas present this afternoon. We had tickets to see


presented by the Boise Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Master Chorale, with 4 superb soloists.

We took along my copy of the score and followed along, which was fun to do. This was my first time seeing Handel's Messiah performed. Our seats couldn't have been better: we sat in center of row 3! The tenor soloist had amazing breath support and so did the soprano. The alto soloist had a nice voice, but there was so much vibrato, clear tones were not heard, same with the bass.

It was disappointing to us that they didn't play all of the works. As Ryan said, "They skipped the meat of Part II!" Meaning they didn't do "All We like Sheep", "And With His Stripes We are Healed" and several others. They also skipped some songs in Part III. During Intermission, we noticed the songs in Part III that would not be played, but we didn't pay attention to the fact that songs were missing in Part II. I had to turn many, many pages in the score to catch up to where they were singing.

Handel was born in Germany in 1685 and moved to London in 1712 (to work as court musician to German-born King George I of Great Britain) - about 100 years after the King James Translation of the Bible was published. Would he have attempted to write "Messiah" if the bible was only available in Latin? Would "Messiah" be a crowd favorite if it was in Latin? According to the write up in the program, Handel wrote "Messiah" in 24 days, during August and September 1741 (he was 56). Amazing. Each piece was similar in form, yet it was not boring at all to listen to. So get out a recording and listen to:

"For Unto Us a Child is born"
"And suddenly there was with the angel"
"Glory to God"
"His yoke is easy"
"All we like sheep have gone astray"
"And with his stripes we are healed"
"Hallelujah"
"I know that my Redeemer liveth"
"The trumpet shall sound"

A special thank you to Sabrina for being the babysitter to her 3 little {sick} brothers so we could enjoy this outing! Roderic has an ear infection and a cough. Hyrum has puss-filled eyes and a cough. Leo, who slept the whole time we were gone, has a cough, snotty nose and goo in the eyes. All are being treated with medicine. I am also a little under the weather. Post-nasal drip is causing my ears to hurt and my voice is failing. When I tried to sing along on "Hallelujah", I found that I had no head voice to sing in! Which makes it impossible to sing soprano at the correct octave. We are hoping that we will get the illnesses completely out of our systems by Christmas.

Disco Time

"It's Disco Time! Rachel, it's Disco Time. See the fan is on. That means it's Disco Time!" (said this afternoon while dancing because the ceiling fan is on) Later, when I retold this to Ryan, Hyrum was agreeing saying that the fan is really a disco ball.

Hyrum is turning out to be quite the musical minded kid. (He told me at Leo's Dr appt. today that he is not a children, he is a kid.)

Last night, he was singing and dancing to his current favorite Primary song "The Holy Ghost" and we actually were able to get it recorded! He cracks me up!



He is going to be the life of the party throughout his life, for sure!

Orchestra Concert

Sabrina played in the 5th Grade Orchestra concert on Friday. In her own words she told us that this concert was going to be much better than the Christmas concert. And indeed it was. The students must have practiced a lot during the year. They played "Bile 'em Cabbage Down", Mozart's "Serenade" and Offenbach's "Can-Can". I still feel like I should volunteer to play the piano so the orchestra teacher can actually conduct the orchestra. Maybe next year. Here is a (sideways) recording of "Serenade". Enjoy!

Musical Hyrum

Hyrum is a budding musician. He's got rhythm, pitch, tone and a love of music! Ryan showed him one time how to play "Star Wars" on the xylophone and now this is what we hear from Hyrum. It kind of sounds like a broken record, but he is 3.



Oh, and last night in Hyrum's prayer he prayed for our baby to be born so that he is able to watch Star Wars. (Roderic has been telling him for months that when the baby is born he'll be old enough so they can watch Star Wars together.)

The Ten Virgins

I was cast for this part long before I even was aware that it was a stage production. For my birthday this year, my visiting teaching companion and friend, Amy Mella, gave me the book "The Ten Virgins" by Emily Freeman. She told me that I reminded her of Leora in the story, the wise virgin who shares her lantern light with others who are lost along the path.

Then in October, my neighbor asked me if I'd play the part of a narrator in our Relief Society's production of "The Ten Virgins: A Musical Parable." I accepted, happy to not have to memorize any lines - the narrators get to read the script - only for her to change parts a few weeks later to play Leora. Apparently, it was meant to be. I had a hard time memorizing my two paragraph monologue, but even harder was the song. I just didn't get it. The night of our performance was the first time it made sense.

The production occurred at our Christmas dinner on December 1. We played to a full house of Relief Society sisters and Young Women. It was a joy to be a part of it. Enjoy this recording of me singing Leora's song "Lantern Light".




On a side note, I found it was quite hilarious to be 22 weeks pregnant, with a nice baby bump, portraying a virgin. I joked with my fellow cast members that it was immaculate conception.

Entertainment for Saturday!

I have been spending this week in Nashville, TN at the Sweet Adeline International Competition and convention. I'm singing with Mountain Jubilee Chorus. We first performed on Thursday afternoon, and we sang so well in the competition that we are one of the top 10 chorus finalists!!!! The finals take place tomorrow, Saturday 10/24 starting at 3 pm. Our chorus got picked randomly to sing last. I think we'll be on stage about 6:45 pm CST. (Of course it could be later, but I don't know.) If you want, you can check out the free web-cast of the contest here: http://www.sweetadelineintl.org/webcast.cfm

And in case you don't remember what I look like in full stage make-up, here is a picture.

me, Aunt Noelle and my mom

Searching for a Star!

When I heard that our local music store (Dunkley Music) was having a music contest last month, I got excited about having Sabrina enter it so she could have a recording of her playing her violin. After a few hours of thinking that way, I realized that I was wanting to push her into this because I wish I had recordings of ME when I was younger. (Once again trying to relive my childhood through my children.) So then the wheels started turning in my brain. I called my friend Fe' and asked her if she'd be my accompanist (she said YES!). I called Dunkley's to schedule a time and find out more about the contest. Each contestant got 1 hour in their recording studio (recital hall), a blank CD to lay down track and a chance to win one of 6 $50 Gift Certificates.

I prepared "American Lullaby" by Gladys Rich, since I sing it so often to my children. When I went, I brought along a book of Broadway musical songs to sing and record (like it was going to take a full hour to record a song well enough to be judged).

In order to post it here, I've put the song to a photo slide show of my 3 babies - from birth to age 1. They look a lot alike.



I have received news that I did not win one of the gift certificates. I know I will enjoy the CD I recorded immensely for years to come. Oh, and I'll be preparing even more songs for next year's contest. I need more than just 3 songs performed by me on a CD.

Violin Camp, day 5

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. This stage is full of cellos. They call it a cello band. I'm putting a video of them playing Eleanor Rigby for you, Noelle (since you're the first person I saw play the Beatles on a cello).

Orchestra recap: On the first day of orchestra, the conductor split the violins into boys and girls. Boys sat to the conductor's right and girls sat to the conductor's left. Then she assigned the 2 violas and 3 cellos to sit in the middle. Sabrina got to challenge herself and learn the 2nd Violin part. The concert they gave today sounded really nice. They played Tropical Serenade, Rock Candy and Adios Amigos. I'll put Tropical Serenade on the blog at a later time.

After eating lunch, we went to the musical theatre class performance. They performed 3 songs from Suessical. Sabrina and I would now like to see the whole thing.

Sabrina with her Scandinavian Fiddling Instructor, Goran Berg. He's about to sign her Fiddle book!

Sabrina with her Master Class teacher, Pat D'Ercole from Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Happy Birthday Mr. Washington

You may not realize that today is George Washington's Birthday. His birthday has been celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February ever since 1971 (you gotta love the Uniform Monday Holiday Act).




This song is from "Holiday Inn" a movie made in 1942 starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. My sisters and I discovered this movie about 15 years ago. We'd always wondered why in the movie "White Christmas" everyone knew the title song - and after seeing "Holiday Inn" we knew why. Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" for that movie!

"I Can't Tell a Lie" is one of the more humorous songs from the movie, which I recommend to you for your viewing pleasure. We just got it from Netflix and I had Ryan and Sabrina watch it with me. Original songs for Lincoln's Birthday, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas! Enjoy

Karaoke with Hyrum

Hyrum and I were a bit bored this afternoon, so we played around on Singsnap.com.

American Lullaby

I learned this song in Junior High, when my choir teacher, Mrs. Loughton, recommend that I sing it for Solo and Ensemble. In my head, I always picture a strong soprano voice singing it like Billie Holladay or Ella Fitzgerald. I've sung it ocasionally to my children to help them fall asleep.

American Lullaby by Gladys Rich

Hush-a-bye you sweet little baby and don't you cry anymore.
Daddy is down at his stockbrokers office a keepin' the wolf from the door.
Nursey will raise the window shade high, so you can see the cars whizzing by,
Home in a hurry each daddy will fly, to a baby like you.

Hush-a-bye you sweet little baby and close those pretty blue eyes.
Mommy has gone to her weekly bridge party to get her wee baby the prize.
Nursey will turn the radio on, so you can hear a sleepy time song,
Sung by a lady whose poor heart must long, for a baby like you.

This song was requested by Roderic every night when Ryan was on his backpacking trip (and every night since that it is my turn to put the boys to bed). On the third night, Roderic told me that while I sing it, he closes his eyes and pictures himself in the story. I told him that I do the same thing. The next night, he asked me if I would change the words on the second verse, though. He doesn't want the mommy to play bridge. He wants her to go shopping instead, so here is Roderic's modified second verse:

Hush-a-bye you sweet little baby and close those pretty blue eyes.
Mommy has gone on her weekly shopping trip to get her wee baby a prize.
Nursey will turn the radio on, so you can hear a sleepy time song,
Sung by a lady whose poor heart must long, for a baby like you.

One Popular (assistant) Scout Master!

So Ryan has been gone all week. All week. He went to Camp Morrison Boy Scout Camp near McCall, Idaho. He swam in Payette Lake (even participated in the Polar Bear Scoutmaster watermelon challenge -- Brandt helped push him in), climbed the climbing wall, fired shotguns (he was 0 for 10 on hitting the clay pigeons), played at the archery range (he got 6 points out of 7 arrows), went rappelling on some impressive cliffs nearby, rafted down the Salmon River (again), did some whittling on several walking sticks for himself, Roderic and Sabrina, and lots of talking with boys.

Last Sunday I made him a CD entitled Scout Camp 2008, with the following songs:

• Ahab the Arab (Ray Stevens)
• The Bare Necessities (Harry Connick, Jr.)
• Don't Worry Be Happy (Bobby McFerrin)
• Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)
• Forever Young (Alphaville
• Guitarzan (Ray Stevens)
• I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
• In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
• Johnny B. Goode (Marty McFly and the Starlighters)
• Jump (Van Halen)
• Mission: Impossible Theme (Lalo Schifrin)
• Power of Love (Huey Lewis and the News)
• The Saga Begins (Wierd Al)
• So Long & Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
• Theme from Rocky XIII (Wierd Al)
• Yoda (Wierd Al)
• You Gotta Dig a Little Deeper (Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver)
• Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah (Ric Ocasek)

They listened to it on the drive there, and sang the songs throughout the week. Today, for the drive home ALL 4 scouts chose to drive in the truck with Ryan instead of Scoutmaster Keele's Toyota. Just so they could listen to the music (and sing along). There you have it. Ryan is one popular assistant scoutmaster.

Mixed Up Lyrics

I love to sing! I've loved singing for as long as I can remember. Once, when I was about 5 and I was riding in the back of our Chevy El Camino to pickup my older siblings from school and my mom told me to either stop singing or move to the very back of the vehicle (she was listening to talk radio). I moved. Also, when listening to my Walkman and doing the dishes (age 10-15), my siblings would ask me to stop singing. Could they really hear me? I could hardly hear myself over the music!

Sometimes I don't know what the words to the song are, but just sing what I think they are. Here are a few lyrics of what I sing. Can you tell what songs they're from?

1. The heart of rock 'n roll is to beat ya.
2. She seems to have an invisible Tuff Shed.
3. I know this church is true.
4. Cleaning product from the kitchen.
5. Now the Czar, Now the Czar.

Other times, I purposely change lyrics to songs. Like singing "We are the Champions" with the letter P at the start of each word. This is a jingle from 1982. My older brother and sisters changed the words, but I sang with gusto every time they would start into it.

Tab, Tab Cola what a sickening drink.
Tab, Tab Cola for ugly, fat people.
Tab, Tab Cola is poisonous to drink,
Tastes tart and 10 billion calories.

(Here is a youtube video of the original commercial.)

Carolina In the Morning

For the people who read my blog, but don't read my sister's, this is what I did to celebrate Mother's Day this past weekend.




My mom's Barbershop Chorus hosted their regional competition last Friday and Saturday and she invited me (and Shanda and our daughters) to sing with her in the family chorus on Saturday night. Sabrina and I learned the tenor part to "Carolina in the Morning." Mom wanted this to be extra special, so I made costumes for us all to wear (she paid for the fabric). Yes, our shirts look a bit country/western. No, that is not what I was going for. Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle was my aim.

I had so much fun learning this song and then performing it in front of an audience! It is sad that 4 year old Janica didn't sing and dance in the performance because she was so good in the rehearsal. We learned afterwards that she wanted to stand on the risers, not on the floor. During the rehearsal, she was by far, the LOUDEST singer in the room. And she knew her notes and words. I was having a hard time singing, and not giggling while listening to her the first time through the song. She was SO adorable.

Thanks to Jason for videotaping this for posterity. I had no idea that Sabrina was doing the choreography opposite of the rest of us while we were singing. Did you totally love her playing to the camera when blowing a kiss? Thanks to Shanda for posting it on YouTube, so I could easily get a copy of it.

Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy singing and listening to Barbershop music? Nothing could be finer...

Musicals, Musicals, Musicals

This has been the year of the musical for us. We started off the year with Sabrina being a performer in "Jack and the Beanstalk" with Missoula Children's Theatre. She was a merchant.

A few weeks later, after we watched our neighbor's kids while they went to see "Riverdance," and I was trying to come up with a great date for Ryan and I to go on so they could return the favor, Ryan pulled out 3 tickets for "Little Women," which was coming on a National Broadway Tour. One for Ryan, Sabrina and me. I bought the soundtrack so we could all get familiar with the story line. Then, I decided I should read the book as well. I don't believe I had ever read that book before. It is really good. I recommend it. We went to see "Little Women" the night before our trip to Oregon. The show started at 8pm, was playing at a theatre 30 minutes away from our house. Needless-to-say, it was a late night for us. Especially with an early morning drive the next day. We listened to the soundtrack throughout our trip. LOVE THE MUSIC!

While eating at Burger King one snowy/rainy day (April 9) with Stacy and kids, we got our hands on a copy of the Idaho Statesman. It had an ad for Boise Music Week. Free music events for a whole week. Including a free Broadway musical. Apparently they have been doing this for 90 years. This year the musical was "Singin' in the Rain." I really enjoy this musical. I don't know how many times I saw this movie growing up. Keturah was in the chorus of this musical when she was a sophomore in high school. Loved watching her in it.

I requested 4 free tickets for any of the performances with the official request coupon from that copy of the Statesman and mailed them in with a SASE on the due date. The next Tuesday, I received that envelope back with NO tickets in it and NO explanation as to why. So I sent an email and got a reply that they had 20,000 tickets available for "Singin' In the Rain" and more than 22,000 requests for those tickets. They even ran out of 'sorry' slips. Not to be deterred, I planned to go standby. We invited Sara S. to accompany us and left our house a little after 6 pm. When we arrived at the Morrison Center ticket office, we were #20 on the standby list. While waiting for our number to come up, I taught the girls the hand game about the McDonald's menu. The tickets we received were on the first row of the balcony, on the side. Perfect for the girls, there were no "big heads" in front of them. They absolutely loved the musical. I asked them during intermission if seeing this was causing them to want to learn how to tap dance and both said, "Yes!" It was a late night, with musicals lasting 3 hours. Sabrina was asleep within minutes of her head hitting the pillow.

On Friday, Stacy and went to the Egyptian Theatre downtown to watch another Boise Music Week Event, a silent movie accompanied by a live theatre organ! The featured movie was Laurel and Hardy staring in "We Faw Down." Before seeing that movie, we saw a Charlie Chaplin movie and then had an old-time sing-a-long. I think next year, I'll pull Sabrina out of school and take her to see the silent movie. The organist was amazing. He sat at the front of the Theatre facing the movie screen, playing the organ to match the mood of the movie. Talk about talent! And either they put a fire scene in every silent movie because the organ has a siren sound, or they put the siren on the organ because there is a fire scene in every movie.

This was my second time going to Boise's Egyptian Theatre. The first time was December 31, 1999. I went with Sabrina, Shanda, Jason and Keturah to see "Singin' In the Rain." They were showing classic movies all day for free to celebrate the Millennium. If we would have had food and Sabrina not needing a nap, we would have stuck around to watch "Superman."

How Can I Keep from Singing?

On my last night in Portland, Milaka invited me to attend "Chorus" with her. Doug was willing to watch my 3 children and put them to bed, yippee!

She is a member of Pride of Portland, a womens a cappella chorus that sing Barbershop. It was amazing. The director was so fun to watch and sing for. He had a way to make you want to sing better. We rehearsed the three songs they're working on for the international competition this fall. I was Milaka's shadow, and stood by her the whole time, even when the assignments were changed. I had a hard time falling asleep that night because I had so much adrenaline from the good music.

I do want to be a member of Sweet Adelines International and sing in a Barbershop chorus. Perhaps I can have that happen sooner, than later. I'm glad my mom introduced my sisters and I to the wonderful world of Barbershop singing. It is nice to have a part of my own. As Milaka told the ladies who asked at chorus, having us sing together in a quartet is the way that our mom got us to get along when we were younger.

Randomness tied together

So I've had 4 or 5 posts swimming in my head this week, but I haven't taken the time until now to type them down. The kids are in bed and Ryan is at the Temple.

Sisters:
Last Sunday night, I went to a fireside that our Stake Relief Society put on, entitled "Sisters All Are We". It got me to thinking how much I love my 3 sisters.

• We sing Barbershop together. We've done some hilarious renditions of songs at weddings with altered lyrics ("In the Good Old Summertime" for Holly & Bob and "Last Night on the Back Porch" for Keturah & Brook)
  
• Growing up, I would take their clothes from their closets and wear them. There are few advantages of being the youngest sister.
  
• Milaka was not only my Bradley Childbirth Instructor, but also my "doula" when I had Sabrina.
• Shanda was game in planning a trip to Europe to pick up Keturah from her mission. I provided the cheap plane tickets. She provided the cheap hotels.
• Keturah helped me go to the store on Valentine's day 1995 to buy a gift, after Ryan had called and told me he had something to give me. (It was the book "Believing Christ". I made him sit in our front room and write something to me on the inside cover of the book.)
• The first quilt I ever pieced together was for Shanda's oldest boy. She gave it back to me when he was 2 because she said it meant more to me than to him.
• After Keturah and Milaka got hooked on watching "What Not to Wear", shopping together became even more enjoyable.
• We all went to see Harry Connick, Jr. in concert in SLC after eating at the Melting Pot.
  

I really love my sisters. Its hard to live far away from them. I'm happy I get to see 2 of them this month. FYI this photo was taken of me and my sisters at Lagoon in 1991.

Soccer:
Can you believe the soccer season has started again? I thought Sabrina's coach was kidding in his email three weeks ago that it was time for practices to start up again. (There was lots of snow on the ground at the time.) He was serious. For the first two weeks of practice, they met in our church gym and played. This week they were outside at the elementary school and the first game was today! After a warm front pushed through here for the last 2 days, we got back to cold, wet weather. It said it was 40 degrees this morning, but felt like 19 with the rain. Ryan stayed home with the boys. I got to be the line judge. Sabrina played defender and goalie. The ending score was Blue Dolphins (Sabrina's team) 7, Red Devils 2.

Quilting:
So my last quilting class was on Tuesday. We learned how to make binding and bind the quilt and how to blind appliqué with a machine. Really cooll stuff. My sewing machine has sat on a corner of my kitchen table for more than a week now because I REALLY WANT TO QUILT MY QUILT, but that hasn't ever made it up to the "Better" list. Perhaps this week? Probably not due to our trip to Utah on Thursday for Allison's wedding.

Volunteering at School:
Last year, Sabrina entered a musical composition in the school's Reflections contest. She won first prize. It went to be judged at the district level. She won first prize. It went on to the state level. She won Honorable Mention. After the award ceremony for the state prize, she was bawling because our school had just stopped being members of the PTA, so we would not be eligible to participate in Reflections again, and she would not be able to win any more medals. In steps Mom. I single-handedly created, organized, etc, etc, etc the 2008 Trail Wind Elementary School PTO Art Contest. The entries were due last Friday. The awards ceremony was yesterday. There were 124 entries in 6 categories. Sabrina entered a musical composition. She won first prize. (I was not the judge.)

Transmission:
We got to get a new transmission for our 2002 Honda Odyssey. As the service manager at Larry Miller Honda said, "Your transmission needs to go to heaven." Driving home from Roderic's tumbling class last Monday, I couldn't go faster than 25mph. Even with the engine doing 3000rpm. Then the malfuction indicator light turned on. Then the TCS light turned on. Then the D (for drive) light started flashing! It was scary to drive the van like that. The good news is that it was part of a recall (that I don't remember hearing about but my neighbor with a 2001 model does) so we paid $0.

Pipe Organs:
Yesterday afternoon, Sabrina's violin teacher organized a special treat for all of her students. We were invited to Immaneul Lutheran Church downtown for an organ demonstration. In their group lessons they've been talking about Bach and she thought it would be neat for the students to get to hear Bach's music on his primary instrument. I learned so much. Did you know that they control the volume on pipe organs by opening and closing shutters that lead to a room with pipes in it? Did you know that every rank has one pipe for every key on the keyboard? Did you know that organs can get out of tune? That church's organ was out of tune. Aparently there is no organ tuner in Boise, they have to fly in from SLC or SEA. Our ward organist is holding an "Organ Workshop" to teach interested people to play the organ. It begins on Tuesday. I'm planning on going.

Now if you've gotten to the end of this, and still don't see how all of this randomness is tied together, please realize that I typed it thus it is together.

Choir

We woke up to snow this morning.
Ryan had an interview with the Bishop at 8:30 a.m.
Malauna had to be at church to warm up the choir for our musical number at 8:45 a.m.
Remarkably, we made those deadlines on time. With happy children.

However, on Saturday, I forgot to give my reminder calls to the choir members and apparently reminder calls are required. The accompanist was there (already playing the prelude on the organ) and 2 young women. With some help from the Sacrament Meeting Chorister, I put the music on the seats.

When we got up to sing, this is how the numbers broke down:
1 Bass, 2 Tenors, 2 Altos and 12 Sopranos.

We sang an arrangement of "The Morning Breaks" that I created with the 1985 and 1948 hymnals. There is an awesome 3-part Ladies arrangement of it in the 1948 hymnal!

Later at choir practice, our numbers were much more even. Seven additional men were there and I asked several of the Sopranos to sing Alto instead.