Music for an Easter Play, Continued....

Getting ready for your Easter drama can be pretty hectic. The person putting together our drama this year, has a ton of songs they want to incorporated into our drama. So, the challenging part for me has been finding good times to practice with the band, soloists, and keeping a balance with our usual music obligations.

Preparations

Things that I have been doing to get prepared for our very musical Easter drama, are things such as this. Keep in mind, some of these things may seem like a "no brainer" to some, but I have to work very hard at being an organized director/leader (still not great at it yet, but kudos to my wife for keeping me on track):

• Typing out lyrics for singers. Providing copies of the lyrics to all singers, along with a copy of the song on CD/MP3 to all soloists.


• Providing the music to all musicians. Depending on what your group uses, this would include Chord Charts or Bass Tab/Chords with lyrics, and a copy of the song on CD/MP3.


• Learn songs completely prior to music practice. The Drum line, Bass line, Guitar, Piano, Organ, and whatever else the song may include. Learn where all the hits, cuts, and accents are.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but it can be a lot of work getting one or two songs prepared. For example, our music group will play a lot of songs that are not popular in mainstream Christian/Gospel music. I also do not splurg and spend money to purchase the actual sheet music for our songs. Another item that causes extra work is, we typically use the Tennessee number system when playing music, rather than using chord names, (which...I haven't been able to find a website dedicated to transposing chords into numbers). So because I like to make things difficult, I listen to a song over & over, type the words out in a MS Word, then learn the music by ear. I then input the numbers of the chords over the lyrics, and give this to the band.

Depending on the complexity of the song, this can be a fairly quick, or rather lengthy process. Either way, this helps our musicians, especially those who are not acustomed to learning music by ear.

Practice Times

As far as practice time goes, I try pretty hard to keep practices limited to after services during the week, and in between services on Sunday afternoon. I would recommend keeping your practice times after, or before, your church services. You tend to have a better turn out for music practice, when everyone is already at church, rather than getting together an extra evening. This is especially true when your people are there on a volunteer basis.

I'm also make it a point to bring a copy of the song to practice, as we typicall will have to refer to the song on occasion (I have a pretty opinionated music group). Hopefully, if your musicians are proactive enough, they will have the song down by the time practice rolls around.

Easter dramas can be very hectic, and people still have their personal lives to tend to, so the more thought you give to your people, the more they will respect you and will utilize the time they are asked to be there.

As I posted previously, if there are any methods you can use for preparations, this is what I have done, and so far, as worked out this week. Let me know your thoughts, and feel free to share your ideas. I'm always ready to learn and grow.

B