Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 2, 2016

This Saturday is the Solemnity of the Epiphany.

Christmas Eve Mass went quite well with only a few very minor issues! Huge thanks for all your efforts in pulling it together!

Songs & Updates for Thursday, December 24, 2015

This is a special post for the Christmas Eve & Feast of the Holy Family Masses.

Mass went pretty well last week -- I was especially pleased with how the new Psalm, 'Lord, Make Us Turn to You' turned out. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there!

Ginny, Lisa K. and I stuck around briefly to look at Christmas music.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, December 19, 2015

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday of Advent.

Mass went pretty well last week! The new Psalm, GC #148, turned out quite nicely for a first run, and we managed to pull together 'O Come, Divine Messiah' once more.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, December 12, 2015

This Saturday is the 3rd Sunday of Advent.

We where a little thin on singers last week and Mass was a bit messy in the first half, but we made it through. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there!

Tom, Ginny, Maggie and I stuck around afterward to look over/review Mass of Joy & Peace, the Psalm for this week and our tentative Christmas Eve Mass program.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, November 5, 2015

This Saturday is the 2nd Sunday of Advent.

Mass went pretty well last week -- we had a nice group of singers and a couple of instrumentalists. Thanks once again to Jonathan for coming to cover guitar on short-notice!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, November 28, 2015

This Saturday is the 1st Sunday of Advent, and the beginning of Liturgical Year C.

I wasn't at Mass last week, so I don't have too many updates.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, November 21, 2015

This Saturday is the Solemnity of Christ the King.

We where a bit short on instrumentalists last week, but Mass went pretty well. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, November 14, 2015

This Saturday is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I was out last week due to a concert, so I don't have too many updates. Jim had a change in plans and reports that "[Saturday] night went very well. Jon, Maggie, Joe and I were there with a bunch of singers".

Songs & Updates for Saturday, November 7, 2015

This Saturday is the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We where nearly at full staff last Saturday and Mass went very smoothly. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there!

Tom and I met at 4 PM to review Mass Parts and the music for the liturgy, something we may end up doing somewhat regularly for a while. Feel free to come early and join us if there's something specific you'd like to look at before rehearsal.

On Sunday, Jonathan and I, as well as folks from the 11 AM choir and religious education classes, performed in what turned out to be a pretty successful talent show as part of Father's Stewardship Kickoff event. It was also hinted at that the talent show may become an annual event, so just something to keep an eye out for if you're interested in performing.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 31, 2015

This Saturday is the Solemnity of All Saints.

We where pretty thin on musicians last week, with many of our key players and singers out. Thanks once again to Tom and Joe for taking point on most of the songs, and for all the singers who where able to make it!

We also had the chance to work with singer/songwriter and inspirational speaker Jesse Manibusan, who was at Good Shepherd to to run both a morning retreat and evening presentation/concert. Jesse ended up leading us in singing our Offertory song, 'Open My Eyes', and also performed a post-Communion meditation piece, 'Sacred Silence'. It was a true pleasure to have him with us for the evening!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 24, 2015

This Saturday is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Most of our regular instrumentalists where out last week -- huge thanks to Jonathan for coming back to cover guitar, and Joe for taking several intros on soprano sax!

Mass overall went pretty smoothly -- the only notable issue was Ginny and I both had trouble with the beginning of the third verse of the psalm, but Jonathan and Father where able to help us out.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 17, 2015

This Saturday is the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We where missing a couple of instrumentalists last week, but ended up having a full section of singers. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to make it, and especially to Tom for covering guitar solo!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 10, 2015

This Saturday is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week went pretty well. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Tom, Lisa K. and I stick around after Mass to look at the songs for this week. The songs for October are still pending approval, but what I picked for this week is below. I'll let you know if there are any changes.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 3, 2015

This Saturday is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week went pretty well. The only real issue we had was some confusion over how to end the Offertory song, 'I Will Choose Christ'. It doesn't seem to work particularly well for Offertory (the key changes make it difficult to end the piece early), so I'll try to refrain from using it for that in the future.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 26, 2015

This Saturday is the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass went pretty well last week -- thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 19, 2015

This Saturday is the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

We didn't make it to mass on Saturday last week, so I don't have too many updates.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 12, 2015

This Saturday is the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the holiday!

Despite being down two melodic instruments and a bit light on singers, mass last week was probably our strongest in a while. Lisa and I harmonized on the Psalm and we nailed down a fairly solid arrangement for 'Canticle of the Turning', which we'll do again in a few weeks. My audio recorder ended up shutting off right before Offertory, though, so I missed capturing the last few songs (grrrr...). Thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 5, 2015

This Saturday is the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Mass went fairly well last week -- nice job, folks! We even had someone give us high praises for the quality of our music, saying it just keeps getting better each week. Also, huge thanks to Tom once again for covering guitar, as Jim was unexpectedly out sick.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 29, 2015

This Saturday is the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Despite a few rough spots here and there, mass went OK last week. Huge thanks to Tom for being our solo guitar coverage! I know it wasn't easy and definitely not ideal, but I really appreciate it! I also apologize for any bad or confusing cues I may have given -- with everything that was going on, I was a bit scatterbrained.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 22, 2015

This Saturday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass went pretty smoothly last week. We ran into a few communications issues with the Communion song, but otherwise, no major problems. We also continued using one of the 11:00 sound profiles, which seems to work OK overall. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 15, 2015

This Saturday is the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary also falls on Saturday this year.

Mass went pretty smoothly last week with quite a few strong pieces. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to make it!

The sound system was working, but we used a different sound profile since the one for our group didn't appear on the list.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 8, 2015

This Saturday is the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

There where a few rough patches here and there, but mass went fairly well last week. Huge thanks to Chip for being our solo guitarist and Jaclyn for singing with us for the past few months! Jaclyn won't be able to join us again until December.

We once again ran without microphones, since I got feedback the moment I pressed the un-mute button. The ambo microphone also didn't work, which caused issues when we did the Psalm.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 1, 2015

This Saturday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Despite being down a few people, mass went pretty smoothly last week. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

The only noteworthy issue we ran into was feedback over the sound system, which has been a reoccurring problem for the past month or more. In the end, we ran without microphones to avoid any problems during the liturgy. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on how we can 'fix' this, I'm open to suggestions.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, July 25, 2015

This Saturday is the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Karina and I where both tied up with other commitments last Saturday, so I don't have too many updates.

There were some issues with the Gathering song I had selected, 'Gather Your People'. My understanding was you guys where able to nail down the refrain, but not the verses, so there was a last-minute switch to 'Gather Us In' instead. My apologies for the bad pick -- if we do this song again, I'll make sure we have a chance to work on it first.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, July 18, 2015

This Saturday is the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass went well last Saturday. We where almost at full staff and had a number of pretty strong pieces. Thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, July 11, 2015

This Saturday is the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Mass went fairly well last weekend. Jim was back, and I bounced between singing, playing and directing as needed. Karina also joined us to help cover some of the instrumental parts.

We did run into some feedback issues with the sound system once again, but Chip made an adjustment behind the board that seemed to fix this.

Father also commented on how good the harmony sounded on both the Psalm and Offertory songs, so nice job all!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, July 4, 2015

This Saturday is the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Mass last Saturday was probably one of our strongest in several weeks. Thanks to Zach and Jonathan for joining us, and to everyone else who was able to make it!

There was a wedding wrapping up when I arrived to setup around 4 PM. The wedding party was shooting pictures in the Church until close to 5 PM, which ended up working out OK since it took a while for the guitars to get organized.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, June 27, 2015

This Saturday is the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass went fairly well last week despite a challenging psalm and some messy direction on my part. Thanks once again to Chip and Tom for covering guitar and to everyone else who was able to make it! Its been nice to have such a large group of singers these past few weeks to help offset our limited instruments.

Tom and I briefly stuck around afterward to look at the Psalm for this week.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, June 20, 2015

This Saturday is the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Mass went pretty smoothly last week -- it was nice to have a full guitar section after being a bit 'lean' for the past few weeks. Jonathan joined us and we co-directed mass since I was also playing sax. Jim made an excellent call for volunteer musicians, but I don't believe we got any hits.

Both of the new pieces, 'We Proclaim Your Death' from Mass of Creation, and 'Seed, Scattered and Sown', didn't take much extra prep time and came together fairly nicely. It sounds like 'Seed' was well-liked and worth doing again, so I may program that as the Communion song next month.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, June 13, 2015

Welcome back to Ordinary Time! This Saturday is the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Mass overall went pretty well last week. Huge thanks once again to Chip for covering guitar and to everyone else who was able to be there.

Ginny, Maggie and I briefly stuck around after mass to review Mass of Creation, but otherwise, didn't practice. I'm looking forward to returning to semi-normalcy this week :-)

Songs & Updates for Saturday, June 6, 2015

This Saturday is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

For the most part, mass went pretty smoothly last week. Nice job, all! Thanks once again to Zach for filling in on bass while Chip picked up guitar for the evening.

A few of us briefly looked at the psalm for this Saturday, but otherwise, we didn't practice.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 30, 2015

This Saturday is Trinity Sunday.

We had several instrumentalists out last week, but most of the songs went pretty well. Huge thanks to everyone who was able to make it!

Since it was a holiday weekend, we did not practice, but a few of us did stay to visit/help out with the Time and Talent Fair in the Parish Hall. As far as I know, we weren't able to recruit any new people, but we may want to try again this week.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 23, 2015

This Saturday is Pentecost Sunday.

Mass seemed to go fairly well last week -- thanks to everyone who was able to be there!

We stuck around afterward for a bite of dinner (thanks, Cindy!), but ultimately didn't do much in the way of practicing.

Ginny found us a nice plastic container to store our smaller percussion instruments in, replacing that old cardboard box. We also organized the three sets of mass setting booklets in plastic trays in the center section of the cabinet.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 16, 2015

This Saturday is the 7th Sunday of Easter.

We had several instrumentalists out last week, but a pretty nice-sized group of singers. Huge thanks to Zach for helping out with guitar and everyone else who was able to make it! For those unaware, Zach will be with us for the next several months while on break from college.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 9, 2015

This Saturday is the 6th Sunday or Easter.

Despite having several guitarists out last week, mass went pretty well! Cindy played accompaniment for everything except for the Psalm, which was covered by guitar, bass and melodic instruments. Huge thanks to everyone who was able to make it!

We also had some issues with feedback over the sound system, probably due to some adjustments made by musicians from OLV who covered a wedding earlier that afternoon. Adjusting one of the dials behind the board seemed to get rid of the problem.

Ginny and I stuck around after mass to look at a few songs for this Saturday with Cindy, including 'All the Ends of the Earth', 'In This Place', and 'With One Voice'.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 2, 2015

This Saturday is the 5th Sunday of Easter.

Things seemed to go pretty smoothly last Saturday -- nice job, all!

We made it through the prelude, and Luke and Dawn joined us to sing a song for a couple renewing their wedding vows. We also decided to bag practice since the music for May was still pending approval.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 25, 2015

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday of Easter, and also Good Shepherd Sunday.

I wasn't at mass last week, so I don't have too many updates.

Jonathan reports that "We continue to improve the sound, it's really helpful having more instrumentalists to free up my hands. Ginny was an excellent cantor for the alleluia, I did the psalm. We practiced the prelude and we decided we needed to check to see who would make it and either cancel [postpone to another date] the prelude or get there really early to make sure we work it." Please stay tuned for an update on this.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 18, 2015

This Saturday is the Third Sunday of Easter.

Things went fairly well last week. We ran into a few minor issues with some of the less-common songs, and also had problems with the podium mic, but nothing too serious.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 11, 2015

This Saturday is the Second Sunday of Easter.

I hope everyone had a good Easter!

Things went fairly well on Sunday despite issues with the sound system and not much practice time. We ended up doing most of mass without microphones, and several songs where limited to only a verse or two since the Hall was maybe only half full. Once again, huge thanks to everyone who was able to sing, play or otherwise help out with the Triduum masses!

Songs & Updates for Sunday, April 5, 2015

This is another special post for Easter Sunday mass.

Huge thanks to those of you (and the two singers from 9 AM) who where able to make the Good Friday liturgy -- there where some minor issues here and there, but it overall went quite well.

The only note Father Charlie had for us was to minimize, as much as possible, the 'dead air' between preparing to start a song and actually starting it. This was primarily my fault for being overly-cautious, but it's probably something we should work on going forward.

Songs & Updates for Friday, April 3, 2015

This is a special post for Good Friday mass.

Mass last week went pretty smoothly even with the last-minute program and format changes. We did run into issues with 'Unless a Grain of Wheat' once again, but everything else turned out quite nicely. We had a bite to eat (thanks, Jim!) and then several of us stuck around to begin looking at the songs for later this week.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 28, 2015

This Saturday is Palm Sunday, the official start of Holy Week.

Mass, overall, went pretty well last week. Songs such as 'Dust and Ashes', 'Be Merciful, O Lord', 'Only This I Want' and 'Change Our Hearts' all sounded really good. The prelude was a bit messy, Father started the Penitential Act without without giving us a cue, and Communion got off to a bumpy start (and ended too abruptly), but there otherwise weren't any serious issues. Thanks to all involved -- it was great to be at nearly full-strength again!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 21, 2015

This Saturday is the 5th Sunday of Lent.

We had a nice-sized crew last week and mass went pretty well -- I think we're finally back on track after a bit of a messy past few months. Nice job, all!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 14, 2015

This Saturday is the Forth Sunday of Lent.

Despite another rushed rehearsal, we made it through mass without any major problems. We spent the first half of practice working out some issues with the sound system. We had a visiting priest, and Chip and Barry covered guitar in Jim and Jonathan's absence. Probably our biggest challenges were intros and communication. Huge thanks to everyone involved!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 7, 2015

This Saturday is the Third Sunday of Lent.

Despite a rushed rehearsal, mass turned out fairly well with only a few minor issues. Of note, we where able to not only pull together the prelude, but also a new Psalm and make it through two pieces that we ran out of time to practice. Thanks to all who where able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 28, 2015

This Saturday is the Second Sunday of Lent.

Karina and I once again weren't at mass last week due to the weather.

Jonathan reports that "Jackie joined us and cantored.‎ First Sunday of Lent, very strong community presence despite the weather. Jim and I started the wrong song completely for communion, we started chatting with someone about joining us on piano. Maggie was refreshing ['Open the Eyes of My Heart'] a bit after mass."

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 21, 2015

This Saturday is the First Sunday of Lent.

I don't have much in the way of updates this week, as we didn't make it to any of the Good Shepherd masses due to the weather and road conditions.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 14, 2015

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 7, 2015

This Saturday is the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I was at the 9 AM mass last weekend due to another commitment, so I don't have many updates.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 31, 2015

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week went pretty well -- I once again pass along compliments from a visitor who approached me after mass. Nice work, all!