Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 28, 2016

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

As many of you know, Jim, Tom, Maggie and Jonathan are all unavailable this week. Rather than scrambling to find instrument coverage, I'd like to do Mass a capella instead.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 21, 2016

This Saturday is Trinity Sunday.

With the exception of some minor tempo issues and a couple of unclear cues on my part, Mass last week was pretty solid. Thanks once again to Jonathan for covering guitar and to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 14, 2016

This Saturday is Pentecost Sunday.

Mass last weekend was probably our strongest in quite a while. Huge thanks to everyone who was able to be there! We did have a visiting priest, but with the exception of the Gloria (and with a few tweaks to the other Mass Parts), everything went very smoothly. Special thanks to Maggie for cantoring the Psalm and really nice job all around on 'I Am the Bread of Life' :-)

Songs & Updates for Saturday, May 7, 2016

This Saturday is the 7th Sunday of Easter.

Mass overall went pretty well last week. Huge thanks to Jonathan and Maggie for covering instruments!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 30, 2016

This Saturday is the 6th Sunday of Easter.

I was working on a Musical last week and wasn't at Mass, so I don't have much in the way of updates. Jim reported that everything went well, though. Thanks to Jim and Maggie for running things!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 23, 2016

This Saturday is the 5th Sunday of Easter.

Mass last week was pretty solid. Special thanks to Ben and Grace for cantoring the Psalm!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 16, 2016.

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday of Easter.

We were back at full strength last week and Mass overall went well. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 9, 2016

This Saturday is the 3rd Sunday of Easter.

We were pretty sort-staffed last week. Chris, our piano coverage, had something come up and wasn't able to make it, but did arrange for Joanne Y. from Penn State to fill in. Despite it being Joanne's first time playing a Catholic Mass and not having much prep time, overall, everything went well. It was great to have her with us! Tom also covered guitar and Lisa cantored the Mass from the guitar mics. Ginny, Lise, Rose and Steve rounded out the singers.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, April 2, 2016

This Saturday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter.

We survived Holy Week! Huge thanks to everyone who was able to sing or play for any of the four Masses!

Songs & Updates for Friday, March 25 & Sunday, March 27, 2016

Welcome to Holy Week! This is a bit of a long post, so please bear with me.

Thanks for all the responses thus far on availability for the Holy Week Masses! As you know, our group is covering the 2 PM Good Friday service as well as the 9 AM (Parish Hall) Easter Sunday Mass.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 19, 2016

This Saturday is Palm Sunday.

Mass last week was once again very solid, and probably one of our strongest in a while. Nice job, all!

Thanks to those who were able to help out with music coverage for the Penance Service on Monday night! I cantored, Kristen played piano and sang alto, and Rose and Steve sang melody. We ended up making it through the printed program most of two times with some additional instrumental songs in the middle.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 12, 2016

This Saturday is the 5th Sunday of Lent.

Despite being down a couple of folks, Mass last week went quite well. Congratulations to Lise for cantoring her first song with us (with a little help from Jaclyn :-). I also wanted to pass along the compliments of several folks who approached me during the Pancake Breakfast on Sunday. Nice job, all!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 5, 2016

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday of Lent.

Mass last week went very well. Thanks to all who where able to be there!

Kristen joined us again on piano. The piano was still a bit overpowering, but we also discovered that all the microphones (including the troublesome choir mics) appear to be working. Let's continue tweaking the levels in the coming weeks and hopefully we'll find a balance that works.

Really the only notable issue besides the mics was the tempo on several songs felt a bit too fast to me. That was probably my fault, though, for not giving more clear direction.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 27, 2016

This Saturday is the 3rd Sunday of Lent.

Mass last week overall went fairly well, despite being a bit light on singers and having to crash through quite a bit of material at practice. Welcome back Tom, and thanks as always to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 20, 2016

This Saturday is the 2nd Sunday of Lent.

Mass overall went fairly well last week. We ended up crashing through quite a bit of material before Mass -- there were probably a few pieces we should have spent more time on, but we didn't run into any major issues. Huge thanks to Jonathan for the last-minute guitar coverage!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, February 13, 2016

This Saturday is the 1st Sunday of Lent.

Mass last week went very well! We had piano for the first time in quite a while, and overall, everything sounded much more confident. Moving forward, Kristen will be with us about every other week.

We also started tweaking the sound system a bit to compensate for having piano, including bringing the piano master down and the gain on the other mics up. I also asked all the singers to move to the first two rows to better take advantage of the choir mics. In listening to the recordings, the piano is still a bit overpowering, but we'll keep tweaking the levels in the coming weeks and hopefully find a balance that works.

A few of us stuck around briefly after Mass to look at songs for Lent. Speaking of that, our music for February has been approved without any changes.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 6, 2016

This Saturday is the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week went fairly well -- thanks to all who were able to be there!

Lisa K., Ginny and I stuck around for a bit afterwards to look at a few pieces for Lent, including 'Whatsoever You Do', 'Hold Us In Your Mercy' and Mass of Remembrance, which we'll start using next week. We also reviewed the Psalm (which we may try to do as a cantor trio) and looked at a possible Lenten Meditation piece that was suggested by Maggie and Deb, 'At Evening'.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 30, 2016

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Both Kristen and I were out last week due to the weather. Jim reported that Mass went well with a good showing of singers and he and Maggie covering instruments. We also have a new singer joining us -- welcome to the group!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 23, 2016

This Saturday is the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

We were a bit thin on musicians last week, but didn't run into any major issues. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 16, 2016

This Saturday is the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week was probably one of our strongest in quite a while. Huge thanks to Jonathan for covering guitar and Jaclyn for cantoring! Just to give you an idea of how we sounded from where I stood, check out the recording of our Closing song, 'You Are the Voice'.