Songs & Updates for Saturday, December 2, 2017

This Saturday is the 1st Sunday of Advent.

Thanks for a very solid piano Mass last week! We ended up having a couple more instrumentalists out than anticipated. Things balanced out well, though, with a large group of singers and several people on the choir/guitar mics. We may also have a new person interested in singing with us.

Bev, Ginny, Lisa and I stuck around after Mass for a bite to eat and to run some Advent music. We touched on several of the new/less-familiar pieces, as well as one song for Christmas. I wouldn't mind scheduling an additional practice on 12/09 to work out a few more details.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 7, 2017

This Saturday is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Nice job last week! We wrapped up our final (regular) Season of Creation Mass on a high note. The new Communion song, Where Two or Three Are Gathered (here), went very well for a first run. Since we took the time to learn it, I'd like to continue using this through the end of October.

Our first monthly dinner was also a success. Thanks to all who were able to bring food and hang out for a bit. I'd like to continue doing this regularly moving forward (perhaps on the last Saturday of each month?). Besides on-site pot luck, we could also explore other venue/food possibilities.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 9, 2017

This Saturday is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Nice job last week! We had a solid Mass with no issues. With a few tweaks to the arrangement, Touch the Earth Lightly went very well. We added an extra bar after each verse, and repeated the last line as an interlude. I don't think this will cause us any problems for the next several weeks.

Due to the larger-than-usual crowd, we also made it all the way through I Will Choose Christ for Communion, so Eva and Jim did a lovely rendition of How Beautiful (here) to fill the rest of the time. Moving forward, we should probably have a second song in mind just for these types of occasions.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 2, 2017

This Saturday is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We had a pretty small group last week. There were some rough patches, but we made it through. Special thanks again to Tom and Frances for handling accompaniment, and Ben for taking on the Alleluia. I would say that the Psalm especially turned out well, considering it was a less-familiar tune.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 19, 2017

This Saturday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Thanks for such a strong Mass last week! Nearly everything went smoothly, and we received compliments from several parishioners. I especially liked how You Are Mine (here) turned out, and enjoyed getting to play saxophone again (unplanned) on the Psalm (here).

The only real issue we ran into was the Communion song (here) -- we should definitely take some time to sort out that instrumental intro, and make sure we stick with a slower tempo.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 12, 2017

This Saturday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

For our first regular guitar Mass in quite a while, things went pretty well last week. There were a few minor communication issues, but I think those were mainly due to getting used to not having piano in the mix. Just a reminder to watch and listen to everyone around you so we're all on the same page.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 5, 2017

This Saturday is the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Everything went very well last week. Thanks to all who were able to be there! This wasn't planned, but Lift Up Your Hearts was among the first songs Tim played with us, and was also his last. It definitely made for a worthy send-off :-)

Songs & Updates for Saturday, July 29, 2017

This Saturday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We were down a couple of instrumentalists last week, but had a pretty solid Mass. The mix of traditional and contemporary songs really seemed to balance out well this go around. Thanks to all who were able to be there!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, July 22, 2017

This Saturday is the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Thanks to all who were able to be at Mass last week! We had a pretty small group, but didn't run into any major issues.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, March 4, 2017

This Saturday is the 1st Sunday of Lent.

Mass last week was pretty solid. There were a few minor issues here and there, but nothing serious. Special thanks to Eva for the piano coverage. I'd also like to officially welcome Emiyare to the group on bass!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 28, 2017

This Saturday is the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Thanks for another very strong Mass last week!

We had a gentleman approach us afterward -- he made it a point to say how he really enjoys the 5:30 Mass, and gets so much more out of the liturgy because of the music :-)

Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 14, 2017

This Saturday is the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Nice job last week! We had another strong night, with most everything going smoothly. No more Christmas songs for a while, though :-(

I also wanted to put out a special thanks to Lise for singing with us over the past year! Lise is our youngest member, and joined us in January, 2016. Lise's mom is taking a job out-of-state, and this was her last week singing with us.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, December 24, 2016

This Saturday is Christmas Eve.

I wasn't at Mass last week, so I don't have much in the way of updates. Both Eva and Maggie had to call off, so thanks to Jim for running things.

I ran into Tim, the person who's interested in playing piano, on Sunday. As we go into the new year, I'd like to see about bringing him into the fold. Between him and Eva, that'll give us more options and flexibility for keyboard coverage. More on this later.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, December 3, 2016

This Saturday is the 2nd Sunday of Advent.

Rehearsal and Mass last week were both a bit chaotic (for the record, I did have a plan...), but everything more-or-less came together. We had quite a bit of new(-ish) material to cover. There was a last-minute switch in guitar coverage, with Jonathan playing in Jim's place. Tom also rejoined us after a long hiatus (welcome back!), and the transition to the new book seemed to go off without a hitch. Thanks for bearing with me and the instrumentalists as we got everything sorted out!

On top of that, Father Charlie was pretty sick and was barely hanging in there for Mass. I've heard that a number of events he's involved in this week were canceled, so I'm not sure how this will affect the weekend Masses. It's possible that we may end up with a visiting priest.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, November 5, 2016

This Saturday is the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

It was great to be nearly at full strength last week! We had a few slightly-iffy intros and two Baptisms, but everything overall went pretty well. Jim, Jonathan and Maggie also did a lovely rendition of 'Grace Revealed' as a prelude. There was a technical issue with my audio recorder, though, and nothing was captured (grrr....).

I missed mentioning this in my last post, but please welcome Jeff to the group! Ginny recruited him to join us last week.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 8, 2016

This Saturday is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Huge shout-out to Eva for being our sole instrumentalist last Saturday! Special thanks as well to the folks who stepped up to cantor the Psalm, Alleluia, and the first part of the Communion song!

Despite being short on musicians and a compressed rehearsal, we had a nice-sized group of singers and Mass ended up going pretty well.

Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 1, 2016

This Saturday is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week was pretty solid. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there, especially Jonathan for helping us out on bass and Frances for joining us for the first time on flute!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, September 17, 2016

This Saturday is the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Thanks to everyone who was able to be at Mass last week! We had a visiting priest and the Liturgy was celebrated in the Parish Hall due to the Great Worship Space Flood of last Thursday/Friday. The setup is a bit different than our usual Easter/Christmas configuration, but it still did the job nicely (huge thanks to the staff for getting this up and running so quickly on Friday!). Like others have mentioned, despite the microphone challenges, it was a refreshing change in pace and a good warm-up for Christmas Eve :-)

Songs & Updates for Saturday, August 6, 2016

This Saturday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week was very solid and definitely one of our strongest in a while! Everything went smoothly (even with a visiting priest) and I heard some excellent vocal and instrumental harmonies. It was great to have both Joe and Jonathan with us as well -- speaking of Joe, I'd like to officially welcome him back to the group as our percussionist!

Songs & Updates for Saturday, June 18, 2016

This Saturday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass last week overall went well. Huge thanks to Eva for playing piano, and Ginny, Steve and Rose for singing!