February 8, 2010

Good Morning

Has this happened to you? (of course it has...) On Sunday our anthem was Behold the Lamb of God, from Messiah (we celebrate the Lord's Supper each first Sunday of the month). I do not presently have an accompanist, so I play the introduction, and when the alto entrance comes, nothing happens. Now they've never (ever!) missed this entrance. So I loop back to give them another chance. FAIL! The sopranos do exactly what they are supposed to do, and come in. And now the men don't know what to do. Fortunately, my choir is not easily flummoxed, and so we quickly got everyone back together, but it presented an interesting problem for me. We rehearse twice a week (long story...), and one of them is right after worship.

Now in my younger days, I would probably have yelled. But I've learned that it doesn't do any good. The altos already are feeling badly, and they know what went wrong... So...teaching moment... I used the situation to establish one more "groundrule": we never stop, and we never go back.

On another subject, we had a great week with our contest last week...I hope you were one of our luck winners...If not...

• Today at NOON we start the final week of our "Giving You Some Love" contest on the Reverence Channel! From now until Friday we will be giving away lots of great prizes during selected programs at Creator Reverence. Here are some of the prizes we'll be giving away:

  CDs of the National Lutheran Choirand A set of Paul Manz improv CDs compliments of MorningStar Music

  A complete Set of Bock's Best Piano Books compliments of Fred Bock Music Company

  A Heavyweights of Comedy DVD compliments of Dan McGowan

  Free registrations to the MusiCalifornia Conference April 5-8 at the Hilton Hotel Universal Studios in Los Angelescompliments of MusiCalifornia

  CDs and Books compliments of publishers like Wm Eerdmans, Zondervan, Moody, Encouraging Words, and Kregel

  Solo vocal and anthem collections, and Promo Packs of Music compliments of publishers like Oxford University Press, Harold Flammer, Hope, and Lorenz

  And EVERYBODY who wins one of the daily prizes will also receive a free one year subscription or renewal to Creator Magazine compliments of Creator!

  PLUS! On Friday during the 3 pm hour we give away the Grand Prize: One FREE Registration to the MusiCalifornia Conference, INCLUDING Round Trip Air (for one) from ANYWHERE in the US and HOTEL accomodations at the Hilton Hotel Universal Studios during the Conference!

  There are two ways to win the Grand Prize. We'd really lik3 you tolisten to Creator Reverence. Each contest hour, we will be making an announcement of what the prize is for that hour. Sometime during the hour, you'll hear a special sound, the special phrase of the hour, and which specific email (for instance the "third" email) will win the prize. When you hear the phrase, you'll need to email it to: contest@creatorleadershipnetwork.com. Don't lose that email address! That's all there is to it. Every daily prize winner qualifies for the drawing for the Grand Prize.

  You can still be eligible for the Grand Prize if you don't win a daily prize! You can also become automatically eligible by making a purchase at the CLN Store anytime between now and noon (pacific) on Friday, February 12, 2010. You can find a link to the store at the CLN site, or by clicking on the "Creator Store" button on the Reverence channel player any time you hear something you'd like to purchase. THIS WEEK we will be giving away prizes on the following programs (all times Pacific):

  MONDAY
  Noon - The Just Pure Laughs Clean Comedy Show - Hosted by Dan McGowan
  1 pm - Fred Bock Music Hour - Hosted by Stephen Bock
  2 - Doug's Master Class - Hosted by Doug Lawrence
  3 - Creator Radio - Hosted by Vern Sanders
  4 - Creator Tech Talk - Hosted by Wade Odum

  TUESDAY
  11 am - Notes of Encouragement - Hosted by Steve Amerson
  Noon - The Just Pure Laughs Clean Comedy Show - Hosted by Dan McGowan
  1 pm - With Hearts & Hands & Voices - Hosted by Mark Lawson
  2 - Doug's Master Class - Hosted by Doug Lawrence
  3 - Creator Radio - Hosted by Vern Sanders

  WEDNESDAY
  1 pm - Fred Bock Music Hour - Hosted by Stephen Bock
  2 - Doug's Master Class - Hosted by Doug Lawrence
  3 - Creator Radio - Hosted by Vern Sanders
  4 - Creator Tech Talk - Hosted by Wade Odum
  5 - With Hearts & Hands & Voices - Hosted by Mark Lawson

  THURSDAY
  11 am - Notes of Encouragement - Hosted by Steve Amerson
  Noon - The Just Pure Laughs Clean Comedy Show - Hosted by Dan McGowan
  1 pm - Let Music Live! The Sacred Sounds Of Shawnee Press - Hosted by Joseph Martin
  2 - Doug's Master Class - Hosted by Doug Lawrence
  3 - Creator Radio - Hosted by Vern Sanders
  4 - Creator Tech Talk - Hosted by Wade Odum

  FRIDAY
  10 am - Creator Tech Talk - Hosted by Wade Odum
  11 am - Notes of Encouragement - Hosted by Steve Amerson
  Noon - The Just Pure Laughs Clean Comedy Show - Hosted by Dan McGowan
  1 pm - Fred Bock Music Hour - Hosted by Stephen Bock
  2 - Doug's Master Class - Hosted by Doug Lawrence
  3 - Creator Radio - Hosted by Vern Sanders
  

  Standard reminder about the Reverence Channel player: The first time you use it, you may need to "refresh" (F5 key) once in order to get the audio. You'll know you will get the audio if you see the colored buttons (green for play, red for stop, and brown for mute...plus the two purple buttons which control the volume...). There is no need to hit the play button in most cases...the audio will start automatically once the player completely loads. You may need to download one or more programs: Silverlight (for the player) and Firefox (the preferred browser). Look for links to download these free programs on the home page and programs page.

• Want to listen to the Reverence Channel on your ipod touch or iphone? Listen via ootunes! - Get their iphone app here

• I'd Love to Meet You in Person! It was great to meet some of you at the recent MusicAtlanta conference. Here's another chance. I'll be at The National Conference of Church Musicians on April 13-15 in the greater Indianapolis area. They have a great program lined up, and I'll be presenting on The Choir in Modern Worship, including a session on "The traditional choir director meets the worship band." Should be fun. You can still get Early Bird registration rates until March 15. Click here to sign up.

• And speaking of The Choir in Modern Worship...my book is available here. It covers, among other things, The Future of the Choir in Modern Worship, Three Things that mark a Successful Choir in Modern Worship, Musical Skill Development for the Choir in Modern Worship, and Creativity for the Choir in Modern Worship. The retail price is $14.95, but right now you can get it for the special price of just $9.95 (that's 33% off!) and immediately download it upon purchase. HERE'S HOW to download the book after your purchase:
  click on the My Account tab near the right top of the screen.
  Select My Orders from the dropdown menu.
  Scroll down past the FAQ to the order information.
  There will be the words "Order Details" within the information boxes.
  Click there to follow a link.
  Scroll down past the FAQ again.
  There will be a download icon - has a down arrow in it.
  Click the download icon.
  It will then ask you if you want to save the documents or open them.
  Select Save. This will allow you to choose a place to save the article on your computer. To order the Ebook, Just click here.

• Take our survey this week! This is the last week for a very sensitive topic...you'll have to take the survey to find out what it is. Please go to our home page and take the survey, and check back at the end of the week to see what the results are.

• Considering Concert Ministry? Already on the road? The January/February issue of Creator is all about this subject. Guest Edited by Steve Amerson, there are articles by Babbie Mason and many others. If you don't have a subscription to Creator, now's the time to get one. Just click here. If you register and log in at the site, you can get our best rates.

• New articles at Creator's site! Remember to check back regularly to see what we've added from our extensive Knowledge Base of articles from back issues. To see what's new, just click here.

In this week's Monday Morning Email...

• Conflict. Ever had any of that at your church? Hugh Ballou discusses it in some depth in this week's MME, which he sent in from the deep snows of Virginia! To read this week's MME, just click here.

Finally...

This week, consider setting up "groundrules" for your ensembles...and please tell your friends and colleagues about Creatorand MME too

Blessings,

Vern Sanders
Publisher
Creator Magazine

Become a fan of Creator
CLN is on facebook at
http://groups.to/creatorleadershipnetwork
Vern is on facebook at
http://profile.to/vernsanders/
Read Vern's blog @ www.dotdotdotblog.com
Follow Vern on Twitter! @vernsanders