Assembly Song

1.  If attendance is lower in the summer months, select more familiar music for assembly song. Include some of your congregation's favorites, especially during communion and for a sending song.

2.  If you wish to teach a new hymn or piece of music, enlist a member of your children's choir or youth group to sing the first verse. Then invite the assembly to sing along on later verses. People are especially open to learning new music when it is taught by a younger person.

3.  Select a hymn of the month. It may be a new hymn, or an old favorite. Make it memorable, and select one that is worth repeating for four weeks.

4.  If your choir is on break during the summer months, consider adding a "pick up" choir that enhances assembly singing. They could sit in the loft, or just sit among the gathered worshipers. Practice the hymns with them prior to the service. 

5.  Discuss with your pastor(s) and worship committee in advance what type of assembly song will be used on the "holiday" Sundays closest to Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. Some members of your congregation may expect at least one of the hymns for the day to come from the "National Songs" section of the hymnal. Come to an understanding with others involved in planning worship. Some musicians have chosen to sing hymns by American composers on one of these weekends, including a short history of each hymn in the worship folder.

John J. Jahr

Director of  Worship and Music

Vinje Lutheran Church

Willmar, MN

Children

1. How about an intergenerational choir for Pentecost, June 12? Make an all-call for singers from age 9 to 109 in your congregation's established communication. You will be glad you did! My congregation traditionally puts together an intergenerational choir to sing on Maundy Thursday and one of the Christmas Eve services. This brings out singers that can not commit to weekly rehearsals and many returning college students. It will warm your heart to see boys with unchanged voices sing soprano or alto next to their moms. Some suggestions of flexible pieces that can be sung in two rehearsals (a day or two prior to the worship service and an hour before the service) include:

• "When You Send Forth Your Spirit" (Psalm 104) from Dancing at the Harvest by Ray Makeever, published by Augsburg Fortress. Consider accompanying with guitar and djembe.
• "Gracious Spirit Hear our Pleading" hymn 401 in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal. Look and/or listen to your group at the first rehearsal and decide whether they will sing SA, SAB, or SATB.
• "O Living Breath of God"  arr. John Helgen, SAB (with lots of flexibility) and piano, published by Augsburg Fortress 978-0-8006-2150-6.

2. When, trusting in the Holy Spirit, you invite one and all to provide special music at worship during the summer, clearly welcome family groups. Offer to help families find appropriate music and start the search with your hymnal. A family singing their favorite hymn in unison is more than just special music--it realizes our mission to grow our children's faith.

3. Do you have one or two children/youth choir members that are especially inspired and eager to sing every solo?Contact them and ask them to gather neighborhood friends or siblings to sing for worship this summer. Even a group of three can work well. In addition to the hymnal, look in all the ChildrenSing books from AugsburgFortress (augsburgfortress.org, keyword ChildrenSing) for possible music.  July 31 celebrates the feeding of the 5,000. "Feed Us, Jesus" by John Folkening from LifeSongs published by Augsburg Fortress would work well with a small group of children.

4. Now is the time to endear yourself to the person who plans music for the Vacation Bible School at your church. Offer to find music that fits the theme, maybe something from another culture or something from the hymnal with interesting instrumentation.  The VBS children could be invited to sing in worship the Sunday following VBS and you could positively impact their musical offering.

5. Choose a Sunday to set up a shaker making station outside of your worship space. (Get your crafty parent volunteers to do this.) Children can make a shaker and then accompany the music throughout the service from their place in the congregation.  Plastic Easter eggs with rice inside are the simplest option. They can be decorated with stickers-flat or foam. A more complicated shaker can be made from toilet paper tubes. Squeeze one end shut and tape with masking tape. Fill with beans or small pebbles. Squeeze the other end shut perpendicular to the original end and include a tongue depressor. Seal with masking tape. Decorate with crayon, marker, or tissue paper collage if there is time for drying. Choose hymns and service music that need shaker accompaniment! "Honduras Alleluia" arr. Glover, published by GIA could be used as a call to worship, a Psalm refrain, Gospel Acclamation, and/or an anthem. Play with the options of using just part of the anthem to serve your needs.

Many thanks to Sara Birkeland, Elizabeth Jensen, Sr. Becky Swanson and Mary Yerks for their contributions to this article.

Mari Espeland

Director of Alleluia and Joy Singers

St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church

St. Paul, MN

Choral

1.    Assess your people resources. Provide a sign out sheet for summer Sundays for your regular choir members, so you will know approximately who will be present each Sunday. Invite members of the congregation who have sung in the past, or who have considered joining the choir to sing on summer Sundays when they are in town. Assess who might be coming home from college and could sing for a portion of the summer. Plan music based on likely attendance. If you suspend mid- week rehearsals during the summer, plan for a half hour Sunday morning warm up / rehearsal in which you rehearse the music for the service that day and review the music for the next two Sundays.

2.    If you have children or youth who are trained as cantors or soloists, find out from their parents summer dates when they can sing. They can serve as cantors for the Kyrie or Psalm, sing liturgical pieces from the service music section of the hymnal, sing a stanza of a communion hymn as a solo, or if several are available the same week, they could repeat a general anthem from the previous choral season.

3.    Select choral music that has compositional integrity but is very accessible and can be learned in a brief rehearsal period. One resource is The Sunday Morning Absolutely One-Rehearsal Anthem Book for About 10 Panicked Singers published by St. James Press (www.sjmp.com).  This volume contains 20 anthems for unison, two, or three part choir for various seasons and general titles, many of them arranged in canon. The purchase fee includes a license to reproduce copies for your choir.

4.    Create an "instant anthem". That is, take a hymn from the hymnal and very simply arrange it for a one time musical offering. A couple examples are: ELW 712 - Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service. Create a four measure introduction using theme material from the last line. Sing stanza 1 in parts; stanza two in canon (men / women); stanza three a solo by a child or youth, create another four measure interlude before singing the last stanza in unison. ELW 715 Christ, Be Our Light. Verses can be done in unison using women, men, children, or solos and refrains can be done in parts using the parts from the accompaniment edition. ELW 838 Beautiful Savior. Again, create a brief introduction, an interlude, and a coda for the end. Stanza 1 women in parts, stanza 2 SAT; Stanza 3 solo, and Stanza 4 ATB melody and sopranos singing the alto line an octave higher as a descant.

5.    Look back at your previous year's choral schedule and find anthems that can be flexible in voicing and balance and will work with the smaller numbers of singers for the summer. Some that work for me are: Hymn of Promise by Natalie Sleeth, Hope Publishing C 5063; Look at the World by John Rutter, Hinshaw HMC1527; Feed My Lambs by Dori Erwin Collins, Augsburg 0-8006-7707-2; Old Hundredth Psalm Tune by R. Vaughn Williams, Oxford 42.953; and Come to the Water by John Foley, arranged by Linda Hasseler, Beckenhorst Press CU1002.

Jim Johnson

Minister of Music

Redeemer Lutheran Church

Columbia, SC

 Keyboard and Instruments

Summer is a good time to get back to some keyboard fundamentals. Your vocal and instrumental ensembles are probably on summer vacation and musical personnel can be a bit scarce. This is a chance for you to get back to some basics, set some goals, and explore some new avenues of repertoire and style.

1.       Build your technique

When is the last time you revisited your warmup and practice routine? Try getting back into a more structured warmup period and committing to that routine each time you practice. Consider taking a few lessons with an established teacher this summer, to add some new warmup exercises, review your posture and practice habits, etc. You will find it makes a difference. And when you beef up your technique, you'll be ready to tackle some new (or old) repertoire.

2.       Add to your repertoire

This is a good time to learn some new pieces or styles, or go back to those gems from your past that you loved to play but of which you don't feel capable at present. Find some new classical repertoire to play for preludes, offertories, communion, and postludes. And check out some new sacred piano repertoire books from the many capable writers who are publishing their piano arrangements today.

3.       Find one new instrumentalist in your congregation

There is probably a great deal of untapped musical talent in your congregation. Summer is a good time to find it! Too often we just keep using the same close circle of musicians, out of comfort and habit. Take the opportunity to locate, introduce, highlight, and collaborate with some new musicians, young or old. Ask a student-age member of the congregation for the names of other students who play in the band or orchestra at school. Or stand up on a Sunday morning and encourage the congregation to bring you the names and contact information for some new faces. Then invite the new people in and start working.

4.       Try out some new hymns with the piano

Summer is often a good time to introduce some new hymns to the congregation. There are many hymns, new and old, in our worship resources which are well-suited to the piano. In Evangelical Lutheran Worship, for example, check out:

531       The Trumpets Sound, the Angels Sing

538       The Lord Now Sends Us Forth

625       Come, We That Love the Lord  (LSB 669)

639       When We Are Living

692       We Are an Offering

720       We Are Called

768       Lead Me, Guide Me  (LSB 721)

860       I'm So Glad Jesus Lifted Me

862       Praise, Praise! You Are My Rock

Ask one of your (new) instrumentalists to join on the melody line, or if they are capable, one of the harmony lines. If you have a percussionist in your congregation, try adding simple percussion accompaniment (a tambourine playing on beats 2 and 4 in 4/4 time works well, or a djembe or other hand drum pattern).

5.       Take/make time to listen.

We are often so busy that we don't take time or make the effort to go out and listen to inspiring players. Make a plan to attend a keyboard recital or a hymn festival this summer, and invite your fellow church musicians and other friends to join you. Put some new music on your iPod or get a new CD to play in your car. Ask your friends who they are listening to. Your own playing is likely to be inspired and enriched.

John Helgen

Director of Music

Roseville Lutheran Church

Roseville, MN

Don't let your handbells and handchimes lay idle during the summer! Here are some suggestions to keep ringing all summer.

1.       The Creative Use of Handbells in Worship, Hope 1956 and The Creative Use of Handbells in Worship Book 2, Hope 8282, by Hal Hopson. Both volumes include reproducible ostinati or descants to use with hymns. Requires a short rehearsal with 2 -3 ringers. First volume has suggestions for you to write your own bell accompaniments!

2.       Songs for the Solo Ringer, Agape 1245 and Songs for the Solo Ringer II, Agape 2509 by Christine Anderson. Challenge your advanced ringers to prepare a bell solo for a musical offering during the summer. First volume has three pages of instruction on solo ringing. First volume is easier; volume II presents some challenges!

3.       Small ensemble music is available for 2, 3, or 4 ringers. Two places to look for music for handbell ensemble are: http://www.handbellworld.com/music/MSA.cfm (look in the category "less than a full handbell choir") and http://www.steproject.com/Index.htm (Solo to Ensemble Project, offers downloadable music scores)

4.       Gather five people for handbell quintets. Two collections are 5 BY 5, Agape 1387 and 5 BY 5 II, Agape 1476, by Douglas Wagner. Each collection includes five pieces printed as one full score and five individual parts for five ringers. Each ringer is assigned multiple bells to cover a three-octave set. Ringers will learn multiple-bell techniques while having lots of fun, too!

5.       Offer a Summer Music Camp with ringing as an option. Reproducible books are available to teach both music reading and ringing techniques. Look for Beginning Busy Ringers, Kirtsy Mitchell, AGEHR AG10, Tunes that Teach, Martha Lynn Thompson, AGEHR AG009, and Multicultural Tunes that Teach, Martha Lynn Thompson, AG011.

Happy summertime ringing! 

Ed Tompkins

Minister of Music

Morning Star Lutheran Church

Matthews, NC