Scabbed memories 1...

Been rummaging through my piano stool for something other than the Claydermans and classicals and Canon in Ds. And what did I find?

All my old songsheets and exam sheets! The ones from my old church choir days. Just last Christmas the P&W team had sung part of the Celebrate His Glory medley and I was wondering how long ago it's been since I'd heard that song. The medley had most of the advent carols in quite an upbeat tempo.

Another favourite was the God With Us production, originally done by Don Moen (I guess), with our WMCK's Bernard Shim organizing and leading everything. God With Us was big, I mean, BIG. We'd gotten the accompaniment tracks (just background music), we'd plenty o' singers for the SATB, the Praise Team SATB and the Solo singers. *Sigh* Bernard was very much dedicated in serving the Lord, and he did well in music.

Looking back at the songsheets it all just comes flooding back in again. Amazing how you can hear the music by just looking at the notes, all the naunces, the inflections, everybody's parts (having just past puberty I could juggle between tenor and bass then).

I'm gonna hunt down the CDs someday. I think I enjoy Christian songs best as battle hymns (think Cliff Richards' Millennium Prayer).

Then horror struck! Amazing how the brain can edit memories to allow us to continue living life sanely. An excerpt:

Test 8A

(i) To sing or play from memory the lowest part of a short three-part phrase played twice by the examiner. The key-chord and starting note will first be sounded and named, and the pulse indicated...

(ii) To identify the cadence at the end of a further (following) phrase, played twice by the examiner, as perfect, imperfect, interrupted or plagal...

(iii) To identify up to four chords in the above cadential progression, played twice by the examiner, as tonic (root position, first or second inversions), supertonic (root position or first inversion), subdominant (root position), dominant (root position, first or second inversions), dominant seventh (root position), or submediant (root position). Candidates may alternatively use the equivalent roman notation...

OMG ask me now I sure flunk straightaway man. Can't begin to wonder how in the world I managed to pass my Grade 8 (the second time). After all I didn't appreciate all this in my younger years. Thankfully I was allowed to drop my Music Theory at Grade 6. Even looking at the Sight-Reading sheets give me the shudders.

Still, nowadays I think my practical music level has dropped waaay below Grade 6. My best is still my hymnals (to some extent) and playing simple stuff by ear in G (not C, funnily enough, and not D, which is in vocal range).