But Mama…that’s where the fun is…

This post is for my musician friends and readers. Not that you won’t appreciate it if you aren’t a musician, but…well…you’ll see…

I had one of “those” experiences last Sunday. If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember that I was out of town for two weeks (no church), and then down with a bad back last week (no rehearsal). (I’m better now, thankyouverymuch, thanks to a visit to the doctor…and I hope to be back to normal–whatever that is–in a couple of days.)

So the choir was scheduled to sing on Sunday, and, of course I’m playing with the band as well. Under typical circumstances I might have blown off the Sunday, but I had been gone two weeks, and, more importantly, the choir was doing an anthem accompanied in part by a violinist. She’s only available this particular Sunday.

After much girding up of the back, I get to the church slightly late, and the band is already rehearsing the first tune. I’m stooped over at about a 20 degree angle, and there’s a flowerpot blocking my way to the piano bench, so I have to reach up and grab on to the bass player’s fret arm in order to get up the stair to the platform. I still have my leather jacket on.

But then I sit down and jump in…

and there’s that moment…you know…when what you add makes everything fit, and the pocket is right THERE, and everybody starts smiling.

and I’m glad I made the effort…

So then we have to cut the band rehearsal shorter than normal because I can’t get up from the piano and the choir needs to rehearse because we have the violinist there.

I’d already given her an A during the band’s rehearsal, because I’ve worked with her before and she’s a pro, so she walks over, puts her music on the bass player’s stand, and, because she doesn’t play until the third bar, I just start the anthem intro.

Bang…she just nails it, and you could feel the choir relax, even though they hadn’t seen this piece in at least a month. And when they open their mouths, it was like we’d never been apart…

it is just hard to explain…but, for a musician, it’s why we do what we do…

I wish there was some way to explain it to you if you’re not a musician, but let’s just say this…you don’t know what you’re missing…

I know you’ve had this happen, right? Please leave a comment and tell me your best “yes!” story…

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