Orginal Date: 7-10-97

Kourtnee drove me to the church for choir rehearsal. I was excited. I was looking forward to directing again. I arrived at the church at 5:30 PM. Sister Brown and the rest of the musicians were waiting. Sister Brown talked to us for a while. At 6:00 PM, kids began arriving at the church. There were about 50 kids after everyone had arrived. After Sis. Brown gathered everyone together, she told a guy named John to pray. Jerry, one of the musicians played, "Praise Him" and we sang it. Then, a girl named Shandra read a scripture. She gave a lesson about the scripture that she had read. After Shandra finished the lesson, Sister Brown introduced me and told the kids about the new way that things would be done.

I stood up and said, "What we are going to try to do is to get more people in the seats on the Sundays that we sing. Each of you has to convince your parents and the other members that it will be worthwhile for them to come to church on our Sundays. We are going to sing some new songs. We are going to add a little choreography to the music also. We won't be dancing like we are in a club or anything. I am going to need each one of you to make a commitment to work harder at choir rehearsal. This is our choir. We have to make it the best choir possible. If we want people to come hear us sing, we have to work hard and make sure we are doing our best."

I talked for a few more minutes then Fenton took over. He introduced a guy that I hadn't met before. His name was Terry Aimes. The name, Terry Aimes seemed familiar to me. I had heard that name before. I couldn't figure out where. Fenton went on talking about Terry. He said that Terry was his cousin and that he was going to be the new musician for the choir. Fenton gave us Terry's resume. As Fenton recited Terry's resume, I figured out who he was. Terry was an organist who played for the Greater New Haven COGIC youth choir at one time. He also played for a community choir that Sister Crawford worked with at one time. The boy was bad. I had met him during one of the district meetings. Terry was 16, but he played as if he was much older. He had a reputation, though. He had a reputation for church hopping. It had been rumored that he didn't stay at a church more than six months. I was thinking to myself, "Man, we don't need him. Once we get use to him, he is gonna up and leave." Fenton kept talking. Finally, he let Terry speak. Terry said, "Hello. I am looking forward to playing for you guys. LaDawnya was right when she said that we have to work hard to be the best that we can be."

I looked at Sister Brown. I couldn't read her expression. I was trying to figure out how she felt about Terry and I coming in to her choir with our philosophies. Both Terry and I had been groomed by Sis. Amelia Crawford. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Sister Brown's choir was going to end up like Amelia Crawford's choir.

We began working. I asked the choir to sing one of their old songs first. They sung "God's Grace." Both Terry and I knew the song. Terry played the organ. Sister Brown directed the song for the first couple of choruses. She told me to come direct. I did. I had the choir sing the song three times. I was trying to hear which voice part was the strongest. It was the soprano section. The tenors were the weakest section. I looked at Terry. He shrugged his shoulders. I giggled. I had my work cut out for me.

We decided to rehearse "Forever God, the Same" by the 2nd Mass Choir first. Sister Brown told Terry and I that we were in charge. Terry told me to go for it. I began teaching the song. I taught the lyrics to the song first. The song was very easy because the entire choir says is "Forever God, You're the same. You never change," except for at the vamp when the choir says, "He's the same. Yes, He's the same." The verses to the song were the hardest part of the song.

I started working with the tenors first. I had Terry play the notes that they needed to sing. The some of the altos began talking. I looked at the altos. I didn't say anything. I was waiting for Sister Brown to say something. She never did. I didn't say anything. I kept working with the tenors. The some of the altos had begun laughing. Terry stopped playing. He said, "Look, ya'll have got to be quiet while we are working with one section. You all are distracting the section that we are working with. Gone, LaDawnya." One of the altos, a girl named Nancy Johnson, said, "Who do you think you are? We ain't never seen either one of you all before. How ya'll just gonna come in here and take over?" Nancy looked like she was 18 or 19. I looked at Sister Brown out of the corner of my eye. She didn't make a move. Terry said, "Look we are trying to help you all. I don't know about LaDawnya, but I don't have to be here." Nancy countered, "You can leave any time you get ready. That's what I heard you like to do anyway, just up and leave whenever you get ready. Leave then." I interrupted, "Look, this is counterproductive. Let's get back to rehearsing." Nancy turned and stared at me, "You need to take your young self back wherever you came from." I turned and look at Sis. Brown. Kourtnee had started walking towards us. Sister Brown said, "Ok, guys that enough. Let's get back to rehearsing. Nancy, that's enough." It wasn't enough for Nancy because she said, "Look, I have been a part of this choir since I was 13. You got these folk coming in and trying to take over. We don't need them." Sister Brown said, "Nancy, Felton and the other musicians asked them to come help us. If you don't feel like rehearsing, you can leave." I though to myself, "What? She can leave. What kind of mess is this?" Nancy got up from the choir stand and left. I said, "Does anyone else want to leave? I didn't come out here to play and goof around. I could have stayed at home." Sister Brown interrupted, "Why don't we take a break. Be back in here in 10 minutes." Everyone scattered. I went outside. Kourtnee followed me. She asked, "Are you gonna be alright?" With that, I went into a tirade.

"I don't believe this. She let somebody leave rehearsal. I am not use to this. People playing around and stuff. I could have been at the house. How am I supposed to invite people to see me direct a choir like this? I am not sure about this. They are sorry. I can't believe this. I wanna go back to Harmon Street. This is ridiculous."

I went on for a little while longer. Kourtnee finally said, "So, you just want to leave? Are you scared to face a challenge? I thought you sung and directed because you wanted to praise God. The Bible says, 'Make a joyful noise.' It didn't say anything about making a perfectly pitched noise. You can't go back to Harmon Street, so you either have to go back in there and do your best or quit. Those are your only two choices."

Kourtnee was right. It wasn't about me. It was about God. I didn't know what to do. I really wanted to leave, but I had made a commitment and I had to honor the commitment I had made. I headed back into the church. A man had seen Kourtnee outside. He started talking to her. She didn't walked in the church with me.

We were all back in the sanctuary. Nancy had not returned. Two other girls were missing. One was a soprano. The other an alto. I wondered if they were friends of Nancy. Sister Brown called us to order and told me to continue where I had left off. I had an inspiration. I asked everyone to hold on for a minute. I walked over to Terry and asked him if he remembered, "Troubled on Every Side." He said that he remembered it. He laughed at me.

"Troubled on Every Side" was a song that Sis. Crawford used to audition new singers, directors, and musicians. After you would show her what you could do, she would have the choir sing the song and you had to catch the song and sing, direct, or play it. She used the song to test how quickly you could learn a song and to see how creative you could be with a song.

I went back over to the choir and told them that we were going to do something different. I said, "We are going to sing a song called 'Troubled on Every Side.' You have to watch me because I may change the song up as we go along. Make sure you pay close attention to me." I told everyone the words that they needed to sing, "What can I do?" Then, I sung the song through a couple of times to show them how the song should go.

Lead: Troubled on every side, ya'll.

Choir: What can I do?

Lead: Troubled on every side, ya'll.

Choir: What can I do?

Lead: Troubled on every side, ya'll.

Choir: What can I do?

Choir: WHAT CAN I DO?

I taught each section their part, which was easy because each part had only one note to remember. Then I taught the last line of the chorus. That line was easy because it was in unison. They got their parts down. I had them practice that part of the song. I needed some help. I turned around and looked for Kourtnee. She was sitting in the sanctuary. I asked her to come up there. I asked her if she would sing the lead to the song. She said that she didn't know the song. I shook my head and laughed. I taught her the lead to the song quickly. I showed her what she needed to do using the choir. Then, we all song the song. I had to stop the singing. I told Kourtnee not to adlib the last line of the song. The choir was the only thing you were supposed to hear on the last line of the song. She grinned and nodded. I started everything up again. We sung until everyone had it down. I had the choir sit down.

I went to work on the musicians. I had Terry play first to give the other musicians the tune. I had Steve, the drummer play first. He had to keep the tempo, so his part was important. I said, "You can get as fancy as you want, but always keep the beat." He nodded. Steve and Terry played. I asked Steve to make sure that he crashed the cymbals on the last "Do" of the chorus. I worked with Betty and Damon. I had never had any horns on the song before. The addition of the horns sounded good. I worked with Betty, the bass player, next. She had the bass line of the song. I imitated the notes she needed to play. Everyone laughed at me because I was playing my air bass. Betty learned her part to the song easily. I asked Fenton to play the keyboard. I had him play the part that the guitar was supposed to play. Finally, I had Jerry, the piano player, play the same thing as the horns. I had the musicians play their parts a few times. They sounded good.

I asked the choir and Kourtnee to stand back up. I asked Terry to give me an introduction to the song. He played a few notes. I told Kourtnee that she was supposed to sing after she heard the introduction of the song. After the first time through, I had to stop the song. I looked at Kourtnee, "Don't do anything fancy. We know you can sing. Just sing the song straight. Don't do any runs." She made a face at me. (Why was she trying to show out?) We started the song again.

We sung for a while. I was bouncing around directing. The choir was bouncing and singing. Kourtnee was bouncing and leading the song. The band was bouncing and playing the song. It was a remarkable sight. We continued with the song. I changed the song up and taught the rest of the song as we went along.

We finally finished the song. I heard clapping behind me. I turned around. An audience had gathered in the sanctuary. Some of the people from the other ministries and meetings had come into the sanctuary to listen to us. We all started laughing.

I turned the rehearsal back over to Sister Brown. She handled some business. She dismissed us and we went home. Although rehearsal had started out bad, it ended on a good note, a joyously good note.

Oh, Glory!