A Tribute to Music Leaders in Primary

I am the childrens' choir director at our church, a volunteer position called Primary Chorister. I spend about 20 minutes twice on Sundays teaching them songs about God, families, happiness, service, love, etc. It is the most challenging position I have had, even moreso than being the leader of all the women or of the youth in our congregation, I think because it is not like anything I have done before. I like to sing, but I get easily hoarse. After one day as a substitute teacher, I am usually hoarse for a few days. I like kids, but sometimes lose patience with the 8 out of 20 who talk while I'm talking or while we are singing. I like creative things; yet I have to think of new games, activities every week all year long! And finally, I have energy. This might be one of biggest reasons I am in there with the children: energy. I was reading a most interesting blog by "the normal Mormon husband" (URL at bottom) that always has me laughing out loud. always. no exaggeration. He took a moment to be serious and pay a tribute to Primary Choristers all over the world. Since I am in that position right now in my ward, I was very interested. I am thankful for the tribute and that some parents realize what a job it is. It is not without it's rewards, I must say: the songs are inspiring, tender, spirit-filled, and really feel like a salve on the ears and heart of anyone who hears the offensive language, complaints, judgments, arguments, etc. that exist in abundance in schools, stores, workplaces of our country. I love them; I love what they teach and how they make me feel. I'm grateful they are being taught to millions of children every week all over the world. What power, what healing, what truth. I can't express how deeply my heart feels it when I hear Nick humming or singing songs about Jesus or about loving others. He almost doesn't even realize he's doing it, the songs are so ingrained. If you kids are going to have songs going unchecked through their heads, would you rather have radio Disney or something that teaches them who they are and how much God loves them? Easy decision. You can buy all the CDs (6 I think in one case) for about $10 (with words, without words, and in Spanish and perhaps other languages, too) at www.ldsdistribution.com. Listening to that in car can really make our day! There is a tremendous resource for anyone volunteering in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Relief Society, Young Women, Primary, Nursery, Activities Committee, etc) on www.sugardoodle.net. That site has helped me with the teaching part and the creativity part so much!! We even found some neat Christmas traditions of service on that sight that we have added to our family traditions this year (12 Days of Christmas with daily poems and gifts already written out). I like that kind of quick preparation, just print, change font to something festive, cut out each days--and the kids are off in all black to crawl and hide, ring and run. Without further ado, here is Normal Mormon Husbands' Tribute to Primary Choristers: Two Sundays. Two Sacrament meetings. Two different wards. Two Primary Programs. One revelation: Primary Music Leaders rock! Two weeks ago I was able to watch my seven-year-old son and four-year-old daughter participate in our ward's Primary Program. I sat and beamed with satisfaction as they spoke their parts and sang the songs they have been rehearsing since the Sunday after the 2007 Primary Program ended. Last Sunday we were in Georgia spending time with family and were able to see their ward's Primary sacrament meeting as well. After witnessing the back-to-back junior versions of Music and the Spoken Word, I came to better appreciate Primary Music Leaders everywhere. These two Sisters leading the songs were on fire! But before I get into that, a little background may be helpful. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Primary Music Leaders. You see, when I was a kid in Primary I used to purposefully change the lyrics to the songs in an attempt to be funny. Take the song "Love One Another", for example. The correct lyrics at the end of the song are, "By this shall men know, Ye are my disciples, If ye have love, One to anooooooooooother." My version of the song went like this: "By this shall men know, Ye are motorcycles, If ye have love, One two three foooooooooooour five." I always thought it would be ironic to get the Primary Music Leader to flip out on me after singing "Love One Another", but those good Sisters never took the bait....(a bit of editting as this was long) While I did everything humanly possible to be an annoying little twerp in Primary, the music that I learned was very important in my spiritual progression as a child. I always felt the Spirit when we sang the boy/girl "Mine Is a Home....." and "I See My Mother Kneeling..." song (Love is Spoken Here?) I used to try to drop my voice an octave or two when I sang about the priesthood and it helped me to appreciate having parents who lived the gospel and loved their family. While I do not remember many of my actual childhood Primary lessons, the music has stuck with me throughout my adult life and I still to this day find myself occasionally humming a Primary tune. Well, either a Primary song or something from Sing Star Pop Version 2, but it's all good. Now, back to the reasons I was left so impressed with the Primary Music Leaders that I just witnessed in action. After watching these Sisters lead the music, I realized that a good Primary Music Leader must have four important qualities (you can vote [on his site] on which is most important): 1) Drill Sargent 2) Saturday Night Live Cast Member (Minus the coarse debauchery) 3) Multilingual Interpreter 4) Warshack Test Administrator The Drill Sargent - It is a minor miracle that a Primary Music Leader can look at fifty kids and get them to stand up and sit down on cue with just a raise of her hands. How do they do this? Seriously. It sometimes takes us seven minutes to get our two kids to sit down at the dinner table, and that's even after we threaten to withhold dessert. Yet somehow the PML can control their every move as if they were programmable robots, like Vicki from the TV show Small Wonder. Or Dakota Fanning. They can also get the kids to sing louder or softer and smile bigger by simply gesturing. Amazing.SNL Cast Member - The pressure to perform is on every single Sunday for the PML to do something fresh and innovative. She has to devise creative games, prizes, contests, props and pictures to keep things new and exciting during music time. As soon as she starts recycling material, she will lose her audience. Once a week for 48 weeks it's lights! Camera! Singing Time! Multilingual Interpreter - Between the two Primary Programs we watched I think we heard or saw the children sing in nineteen languages, including English, Spanish, Spanglish, French, Sign Language, Chinese, Latin, Sweedish, Vulcan, Ebonics, Panguitchian and Mental Telpathy. How does one woman pull this off? From one song to the next she may be saying, "Erin - you're stressing the wrong syllable in 'bautismo' - it's bow-TEEEES-mo, not BOW-tees-mo." Then, "Mike, you need to bring your left hand higher when you are making the ASL sign for love!" Talk about the gift of tongues in action. Warshack Test Administrator - One of the keys to being a successful PML is having the ability to make signs that represent the words that need to be sung. This is a particularly important skill since most kids in the United States between the ages of 3-12 cannot read anything beyond the controls of their iPods. I am always sitting behind the PML and cannot see the pictures that get held up to prompt the kids, but it has to be hard drawing images that represents song lyrics like, "...down in the River Jordan....." How do you draw that? Here is what I would be holding up: a picture of a down-ward pointing arrow, a photograph of River Phoenix, and a photograph of Michael Jordan... Okay, the kids today might not get the River Phoenix reference, but it goes to show how much creativity the PML's must have to come up with enough of these things to last an entire 45-minute program.So, for all of you Primary Music Leaders out there, thank you! Thank you for the energy. Thank you for the creativity. Thank you for the patience. Thank you for inviting the Spirit. Thank you for drilling uplifting songs into our heads. Thank you for teaching my kids. Thank you for surviving one difficult Sunday every October or November. Thank you for magnifying your callings. You are all an inspiration to me. Eee-Eee! Written by "The Normal Mormon Husband" Blog: www.mormonhusbands.blogspot.com If you are a Twilight fan and you haven't seen his blog (for the past 2 years), you are seriously missing out on some of the best writing, most creative, nutty comments, and male takes on the series (and now, the movie). I was cracking up tonight at his latest entry. In closing, may I (Robyn) say that we did sing "I Am A Child of God" in Japanese, Vai (from Liberia, Africa) and American Sign Language. It was the highlight I might say of the whole program and the kids LOVED learning songs in other languages. We will do it again! :)