Preparing for Stake Conference

In March, for the first time, I will be playing for all three sessions of my stake conference. As I've been spending hours in preparation, I thought I'd create a post that shares the steps I'm currently taking to prepare.

The most important part of my preparation is seeking the Spirit. With the Spirit, music is very powerful and can change lives. The Spirit extends our preparation, and makes up for what we lack. Without the Spirit, music can still be powerful and awe-inspiring, but that's all it is--it fails to reach deep inside the soul. This reach is necessary to bring healing and to strengthen testimonies.

As part of this pursuit, I asked for a blessing to aid me. This blessing helped me center my focus on my Savior, and provided much-needed guidance.

Postlude

First, I worked out my postlude. I made a list of pieces that I felt would be appropriate, then played through each, listening for promptings as to which pieces would be the best, and which session they should follow. A couple of my final decisions surprised me, as they weren't what I expected to end up with, but I'm excited for them. I think they'll be very appropriate and "extend the spirit of the meeting" beautifully. I chose one piece for after the leadership session, and two pieces each after the other sessions.

Prelude

Prelude is where I've spent most of my time preparing so far, and these steps take place over a number of weeks. First, I looked through my collection for pieces that jumped out at me, played through each of them, then made a list of pieces that I felt impressed to play. Often I even felt which session they should precede, which I noted next to the pieces in my notebook.

For this conference, the pieces I chose for the leadership session prelude mostly focus on the restoration (it's the 200th anniversary of the First Vision); the evening adult session prelude pieces are all of comfort and turning to the Savior; and the general session pieces include a number of Primary song arrangements. These themes aren't by my design, but emerged as I played through the pieces, listening for the promptings of the Spirit.

Next, I roughly sight-read through each piece, at the proper tempo, and made an initial timing of each one. This will guide me as to how many pieces I'll be able to play before each session: I have been allotted 15 minutes of prelude for the leadership session, 15 (but I'm requesting 20) for the adult session, and 30 for the general session.

Now that I have the estimated timings, I will make reduced copies of each piece, and tape them together to avoid page turns, then I'll practice and register each piece. Once the pieces are learned, I'll spend time on each organ to finalize my timings with registration changes. The final piece in each set will be one that can be extended or ended early if needed. This is especially important for the general session, as the choir will be singing a piece for prelude, and I may need to pad that time a little bit, to avoid an awkward silence after the choir finishes, but before it's time for the meeting to begin.

I also plan to provide the counselor over music in my stake presidency a copy of my prelude pieces along with the projected starting times of each piece, and a list of my postlude pieces. This is a courtesy and shows respect to the presiding authority over music for the meetings.

Hymns

When I began to prepare the hymns, I first read the hymn text, marked textual breaks, and decided how I wanted to treat each verse. Then I looked for reharmonizations/free accompaniments for final verses or introductions, and played through them to see if I felt they would be appropriate. Since several of the hymns were less familiar hymns about the restoration without any reharmonizations readily available, I reached out to a friend of mine, Mike Carson, who graciously arranged "hymnbellishments" of each of them.

(For ideas on hymn preparation, feel free to read my article here, entitled, "Let the People Sing!")

Practice

Now, I just need to practice, practice, and practice! I can do a lot of this on my home organ, but I'll also be spending a fair amount of time on the organs I'll be playing for conference. The first two sessions will be at my ward building. Since we're a new stake without a stake center, our general session will be held at a larger venue with an unfamiliar pipe organ.

Additionally, one of the choir pieces, which will be performed as the closing hymn, is written for choir and organ accompaniment, so trying to get that balance in just one rehearsal Sunday morning on a pipe organ will be very tricky. I'll register and practice several options, then have someone listening to the run through who can give me immediate feedback. Hopefully the balance will be okay!

Conclusion

While preparing to play for three sessions of stake conference over two days is intense and very time-consuming, I also use these methods to prepare for every service for which I play the organ. I'm currently employed as an organist for a United Church of Christ congregation, and every week I prepare in a similar manner. Now, typically my weekly focus is less on prelude and more on the hymns, offertory, and postlude, as well as the piece I play during monthly Communion, but the concepts are the same. This preparation can also be followed for funeral services, and even weddings.

How do you prepare to play for worship services? Do you have any suggestions to share that I haven't mentioned?