Thursday, July 27, 2017

I Teach Music Conducting at Relief Society

On Saturday, May 13th, Shin and I were in charge of the weekday Relief Society meeting. She asked me what I could teach.  I volunteered to, with hers and Sister Hirayama's help with translating, teach music conducting.  It was kind of a culminating event for me.  On this mission, I found myself using every. single. skill I had ever developed in some way or another.
Over the years, I have learned all I can about conducting music.  I attended the Church Music Workshop every summer for many years, taking as many classes as I could- learning from the masters. 
But I hadn't conducted much at all on the mission.  I did put together and "lead" a choir, but I did so while accompanying on the piano.
So, this was the one skill I had that I hadn't used much.  I chose parts from the church's conducting course, just really giving an introduction to the joy of leading music.  My goal was mostly to generate enthusiasm for music and share the joy and uplift we can get from the hymns.  It was really fun!


After learning conducting, we enjoyed a luncheon together.
I made a big ramen chicken salad.  Though the flavors and ingredients are very Japanese, they had never tasted anything like it and I think really enjoyed it.
Shin brought these adorable individual molded gelatin salads and Miki brought a Japanese favorite- mochi.

It was a small, but really fun group.  We all had a good time.


1 comment:

Pam said...

I love that you shared your knowledge and enthusiasm of conducting music, Kay! It is one of those things that brings mutual joy to the conductor and the conductees as they feel of the spirit as they sing together. Such a fast way for Heavenly Father to communicate with us and it is a gift for all!