Tag Archives: Music memories

Music and Me-Part 8

23 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

In addition to the choir in Seaford Baptist Church (Virginia),

Seaford Baptist Church ( Old Sanctuary)
Seaford Baptist Church (old Sanctuary) Choir

I also played the piano some, and sometimes the organ (again).  One of my joys in playing was when the other pianist and I played two-piano duets during the offertory.  We usually pulled a piano in from the choir-practice room, set it near the main piano, and we played next to each other.  We had some fantastic arrangements of hymns, and the congregation always enjoyed those times.  I had a couple of books that were for piano-organ duets, but I re-arranged the organ part so I could play the piano instead.  That was so much fun!  I’ve not been able to do that in the church we are in now.  I just have to remember and enjoy the times I have had.  God has been so gracious to me, and I am grateful. 

Perhaps that is why I have always enjoyed the two-piano recordings we have of the team of Ferrante and Teicher.  Hearing them play together is how I actually discovered how stereo is supposed to sound!  

That came about when we were living in San Jose, California, in 1965.  We had arrived in June for Fred to begin his meteorology study at then-San Jose State College for the Air Force.  He took a summer class, then had a few weeks between that class and the regular semesters classes.  He wanted to “unwind” some, so decided to actually build our stereo system.  He spent many hours wiring and soldering together all the parts that he needed to make the system work.  We purchased two speakers and set them on either side of the doorway.  Our first record purchase was a Ferrante and Teicher album.

Photo Credit Google search

I’m not sure why we purchased that, as I had no idea who “Ferrante and Teicher” were!  One day I was sitting on our couch – probably crocheting something – and listening to that album.  And then I heard it – the piano sound came out of the left speaker – and then another piano sound came out of the right speaker – bouncing back and forth!  I was amazed!  You must remember – this was wwaaayyy back in 1965 – the dark ages to some!  And if I had heard stereo before that – I didn’t realize it.  I was delighted!  We purchased quite a few more Ferrante and Teicher albums throughout our lifetime.

It actually reminded me of some of the antiphonal singing we had done in our large church in Fort Worth, Texas.  Some of the choir members were placed in the balcony, with the majority of the choir in the choir loft.  The larger choir would sing something, then the smaller choir would echo.  It was a great sound.

I think that about finishes my thoughts on Music and Me for now.  If I think of anything else, I’ll write about it later.  I hope you have enjoyed this little side jaunt through my music memories.  It has certainly brought to my mind some things in my life I had forgotten – and that’s a good thing!

~~~~~~~~~~The End….for now~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Music and Me-Part 7

16 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

When we lived in San Antonio, Texas for those three years,

The Alamo-San Antonio, Texas

we joined the First Baptist Church, downtown.

FBC San Antonio, Texas – credit Google Search and FBC website

It was – and is – a very large church.  We were part of a Sunday School department of members essentially our own age.  While the Sunday School department in our Fort Worth church was mainly made up of Seminary students, I don’t remember the Sunday School in San Antonio being a “military” members group, even though there were several military people in that class.

One “funny” event that happened while we were in that group: Karen was old enough to sit in the worship service (Janet was in the nursery), and she sat with an older couple during the service, since Fred and I were in the choir.  To keep her occupied, I had a coloring book for her to take to the service with her.  One Sunday morning, before the class started, I was sitting next to a woman I didn’t know.  She tapped the coloring book on my lap and said, “I know how you stay awake in the service!”  I laughed and told her why I had it.  I found out later that she was the Senior Pastor’s wife!!  Oh no!!  She and I became good friends following that.

And, of course, we joined the choir early on.  It was quite a large choir – probably close to 100 members.  Again, we had a few professionally trained voices, and that just added to our sound.

Sanctuary Choir – FBC San Antonio – Credit Google Search and FBC website

The choir director that we had the entire three years there was Lanny Allen – no relation to our Senior Pastor, Jimmy Allen.  As a matter of fact, I remember one Sunday evening that Lanny was standing at the pulpit, announcing the next song, and Jimmy came up beside him, as if to sing into the microphone.  Lanny, startled, looked at Jimmy and literally pushed him out of the way with a “oh no you don’t!”  Jimmy couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket!  We were all laughing at this point!

I remember one choir retreat/camp we went to in Kerrville, Texas, the “Hill Country” of Texas.  It was just a short weekend camp, but we all connected in a wonderful way, and learned some music along with it…probably learning the music for our Christmas program to come in another few months.

Music Camp in Kerrville, Texas

After we rotated stateside from Heidelberg in 1983, we joined a small church in the housing area we lived in. 

Seaford Baptist Church, Seaford, Virginia

But in spite of it being a “neighborhood” church, it had a good number of members attending.  And it did have a choir, which we joined, of course.  We stayed in that church – and choir – for the entire nearly-13 years we lived in Virginia.  

We had several Ministers of Music at that church, and we performed some amazing musicals – both Christmas and Easter.  I remember one Christmas musical that had acting along with it.  The choir was set up to the side of the sanctuary, so all the acting could be on the stage.  At one point, one of the songs told about the crucifixion of Christ, and I thought it was a strange place to be in a Christmas musical.  But then I realized that – that was the entire purpose of Christ being born as a human – to come and die for our sins, and by being raised from the dead, He gave us eternal life!  Amazing!!  And thank you, God, for making that way for all the world to live with you in eternity, if we just accept your gift!

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Music and Me Part 4

18 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I mentioned before that I thoroughly enjoyed singing in choirs – all through my growing-up years.  Church choirs…school choirs…and just about any other kinds of choirs I could get into.

1959 Highland High School combined chorus. (I’m in there somewhere?)

I’m not too sure whether or not I really had a solo voice, and so I was more comfortable singing in groups.  Trios were my favorite.  I usually sang the second soprano part, and I loved it!  I still enjoy harmonizing – even harmonizing along with the songs we do it church.  Our church has taken to having a “blended” worship service, which includes some of the old hymns and some of the new music.  Most of the time it is agreeable to me.  However, we don’t use the hymnals much anymore, where the harmony parts are printed.  The words to the songs are shown on a large screen, so most everyone sings the melody.  That’s when I harmonize on my own!  It’s kind of fun, too!

I guess that’s why I enjoyed singing with the Dreamers in my high school so much.  I was placed on the Second Soprano part nearly always.  And I was in the school chorus as well, so that gave me more opportunity to harmonize.

But my very favorite group to sing with was Billie and her sister, Becky.

     1958 – Becky – Senior Picture              1959 – Billie – Senior Picture 1959 Judy Senior Picture

1959 – Judy, Becky and Billie – practicing at Judy’s house

Why they chose me to join them, I’ll never know.  But we had a really good sound together.  Becky was a grade ahead of Billie and I, and she had the sweetest soprano voice!  I was second, and Billie was alto.  What made it more interesting was that Billie also played the piano for us!  We did a lot of the old songs – Moon Over Miami, Mr. Sandman, Sugartime, Old Cape Cod, Muscrat Ramble.  While we had our own sound, we did tend to imitate The Andrew Sisters.  As Billie said, we never had sheet music – we just sang what we heard and remembered.  Oh the memories – it was such fun!

I didn’t attend the same church that Billie and Becky did, but I do remember going to their church to sing in their services some times.  I don’t remember whether or not they came to my church for the same thing.  Doesn’t matter – we just loved singing together.

I also remember singing in a “mixed” trio when we lived in Panama City, Florida.  It was part of the church choir there, and the music director, one other fellow, and myself were the trio.  That time I sang soprano, and the guys sang tenor and bass.  As I recall the song we did in the service was a Gaither song, Something Beautiful.  It was a fairly new song just then, and it was well received by the congregation.

The only time I remember not singing the second soprano part was while we were living in San Antonio, Texas.  I don’t remember exactly the event that the women’s quartet I was singing with was performing for.  But I just remember that I had terrible cold that day – nearly laryngitis!  And my voice was so low that I sang the lowest part of the songs!  And in women’s four-part harmony…that’s LOW!

I sang one time with the choir at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary while we were there in Fort Worth, Texas.  I was not a student there – Fred was – but the community at large was invited to sing with the choir.  It was a wonderful experience, and we did Handel’s Messiah- but I only did it one time.  We met to rehearse in the evening, and I was so tired from working all day that I could hardly keep my eyes open!

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary rotunda – Fort Worth, Texas

~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Music and Me-Part 3

11 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

But while the piano has been a large part of my life, I found singing to be my love and joy.  I can remember singing in childrens and youth choirs most of my life.  When I came of age, I began singing in the Adult Choir in our church.

First Baptist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico Credit Google Search

1964 – Sanctuary Choir – First Baptist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico

I remember the very first solo I sang – it was in 1st grade and it was for a Christmas program in my class.  I sang “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”  I don’t remember singing many other solos until I reached Junior High (what today would be called Middle School).  I was in the school chorus there, and we sang for many school functions.

November 26 – Christmas parade – I’m holding the 2nd “F” – Jefferson Junior High School

In that day, Junior High was grades 7, 8, and 9, with High School being just three years, 10th, 11th, and 12th. 

Highland High School – Albuquerque, New Mexico

I was in the girl’s chorus all three of those years.  I had tried out for All-State Chorus in 10th grade, but had a cold that day, and didn’t make it.  However, I was in it the next two years.  

Highland High School’s All State Chorus – 1959

Since Albuquerque was the largest city in New Mexico, that’s where All-State Chorus was held.  We met in the gymnasium of the University of New Mexico.  It was a great time – all the All-State choruses from around the state gathered in Albuquerque, and we all sang together.  I loved it!

I remember one particular All-State Chorus time – probably my senior year in high school – when we began to sing, and we found ourselves off-key – and we were in the concert time, not rehearsal!  The director stopped us from singing.  I was mortified!  And I think most of the rest of the chorus was, as well!  He had the pianist play something in another key, then started us up again.  We stayed on-pitch that time, much to my surprise.  But rather than let us fumble through the piece in the wrong key, he had the presence of mind to correct it.  HE was not mortified at all!  I have since learned that, if the group is being accompanied by a drum, that even if the drum is the only sound going, we stay on-pitch.  Amazing!

The most fun of my high school singing time was that I was chosen to sing in the hand-picked group of girls singers – Dreamers.

Dreamers – 1959 – Highland High School – Albuquerque, New Mexico

We had 12 girls in the group, with four girls on each part.  Occasionally the songs we did had more than three parts, and we would split into more parts.  That’s where I learned to love singing second soprano.  I learned to sing the second soprano with the first soprano ringing in my head.  Still do that to some degree.  Dreamers sang at many functions around the city.  It was a wonderful time in my life.  I was in Dreamers my entire three years in high school.  

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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