Kilted in Church, Piping for Palm Sunday, 2012

[OC Richard]

Very smart there!

I had a semi-disasterous thing at my church one Palm Sunday.

Every year, on Palm Sunday, the entire congregation gathers outside the church. Then, after some prayers, the choir director (with a guitar) leads everyone in a processional chant/song and the entire mob (probably around a thousand people) marches around the church and then inside. Of course when you get to the point where only half the mob is inside, and half still outside, the two halves can't hear each other, and the song gets horridly off.

Well one year the choir director gets the idea of having me play. What I proposed was to have me play the melody of the processional song over and over, and have the people sing along. The pipes are a thousand times louder than his guitar and everyone could hear me and the singing wouldn't get off like it normally does. And I explained to him that the pipes are so much louder than his guitar and his singing that once I start playing I can't follow him anyway, so it's best to have everyone follow me.

He wouldn't hear of it, but rather stuck to his cockamamy plan of having the song alternate with the pipes. Of course it was a train-wreck, because once I, at the start of the procession, was inside the church I had no idea what he, at the rear of the procession and still far outside the church, was doing.

The pipes are ideal for leading such a thing, as long as they're used properly.

[Blupiper]

Very smart there!

I had a semi-disasterous thing at my church one Palm Sunday.

Every year, on Palm Sunday, the entire congregation gathers outside the church. Then, after some prayers, the choir director (with a guitar) leads everyone in a processional chant/song and the entire mob (probably around a thousand people) marches around the church and then inside. Of course when you get to the point where only half the mob is inside, and half still outside, the two halves can't hear each other, and the song gets horridly off.

Well one year the choir director gets the idea of having me play. What I proposed was to have me play the melody of the processional song over and over, and have the people sing along. The pipes are a thousand times louder than his guitar and everyone could hear me and the singing wouldn't get off like it normally does. And I explained to him that the pipes are so much louder than his guitar and his singing that once I start playing I can't follow him anyway, so it's best to have everyone follow me.

He wouldn't hear of it, but rather stuck to his cockamamy plan of having the song alternate with the pipes. Of course it was a train-wreck, because once I, at the start of the procession, was inside the church I had no idea what he, at the rear of the procession and still far outside the church, was doing.

The pipes are ideal for leading such a thing, as long as they're used properly.

Richard:

Yeah, sometimes you can't lead a person to wisdom. We had some folks in our congregation who want to pair guitar with pipes--it would have taken an amp and electric guitar to balance that equation. We now have the pipes and the people following. They wave their palm fronds and (I think) shout their 'hosannas.' I'm up front and can't really hear them. Marches are the tunes of choice and up-tempo appropriate numbers. I particularly like "Guide Me, Oh, Thou Great Jehovah." Now, if we can get something done about the weather.

JMB

[KiltedDixon]

Great Pics! I love the pipes. Thanks for posting from your church service. It was good to see.