At Christmas time, many families have particular singing traditions. Some go out caroling, some sing during a Christmas Nativity Pageant, some love singing to Christmas songs playing on the radio 24/7. Whatever the method or style, singing at Christmas is a wonderful activity. Whether singing popular seasonal fun songs or sacred choral music, the delight is palpable.
I grew up in a particularly active singing family. I realize now that singing has been in our family's DNA for many, many generations. We have never been content to just sing along with the radio, either. We have got to MAKE the music happen ourselves. And we have done it in many ways over the years. We have sung in small and large ensembles for Church, Community and professional stage shows and recordings, and for small parties as well as huge events. But nothing has fit our style better than to just get together to entertain ourselves. We love REHEARSING. We think it is fun -- audience or not!
I grew up in a particularly active singing family. I realize now that singing has been in our family's DNA for many, many generations. We have never been content to just sing along with the radio, either. We have got to MAKE the music happen ourselves. And we have done it in many ways over the years. We have sung in small and large ensembles for Church, Community and professional stage shows and recordings, and for small parties as well as huge events. But nothing has fit our style better than to just get together to entertain ourselves. We love REHEARSING. We think it is fun -- audience or not!
Me and my siblings posing for a Christmas picture. Barby was so cute! My mother was a beautiful singer, talented pianist and all-round musician. She had us children singing practically from the moment of birth. She had a way of insisting we learn songs well -- in-tune, in parts, and get all of the lyrics right -- without us realizing we were doing a hard thing. We just accepted that singing and learning music was what we did. Even when our personalities clashed, she had a way of allowing the music to triumph. We somehow always came out singing well and liking doing it.
She was sneaky in her teaching methods. We sang a lot in the car. Since we had to travel long distances to get anywhere (Texas is big), she used that time as valuable rehearsing time. We'd get our parts down and learn a lot of tricks to tune our vowel molds on the way to places. (This was before my oldest brother got old enough to drive.) We'd sing fun stuff, too. Like special arrangements of Christmas songs that were exclusive arrangements to our family only!
But one of our favorite singing activities was trying to vocally reproduce all of the band parts to Sousa marches and other purely instrumental music. We'd each get assigned an "instrument' such as trumpet, trombone or clarinet and then go for it. Nobody liked getting stuck with the offbeat horn parts, though. (I loved singing the piccolo parts especially on "The Stars and Stripes Forever.") We always had a good time singing in the car!
In 2006, my family (husband and children) joined with a few other families and performed a Family Show for Christmas during the Festival of Lights at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitor's Center. One of our favorite songs was "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" done a cappella imitating instruments. It brought back so many memories of singing with my brothers and sisters in our youth. Enjoy!
She was sneaky in her teaching methods. We sang a lot in the car. Since we had to travel long distances to get anywhere (Texas is big), she used that time as valuable rehearsing time. We'd get our parts down and learn a lot of tricks to tune our vowel molds on the way to places. (This was before my oldest brother got old enough to drive.) We'd sing fun stuff, too. Like special arrangements of Christmas songs that were exclusive arrangements to our family only!
But one of our favorite singing activities was trying to vocally reproduce all of the band parts to Sousa marches and other purely instrumental music. We'd each get assigned an "instrument' such as trumpet, trombone or clarinet and then go for it. Nobody liked getting stuck with the offbeat horn parts, though. (I loved singing the piccolo parts especially on "The Stars and Stripes Forever.") We always had a good time singing in the car!
In 2006, my family (husband and children) joined with a few other families and performed a Family Show for Christmas during the Festival of Lights at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitor's Center. One of our favorite songs was "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" done a cappella imitating instruments. It brought back so many memories of singing with my brothers and sisters in our youth. Enjoy!
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